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LOSING OUR WAY
Psychological integration requires the facing and integrating of
the shadow – those parts of ourselves that we dislike, disown
and tend to repress and to project on others. Ken Wilber the
contemporary philosopher and transpersonal psychologist claims
that meditation methods tend to keep the shadow hidden, that is,
they do not bring the shadow into the light of day and as a
result block spiritual progress or else we are diverted along
pseudo-spiritual paths.
Keating claims that this does not apply to Centering Prayer,
certainly not when it includes practices like the Welcoming
Prayer where emotions are welcomed and faced.
The Welcoming Prayer, like the psychological practice, Focusing,
invites us to become aware of the emotions that we are
experiencing, to name them, claim them and “let them be.”
Claiming them as our own is vital. The shadow is made up of what
we refuse to claim as our own, instead we repress it and project
it out there on you, on them - you, they, are angry, mean,
envious, jealous, proud – not me!
The very method of Centering Prayer encourages the emergence of
what is repressed. We let the thoughts come; we let them go. We
are open to whatever comes. We release what we have buried
within. The unloading of the unconscious is taking place all
the time in gentle, subtle ways of which we may not be aware. We
are “letting go” of the buried emotional pain. The more dramatic
unloading comes to some but can be rare for many.
Yet
despite all of this, Wilber has to be taken seriously. If we are
not aware and careful, meditation can indeed reinforce the
process of disowning and the strengthening of the shadow.
Moreover meditation can be used as a means not only of
reinforcing the shadow within but also of avoiding the shadow
around us – the darkness and pain of life itself.
There
are those who meditate as a means of avoiding the demands of
life. They attempt to create and inhabit a kind of perfect inner
world in which they cocoon themselves. They do not want to be
disturbed from their self created Shangri La; do not want to
engage the ugliness and pain within themselves or the
frustrations of everyday living. They hide in the illusion of
light and love, in a world of self absorption and self
indulgence.
They
attempt to return to that very first stage of life of oceanic
bliss where the infant is at one with the mother and through the
mother with the whole natural world; there is no sense of a
separate self. They mistake this for the transpersonal stage of
union with the Source of all that is. Instead of moving onwards,
they regress and remain stuck in the earliest stage of all.
The
movement to the transpersonal is onward through the mental egoic,
the stage at which we come to a sense of a personal self with
mind and will sufficiently developed to be able to assume
personal responsibility. The mental egoic stage is like a hinge
opening the door from the lower developmental stages to the
higher stages of the intuitive, unitive, unity, ultimacy in
which we increasingly ”let go” to a greater power and a greater
will, come to an at-one-ness of a different kind and rest in the
very ground of being and beyond.
It is
perhaps because of this tendency to regress that contemplatives
so often remind us that what happens during the time of prayer
is not what is of primary importance but what happens afterwards
in the business of everyday life. And the everyday life they
point to is not one of hiding in a world of illusion but an
engagement with life as it is.
As we make the spiritual journey, we have to face the
limitations of our humanity, the difficulties of our personality
type, the hurdles that our personal life story puts in our way.
We will fall and fall again. And, if we have faith, we will rise
again and resume the journey to which we have been invited. We
make the journey with our imperfect selves in the truth of who
we are. We are real.
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