To know a true spirituality you must go against the
world. That is why all forms of spirituality that fall into line with the world
and adopt its ways fail.
The world always tries to coerce and co-opt the
spiritual and bend it to its own aims and ambitions, but if you are serious
about truth you must reject the world. I don't mean you must abandon the world
and become a monk but you must reject the 'wisdom' of the world. This was
never more true than it is today when practically all forms of spirituality and
religion have, in one way or another, allowed themselves to be heavily
influenced, if not corrupted, by the world. This makes life easier for them but
it also means they fail in their function of offering a valid path to spiritual
truth. How can they when they have been absorbed by that which is the enemy
from which they are trying to escape?
This doesn't mean that everything in the world is
wrong but it is the world that should conform to spiritual truth not vice versa
as is all too often the case now. Nor does it mean there is nothing good that
can come from the world but when it concerns truths about reality, about the meaning
of life and the facts of human nature, then the world must always conform to
the teachings of religion and to spiritual insight.
It might seem from this that I am recommending a
religious fundamentalism but not at all. I see that as the opposite extreme to
worldliness and no answer to the question of how to attain a real spiritual
sensibility. Fundamentalism is too concerned with the letter of religion and
not enough with its heart or essence. It focuses too much on the outer aspects
of religion and therefore, in its own way, is worldly even if it is religious.
The true rejection of the world goes beyond the world. It does not just react
to it.
If Albion is ever to awaken from its spiritual
paralysis caused by the E.U. and the U.K. and all the politics and culture and
science and art of contemporary civilisation, it must open its eyes, wipe away
the grime that has overlaid its vision and shake off the
slavery of the worldly mind. Wake up! Ultimately the spiritual and the material,
God and the world, are both part of the same oneness but that can only be
known when the whole is seen from the top down, when all is seen in the light
of the spiritual. Now we have the reverse of that and the spiritual is seen, if
it is seen at all, in the light of the material which kills it. And that is why
we must reject the world.
" This was never more true than it is today when practically all forms of spirituality and religion have, in one way or another, allowed themselves to be heavily influenced, if not corrupted, by the world. This makes life easier for them but it also means they fail in their function of offering a valid path to spiritual truth. How can they when they have been absorbed by that which is the enemy from which they are trying to escape?"
ReplyDeleteYes, that does seem to be the case now, whether or not it was in the past; those living the life of A Religious do not seem to be more unworldly; but are often at the very forefront of conforming the church to worldly, especially politically Left wing, values.
The Americal Orthodox monk (later priest-monk), Seraphim Rose, who died in 1982, did (however) seem to be a genuinely unworldly, holy, indeed saintly man; and his benign influence has spread around the world.
However, his long term friend and co-monk, later his Abbot, seems to have become terribly corrupted by modern sexual attitudes - apparently even teaching that homosexual promiscuity was a virtue - and the monastery declined, and the Abbot was ultimately stripped of his status and church membership, despite having had such a wonderful spiritual example as Fr Seraphim actually in place.
What is difficult is to reject the world as an ultimate source of values and meaning; yet not to hate nor despise the world - because after all it (at least) has pleased God to place us here (and I would in addition suggest that we agreed, indeed volunteered, to this placement), presumably for good and important reasons.
Yes, there is a big difference between rejecting the world as a source of truth and value in itself and rejecting the world as God's creation. I would never counsel the latter. It's the former I mean here. The world as human worldly wisdom without God.
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