The Great Spiral of Spiritual Evolution

On April 13, 2012April 13, 2012 By Just StephIn Authentic Living Series, Metaphysical MussingsLeave a comment

“A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end – and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral”

~ Maynard James Keenan

You have heard, I am sure, of the circle of life. Anyone who has watched the Disney Classic “The Lion King” has felt themselves tearing up (or at least in awe) while sitting through that opening number where the interconnectedness of all of nature is emphasized (and with a phenomenal musical score nonetheless). But when it comes to the concept of spiritual evolution, it isn’t so much a circle as it is a spiral.

Circles are perfect. Just ask the Zen masters who saw the circle as the embodiment of absolute enlightenment. Called the ensō, this circle represented strength as well as elegance. It was used to represent both the void and the universe in all its wild complexity and, more recently, has come to be seen as an expression of the moment and the perfect completeness of “now.”

This is all fine and good for representing the perfection of enlightenment. But what about what comes before? Better yet – what about that which comes after?

Enlightenment, you see, isn’t the end.

Wait, what? Isn’t that what this is all about? Isn’t enlightenment the whole purpose of spiritual evolution? Isn’t the prospect of enlightenment all about the perfectness of the moment, of that instant when everything becomes clear to you and you finally realize the true nature of reality and the reason that you have been put on this earth?

Of course it is. But that doesn’t mean that enlightenment is the end. Becoming enlightened does not mean that you instantaneously become perfect; never have a bad thought or speak a bad word ever again. In fact, enlightenment is, if you will, simply the beginning, for it isn’t enough to know the true nature of reality; to know the reason that you have been put on this earth and how everything fits into place. Now that you know it, you have to live it. You have to live your truth and that, quite frankly, can take some doing.

In fact, living your truth and the progression that comes after enlightenment can actually be more confusing than what came before, and that is because you are no longer on a journey. You are no longer following a path to actually get somewhere. Now that you have got to where you are going you have to create an entirely new life; a new existence; a new reality for yourself, like the pioneers who traveled out west in their covered wagons. They didn’t always know where they would end up, but once they got to where they were going, it was time to get started on the real work; on creating a life for themselves out of the wilderness they had discovered. It is the same with enlightenment.

Once you have awakened; once you have become aware of the true nature of reality and of your real reason for existence, you stop searching and begin creating a life based on your new realizations, and that isn’t so much a circle as it is a spiral.

Imagine if you will a giant slinky. A slinky is not much more than a flexible coiled spring whose individual spirals are all part of a much larger whole. Now, when you condense the spring into its smallest form you see it for what it really is; a slinky. But when you pull the spirals apart – stretch that flexible spring out to its maximum length, it almost appears that the slinky is made up of individual spirals.

In fact, if you were small enough (and if you turned the slinky on end) you could start at the bottom end of the slinky and slowly but surely walk your way up; spiral after spiral; to the very top.

Congratulations! You’ve just made a visual picture of the evolution of the soul.

That’s right. Once you’ve broken free from the infinite loop of habit; of years and lifetimes’ worth of repeating patterns and conditioned responses; once you’ve attained enlightenment as to the real nature of reality and of your place in the universe, then and only then can you start your real journey, the journey that will take you up the spirals of your soul’s spiritual evolution as you create for yourself a life based on those things that you have come to hold dear.

Each level of the spiral is a circle complete and contains within it that reflection of eternity attributed to the ensō. And yet, as the Zen ensō leaves a small space at the end of the brush stroke completing the circle, so too does a spiral leave a space for the one walking the circle to move up to the next level, completing the circle while transcending it at the same time and integrating everything that was learned in transitioning the circle below into the creation of the life currently being lived.

You pull into the rest area and run up to the map. “Okay, we’re here” you say, pointing to the X “and this is where we need to go,” you add, pointing to a place that is where the X is not. “So if we turn left…” and off you go, determined to get to your location to “do” whatever it is that you’re supposed to be doing or to get to where it is that you think you should be going.

The poor X never stands a chance.

