21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

best to the edge of the lake — they cannot teach us to swim. To continue the metaphor, it comes down to a moment of decision (or indeed numerous such moments) when there is the choice of letting the water take our weight. Like all decisions, it could be asked if it is really ourselves who do the choosing, or if the choice is more of a result of who a person already is and who they have become so far? So, nourishing the soul is as much (or more?) about reaching who a person already is as well as about becoming someone else. It lets us see the world as it is, not see another world. Our journey is always a journey home. Perhaps then talk of soulfulness may actually miss the mark. The answer might be right under our noses all along and more about seeing things in their true light. Samsara and Nirvana are not different places really — they are just the same place seen differently. T S Elliot said it well: ‘And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started from and know the place for the first time…’ This is closer to the ways of soul — of which we’ve been speaking.

Soulfulness is an emotional self and a physical self. Soul has rather more to do with body and emotions than people sometimes care to contemplate. Growth then is as much about reconnecting with body and emotions as it is about aspiring to ‘spirituality’. Picasso was once asked to comment about the development of his work and famously replied with: ‘I don’t develop, I am’. And that is the heart of the matter; spiritual growth is not some separate endeavour with which people engage with more or with less enthusiasm depending on our disposition. Spiritual growth is us.

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