"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Spirituality is an awareness that there is no difference between matter and spirit. Some define spirituality as man’s search for meaning [1] and others as recognising this awareness [2]. Mystics have long recognised spiritual growth (e.g. The Interior Castle, St Teresa of Avila) while modern authors have written about stages of faith (Stages of Faith, Fowler) and stages of spiritual growth (Integral Spirituality, Wilber).
Wilber proposes various levels of understanding the world. They range between Egocentric (it’s all about me), Ethnocentric (it’s all about my family, tribe, country), Worldcentric (I appreciate my commonality with all in a world beyond my tribe) and Cosmocentric (I appreciate my place within the universe, that I am related to everything, everywhere). Spiritual growth through these levels also requires growth through other levels of development such as physical, emotional and intellectual maturity. We can progress through these various levels at different rates. According to Wilber, about two thirds of the world has been identified as living in the first two levels.
Nevertheless, Richard Rohr understands the importance of well-grounded formation in early stages of growth [3]. They have a relative importance as scaffolding, but they are not the building itself. Yet, we don’t need to continue protecting the scaffolding once it’s served its purpose. In the first half of life, our task is to build a container. Eventually we realise that life isn’t primarily about the container but the contents. In the second half of our lives, we might appreciate the ladder we have been climbing all our lives is leaning against the wrong wall. We search for new meaning and understanding in our lives.
Anthony de Mello acknowledged barriers to our recognising reality [4]. Beliefs and attachments blind and restrict us. Carl Jung identified the shadow in our subconscious as restricting our personal growth. However, a clear vision reveals a wondrous world and an inner spirit that seeks to be recognised. Howard Thurman, spiritual adviser to Dr Martin Luther King, wrote about the importance of discerning what makes you come alive because the world needs people who have come alive. This emerging consciousness leads to a new freedom.
Albert Einstein remarked that higher levels of consciousness are required to solve the problems of the world for they cannot be solved at the level of those who created them [5]. We need only listen to the language of our political leaders to recognise that conflicts within our societies are grounded in tribal outlooks. Immigration and care for our planet are other examples requiring higher consciousness to identify solutions. We need new ways of looking at each other and our world.
The development of the science of quantum theory over the last hundred years is establishing a new understanding of a more coherent worldview. Past worldviews founded in patriarchal and monarchical attitudes, medieval theology and classical physics are inadequate to understand the world now being recognised in a new way. That we are all related to each other, to everything, everywhere and even throughout time.
Hence the importance to spirituality of recognising that levels of consciousness exist. We need to grow spiritually and attain a higher consciousness so that we can address the resolution of the world’s problems. As we grow, our institutions, religions and our understanding of God will inevitably change.
Change can happen
As Wilber noted above, most of the world exists in the lower levels of consciousness, perhaps unaware that higher levels of consciousness exist. But once aware, how do we change if we wish to? Here are some suggestions:
Cultivate non-dual consciousness by abandoning “either/or” dualistic thinking in favour of “both/and” thinking.
Develop a meditation practice as recommended by Rohr and Cannato.
Allow your consciousness to move from your head to your heart. Rohr offers some guidance here in a meditation.[6]
Cultivate an awareness of higher states of consciousness.
As Judy Cannato was nearing the end of writing her last book, she discovered that a mass removed from her back was cancerous. She describes her experience over the subsequent months and her change in consciousness, in particular:
Perhaps the most freeing insight that has come in the last few months is that it is helpful to throw away “beliefs”. To me beliefs tend to be mental constructs, assertions about reality, not reality itself. My beliefs tended to come from my head, not my heart. They are accompanied by rules and regulations – and not far behind comes judgement.
Without beliefs to uphold, I find that the temptation to judge begins to fall away. Each time I have judged, especially when I have thought something to be “wrong”, I can track the judgement back to a belief – something more rooted in my head and unconsciousness than in my heart and compassion. By endeavouring to let go of judgement, my heart becomes more open to the flow of divine love. Ego gets out of the way a little more, and then love can flourish.[7]
Reflection Questions
Have you been aware that different states of consciousness exist, that they each have a different understanding of the world? A different worldview?
What could you do to live into higher levels of consciousness?
Could you identify with Judy Cannato’s experience described above?
Further reading
Awareness, Anthony de Mello SJ
Falling Upwards, Richard Rohr
Field of Compassion, Judy Cannato
[1] Diarmuid O’Murchu, Quantum Theology, 14
[2] Ilia Delio, The Not-Yet God, 32-33
[3] CAC Meditations Dec 7, 2016 https://cac.org/daily-meditations/transcend-and-include-2016-12-07/
[4] Anthony de Mello SJ, Awareness, 63-64
[5] Quoted by Richard Rohr https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-special-note-from-fr-richard-why-contemplation/
[6] CAC Meditation July 5, 2024 https://cac.org/daily-meditations/balancing-heart-and-action/
[7] Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion, 185-189
Thank you for this wonderful article. Cannato's experience is priceless particularly to this judgemental person.
I would like to point out a couple of distortions in your relating what was 'said' by Jung & Einstein.
I don't think Jung ever suggested that the Shadow restricted our personal growth. That is suggesting the shadow in an unwarranted negative light when, on the contrary, he made plain that the Shadow was to be seen as harbouring Gold for our growth; it's the very grist for maturity.
In reading the article by Richard Rohr on what Einstein 'said' regarding level of consciousness to solve a problem, I find it more faithful to citing Einstein's thinking to say "higher levels of consciousness are requir…
Hi Robert
Thank you for sharing The Importance of Understanding Spirituality. I really appreciate your thinking.
Your references to several writers point me to a perennial question? How do I find my way among various writers who come at, broadly, the same thing but do so in very different ways? How to reconcile them in one perspective or worldview.
All point to a higher level of consciousness but each has their own pathway. Is there a pathway or structure of consciousness that offers a common basis for all, yet allows each to flourish to its fullness, and both integrates and supports all.
I find that the analysis of consciousness as a series of levels or operations we perform provides…