thoughts on soul growth
Herewith I offer some thoughts on the nature of this scheme of things, this world in which we live. Many people, concerned about today's disorder and violence, talk of the "good old days", which exist only in their imaginations, and think all would be well if things could be made over according to their ideas. I hereby go on record as proclaiming this a lawful and orderly universe with a built-in equilibrium that always gets back into balance; really exquisitely foolproof.
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring aspect is its dynamism, accomplished so effectively by the seemingly simple device of different levels of spiritual development or awareness, ranging all the way from savagery to altruism. Note that it is always the more developed among us who are challenged, attacked, even crucified, by the less developed, because they are not only not understood, but are misunderstood by the ignorant, whose smaller spheres of consciousness literally cannot take in the too large concepts presented, and in trying to do so get only a distorted, partial idea.The upper levels are constantly being "kicked upstairs", as it were, by being pressured from below to "move, we're coming up". When the Bible states that it's hard for the rich man to enter into the state of consciousness known as the Kingdom of Heaven, it refers to the gifted, brainy, beautiful, charming, etc. among us who, just by acting naturally, being themselves, make out very well, so are less likely to feel the need to make any special effort to move. But growth and change are essential. Nothing stands still. If it doesn't progress it regresses. Move we must! The scheme of things provides the motivation.
The tremendous demonstration made by Jesus of the power of the spirit to sustain the flesh in extremity, perhaps could not have been made without the challenge of a Judas, who could not have done it had he not been ignorant. To be pressed beyond human endurance and to still endure, demonstrated to the world the existence of the sustaining spirit, available to us all in greater or lesser degree according to our own level of development. "Knock and it shall be opened, seek and ye shall find" a help in "times that try men's souls" such as these.
First one must see that everything is good - not good in the sense of some final perfection of goodness, but good in the sense of useful - serving the purpose of creative power, perhaps as a necessary step between a worse yesterday and a better tomorrow. Also, everything exists by virtue of what is right with it and in spite of what is wrong. If one would bake a cake or build a bridge, they may fall somewhat short of perfection, but if they fall too far they achieve neither cake nor bridge, only a lump of dough or a pile of steel at the bottom of the river. We do have a margin of error and thereby a chance to learn. Sickness is such a margin, because of which we have been able to learn a great deal about the physical body we could never have known if we had died the first time we broke one of its rules.
At the time of the Great Depression many well-meaning people, religious and otherwise, demonstrated a lack of faith in the power that runs this scheme of things, claiming we were being punished for wrong doing. Far from a punishment, it was a sign of progress. We had done so well in the matter of production, which is creative, spirit at work on the material level, that we had been graduated into a new set of problems. In the past there had never been enough to go round. Now suddenly there was enough and the problem rose from one of production to one of distribution, which involved entirely new thinking about money, our medium of exchange. Many people demonstrated that they thought of their money as something they owned, and it was nobody's business if they wanted to hoard it or bury it in the cellar.
Now money is a medium of exchange and has no meaning except in a society. It is a form of power and, as with electricity, we must make ends meet in order to complete the circuit and keep it flowing; an absolute necessity, as with the blood in our bodies. A dead person usually has all their blood, but it has ceased to move. The effect of hoarding is as though the hand had discovered the value of blood and decided to hold on to it, thereby eventually killing the whole body and the hand along with it.
The Depression did produce considerable advancement in the social consciousness; more sympathy for those out of work, who had hitherto been looked down upon by more fortunate individuals, also a more lenient, generous attitude about slow payment of bills. And while we had always had philanthropic individuals, never before was society in general willing to underwrite misery with taxes.
Here let me say that all our institutions; governments, schools, courts of law, churches, clubs, philanthropic organizations, hospitals, etc., are spiritually based, because they owe their existence to the love giving power of the soul of the people. People care enough to put forth great effort to set up, maintain and improve, thousands of beneficial organizations. It is the caring power, or love giving power, or heart, that is the prime mover in all life. What they can care about determines a person's level of usefulness to themselves and to society. The other working partner of the soul, the brain, directs the activity. It takes both working together in balance to achieve one's desired destination and true understanding.
In the story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus divided, and a limited supply fed the multitude and to spare. The essence of this creation is spiritual, and the spiritual significance of this parable, it seems to me, is in the word "divided" and, I am convinced, has been demonstrated by the material well-being of America. Never before has a society demonstrated so much generosity and fairness in sharing its products, and while this process must be continued and enlarged, it is a demonstration of the fact that God's bounty is unlimited if allowed to flow freely. But of course increasing numbers of people must be able and willing to think this way, not just a few great and generous souls.
