What is spiritual evolution?
We live in a dream. As Fourth Way authors advise us, reality is difficult to experience. A relentless stream of automatic impulses, be they bodily sensations, movements, emotions, or actual thoughts prevents us from experiencing it. Each of these momentary impulses calls itself ‘I’.
Awakening is breaking out of this prison.
Looked at in another way, we do not exist. We lack an internal unifying, linking element that we can call our own. The above statements need to be taken with relativity[1] and common sense.
We certainly do have a biological existence. We came into the world when our parents’ egg and sperm cells fused. Our heart started beating about a month later, and after nine months we were born. And, eventually, our heart will stop beating, and our physical body will die.[2] The miraculous thing is that in this brief sojourn, we can create an immortal astral body, a soul. To do this, our will and desire are not sufficient. We must receive “outside help” from men or women who successfully completed their earthly passage by becoming immortal, who have come back to help us.
The ordinary transition between childhood and adulthood mirrors this spiritual evolution, the creation of an immortal soul. Fourth Way authors advise us that we are stimulus-response machines. This often means that we perform actions, or refrain from performing them, with the hope of obtaining a reward. This mechanical tendency is so deep within us that it may require a lifetime to acquire an adequate view of this condition. This is the reason Mr Gurdjieff said, of human beings, “Machines they are born; machines they die.”
We can grow, however. There is a way out. A curious aspect of spiritual evolution is that our greatest asset is our desire to change, to be more conscious. As Mr Ouspensky advised, external circumstances matter least of all.
As St. Francis[3] put it, “What we are looking for is what is looking.” This brings us back to the Fourth Way’s concept of relativity. The most profound expression of relativity is the realization that we can be present. We can remember ourselves, in this very moment.
A mosaic from the cathedral of Monreale (Sicily) depicts The Creation (12th-13th centuries).
Ultimately, spiritual evolution relates to the ability to partake of the present moment. We need to bring all of our intelligence and wisdom into the here and now. We need to connect the present moment with higher spheres—with angels, or gods.
This mosaic from the cathedral of Monreale in Italy illustrates the recognition of a higher level of existence. The part in us that can grow is personified by the deity at the top. This deity is sending down into our inner world a conscious impulse, in the shape of a dove. The dove comes to dispel our vaporous ordinary state into something extraordinary. This is the battle we must wage in order to attain the stillness of our soul.
“Old age finds us not childish anymore, but true children at last.” Goethe
For other articles in the FourthWayToday magazine by Benjamin B., see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/benjamin-b/.
[1] Relativity, in the Fourth Way means to be able to look at an idea, person, or object, from several viewpoints. Looking at something with relation to other things.
[2] Leonardo da Vinci advises us that the heart is a unique organ, that once stops beating, beats no more.
[3] St. Francis of Assisi, (1181-1226) Italian mystic and Catholic friar who founded the Franciscan order.