But do you want to hear the really sad thing? Once you get to your destination, most people don’t pay any attention to it either – even though it’s a completely different X! Once they get to where it is they think they should be going, they are so busy doing what they think they should be doing; or planning out another leg of the journey, that they never stop to look around them and see just where it is that they ARE.

I still remember the first time I actually paid attention to the X.

We’d stopped at a roadside rest area (the kind with the lean-to of snack and soda machines and the big area map standing alone with its own small roof and helpful spotlights so that you can’t miss it – and a BIG RED X – with an arrow pointing to it.

In bold black words written beside it, this one said: YOU ARE HERE

and underneath, scribbled in messy black marker was one additional word: WHY?

It made me chuckle, but it also made me think.

You ARE here. Now. For good or bad, for better or worse. THIS is where you are at this present moment in time. I don’t care if the place where you currently are is a good place and everything seems to be going swimmingly, or a bad place where one more day is going to send you over the edge, or a place that is non-descript and really rather boring. The point is, YOU ARE HERE, and I bet you haven’t even taken the time to really look around you and appreciate the view much less to see if there is anything interesting going on.

Why?

Perhaps it IS just a stopping point, a rest area; a red X on the map of your soul journey, but it is still a part of your journey, and if you’re going make the trip, you might as well enjoy the scenery, because who knows, maybe there IS no destination.

For all we know, experiencing each moment of now; each moment in which we find ourselves; may be all the purpose there is. If so, we’re messing it up big time.

So the next time you find yourself looking at that big map comparing how far you’ve come and how far there is yet to go, take a moment to stop and look around you. Are there other people at your rest area? What are they doing? How’s the view? Is that maharachi music coming from the other side of the kiosk?

Yes, I know, you don’t want to linger too long. After all, you have a journey to undertake and you want to get there as soon as possible, but take a few moments to appreciate where you are; the HERE that you are currently standing at, and the churros at that little stand on the other side of the map.
So….are we there yet?

Of Pins and Angels

On December 14, 2011December 14, 2011 By Just StephIn Metaphysical MussingsLeave a comment

Did you know that the term “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” was actually a derogatory phrase? It was used to discredit scholastic philosophy at a time when it still played a significant role in university education.

Well, that’s what some people believe.

There are others that teach that this question is unfairly attributed and originally comes from medieval epistemology: that the question was not how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, but instead was used to determine whether the nature of the human mind precluded the ability to know how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.

But of course a serious discussion of the phrase “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin” would assume a belief in angels…and dancing…and pins.

Maybe I don’t believe in pins!

Pins are sharp, they draw blood, and while some argue that pins are useful, that they help hold things together and can give structure to otherwise random and unrelated objects, I would have to argue that the same applies to Velcro, and superglue, and ticky tack. And neither Velcro or superglue or even ticky tack have the annoying habit of coming loose from what it is they’re supposed to be holding together at inopportune times and poking unwary victims with its pointy end.

That isn’t to say that Velcro and superglue and ticky tack don’t have their problems as well, after all, Velcro not only sticks to anything fuzzy including fuzzy things you would really rather it didn’t stick to, and superglue can stick TOO well -and not always to those things you had in mind. As to ticky tack, as incredibly useful as it is, it has a limit for the amount weight that it will hold. But still, so do pins.

So I say PACK UP THE PINS! Send them to those philosophers that are still debating the question of how many angels can dance on the head of one.

Of course it helps to remember that when the expression was coined, pins had flat heads. Today they make pins with rounded little multi-colored spherical heads, does the concept still apply? I mean, can ANYTHING dance on a sphere?

(…pauses for a facepalm…)

Yes, I know, we do. We dance on a sphere. At least those of us that dance, dance on a sphere, and a sphere that is simultaneously whirling around the sun and rocketing through space at unbelievably fast speeds.
If you take it a step further, all of life is a dance; a dance that is taking place on the head of this spherical, blue and green pin that glitters all by itself out here in the vastness of space.
Life dance on this sphere; we dance on it. We laugh on it. We live. We love, and we contemplate the metaphysical properties of angels…and the sticking power and properties of pins.

So does the fact that we dance on it make the world the head of a pin?
Better yet, does that make us angels?