When this writer was coming into his youth, he wanted to be a basketball
player. There is nothing unusual about that, except that his entire experience with basketball consisted of attending one semi-professional basketball
game with his father; nothing more. He set up a hoop in the barn and practiced sporadically. About a year later, the family left the farm and moved to
a small town. The move coincided with his first year of high school. He tried
out for the high school basketball team. Because he was awkward and uncoordinated, he was one of the first to be cut from the squad. That did not damp
his enthusiasm. He became a manager, someone who polishes the balls and
takes care of the equipment. His interest in basketball has continued to the
present. He does not know if the interest was because of the excitement of
that first game, or because of the companionship of his father, or something
else, but it has been part of his life, for better or worse.
For the “worse” part, there was a downside to this interest, with regard to
spiritual growth. It was in identifying with specific players, or teams or even
a city. Identification is a detriment to spiritual growth.
The verb “to identify” has two definitions. According to the unabridged Webster dictionary, one meaning is “to establish the identity of”. This meaning
has a long history in mysticism and the occult. For example, the Pythagoreans believed, as many schools of magic do, that one has an advantage, if one
knows the name of someone. A name is not accidental. To know the name of
someone, which is to identify them, is to know something about them. This
kind of “knowing” is not trivial. With this knowledge, one has some useable
knowledge about the person . The names of some gods, which give access to
their power, have always been kept secret. King Solomon had such knowledge and used it. Some say the name of Christ is exoteric, and that the real
name is not trusted to the profane. In the Gospel of St. John, Christ says “If
ye ask anything in my name, I will do it.” This kind of asking is more than
just saying words, and knowing the name means more than merely knowing
to call someone Chuck, or Janice, or Jesus. “And all things, whatsoever ye
shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Most often, we do not believe
enough. The power of one’s name has been mostly lost, but not completely.
The power in the reputation of one’s name is shallow. Signing one’s name to
a bank loan is not quite so shallow. Faust signing his name in blood to the
contract with Mephistopheles was a deep ceding of the essential power of the
spirit.
The main variant of the other definition of “to identify” is: “to link in an inseparable fashion : make correlative with something.” Correlative in this
definition means “a bound reciprocal relationship.” Identifying with someone means having a give-and-take relationship with them. This says nothing
about the fairness, and quality of what is given and taken.
Most complementary relationships are reciprocal, but usually do not involve
identification. Interdependence in complementary relationships is healthy.
“No man is an island of itself… .” We all need each other. In generations
before ours, marriages were more complementary than they are at present.
They were also more partitioned. There were things one partner did, and
other things were done by the other partner. It worked. Families were raised,
and children matured socially. Complementary specialization was efficient.
It allowed free time and energy for other things beyond the family.
There are other forms of complementary relationships with specialization
that are successful, such as realtors forming complementary partnerships
with accountants. However, not all aspects of interdependence and specialization are desirable. Specialization, in the face of major changes, leaves
one vulnerable. When this writer’s mother died, his father was left vulnerable. The vulnerability was more than emotional. It was in prosaic, practical,
things. He had to learn to prepare his own food. He never learned to do his
laundry, not because he was incapable, but because he had developed an
attitude about himself that he was incapable of learning to do laundry. He
had developed an attitude of dependency rather than an attitude of voluntary interdependency. In biological evolution specialists are often dependent
symbiotically on fragile environments. When major changes, such as a cataclysm, occur, most specializing species are gone forever. It is the generalists
that can adapt and survive.
Self-reliance is key to general spiritual evolution. Max Heindel did advise us
to adopt one spiritual path for efficiency, but not to become specialists. There
is special emphasis on self-reliance in the Rosicrucian path. Dependence is
anathema to self-reliance. It is not meant that we eschew complementary
relationships, it is meant that we maintain self-conscious self-reliance within
them. We do not want to identify with a partner of any kind, as our “other
half,” as is so often done.
Partnerships, of any kind, are horizontal relationships. Which means that
they are between individuals on the same level. The more deleterious identifications and dependencies, are found in vertical relationships. Vertical relationships are with those above or below us, in one way or another.
