Soul Growing

I invite people I respect, those who search to grow their souls, to hear me out. This is an expression of spirituality of whom I call a transmodern person, a person who requires no god or religion, no absolute no dogma, to discover meaning and purpose. It is not an attack on any person’s religion or god or teaching. It is an attempt to understand the truth in all religious experiences and expressions of the meaning of human existence.

I guess I want from you, neither confirmation, nor condemnation. But questions that point out the inadequacy of my expression of something that really cannot be expressed. Or offer counter expressions of your own that grapple with the same quest for meaning in our thinking and action in the world with others, which I can meditate and question.

Stages in Soul Growing

All directors in spiritual exercises, from ancient to contemporary times, speak of levels or stages of soul growth. Let me hazard a description of the stages identified by sages in a way that postmodern persons might appreciate (see the appendix for what I mean by postmodern). I invite those who continue to use the language of modernity and especially those who adhere to the belief systems of specific religions to critique and interpret these in their own theologies.

In my postmodern interpretation, I correlate the stages of developing consciousness to the ages of human culture from tribal, to civilizational, to medieval or royal, to national, to global society. But I conjecture that in each of these societies, all the stages are present at least intentionally. Stages of soul growth are neither history nor metaphysics. Rather they are a pedagogy of wisdom seekers, prehistoric, ancient, religious, and modern, based on their own journeys and understandings of themselves and human development from birth to death.

Soul growing is a lifelong enterprise personally and is also a millennial, and hopefully perpetual enterprise for us as a species. I discern five stages of soul growing and name them: belief, imagination, reason, judgment, and wisdom. The later stages include and transform the preceding ones. The preceding ones include by anticipation the later ones.

A recent scholarly authority will guide me through each stage. For the first stage Mircea Eliade is the authority on myth, ritual, and shamanism in tribal culture. And child development specialists from Jean Piaget to Stanley Greenspan and Stuart Shanked guide me in child development. In stage two, Joseph Campbell leads me through the great religions of civilization, Eastern and Western. And Francis Fukuyama shows the reasons for their political order and decay. Pierre Hadot is a teacher of Philosophy, ancient to modern, as a spiritual exercise in stage three. In the fourth stage I am most helped by more contemporary thinkers about consciousness and political action (Dewey, Merleau-Ponty, Arendt, Dennett). But also, many evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists have helped me understand consciousness and its development. In the fifth stage I call upon Thomas Merton, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama among others who have pointed me the way to transcending consciousness.

Stage 1: Belief

The first opening of consciousness is the body aware of itself directly focused on something or someone who is not I. The other makes the self as the self constructs the other. Child development studies associate this self and other construction in the act of speech. Evolutionary psychologists understand self-consciousness in the developing capacity of the organism to respond to, use tools to manipulate, and symbols to communicate its environment.

Early consciousness is a time of myth and ritual when new souls guided by caregivers are educated into the beliefs and ways of the family and tribe. They learn by hearing stories and acting them out in the roles of their caregivers. They learn that there are other persons like them with whom they can share — the beginning of what psychologists call “theory of mind.” New souls learn the ethics of respect and the appropriate attitudes of listening, acceptance, and gratitude. Through stories and ritual, they learn personal morality and its norms, the attitudes and behaviors which are expected by others and their first ideas in the use of language.

Stage 2: Imagination

Young souls learn how to combine ideas not only as their caregivers do, but in new ways. This is the beginning of the creative mind in which the stories and rituals of the new soul are woven into a wider narrative and practice that extends beyond the family and tribe into the association of families and tribes in the city. The priests and teachers initiate them into the culture of the civilization, to the gods beyond the household to those of the city. They teach them the meaning of sacrifice, of giving up the necessities of their lives and even of life itself, for the sake of the people. They attend church or worship at the temple of the civic gods and of civilization itself.

Young souls become active participants in the civilization by accepting the role that is assigned, by affirming their place is the social order, but also furthering the narrative and embellishing it. They practice the ethics of appreciation of the current social morality and is norms. They are Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, and Eliot preserving and presenting anew the narrative that binds the imagination of a civilization.

Stage 3: Intelligence.

Maturing souls ask why. They question the beliefs and narratives they have been given. They fall under the spell of mentors who challenge them challenge all that they know. Curiosity and wonder overcome the security of belief and the fascination of imagination. From the believing and imagining soul emerges the critical soul or what the ancients called philosophy — the soul seeking wisdom.

