Inner Path: Just a Universal Journey?

Many people find that their religion guides and strengthens their lives. Prayer, ritual and faith for them are crucial components of their journey. Others speak of a non-religious inner path to meaning and happiness.

universal spiritual ideas

Roger Walsh, a professor of psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology, has observed a common way of thinking in all the world’s major spiritual traditions. Believe in:

1. Two realms of reality: a realm of physical objects and a realm of consciousness or spirit, not limited by space or time.

2. A divine spark within us that is generally said to be inseparable from the source and foundation of all reality.

3. The improvement of one’s own spiritual nature as the greatest love of human existence itself.

4. Our ability to recognize these claims against our direct experience.

I would say that both the religious and the non-religious can be on a common inner path of personal growth. One that can individually end up finding its place in a larger whole. Furthermore, while this potential state of mind includes a sense of self and pleasure, it also goes beyond them to embrace the universal source of compassion and wisdom.

“Spirituality means knowing that our lives have meaning in a context beyond a mundane everyday existence at the level of biological needs that drive selfishness and aggression. It means knowing that we are an important part of developing purposeful living in our universe”. Dr. Maya Spencer (Royal College of Psychiatrists)

Around the world, we differ in how we think about this Life that unfolds with purpose, this universal source of compassion and wisdom. But the person who follows an inner path recognizes that there is something greater than oneself and something more to the human being than just the bodily senses.

image of our destiny

Those who think in terms of a universal spiritual destiny say that this can be a state of beauty, compassion, peace and justice.

It would be like being on a high mountain above the clouds directly receiving the warm and bright rays of the sun. At the top, people feel the Source of higher consciousness and directly perceive their life. However, further down the slopes, the warmth of love and the light of wisdom from the sun’s rays can be somewhat obscured by clouds.

See, even though we all potentially reach the same summit, we have to start from different points at the base of the perimeter. The external paths cannot be the same because each of us starts from a different place. Each person starts with their own inherited predisposition, home upbringing, social background, religious culture.

However, if we ascend all the way, according to this image, we reach the same high summit. In other words, the ascent from lower to higher ground reflects a common process. The external routes may differ, but the internal route is the same.

If we are indeed on the same journey, regardless of our culture or religion, how do we develop internally? What does this inner path imply?

Common Stages of Personal Growth

One way to understand the inner journey is in terms of Swedenborg’s idea of ​​personal growth. He calls this ‘regeneration’.

He says that of ourselves there is nothing good in us. This is because, like the teaching of theistic religion, everything good is said to come from our spiritual Source.

Swedenborg’s account also assumes that we begin our inner journey by being born with a common defect. This, he says, is a continuing trend toward self-orientation. The position he takes is very different that of conservative Christian theology, which sees human nature as totally depraved and steeped in sin.

Instead, it holds that we have naturally occurring individual good inclinations that override the tendency to behave selfishly. We remain incomplete in spirit if we don’t begin to resist self-centered inclinations. Personal growth (he calls this regeneration) is thus the continual and ceaseless process by which our character is transformed. I see regeneration as the inner path we must take if we want to reach the top of the mountain.

Our personal journey is, of course, a cyclical process of ups and downs that we all experience in life as we go through problems, face setbacks, and confront our personal demons. However, my understanding of his books is that this cyclical process has three general stages.

1. head swings

2. change of hands

3. heart changes

head swings

The first step on the inner path is to recognize the good in life as true. This may imply interest in learning about ethical and spiritual principles.

Swedenborg refers to this as a reformed understanding of what is good and true. He suggests that we all do this because, as humans, we have the faculty of rationality that allows us to see things in a higher light.

change of hands

The second general stage is to try to live life differently according to our new lights and according to any inherited natural good disposition. Therefore, this means being attentive to the needs of others according to one’s own understanding of what is good and true. Consequently, this is doing things at work and at home useful for what a conscience tells us: to sacrifice time for a good cause: to learn self-discipline by following a regular spiritual practice.

Swedenborg says that we can exercise personal choice within limits due to our human faculty of freedom of intention due to free will.

heart changes

Being close to the source of universal love, compassionate concern for others motivates one’s actions. This sincere state comes automatically with wise insights. It is a higher state of consciousness that does not require religious faith to guide behavior. An awareness of what is right is no longer necessary because one has a direct perception of what is good and true in any circumstance.

Resume

As a person applies his understanding of the truth, a divine power beyond himself can gradually improve his character. It results in fewer signs of selfishness, greed, avarice, vanity, and more signs of humility, thoughtfulness, care, and contentment.

There are thus three universal stages of ascent to the mountain of universal spirituality which Swedenborg describes as “degrees of regeneration.”

“First it is in the truth and not in the good of life for the truth; then he is in the good of life for the truth, but not yet of the good; later, when he has been regenerated, he is in the good of life for good, and then he perceives the truth of good, and multiplies it in himself; these are the degrees of regeneration.”