and whoever realizes it experiences all of creation as "I am" and can declare with the seer at the end of the Taittirya Upanishad:
How wonderful! "I am," even before the Gods were. I am the center and the source of immortality. And I shine like the sun.19
The Way to Liberation
THE CONSISTENCY OF THE SPIRITUAL WAY
The eternal divine light shines within us, far beyond all that can be grasped by our senses and abilities.
But what good is this to us when we are not receptive to the divine in our innermost self, thus becoming further entangled in the creeping snarl of our spiritual confusion? Just as filth covering a golden vessel is unable to detract from the vessel's true nature, the covering filth of ignorance is unable to touch the true eternal self lying hidden within.
"Seek, and you will find!" we are told in the Gospel (Matthew 7:7). This search, however, demands far more of us than we are generally willing to give. The search for divine truth is a search in the sense of an all-consuming longing that culminates in radical self-sacrifice to God. The consistency required in following the spiritual way will necessarily lead us away from everything that is viewed by those bound in ignorance as the highest meaning and purpose of their human existence. And thus it is written in the Katha Upanishad:
Fools chase after external pleasures, and fall into the snare of death. But the wise, knowing immortality, seek not the everlasting in the things that pass away.20
Only those who have no more illusions about the meaning and importance of their small ego and its world can fully appreciate this statement; for nothing is important in the presence of death. Such understanding presumes a great awareness of the transitoriness of everything that is worldly and of the suffering that results from this. The greater the awareness is, the more our wish for redemption grows; this wish can become so intense that it leaves no room for any other wish. In the Indian tradition there is a parable about a disciple whose head was held underwater in the Ganges by his master. When the master asked him afterward what he had thought while underwater, the disciple could only muster the words: "Air, air!" The master then explained, "As long as your longing for God is less than your craving for air while underwater just now, you are still far away from God."
Naturally it is clear to me that the consistency demanded by the spiritual way is not at all soothing or comforting. Still, whoever comes to honest terms with the Gospels will not easily be able to make light of the following statements by Jesus:
Strive with all your strength, to enter through the narrow gate! [Luke 13:24].
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to (eternal) life, and there are few who find it [Matthew 7:14].
Whoever will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me [Mark 8:34].
Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead! [Matthew 8:].
We could cite many other such statements, but let us keep to the essential point. To most people, these words of Jesus have a negative, antagonistic tone. But to a few, they are soul-stirring pronouncements that change these people's lives by causing a spiritual about-face in which they are torn loose from all that previously gave meaning and purpose to their every endeavor. In their resolve to leave everything behind and follow only the divine call, such individuals raise themselves above the world of phenomena, thus becoming children of the universal being. The only thing that matters to them is the kingdom of God; everything else must be left behind. It is vital that this not be misunderstood to mean that these people come to despise such worthy things as marriage, family, and society. All these have a higher truth, and those living in the fullness of divine being know to cherish these treasures more than anyone since they have penetrated the essence of things and understand the inexpressible mystery of which these things are a sign. The difference is that these people no longer cling to these treasures or anything else, since they are free of identification. In a radical following of Christ, they leave the affairs of this world as they are and are guided only by what calls to them:
Anyone who has not renounced everything cannot be my disciple! [Luke 14:26].
[Therefore] follow me, and let the dead bury their dead! [Matthew 8:22].
THE CHEERFULNESS OF THE SOUL
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Gospel of following Christ consistently, which is incompatible with half measures. Only by diluting and downplaying the Christian truth was it possible to bring it to the level of a comfortable, church-elevating, sunken religion. Strictly speaking, following Christ comfortably is by no means following Christ.
People who believe that following the spiritual way can be likened to setting themselves up in comfortable accommodations are gravely mistaken. But it would be equally wrong if we thought that in following the spiritual way we must creep along with the pallbearer mentality often encountered in the false mysticism of suffering promoted by the church.
"Rejoice always!" (1 Thessalonians 5:16) says Paul, and Teresa of Avila (16th century) notes, "A sad saint is a sorry saint." It was to these sad saints that John Climacus (7th century) spoke:
God does not insist or desire that we should mourn in agony of the heart; rather, it is his wish that out of love for him we should rejoice with laughter in our soul.21
"Joy" is a favorite word of the New Testament because the message that Jesus brings is a joyful revelation able to yank people out of their hopelessness.
Those who understand with their hearts something of the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ should no longer find it difficult to laugh. Laughter, as expression of the cheerfulness of the soul, is precisely what comes hardest to those who are still too attached to their small pseudo-self, the ego. With constant efforts to uphold a mask of earnestness as an expression of their piety, these roving caricatures of Christian sentiment are not very inspiring. Those who take their ego and its world so seriously should perhaps pause to ask themselves how it is that angels can fly. "Why can angels fly? Because they take themselves so lightly!"
That medieval mysticism likened sorrow to an inertia of the heart and considered it to be one of the root sins should make us stop and think. Those who refuse to give joy a place in their hearts by fighting off sorrow have become blind and deaf to the truth of divine being. Francis of Assisi (13th century) speaks to this:
When God's servant attempts to preserve the inner and outer cheerfulness of the spirit, which comes from the purity of the heart, he cannot be harmed by demons, for they would say, "When God's servant remains cheerful in fortune and in misfortune, we are unable to find a door through which to enter into him and we cannot harm him." The devil's part is sorrow, but it is up to us to be forever merry and to rejoice in the Lord.22
The Christian sense of humor is not exactly proverbial, and it is often said that the strongest argument against the Christian religion is Christians themselves. "Cheerfulness is the final word of every teaching," Mahayana Buddhism tells us. Still many Christians hold the view that joy should be kept at bay. They consider joy to be wrong or diversionary and prefer to persist in the gloominess of church-going respectability. But it is foolish to attempt to lead a spiritual life by becoming stuck in the narrow-mindedness of a puritanical mentality. The seriousness of the spiritual way can easily lead to a lack of humor and intolerance, so that all you see is "the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye" (Matthew 7:3).
This kind of pseudo-religious
