Spiritual Acendance

He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

Proverbs 25: 28

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I am looking at Brueghel’s painting, The Fall of Icarus, and am seeing the plowman plowing, the shepherd shepherding, the fisherman fishing, the ships shipping and whole cities in the distant horizon with a world of activities of their own while in the ocean is a small and insignificant set of legs splashing into the sea while the sun glows over the whole scene… the sun that so enchanted the young and adventurous Icarus. These workmen and the activities of the world were of greater significance to the painter than the fall of Icarus. 

In case it is a foreign parable to my friends, this is a story in which Icarus and his father, Daedalus, escaped imprisonment with wings attached by beeswax to their arms. These wings were to created by his father... teacher... guru... guide... sponsor, to escape captivity and not to adventure so near the sun. Meditation is a fragile vehicle employed to ascend ... elevate our consciousness, in order to escape the bondage to self. It is hazardous to use it for thrill-seeking and the ego gratification of spiritual ascendance to high spiritual planes. Rather, meditation is for grounding the spirit. Or, as made so clear in the text, The dream world has been replaced by a great sense of purpose, accompanied by a growing consciousness of the power of God in our lives. We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads in the clouds with Him, but that our feet should be firmly planted on earth (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 130). 

I have witnessed far too many of my friends become deluded and fall because they aspired to fly too close to the sun.

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