An ancient way of viewing spiritual progress and movement that has really come back into vogue is that of a journey sometimes however the ancient literature will use this interchangeably with pilgrimage.
In this metaphor God is horizon. He is being moved toward but has not yet been apprehended. This is the very idea we hear in the cliche’ “it is not the destination but the journey that matters.” I think one of the reasons this has seen a renaissance of usage in recent years is the postmodern condition that wants to highlight that certainty and “arrival” are not all they are cracked up to be and that the idea of movement toward something seems far more humble.
One of the first full articulations of this is Saint Augustine. The bishop of Hippo wrote about two cities in his monumental classic City of God; all humans belong in some way to both the city of the world and the heavenly city. Depending on the direction of their love and affection pilgrims show where they are really living. Augustine said that as long as we live in the body but have affections heavenward we are pilgrims in a foreign land walking by faith not by sight. For Augustine life is an unfinished journey to someplace we long to go.
The journey may be through the foreign territory of this world, as it was for Augustine, but there may also be an interior journey. This is actually a metaphor we will explore a little later, the journey inward. But let us acknowledge that the Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila wrote a prayer as a movement through an interior castle.
Her vision of a crystal globe in the shape of a castle with 7 concentric rooms represented a journey deeper and deeper into prayer and closer and closer to brilliant light of the King at the center. Her work has been foundational in the work of the contemplative movement for centuries. It is Teresa the teaches the prayer of quiet as a primary means into the deepest mysteries of union with God. For those concerned silence and quiet are new age, they need to go read Teresa, here work is foundation and winsome. Here is a full online copy of her classic
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Ron,
I often wonder about the whole ‘journey’ approach to spirituality… Here’s my concern.
In a sense, discovering your true-self is really an awakening. It is like you wake up from a dream and realize what the true situation has been all along. Even before you become aware of this deeper reality (the Kingdom of Heaven within), it is there and it is real – you are just not aware of it. So it is not something that grows in you…
What does grow is your awareness. It is like trying to see a scene of a boat on a lake early in the morning, through thick fog. Initially you might see nothing, and then only vague outlines. As the fog disappears and your visibility grows the whole scene becomes visible in clear detail. But that scene was there before the fog cleared… It is only your visibility that grew (and distractions that faded).
Similarly… our spiritual awareness grows to what is already true and real (in ourselves but also in other humans and all other life). Is that why we sometimes greet each other by saying ‘I see you’?
Any thoughts… comments?
Dries
Dries,
Such a great picture you have painted and I think I agree. Maybe what we would like to do, or what you are suggesting we would do, is for us to frame the journey from sleep to awake instead of the traditional journey to go reach God. You know? Is it possible to reclaim the definition of what the journey is? I will give you my bias though, and I am sure you already know this. I think the reclaiming of traditional language with the effort to more accurately define the term is always a challenging and frustrating enterprise. The reason of course is the current definitions hold such obvious sway that getting new considerations into the conversation is very difficult. Thanks for your thoughts, think you have a great observation here.