With Medieval tone and theological precision, St. John of The Cross walks us through the higher stages of the Christian mystical path, from a purging of physical sense, to deepening detachments and conditioning of the soul’s dark night, to finally, a Spirit that has and always exists in the same never-ending I Am-ness of the Alpha and Omega that never stops nor begins. And further onward the saint takes us, as our Original Identity merges with Identity of the Triune God, and while we are not God, we have opened completely to His free-flowing omnipresence.
These are the principle foundations of Ascent To Mt. Carmel and Dark Night of the Soul. Others, though, outside formal religious traditions, like Ken Wilber and Eckhart Tolle, have relayed exercises and experiential depictions of these phases with more contemporary, non-orthodox language. As such, more spiritual seekers of all stripes have begun to recognize the happiness and satisfaction that comes from “resting in God.” After all, our faith journeys are often so shaped by our own psychological baggage, it’s a rare person that doesn’t have some – conscious or unconscious – barrier with the word “God.” As such, spiritual-not-religious teachers like Tolle and Wilber have gifted us by pointing us back to our own rich tradition. Christianity, like all the great traditions, can become a “conveyor belt” for growth, both psychological and spiritual.
