Preparing for the Spiritual Path

by Gregory Allen Butler

Preparing for the spiritual path. Those were the words of advice I read the other night in a book that now I can't get out of my mind. Have you ever read something in a book that gets your attention to the extent that you can't sleep? The book is by Marianne Williamson entitled Everyday Grace. It is full of inspired writing about the mystical path. She says just as you make preparations before you go on a journey, so you must make preparations before you go on a spiritual journey.

That sounded good, but I don't know if that applies to everybody. It certainly didn't apply to me. I think a lot of people are taken onto the spiritual path without any preparation. It's as if someone just threw them into the deep end of the swimming pool with one word of advice -- swim!

That's sort off what happened to me. I wasn't preparing for the spiritual path. I had no desire to be on the spiritual path. It just happened, brought about by intense physical suffering accompanied by my world falling apart. Just when life couldn't get any worse, I found myself swimming, not in a swimming pool, but in the Ocean, drenched in bliss, intoxicated by love.

It's the same with romantic love. Can you ever be prepared for it? It just happens. It's like being caught in a sudden downpour on a summer afternoon. Forces out of your control knock down all defenses. Suddenly your heart is turned inside out.

But if you are someone who hasn't been thrown in the swimming pool, there are ways to prepare for the experience. If you are more of the type that likes to stick their toe in the water to see how it feels before diving in, then Rumi's advice might be helpful:

Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of invisible game.

I love those lines from Rumi. Hunting for invisible game is what the spiritual path is. It's a safari for those hungry for God. It's for those whose nourishment for breakfast might be a few lines from Hafiz extolling the virtues of his beloved.

That is longing beyond what most of us can expect to achieve in a lifetime of spiritual preparation. But we can long for that type of longing, and start journeying on the path anyway. It's a path of love. The more we love, the more we can experience love. And with each experience of love comes a little bit of a transformation, a little bit of self-effacement. And with each experience of self-effacement comes a deepening of oneness.

In short, the best preparation for the path is the path itself. Preparing for the spiritual path is to be on the spiritual path. Each step revealing the unfolding of the mystery, enabling us to put our feet a little bit deeper into the water, even though we're not quite ready to dive in.