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Spirit
View Transitions: Trusting the Process of Spiritual Evolution
By James Michael Whitty, August 2006 |
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| Humans like to settle and rest on a strong foundation of beliefs. We seek to nestle in the safety and comfort of "knowing" how everything fits with everything else. We turn from the discomfort of the unknown by building a philosophy that defines the purpose of everything. Once formed, our chosen beliefs allow us to go about our daily business with self-assurance. Deep inside, however, we fear flaws in our thinking. | ||||||||
| We ignore our feelings of doubt by covering them with activities and declarations of personal truth. We proselytize those with other views, push our policies and attack outsiders, all to protect and defend the foundation built with our minds. Notwithstanding our apparent self-assurance, the potential for a crumbling foundation lingers threateningly underneath. | ||||||||
| The world naturally resists our chosen philosophy -- our spirit view. In time, we likely discover holes in our thinking. As doubt intensifies, we step up our activities or declarations, or both. We do this because we cannot bear the horror of admitting the deficiencies in our philosophy. | ||||||||
| At some point, we can no longer ignore the crumbling of our foundation of beliefs. We admit the failure of our spirit view. This admission feels dreadful. We feel alone, adrift, without support. We find our mind confused, our mood depressed and our body aching. To find safety, we may revisit a set of beliefs set aside at an earlier stage of life. Of course, we soon discover the futility of searching backwards. | ||||||||
| Feelings of isolation are painful to bear. We tend to look outside ourselves for the correction, blaming situations, events or other people for our feelings. This does not work. No matter how much we attempt to correct the external world, our anguished feelings of loss remain. We must face our spirit view and enter the unknown. | ||||||||
| When we accept our transition from one set of beliefs to another, we travel the path to greater understanding. This requires trusting the process of spiritual evolution. This undertaking is uncomfortable but natural to spiritual beings. In learning to trust, we find our way. | ||||||||
| I have made many spirit view transitions. I have learned about my transitions by examining them as historical events. It is altogether different to examine a spirit view transition while embroiled in the process. Indeed, I am in transition now, but I know this process involves evolution of my spirit view. I blame no one or the world for my feelings. Most importantly, I trust that I will get to a place of greater spiritual understanding. I will not remain adrift forever. This trust forms my transitional foundation. | ||||||||
| As we shift spirit views, our next foundation of beliefs, though better, may not end our spiritual growth. We may go through the process again and again, perhaps without end. This evolutionary process flows within our nature as spiritual beings. | ||||||||
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