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Subject(s): General Interest Add to My Group
"If I try to leave, I may die," he said. He looked around himself. "But I can’t live in this tower any more. What should I do?" In the story, the man represents each of us. The tower is a map of the mind. In this map of the mind, there are three levels. The bottom level is our natural state. In fact, it’s not really a "level," but our reality. Deep down, we remain connected to each other in love. We are joined as members of one spiritual family. We were created in love, and on the deepest level, this is how we remain. However, at some point we decided to try a new experience. We began to construct a personal tower of the other two levels. First, we built a level designed to keep away love. Then we built a more comfortable layer on top of that, in which to spend our days. Most of us live in that top layer. We spend our time trying to make the top of the tower more comfortable, while simultaneously dealing with the sense of loneliness and disconnection that it involves. The spiritual journey usually begins when people get a sense – however dimly – that the top of the tower isn’t the real deal. No matter how comfortable we make it, it’s imprisoning. We weren’t created to live in towers, by ourselves. Our real environment is outside, with others. And here is where things become challenging. Like the man in the tower, we might have a sense of where we need to go. But in order to exit the tower, we need to deal with the middle layer. The top level of the tower – the place where most people spend their days – isn’t particularly threatening. When you’re living on the top of the tower, you don’t feel a great deal of love toward people. However, you don’t feel a great deal of hatred or fear, either. You just feel "normal." It can feel stable, if a bit lonely. The spiritual journey tends to dissolve this normalcy and stability, as many people will attest. As we begin our journey out of the tower, we begin to realize how much "buried" negativity there is within our minds. That is the result of uncovering the middle layer. As an example, we may find currents of resentment toward certain people in our lives; strains of self-condemning thoughts; fears of intimacy and connection; worries about losing control. We may feel unstable, aimless, directionless at times. We may feel self-doubt. We may feel more anger than usual. This is just some of what’s inside the middle layer – a level that may have been "subconscious" before. We’re now bringing this layer into our conscious awareness. Mystics have described this as facing the "dark night of the soul." Psychotherapists have their own names for it. It’s not always an easy process. However, every time that we identify an element of the middle layer – and become willing to let it be removed – we create a space for the love in the deepest layer to shine through. The experience is something like being inside a cave, and clearing the rubble away from the entrance. Each time we acknowledge a piece of our middle layer – and become willing to have it be removed – a stream of fresh air and sunlight shines forth. As I go along, I find myself feeling more love – and more negativity – toward both myself and others in my life. Although disconcerting, this is, I think, a normal part of the spiritual process. As we move forward, the blocks to love become more obvious (and intolerable), which supports us the process of letting them go. The experience can feel "messy," but it’s effective. I sometimes think of Saint Francis when considering the journey through these three levels. Saint Francis was born into a wealthy family, and lived a normal life. At one point, however, he decided to take the journey out of the tower. As he moved forward, he began to experience both significant doubt and fear – and the glorious love for which he is known. His journey could be called "messy." There was often significant resistance to the experience of love. But in the end, he became so filled with divine joy that he sat with birds, preaching to them of God’s Love, unable to contain what flowed through him.
www.DanJoseph.com Dan Joseph has been writing about the connection between spirituality and psychology for the past ten years. He is the author of two books: "Inspired by Miracles" and "Inner Healing."
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