Intentional identification with someone generally inferior is almost always
unfortunate. Many intelligent, and well brought up, teenagers smoke because
they identify with others who are not so smart or well-behaved, because they
are “cool”, unlike the socially inept identifier. Almost everyone regrets such
an identification later. Identifying with basketball players who are amazingly
talented physically, but seriously backward mentally, socially and morally,
is not so smart either. Compensating for a specific deficiency by identifying
with someone adept in the area of deficiency, but who is generally wanting,
is almost always regrettable. Losing one’s identity to a cause has similar consequences. One’s identity is ceded to the crowd. Self-reliance. One might not
attain excellence, or even proficiency, in an area of weakness, but that does
not mean one should not work in that direction. If we don’t apply ourselves,
we will never develop proficiency.
We are trying to develop spiritually. Spiritual development can only come in
general, balanced, character development. It is dangerous to seek advancement in spiritual faculties if one has serious moral deficiencies. In this regard,
it might be likened to inflating a balloon. As the pressure increases, if there is
a weak spot, a bulge will develop that will eventually pop. The difference with
spiritual development is that the balloon is capable of selective self-strengthening. Max Heindel used to refer to this as “building moral muscle.” Those
who have pledged themselves to work with a true spiritual Teacher, an Elder
Brother who works with the Recording Angels, are presented with exactly
the right life experiences to strengthen where there is weakness. One doesn’t
fail a trial, one gets better where one was weak.
Vertical relationships, in part or in whole, present problems different from
those of horizontal relationships. As with horizontal relationships, the problems are a mix, some are benign, and some not so good. Having people to look
up to, can be extremely helpful to improvement of any kind. Parents do this
service to their children without even intending to. It is called “role modeling.” If one reveres and follows the example of someone worthy of reverence,
both parties are blessed in the relationship. Many mystics have advanced by
aspiring to emulate, in their own way, worthies who have preceded them. A
Venerable is someone at the first step of beatification for aspiring Catholic
mystics. Seeing someone live out things we can only aspire to, is extremely
encouraging. “If they can do it, why can’t I?”
We call veneration gone wrong, “hero worship.” It is clearly vertical identification. To participate in hero worship is to personalize something, which
is more effective to our benefit, if it is kept impersonal. Instead of sharing a
common aspiration with someone on a higher level, hero worship produces a
personality cult, a static relationship. “That person will always be better than
me.” Vertical aspiration is dynamic, vertical status is not. It is best to look up
with aspiration. If one does not, one’s growth is stymied. Musicians are often
influenced by those who came before them. If they play in the style or technique of those they admire, they improve but only to a limit. If Ray Charles
had remained a Nat King Cole impersonator, he would never have developed
his genius. Eventually imitators hit a ceiling. They cannot come into their
own until they throw off the straitjacket of their idolization. Self-reliance.
Identification, whether horizontal or vertical, is eventually almost always
limiting, or even weakening. It is so because we are giving up, or giving over,
something of our essential being, our individuality, to someone or something
else. We are crippling, or handicapping, ourselves from attaining the very
thing we are aspiring to. It would seem wisest for modern spiritual aspirants
to completely refrain from all identification, with one exception, Christ.
Identification with Christ in Life Spirit, is different from human identification. The selfness of Life Spirit is the source of all Selves. When one identifies
with Christ, one is not giving away one’s individuality, as one does in ordinary human identification. One is finding the purpose of one’s Self in a way
that cannot be found in one’s Self alone. One is freed from solipsism without losing something of one’s essential being, as one does in an unhealthy
self-sacrifice. Instead, one gains intimate, spiritual union with everyone, in
sharing the common Self of Life Spirit. One develops an indissoluble bond of
divine, altruistic, love.
Aspiring to be a Christian is not an easy task, for those of us with a worldly attitude. Christians, of all types, are admonished to give themselves and
everything they do, or possess, to Christ. We are told to do things “for the
Christ’s sake.” When we do this successfully, we see things from the more
universal perspective of Life Spirit, and we are cleansed of individual bias.
There is no performance anxiety. We are freed from seeking reward. We are
freed from sin. To the degree we are successful, do we see that what we have
given up was relatively worthless. In doing this, or even trying to do this, our
lives might seem no different in outward appearance, it is inwardly that we
are changed. In identifying with Christ our lives and selves are returned to
us with unbelievable richness. “And I will pray to the Father, and he shall
give you another Comforter, … which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will
send in my name… . The Comforter is the Self. Self-reliance.
In this mundane world we often do not have access to those with whom we
would identify. With Christ we always do. “I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world.” Thus, as with St. Paul, when he was struggling with “a
thorn in the flesh,” we can have inward consolation in Christ, and hear: “My
grace is sufficient for thee.”
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