20. Spirituality is not to be learned by running away from things.

Saturday, October 20, 2018

“Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.” ~ Meister Eckhart

This also builds on my earlier thoughts about having a peaceful heart. There is no merit to mistaking the calm that might grow out of avoiding the world for true peace which comes from facing the world and being able to allow trust in God. If we push through fear, anger or what ever negative emotion we might be feeling we can open ourselves up to the power of God.

If we avoid the world and hide from it, we hide ourselves from the face of God. He can see us and he sees us always but we can't see him if we avoid him through rejection of his created world no matter where we might be in the world. Eckhart says we must penetrate things to find God. What are those things? They are things our ego constructs in an ill-fated effort to protects. The need to control. The desire to avoid negativity and controversy. The bruising we take which creates a sense humility and all of these things defeat what inkling of hope we might hold.

There is also another clear indictment of our wish to find peace and to find God by separating ourselves from God, to seek those thin places the Irish love to embrace because we believe we can find solace there. Solace might be healing and allow us to more quickly let go of things that distract us but we can not allow be overly reliant on exterior solitude because it is so often not available to us. We cannot just withdraw when we need to turn within to find God.

My brushes with Benedictine spirituality remind me that there is a great importance for being in one place, to be stable and not inclined to move from one place to another in a search for peace because true peace is not out there somewhere but is in here, inside us in the soul.

It often seems prudent to turn away, to hide and be out of the light but the comfort is illusory and temporary. The trouble remains and holds power of us it as long as it give it the authority to do so. Only when we connect with God can we find peace.