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Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, in The Joy of Living, tells about an experience of his father when the latter was still living in Tibet.
One of his students, a monk, retreated to a mountain cave for his spiritual exercises. The monk, after a time, sent his Teacher an urgent message to come to the cave. Yongey's father arrived, and the monk enthusiastically told him, "I've become enlightened. I can fly. I know it. But, since you're my teacher, I need your permission."
The Teacher discerned the student-monk had only had a glimpse of spiritual enlightenment ~ of the True Self. He told the monk, bluntly, "Forget about it. You can't fly."
"No, no," excitedly replied the student. "If I jump from the top of the cave ...
Yongey's father interrupted, "No."
The two argued for a while. The monk seemed to yield, finally, and spoke, "Well, if you say so, I won't try."
Being noon was approaching, the monk offer his Teacher lunch. After serving Yongey's father, the monk departed the cave. Soon afterward, the Teacher heard an odd noise, like a BLUMP, and from well below the cave came a wail: "Please help me! I've broken my leg!"
The Teacher climbed down to where his student was lying. He said, "You told me you were enlightened. Where is your experience now?"
"Forget about my experience!," cried the monk. "I'm in pain!"
Yongey's father carried his student to the cave. He splinted his leg and gave him some Tibetan medicine to help heal the injury. The lesson learned that day, the monk would never forget.
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In the spiritual Path, we can distinguish between momentary experiences and stable realization. The terms are self-explanatory.
We can have any number of forms of spiritual experiences. For example, we might have an experience of self-transcending love while in meditation. But, outside meditation, we might return to a level of love that is far from what we fleetingly knew in the Quiet. We can experience an intimacy with the Divine in a devotional time, one we are far from knowing as a stable state of our everyday life. We maybe all know stories like the ones about youth going to a summer youth camp or retreat and coming back all enthused about their spiritual experience there, but to discover there is no residual evidence a month later.
Spiritual experiences are fleeting. They foreshadow what we can become, in time and with spiritual practice. The experiences are not really much helpful, and can be detracting, if not taken in right perspective. They can easily, also, lead to pride, by our posturing to be more spiritual than we are.
Stable realization refers to becoming what we spiritually had experienced for a time, but only briefly. For example, self-transcending love we had glimpses of now-and-then in Prayer, we can grow to be more over time, with the hope that we will become fully that love by Grace, choice, and practice.
To clarify more, I use an example of stable realizations, or stages ~ but, recall, stages are not fixed bounds, for we are never always and fully in any one stage of spiritual emergence. The "Mythic" stage of religion sees a world of divine beings ~ examples can be gods and goddesses, demons, angels, and other sundry spirits "nearby" or "distant." Mythic perceives the beings in a concrete-literal way: like, children truly believing in a "real" Santa Claus, rather than Santa Clause being an imaginal sign of a very important meaning in Christmas.
Mythic religion says, "Yahweh, god of the Jews, literally did divide the Red Sea." However, whether Yahweh did or did not, mythic religionists say, "Yahweh did ... and must have." Mythic religion literalizes and insists that is the only way to see things. It denounces as heretical those who see the event as true but in a non-literal way.
Now, we will imagine a person living mythic religion ~ and most persons in all the world faiths are mostly here, or with a large mixture of the Rational ~ suddenly experiences the Causal realm of Spirit ~ I interpret the Causal as Pure Spirit, the causation of all in the worlds of form [causal, thus, causative; understood without mythic trappings, we can call this rightly the Creator, Source, Creating One]. The Causal is what is intimated in such terms as nirvana, Garden of Eden, heaven, ayn, ... Here is formless mysticism ~ that is, prayerful experience of the Reality absent any form given it, the One before form.
In Christianity the Causal is classically termed contemplation. Incorrectly, some Christian thinkers pull contemplation down into "meditation," but meditation is pre-Causal and remains within form. Such a writer, and I admire much of what he writes, is Richard Foster. Foster writes of contemplation but does not keep it within its stage, really speaking almost fully, if not fully, of meditation. In the whole of Christian history, the Church has referred to contemplation as Causal. This needs to be honored, so as not to mislead persons on the Christian Way.
A person experiencing his or her Christian faith mythically, for example, can receive an experience of Causal awareness. He or she has a momentary glimpse, so to speak, of Pure Spirit free of all projections of form. But, it can take years, or more than a lifetime, for the person to live consistently in that loving and awareness of the Godhead ~ "God" beyond all image and language. This is why there are few Christian mystics, as well as few mystics in religion, generally. This is, also, why we need to be careful how we use the term "mystic" or "mystical."
Being faithful to where the Spirit has grown you does not mean trying to act like you are more spiritually mature than you are. Also, faithfulness does not mean pushing yourself to become a more spiritually-evolved person right away. Faithfulness to Christ means being where you are spiritually and, concurrently, being prayerfully receptive to where Grace is leading you ~ even if you have no clarity where Grace is leading you.
So, yes, welcome and be thankful for experiences of the Divine that are beyond who you are at present. But, likewise, accept where you are and each day begin from there. Keep going onward, being patient, and know God has so much more for you to become than you can dream now of being. In fact, the Bible tells us we can hope to be like Christ, one day ~ Christ as Christ "really" is, not as we have been taught Christ is or thought Christ is or pictured Christ to be. How amazing!
My dear friends, we are already God's children [sharing the Divine nature], though what we will be hasn't yet been seen [imagined]. But we do know that when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is.
*I John 3.2, CEV
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*On the Causal I am indebted to Ken Wilber's writings. For a brief analysis of a ten-stage spiritual-emergence model, which corresponds with general human-development theory but goes into stages not covered in traditional-rational Western religion and psychology, see Wilber's One Taste, 108-109. Much of Wilber's work, while not specifically aligned with the Christian mystical tradition, can prove helpful to any person seeking to practice contemplation or live a contemplative life. Wilber seems to betray an anti-Christian posture in favor of a strongly pro-Eastern religion one ~ as regards religions. His almost total ignoring of Jesus Christ can easily be read to manifest both his ignorance of the mystical dimensions of Christ and a typically one-sided Western bias against the Christian faith in favor of "other" faiths. Still, Wilber has much good to teach the Christian contemplative from his transpersonal angle.
*OneLife has been a free offering and not asked for donations or fees. However, charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in the continuance of his work of ministry. For contributions, contact Brian through the Inquiry below.
*Brian's book of mystical love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers, or through the Cokesbury on-line store, at www.cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his two beloved dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, in Southwest Florida. He serves the Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and inspires others to experience a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons, along with empathic relating with other world religions, East and West. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry, for all spiritual seekers.
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