Walking A Sacred Path
Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Path
by The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress
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Discernment, pg. 164
I want to share two different images of spiritual discernment with you. The first is the story of a friend who decided to take up white-water canoeing. He joined a group of enthusiasts and took lessons to master the basics, then he canoed on waters that were rated to match his skills. Periodically he took skill tests to measure his progress in mastering the untamed waters and to receive certification for a new level of difficulty. If only the spiritual life lent itself to the same clarity of progress. The inner life requires an awareness and capacity for reflection that cannot easily be measured or simply tested in safe waters—let alone the unpredictable rapids along the river to the Divine.
In Dialogue with a Modern Mystic Andrew Harvey and Mark Matousek discuss the benefits of a spiritual discipline. Harvey refers us to Rumi, the twelfth-century Persian mystic who said that the true seeker needs to become a "pharmacist of bliss." Harvey continues: "You must learn how to play yourself, just as a sitarist knows exactly how to play his or her instrument. There are times when you need to focus, to fast, to retreat, and others when you need to play. The seeker has to know, like a doctor, what remedy is most effective for every nuance of illness. Imagine that in the pharmacy there are five hundred different vials, one is marked 'Aretha Franklin,' another marked 'meditation,' another 'talking long-distance with one's best friend' . . . At any moment, the practiced seeker will know exactly
which vial to mix with which.
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Excerpts from Walking A Sacred Path ©1995 by Dr. Lauren Artress used with permission from the author. To purchase a copy of Walking a Sacred Path, visit the non-profit bookstore Sacred Path Books & Art. This link is provided as a service to explorefaith.org visitors and registered users.
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