Let me start by sharing my definition of spirituality.
An unknown science … a body of facts, rules, behaviours and so on that can not be completely understood or replicated by humans.
Some people have a natural aptitude for spirituality … some at a very young age … for some it emerges later on in life … and for some it just never happens.
let me cite 2 examples:
The ten year old child who says to his mom one day … “Mom … I chose you to be my mother and I chose dad to be my father”
The middle aged Chinese lawyer (female) who said one day " My life started when my mom met my dad." However whimsical her comment may have been … it has profound implications. It suggests our lives started at the very beginning of the human species.
Let me use a high school physics class to attempt to clarify my opinion.
The exasperated student says “I just don’t get this stuff! and I never will!” … and he never does.
The diligent student who doesn’t really get it either says "If I’m attentive in class, do all my homework and study hard, I will pass the exam. And some of this type of student actually do pass the exam. They try to avoid any future physics instruction.
The gifted student … the one with natural aptitude for physics says "What’s wrong with you people … this stuff is as easy as breathing! This student is easily distracted in class, rarely does his homework, and rarely opens a book. He “aces” the exam … and grows up to be another Einstein.
Seems to me attitudes towards spirituality reflect aptitudes for spirituality. I’m reminded of Ste Theresa of Lisieux … spent only 8 years in a convent … died at age 24 and today is recognized as a “Doctor” of the church … a title reserved for people who made the most substantial contributions to the Catholic Faith in the past 2,000 years.
When people talk about dd , they generally mean a certain kind of spirituality, which they consider the right one or the only one. So I would add in that there are natural tendencies to be spiritual in different ways. You could even broaden that further. We have natural inborn tendencies to view the universe in certain ways, including physicalism and what gets generally called the scientific way - iow with the metaphysics and models accepted in early 20th century science.
I’m thinking this morning about the word “aptitude” … and all its’ implications.
A few questions come to mind:
Is more or less aptitude delineated at birth?
Does individual aptitude(s) only emerge via personal experience? … does this imply some people die without knowing their strongest aptitudes for lack of personal experience to give birth to same?
Another question … is the emergence of in born aptitudes related to the comment James posted in another OP … “The veil that needs to be lifted is not so much a veil hiding Truth, but rather the veil hiding priority - what is important to do.”?
Seems my memory wants to connect these 3 questions to some thoughts I scribbled many years ago … the thoughts emerged from an email exchanged I had with an acquaintance at the time.
The essence of my thought employs an egg … the hatching of the egg … the emergence of a chick … I’m suggesting this is an appropriate metaphor for the emergence of an aptitude.
Here are the thoughts I scribbled that day …
An egg is just an egg until it hatches.
”Since then my daily reflections often went back to the image of a chicken egg … and what it may symbolize. The parallels between a spiritual awakening and the emergence of a chick from the egg were often part of my contemplation. My mind went to the incubation period … the time between the chicken egg coming into our physical world and the chicks’ exit from the egg shell.
My mind drew a connection between this incubation period of the chicken egg and the book “Dark Night of the Soul” written by St John of the Cross where he describes his souls secret journey to the Divine. What is particularly impressive is that St John could write such a masterpiece while imprisoned by his fellow monks for heresy.
Seems there are many parallels:
• we have no idea what is happening inside the egg … in the dark night of the chick. The transformation of what we know as egg white and egg yoke into a living breathing walking fuzzy little yellow chick.
• we have no way of participating in the transformation. Neither does the mother hen. All she can do is sit on the egg, Keep it warm and protect it from harm.
• the transformation requires nothing from the external environment; nothing from our physical world, aside from the warmth and protection provided by the mother hen.
• finally the transformation from egg white and egg yoke to a living chick cannot be hurried along. Any attempt to expedite the process is fatal for the developing chick.
Much is written about spiritual transformation, spiritual growth, spiritual awakening and spiritual conversion. All these terms are used to describe something we don’t fully understand. Seems to me that people who suddenly find they want to respond to some mysterious yearning within have already traveled a long way. The new life has been developing in their inner self without any conscious awareness.
The conscious awareness may be viewed as the equivalent of the chicken egg showing up in the nest; still a long way from hatching. Nonetheless, all that is required now exists. We have acquired the conscious knowledge that it exists, we see the egg in the nest, we feel the mysterious yearning.
As mentioned above, nothing external is required for further progress, only warmth and protection from harm.
Warmth and protection from harm in today’s world is almost impossible to find. The egg in the metaphor is most often constantly subjected to cold and aggressive hostility … why?? Is there some unknown force fighting to destroy the emergence of spiritual awakening?
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) labeled the society of his day “Life by Competition”. The word competition infers winners and losers, struggle, aggression, insensitivity … the antithesis of warmth and tenderness. Since the time of T.E. Lawrence the pervasiveness of competition in society has increased exponentially. Contrast this situation with one of the pillars of ancient Chinese philosophy (Lao Tsu)where they discouraged competition and promoted the avoidance of competition. Seems the sages of ancient China understood the destructive potency embedded in competition.
Nonetheless we must be prepared to crawl inside the egg … into the darkness … the unknown … and wait patiently and humbly.
Living in society today is like walking in the pouring rain without an umbrella. One gets wet … one gets soaked!! Likewise for the person on a journey of spiritual enlightenment … the soul is constantly contaminated simply living day to day life. Some people advocate retreating from the world or abusing our body or mind in an attempt to arouse a spiritual state. While these approaches have proved successful for some they are certainly not universal with many more failures than successes. What then?
Most people on a spiritual journey are either destroyed by the cold and abrasive nature of today’s society or they lose their patience. The desire for linear and timely progress is fraught with persistent disappointment. As a result they surrender their quest and return to mainstream society. The rope bride analogy
The image I received the other day was someone standing on top of the egg with a sledge hammer trying to break the egg open. Yelling hatch! … it’s time! … I know it’s time! … hatch! Eventually the ‘egg’ breaks and instead of a living chick all we get is egg white and egg yoke spilling out all over the place … we cannot hurry the process!
Seems to me this attempt to control or to hurry the transformation is the underlying cause of most religious violence. The word religion means to reconnect with God, inferring that religion is a journey to God with each form of religion providing their exclusive roadmap (dogma, doctrine and ritual) and hostilities develop because of the differences. Human attempts to control the journey to God are analogous to the image of trying to expedite the hatching of the egg mentioned earlier.
Yet when the time comes for the egg to hatch the chick inside must exert some energy to break the shell; intellectual and physical effort is required to achieve life … achieve freedom … the young chick pecks on the shell until it breaks."