Spirituality is a Map

By Cynthia Morgan

When I see the word religion I see “realign.” The utmost task of any religion and spiritual thought system is to realign us to Truth or God. Somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn, veered off course, and ended up lost. Now we need help. It only makes sense that in order to get back Home, we turn to those who have found the way.

Who are they? Thankfully, theyre generous, charitable folks who left us some directions. They are Truth cartographers, seekers who once wandered this earth dazed and confused like us. Yet replete with diligence and faith, they hit the road, blazing a path, arriving at a destination and leaving a marked trail of the smoothest road for the rest of us to travel. Their maps-their guidance and instruction-are the foundation of our most truthful religions and spiritual thought systems.

These people have become our great mystical thinkers. They are the brilliant, the enlightened, the yogis, the sages and the seers. They have touched God. And they are too few and far between. Despite their perspicacity, however, not one of these beings can accurately depict what we will discover once we get to our destination. Why? Because the experience doesnt translate well into words. How does one begin to describe an experience that is not of the world? How does one put into words a feeling beyond words? Words will always come up short.

If someone, who has never been in love before, asked you to describe it, what could you say that would equal the experience? That person wont get it until he actually falls in love. He needs an experience to know. Likewise, mystical cartographers cant tell us what God is like, they can only chronicle what they did to find God, “I turned left there, made a sharp right here, walked straight that way, and ran into Him.”

Truth is inexplicable, but getting to Truth can be explained. Thus every spirituality, religion, philosophy, and science is built on a map. Perhaps, a better word would be “story.” Every map tells a cartographers tale of what he went through, what he encountered, what was essential to the journey, what he discarded, and so forth.

These stories do more than show us the way, they help make abstract theoretical concepts such as the nature of existence or God more understandable. Christianity has the Genesis story (well, two stories actually), Buddhists, Hindus and Muslems have their stories, philosophers have as many stories as there are philosophers, and A Course In Miracles has its unique metaphysical story.

Students choose their particular story, or spiritual belief system, based on factors such as their past, their parents, their intellect and sensibilities, their strengths and weaknesses, where they grew up, and what they need to learn. Which is why many diverse paths are necessary-each story attracts its followers through a form that speaks to them. Each form allows someone to hear what he might have missed, or dismissed, had there only been one story.

Again, these stories are not Truth, because Truth is an experience. Rather, they are concepts, words, theories and symbols of Truth, crunched down to fit into nice neat frames of reference. These stories glimpse the infinite through a finite lens. Thus loopholes and doubt will reign throughout the myriad attempts at explaining the inexplicable. Words are fallible because they are, as A Course in Miracles says, “twice removed from reality.” Words are symbols of symbols. And somewhere in the crunching down, somethings going to get crunched out.

Through times of antiquity philosophers have warned us of the pitfalls of words and language. As American novelist William S. Burroughs put it: “Words become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not the image of the thing itself….Truth is here when all the words are rubbed out.”

We cannot minimize the importance of the words, or the story. No one in their right mind would confuse a road map with the destination, but without the road map wed be lost. We wouldnt arrive at our destination, or at least not as quickly or as easily. So it is with spiritual narratives, they lead us to abandon words. They guide us to a wordless place-to “the image of the thing itself”-which is where we all, deep down, wish to be. We will never be satisfied with an intellectual understanding of unconditional love, we want to experience love pouring out of our pores.
Alas, this blog is just a bunch of words. But I’m sending you love through it anyway.

An accredited and sought-after Los Angeles-based board certified hypnotherapist, Cynthia Morgan is known as a spiritual teacher by her extensive clientele. Not only has Morgan improved the lives of her clients, but her unique philosophy that “we dont need to do anything to heal-rather we need to undo the thoughts that stand in the way of healing” applies to issues with weight, addictions, illness, pain, phobias, depression, and whatever else one deems as a “problem”. Her philosophy and techniques have proven to be highly successful, establishing her as true leader in her field.

Find out more about Cynthia here: www.cynthiamorgan.us
Read Cynthias blog here: www.cynthiamorganblog.blogspot.com