Reestablishing a Balance Between “Ascending” and “Descending” Spirituality
“… we are offered a way out of many of our human and global problems by reestablishing a balance between “Ascending” and “Descending” spirituality.
Ascending spirituality is defined as movement from the Many to the One, otherworldly, transcendental—the Path of Wisdom. “Wisdom sees that behind all the multifarious forms and phenomena there lies the One, the Good, the unqualifiable Emptiness, against which all forms are seen to be illusory, fleeting, impermanent. Wisdom, the pursuit of the Good, penetrates beneath the surfaces to find the eternal One, radiant, empty, shining.”
Descending spirituality is defined as movement from the One to the Many, “whereby the One empties itself into all creation, gives itself to all forms, so that all of creation itself is a perfect manifestation of Spirit.” This is the Path of Compassion, so “all forms are to be treated equally with kindness, compassion, mercy. Compassion is the very mechanism of manifestation itself.”
—Jan Thatcher Adams, from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality-Predicted to be Classic in Consciousness Literature on integralworld.net