Here is then stage of faith as risk and experimentation in the ethics of inquiry. It is knowing that they do not know and must ever engage in doubt and inquiry. It is a concentration of the self to nothingness by eliminating the illusion of self and world and recognizing the artificiality of self and world. And it is expanding the self to the cosmos by reaching for the stars and the laws of the universe. The reach for as comprehensive knowledge of all and one’s place in the All, is more a way of life than a doctrine. For the doctrine changes continually.

Stage 4: Judgment.

Mature souls are getting it together. They achieve the balance of being present by holding in tension all the poles of existence — inner and outer space, past and future time, individual and social communality, actual and ideal reality. Beyond the necessities of livelihood, they choose a vocation centering on both personal spirituality and building thepolis, the city as beloved community. They practice the ethics of integrity through both personal and community action with the sentiments of hope and generosity.

They are guided by heroes, great souled persons, in whose footsteps they attempt to walk and with whose expressions they choose to engage. They attempt to take on their ways and styles of being in the world — the imitation of Christ, the manner of the Buddha, the way of the warrior, the style of the sage.

Stage 5: Wisdom

Old souls are wise souls with spiritual visionaries as their guides to transcending consciousness. They have dismissed death as a concern, are fully detached from possessions, enjoy the moment, and yet are fully interested and engaged in building the Polis or Republic as a Beloved Community. They practice and model the ethics of transcendence which includes ongoing exploration, learning and discourse with others. They are contemplatives in action able to see both the transitory and the wonderful in themselves and the world.

If critical thinking in stage 3 is an instance of a faith that passes beyond present beliefs and if judgment or decision-making in stage 4 is an instance of hope as openness to the new, wisdom in stage 5 is an instance of love as the ongoing relationship of all to All.

The danger to spiritual progress is getting stuck in a stage. Attachments to one’s things, to one’s thoughts, and to one’s self; the illusions of our existence, our thinking, and our world; the confusion of peace with comfort, and freedom to act with freedom from boundaries — all these hold back our spiritual growth. And this is why there is need for spiritual exercises in believing, imagining, critiquing, judging, and acting.

Now let us review some of the exercises which have been transferred to us from the masters of spirituality throughout all the ages and which I treated above. While I put these exercises in a kind of ascending order, they are all helps at any stage of enlightenment.

Breathing — is the newborn’s first inhale from and exhale into the world. To concentrate on breathing is an exercise to free the mind from sticky thoughts and be aware of one’s body in the world, mindfulness. Attention to breathing is important in aerobic and body building exercise, a union of body and mind. Breath, air, spirit, soul — all connected in being in the world. Whatever one does to continue her journey, she should not stop breathing.

Myth and ritual — are the initiation into the family and tribe through stories and traditions. They give meaning by telling, renewing, and celebrating their origins and purpose. They give place through sacred sites (e.g. mountains, memorials). They are participating in the liturgy of the clan through prayer and worship of higher powers. They include the exercise of art and music at the center of the world, the axis mundi — the totem pole, cathedral, mosque, castle, tower.

Awe and Reverence — are the recognition of powers outside the self, in other persons, in animals, nature, and the stars. They are the recall of ancestors and their counsel as a way to prepare for those still to follow. They are visits to holy places (churches, temples, sanctuaries in the wilderness) for inspiration and education. In reverence we fold hands and bow to the divine spark within others; or simply smile and nod to strangers to acknowledge their dignity and relationship.

Quest — this is the adventure, the going out into the unknown, to search for the answer, enlightenment, happiness, freedom. This is the Hero’s Journey of Joseph Campbell that is seen in many great and ordinary spiritual heroes. The quest means leaving the familiar and taking risk, often with the help of a guide or many successive guides. It carries on and is renewed throughout the journey.

Walking in the footsteps of the sage — is Imitating the masters as an apprentice before breaking out into one’s own style. The imitation of Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Chuang Tsu, Saint Francis, and other heroes on their quest are all examples. It might be reading their lives while listening to their words, playing their music, taking on their roles and their styles in living. It is becoming the other through writings and actions. (Scripture and Discipleship)

Sacrifice and Detachment — are letting go of attachments and illusions including one’s own ideas and beliefs. It is dismissing fear of loss and hate of others. Early sacrifice was built on fear to supplicate vengeful forces of nature and enemies. But the exercise is training the body to allow consciousness to center and expand. It includes sitting and solitude, fasting and penance or abstinence to break a harmful habit or addiction. It is askesis but without the dour asceticism that denies the body as the condition of soulfulness. It is also remembering and anticipating death which is nothing.

