A Map of the Fortified Country of Man’s Heart (detail). Hand-colored lithograph, 1830s.  
Printed and published by D.W. Kellogg & Co., based on a composition by “A Lady.” — Connecticut Historical Society  

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

Levels of Spiritual Development
(Part One)

Stage One: My body and
my self-image are who I am.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

At the first stage a person tends to be totally identified with their body and their image of their body: “I am my body,” the infant believes. They are not yet connected in any enlightened way to their heart or their mind. Each part—body, heart, and mind—is dangerous if it’s largely disconnected from the other two. Integration is opening all three spaces so that they can enlighten and inform and balance each other.

Think of little children. They poop and pee and cuddle and eat without shame or defense. They are their bodies, and, in a way, that’s what makes them so dear, because they haven’t made it complex yet by thinking too much. They run into the room naked with no embarrassment whatsoever. We teach them shame by our shocked reaction.

At the first stage my body, its image, and the pleasuring and protecting of it is who I largely am. Many people in a secular, non-wisdom culture like ours may never move past Stage One. People at this level tend to be preoccupied with pleasure, security, safety, and defense—of their material state. If it makes me feel secure, it is moral. Life is largely about protecting myself. (This is seen in endless need for war and guns, little need for education, culture, the arts, and spirituality.) Stage One people are rather dualistic, either/or thinkers, and frankly represent a rather sizable minority of humans. Their morality largely has to do with maintaining their group, and their group as superior.

I believe life, God, and grace nudge most people at least to the next stage. But first they have to allow some of their security and pleasure absolutes to be taken away.


Adapted from The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of St. Francis (CD);
Where You Are is Where I'll Meet You: A Guide for Spiritual Directors
(CD, MP3 Download);
and The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, pp. 163-164

Gateway to Silence:
Open me to wholeness

 
 

St. Francis reveals a unified, blessed world.

Three resources for exploring the Franciscan Way:

Learn more at store.cac.org.

 

 

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