Reverence: the manna for the soul

WOOF! I cannot believe it’s been 4 months since my last offering to you. Though, admittedly, i’ve been in a deep season of nourishment -- feeding my spirit and soul with the wisdom of those brilliant minds who have gone before me -- and that nourishment needed proper digestion and synthesis.

Since my last essay, I’ve earned my Reiki 1 certification, finally visited the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach and have been reading voraciously. (Are you surprised?) I've been feeding on the nurturing words of Thich Nhat Hanh, wandering the strange and beautiful corridors of the Nag Hammadi, and exploring the consciousness-expanding accounts of Dolores Cannon; all of which were fruitful, no doubt. But it wasn’t until I came across a theme from Rudolf Steiner in his Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, that I felt compelled to synthesize and share as an offering to you again.

So here we are, an essay pregnant with one esoteric truth. Thank you for being here, shall we dive in?

The line that grasped my grey matter and molded it like clay was “It is not easy, at first, to believe that feelings like reverence and respect have anything to do with cognition. This is due to the fact that we are inclined to set congition aside as a faculty by iteslf— one that stands in no relation to what otherwise trainspires in the soul. In so thinking, we do not bear in mind that it is the soul which exercise the faculty of cognition ; and feelings are, for the soul, what food is for the body. If we give the body stones in place of bread, its activity will cease.” Doesn’t that call to mind Matthew 7:9-11? When posed the question, “or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?”

Rudolf essentially instructs that reverence, awe and veneration make up the nutrient-dense manna on which our souls feed. That before any initiation into the Higher Worlds, the first order of business is to be mindful of you mind. How meta. But when I re-read those lines, suddenly, so many of the themes I'd spent years exploring began clicking into place…

Awe reorganizes perception.

And Scripture reinforces this: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Many modern readings have understandably emphasized fear in the emotional sense, yet the Hebrew yirah carries a richer range of meaning. It speaks more aptly of awe, reverence, and profound respect.

The Buddhist traditions echo the same truth. Thich Nhat Hahn, in his must-read book You Are Here describes something similar through mindfulness. When you truly attend to a leaf, you begin to perceive interbeing. Interbeing is a fascinating concept that challenges the perception that you are a separate, independent self. Said another way, there is no version of anything that exists of itself. Thich Nhat Hahn often uses the example of the flower. If you behold a flower, you may simply see a flower. You may describe the color, the scent, you may even recall its botanical name. Good on you.

But to look deeply, more mindfully, you’ll begin to notice the flower is made up of entirely non-flower elements: the cloud that became rain, the sunshine, the soil, the minerals it took up in its roots, the seed that once died, and even the bee that pollinated it. You begin to see the true nature of things and their ongoing evolution. This gives way to the Buddhist tenant of impermanece. Nothing exists as a permanent entity; everything changes. Always. Life is but a sequence of both death and life, happening at every instant in the consetllation of our physical being. Much like the flower, our cells are constantly turning over, and we are made anew in every moment.

Again, awe reorganizes perception. Mindfulness expands your spiritual sight. Even neuroscience hints at this. Emerging research suggests that experiences of awe can decrease self-focus, increase curiosity, and broaden cognitive flexibility. The world literally becomes more available to the mind when you’re in a state of deovtion and veneration. The quality of consciousness with which you approach reality determines what reality is able to reveal. Not because reality changes, but because your capacity to perceive it expands.

This is why Jesus says in the Beatitudes, “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Is to see God not to witness the very miracle of a flower that blooms from sunshine, minerals and rain? Or to witness the very miracle that your heart rhythmically and dutifully beats without instruction, even whilst you sleep? Note the order. It doesn’t say, “See God, then become pure.” It suggests that purification of the heart is what makes truly sessing possible.

While I’ve been delighted with my unfolding spiritual journey, one thing I've noticed across many modern spiritual circles is our fascination with techniques, visualizations, altered states of consciousness, divination tools, and hidden knowledge. The path of Truth can become an insatiable pursuit of ‘more’, and can lead us to yet another spiritually-clad “awakening” that leaves us ironically more egoically inflated and still so spiritually blind.

Jesus, Steiner, Hahn, and Cayce all seem to arrive at a similar insight: before there is deeper perception, there is first the cultivation of the perceiver. Jesus, Hahn nor Steiner says reverence earns spiritual merit. But rather, reverence changes the instrument of perception. Why do these traditions, separated by centuries and continents, keep pointing toward the transformation of the observer before the acquisition of knowledge?

Imagine trying to study the stars through a telescope that never stops shaking. You could conclude the heavens are blurred, fragmented, unknowable. The problem, however, was never the stars. It was the instrument.

Reverence steadies the telescope.
Mindfulness polishes the lens.
Love widens the aperture.
Humility adjusts the focus.
Reality has not changed.
You have.
And God was never hiding.
We were simply learning how to see.

Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Your perception shapes the world you experience. So let’s not overcomplicate the assignment. Deeper spirituality doesn’t require reading a mountain of books (though, here I am), a wall full of metaphysical certifications, or an Ayahuasca ceremony. Perhaps the doorway into the deeper life isn't hidden knowledge after all. Perhaps it begins with cultivating a heart that approaches reality with reverence. Because reverence is not simply an emotion. It is a way of seeing with a haplous eye.

Thus, my prayer is short. May we resist the urge to ignore the mundane. May we resist the urge to disttract ourselves into oblivion and miss seeing God in the ordinary. May we allow ourselves the time and space to behold the mystery that is life all around us, in the now.

And may you, when you look deeply, see the light and love within the soul of every being.

In love + light,
April