Longing Isn't Enough

I often talk on this blog of longing and of seeking on our journey. For me, it is the difference between a spirituality of contentment and a spirituality of never enough. But the "never enough" isn't helpful unless we realize where this discontentment springs from: our longing for the Ultimate.

Vaughan-Lee speaks to this in his book Love is a Fire: Just as Love is the Essence of the path, so is longing its agent of transformation. Vaughan-Lee reminds us that though we are born for God, we forget. We lose sight of our Ultimate, we get distracted. And then life gets messy. We get promptings of our lost: dissatisfaction with our job, our career, our present stature in life. Having all, but feeling empty. Wanting more, but not sure what "more" is. And, he says, sometimes people brush it aside; the last thing they want is to be distracted from their outer goals, their achievements, and to be taken into the vulnerability and need that are within them.

It's not just fear of the unknown. It's unknowing as well. We aren't trained for the spiritual journey, nor are we prepared for it by our culture. It is almost the "secret" we find, the treasure hidden in the field. And though we want it, the way to it is obscure and shrouded with mystery.

So how best to deal with out longings? To accept them, to look inside, to wait in silence, to seek the more through good counsel. One step at a time. One longing at a time. If it were easy, every seeker would have it. But it is only given to those who persist, who don't give up the search, who know that whatever I have spiritually now, it isn't the Ultimate. It isn't enough.