by: Miruh.
Image credit: Alicepopkorn
For him who has responded to the call of the Way of Possibility, loneliness may be obligatory….It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands.
by Dag Hammarskhold: Markings
It is said that the spiritual healing journey is the path of the razor’s edge. Very few people truly have the stamina, the courage, the discipline and the desire to follow the path of the spiritual warrior. For those who do, they may subject themselves to ridicule, scorn, and in the distant past, even bodily harm or death by torture. It is a path of loneliness. It is relatively easy to follow a religion; a spiritual path that many pursue in the safety of the group, conforming to a particular belief system. Many religious groups were evolved through marrying spirituality and political correctness of a particular ideology of a particular era. True spirituality is the path of the mystic. It is the path of exploration through personal experience, without religious dogma, practiced in the laboratory of the soul. It is the path of recognition of Truth. It is possible to live spiritual truths within the bounds of religious teachings, provided that one has true discrimination to differentiate what is strictly dogma and what is universal truth that takes one in the direction of Love.
In the quote from Dag Hammarskhold above, he tells us that following the path of the spiritual warrior, The Way of Possibility, is not one that we seek, but one that seeks us. We are driven to follow the call of Love even though we may not be actively seeking Truth. It is a call that is relentless, and when faced with it, we must follow. It means letting go of a lot of “shoulds” and concepts that we have. The window of opportunity is just that, and we have to be prepared to sacrifice our agendas to attend to the calling. This is the path of the razor’s edge.
For many on the spiritual path, this period of sacrifice is for a limited time, it could be as long as a few years perhaps. This is a time of loneliness that many will fail to endure. It is a necessity to separate oneself from one’s usual social lifestyle when the personality or ego goes through a period of upheaval; a transformation where body and psyche are in alignment with a new way of spiritual being. When equilibrium is achieved, the seeker must then fully participate in his world. At this point we do not simply pick up where we left off. The personality has gone through a transformation; we are not the same person we were and we are required to make choices that cultivate the nurturing of the new alignment of the rejuvenated body, mind and spirit.