This leads to the necessity of considering the nature of society in general; all peoples. To me it is spiritually three dimensional, that is, not all on one level, or two dimensional, as the idea of brotherhood seems to imply (and which is fine, so far as it goes), but rather the family idea, the generations; grandparent, parent and child. The word "generations" is really significant because, down through the ages, spiritual power has been generated by the human race in its painful and difficult efforts to work itself out of darkness into light - the light of understanding.
The process by which this is being accomplished is one of growth of the soul, by which the spiritual potential of humankind is being drawn out toward its highest possibility, given the conditions that promote growth, just as the physical potential in an acorn is drawn out to produce the mighty oak. That too takes time and effort and the hardihood to weather all seasons.
Evelyn Underhill, in her book on "Mysticism", enumerates the first three steps of soul growth, as recorded by the mystics and saints, individuals who had experienced them while still in the flesh.
1. Conversion, the first expansion of the consciousness, presents a new, larger picture of life, which at the moment fills the horizon, to the joy and complete satisfaction and religious conviction of the individual. Gradually thereafter, one begins to see error in oneself, not previously disturbing, and undertakes to change it (Purgation).
2. In proportion as one succeeds, one comes up to a new awakening called Enlightenment, in which many things become clear as to their natures and relationships. Again the growth process carries one down to a new depression called The Dark Night of the Soul, when "it seemed as though God had turned away his face''. They had lost the fine edge of their religious convictions as to the nature of life, because they had outgrown them. They were not, and never had been, the whole truth, just a larger piece than they had seen before.
3. The third high point reached by the growing soul they called Unity, when the individual feels at one with all creation. Jesus, stating that, "All the world is my sister and my mother and my brother", was expressing this degree of development. His world did not respond in like manner, because they were not on that level. "By their fruits ye may know them."But growth is possible only because of the amazing potential for growth. The fact that an oak tree is potentially present in an acorn, and nowhere else, is a wonderful thing. Isn't it even more wonderful that, not only our highly complex bodies, but also the inner life, with its capacity for love, thought, judgment, purpose and will power, are both potentially present in the tiny speck from which we all develop. Let us pause in awe at the wonder of this creation of potential, which is certainly beyond our present capacity for understanding.
But we do know something of the growth process. First let us mention the conditions which promote growth, namely warmth and moisture and darkness in the initial stages and probably others. The beginnings of all life are in darkness, whether a germinating seed or a developing creature - possibly because the power of light is too great to be dealt with at that stage. Note that these same conditions also promote rotting, if and where there is no potential for growth, as in the case of the seed case, which falls away and returns to its elements, thereby enabling the young sprout to come forth, and providing it with supporting nutriment. The rotting is a wonderfully useful part of the growth process. One has only to consider what it would be like if every apple that had ever fallen off a tree were still lying there, instead of decomposing to become food for a new cycle of plant and animal life. The so-called rottenness and degeneration evident in some aspects of life today does not necessarily imply evil, but rather may be a side effect of the general growth process.
Here let me digress for a moment and consider the nature of good and evil; good applying to what sets life forward, and evil to what does not. They are both relative terms. At our present state of consciousness all values are relative, good versus evil, dark versus light, etc. What was thought good in the past we find no longer good enough, and, as we grow, we are continually putting new content into that word, and all others also. It never seemed credible to me that an all good and all powerful Creator would create man, in his very nature, evil, as many believe, unless we perceive that evil is ignorance. ("Father forgive them for they know not what they do".) We are certainly born ignorant and given the chance to overcome it. "In the beginning darkness", and God said, "Let there be light".
So we see that overcoming ignorance is our problem, education the method. Now the word education means drawing forth the powers of the student, not just stuffing him or her with facts, as previously practiced. It is gratifying to see the beginnings of a recognition that student's hearts, as well as their minds, need drawing forth. The soul's powers are emotional as well as mental. It seems that the great problem of our time is how to develop caring power. Many people seem to demonstrate emotional immaturity, coupled with mental sophistication - heart and mind out of balance. Dis-ease.
Now emotional immaturity is manifested by self-centeredness. Our feeling power, beginning at birth, is awakened in response to the love of parents. It is a self-centered, taking kind of love, since the newborn needs everything and has nothing to give at first. But in responding it begins to grow and, when childhood is reached, mostly has developed the capacity for the sort of 50-50, give and take kind of love we call friendship. Later the individual may be privileged to "fall in love", really a gift of God, when many for the first time in their lives are more concerned for someone else than for themselves. This may lead to marriage and parenthood, and a much more giving kind of love is called for, and usually forthcoming, and then to concern for other children, not just one's own, but all children, slowly but surely reaching toward the universal kind of loving that we think of as the love of God.