Examination of Consciousness/Conscience. The unexamined life is not worth living says Socrates following many ancient philosophers. It means identifying and dispelling the illusions of thought which are distractions and obstacles to growth. It means learning from the mistakes one makes because of attachments to these illusions of thinking. Some call this centering or mindfulness where one’s lets go of conventional and ingrained thoughts and beliefs to open oneself to new ideas and new ways of living. It is a freeing of the mind even from the illusions of freedom.

Discourse — Some call this spiritual conversation or philosophical discourse. This discourse is never conclusive. It proceeds with the awareness of thinking as analogy and metaphor, that is, the symbolic nature of human being in the world. It is a co-creating of the world which involves imaging and modeling, continual inquiry, critique, and renewal of expressions. It occurs in meet-ups, think groups, book clubs, classes. The three elements of philosophical discourse according to Hadot are: Physics (cosmic theory), Epistemology (mind theory), Ethics (moral/political theory). Therefore, science itself can be a spiritual exercise that gives grounds for a choice of a way or style of living.

Humor — satire and irony, writing it or enjoying it in readings and drama and art is the exercise of reducing ourselves, including our ambitions and accomplishments, by assuming the perspective of the cosmos. It is looking down from the mountain upon the little busy bugs in the anthills or the great mathematician philosophers busily attempting to count the sands of all the beaches. Laughter at the seriousness of our thoughts, discourses, and quest dispels our illusions of fame and fortune and puts the fun in our funeral. It is coming down to the humus — the ground from which humility and humor emerge. It is the key to personal and social change and spiritual growth.

Meditation — thinking and discourse with others and with oneself on all the above. Attention to self-talk: cognitive therapy. Phenomenology: pointing to primary, pre-thematic experience. Awareness of context, memories, and archetypes that condition expression of and into the world (psychotherapy).

Contemplation — experiencing consciousness centering and expanding, moment of presence — integrity, mysticism, ecstasy, getting behind and beyond words, feeling the feeling of expressing or being in and to the world through speech and action.

Contemplation in Action — Co-creating the City as Beloved Community — Politics as spiritual exercise. Bringing the sense of wholeness to the city — relationality, equality, justice, freedom for all. The luminous fibers that connect us all as receiving and most of all initiating, producing, emitting light.

Transcending Consciousness — Enlightenment — Happiness-–Wisdom — Cosmopolis. This is the end which the soul can never achieve. It is also always being achieved in the present moment of the quest. Enjoy the moment even the moment of death. This includes gratitude for being even in such a short time and space, gratitude to the universe and the spirit of love that appears in all whom I have loved and who have loved me.

Conclusion:

Okay, you might find other exercises and perhaps describe the ascent to transcending consciousness differently. Every soul has its own way up the mountain. But I do see some almost basic, almost universal commonalities.

First, the ascent is personal. You and I have to find our own way. But it is also communal. We learn from each other, from others past and yet to come, in our culture and in other cultures. And actually we cannot progress without each other.

Second, the ascent is both a movement in and a movement out, a concentration and an expansion, a centering to the nothing (non-self, black hole at the point of consciousness) and an extension to the All (the whole of the Universe or, if you will, Multiverse). A reduction of the ego to the point of Nothing and an inflation of the ego to the edge of the Void.

Thirdly, and this follows on the other two, spiritual growth is bodily, meaning both the individual human body and the body politic. It relates to both living and acting. It is body in the City, the Polis. The city is the context for and also purpose of spiritual growth. We find ourselves born and called in relation to others in community; and our vocation is the creation of the Relational City (which Plato named the Republic, the Psalmist named the “City on the Mountaintop,” Augustine named the “City of God,” MLK named it “the Beloved Community,” and urban planners and community organizers call “the free and open city of the future.”

And Fourthly, the spiritual quest for wisdom or transcending consciousness or the ideal city is a never-ending journey of humanity. It will end only when humanity does. The joy and fulfillment of the quest is in the journey itself.

I know this sounds a bit mushy, maybe silly, to us pragmatic and tough-minded moderns. And yet I know I feel this even though I cannot express it well. It is an experience of my own growing soul, my sense of transcending to new levels of being when I think, I express, I am with others whom I love. Now, here, with — not in some before or after life, not in some idealized past or future.