The Spiritual Path (Part 2); “The Big Picture”

We have all heard it…the quote that sums it up; the “zen” perspective of how it is; the assumption that brings us to the present moment……”It’s not the destination.  It’s the journey.”  Really?  Life is all about the journey?

Deciding to enter into serious spiritual study is to inquire into the big questions.  How did we get here?  Where did we come from?  Where are we going?  What is the destination?  What is meaningful?  Is there objective truth and morality?  There is no more important path to get on than the spiritual path.  Deciding to enter onto the “path” in search of “The Way” in itself provides direction and becomes the journey.

So what is the big picture?  Is there a main theme or plot to this whole existence thing?  Seeking out, discovering, inquiring into and studying the ancient metaphysical maps one begins to see a common theme…almost like a story where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning and everything in the middle is the journey.  One understands that the “beginning” or the creation is critical to getting a glimpse of the big picture.

If you have thrown up your hands or you have given up on the concept of Creation…Don’t.  Within the Creation Story is a key ingredient to seeing “The Big Picture.”  Of course, all of this is a bit nebulous and those of you who are yearning for a more concrete discussion here hang in there.  Spiritual inquiry is, by it’s nature, obtuse and can be murky.  It’s kind of like the quantum physics’ concept of changing what is observed simply by observing.

The foundation of the Big Picture has a lot to do with the 3 steps of the path……namely….Beginning – Middle – End.  Now, within that construct we can inquire by using different words and ways of looking.  The “journey” is defined by where we came from and where we are going.  This is one way to look at it.

Here is another way.  Life is an elaborate interplay of Yin and Yang,  Desire and Fulfillment, Receiving and Sharing, Good and evil or, should I say evil and good, negative and positive, Dark and Light.    Where they  meet, where the dance occurs is the middle or the experience of journey.

And here is a third way……..Birth-Growth-Death.   Or, Immaculate Conception – Miracle/Illusion – Resurrection.

The Kabbalists tell us that the reason for the creation of our universe was/is to absolve Bread of Shame.  Bread of Shame is the feeling of unworthiness that emerges when one receives something that he feels is unearned.  This implies that there was something going on prior to the creation of this universe we find ourselves in.  This place, this existence is called “The Endless World.”  The Endless was/is an existence where the interplay or dance between Desire and Fulfillment was/is perfectly orchestrated and immediate.  There was no time or space dimension.  Cause and Effect occurred at the same “time”.  But a problem surfaced that needed attention.  Desire began to feel Bread of Shame.  Desire began to feel that it had not earned its fulfillment and wanted some space and time to do that.  BOOM!  Big Bang and a whole bunch of planets and stars and all that.  Eventually we appear and we seem to have evolved to a consciousness where we can consider all of this.  We came from a perfect connection with “The Light” of Fulfillment (Sound familiar to some of you?  Hint: garden of…) and we are going back to to that perfect connection.  The journey is all about awakening to this “Big Picture” perspective and doing the spiritual work.  And there is a lot to it.  It is not easy.  The more you delve into it the more you realize how much you do not know.  The Spiritual path and spiritual work is all about speeding up the process.  It is not about the journey.  It is about the destination and the creation.  Once this is seen the journey is re-calculated  and the work of unification and peace begins anew.

Part 3 in the works…

2 thoughts on “The Spiritual Path (Part 2); “The Big Picture””

  1. Michael – I’ve never been overly concerned with figuring out the ‘big picture’…knowing how we got here or even why we’re here is so much less important to me than the idea that we simply lucked out to have inherited this beautiful planet and we should be good caretakers of it. But, I do enjoy the fact that you encourage people to think about it…thanks!

  2. We are better served to be grateful for the many gifts we are given rather than spend time contemplating the mysteries of creation. Contemporary physics explains many things except the connection between all living things. At some point we will discover the underlying connections that exist on the quantum level. This will of course bring up a whole new series of questions. As you’ve said, it all just one big circle.

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