Let me say in defense of parents who prove unequal to these demands, and neglect or even desert their children, it may be that their love giving powers were stunted or warped very early by not being loved when young, and therefore unable to develop properly. They are perhaps "the seeds that fell on stony ground...and withered away". As the seed needs the warmth of the sun, the soul needs the warmth of love in order to grow. God is life, and we are born into a way of life that leads the soul to develop an ever widening self and sphere of consciousness, a growing capacity for concern, reaching outward to include ever larger groups; another individual, the family, the neighborhood, the region, the nation, other nations, the world, the universe.
Nationalism, a legitimate and quite advanced state, is increasingly being found limiting by a world beginning to think internationally. But a sense of national awareness and loyalty is still far in the future for a large part of the world's people. We must not try to hurry them. Soul growth takes time.
Unlovely behavior in adults is an expression of arrested emotional development, and can be helped only by soul growth, stimulated by kindly and sympathetic treatment. The mystics and saints called this "loving the unlovely into lovability". There is much unlovely behavior in the world today, but loving help for it does not necessarily mean overlooking or excusing or explaining it away. Truly loving a naughty child demands of us, not permissiveness, but whatever treatment will help set him or her back on the path of right living and toward the more abundant life.
Now the growth process is manifested in two ways, which alternate with each other. One is deliberate, orderly, time consuming; a change of degree only, which we call evolution. Alternating with it is a relatively quick, relatively violent change which is a change of kind, which we call revolution. For example, in the growth of the physical body, prenatal development is evolutionary, birth is revolutionary, childhood evolutionary, adolescence revolutionary, as is again the middle life change.
The growth of the soul follows the same pattern. We begin our life in darkness. Gradually by way of experience through our senses we begin to develop a certain body of ideas and values, about which we are far from sure (evolutionary). But to the extent that we are "faithful in small things, we are made rulers over many things", and come up from that first stage of instinctive awareness into conscious knowledge. This psychological change is an expansion of the consciousness, a change of kind, which the Bible calls being born again, and is revolutionary.
To the extent that America can burst the bonds of material thinking and come forth into conscious knowledge of our very real spiritual gifts, we shall be better able to understand the nature and solutions of our problems as a leader in the world and defender of freedom. We must see the world as spiritually three dimensional, ranging all the way from a cannibal savage to an Einstein, a Gandhi or a Lincoln.
These spiritual gifts manifest as creativity and productivity, advancement in social consciousness, selfless generosity, good will and helpfulness toward recent enemies. Some speak disparagingly of this, calling it enlightened self-interest. True, but where before in the history of the world has self-interest been so enlightened, and enlightenment is of God.
The nature of this creation, with its many levels of development, presents a very difficult problem for creating and maintaining order. The Golden Rule, considered by many a perfect guide to behavior, is all right so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. So far as I know, I have always treated everyone in a way I would like to be treated, but it has frequently been wrong. People do not need to be treated as I wish to be treated, but as they need to be treated, and our only clue as to what that is, is by evaluating their behavior, as to their degree of development.
Now certainly a nation that calls a treaty "a scrap of paper", or that consistently goes back on all its commitments, is demonstrating a lower level of standards and of spiritual perception than one which does not, and cannot effectively be dealt with on the same terms. If you treat a child as though he were an adult you only confuse him. You do not promote harmony. Too much permissiveness, in dealing with ignorance and inexperience and aggressiveness, is an indication of our ignorance, our need for more light.
We cannot have peace in the world, as many short-sighted individuals seem to think, by telling a bully we won't fight no matter what he does. If we have love enough we shall be concerned about his welfare, enough to try to help him to better ways. I find it hard to see how so called pacifists can ignore the evil of unprovoked aggression, for example. Horrible as was the Second World War, it would have been worse if Hitler had been permitted to go unchecked. What our world would be like today beggars description. That sort of behavior, like a forest fire, grows by what it feeds on, and eventually demands violent counter action, such as a back fire, to stop it. If the nations of the world could have agreed, and made a united stand against aggressive warfare, in principal, when Japan went into Manchukuo and Italy into Ethiopia, the world might have been spared the horrors of World War II.
I have undertaken to emphasize the importance of the concept of soul growth as a basis for greater understanding of the life we live and the world we live in. I find no conflict between this concept and the Christian teaching. Certainly Jesus emphasized it when admonished his disciples that they must go farther than the "men of old", whose principles were all right in their time, "but not enough for you". He said, "I come not to deny, but to fulfill". He did not deny what went before, nor did he limit what might come after. "All these things and more shall ye do if ye will but fulfill the will of my Father." And he said, ''I am the way, the way of love, the only way from that dimmer past to the better tomorrow".
Again, the principle is emphasized by Saint Paul. "When I was a child I understood as a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things."
That is the mystic way of soul growth. We all follow in our progress through life, at first blindly and instinctively, then consciously, intuitively and inspirationally, reaching toward the light of understanding, the more abundant life.
Jean Reid Knerr
March 1969My mother, Jean Reid Knerr, was born October 21, 1891 and died December 4, 1977.
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