S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 3 7 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos flict that is waged in the human heart and symbolized in the battlefield of terrestrial existence. For example, the Buddha himself confirms the following in the Dhammapada: “One may conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, yet he is the best of conquerors who conquers himself.” (Rahula 1974, 128). Within Christianity, this notion is expressed by St. Paul: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12). This is also explicitly found in the Islamic tradition when the Prophet Muhammad refers to the “lesser holy war” (Arabic al-jihād al-asghar), which seeks to protect the lovers of God through social or military efforts, and the second and “greater holy war” (Arabic al-jihād al-akbar), which was considered to be the highest form of spiritual warfare – one that takes place in ourselves. The notion of spiritual warfare has also been used in the Shamanic or primordial religion of the First Peoples. Medicine man and Sun Dance chief Thomas Yellowtail (1903–1993) explained (in Fitzgerald 1994, 139–40): The sun dancer and the Sun Dance itself will bless all of the tribe and all creation through the inner, spiritual warfare…The warrior fights an enemy who is on the outside; the sun dancer wages a war on an enemy within himself. Each of us must fight a continuing battle to keep to the spiritual values that represent our traditional heritage. If we fail to be continually alert in our prayers and our attitudes and to use good sense in all that we do, then we will fail in our interior war. In olden days, this interior warfare had the support of the whole tribe, and our life itself helped to guide us in our personal struggle. Nowadays, we must follow the Sun Dance way all the more carefully, because it contains the key to our sacred warfare. The conflict between human beings and the world is, in reality, a spiritual battle between the higher and lower nature of a person; animality seeks the world of form by gravitating to the sensory, while our theomorphic identity seeks transcendence and gravitates to the Divine. The antidote for this spiritual warfare is exemplified by St. Paul’s exhortation (although its equivalent is found in all spiritual traditions): “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). 3.1 The Need for a Spiritual Path When we realize that addictions lead to a dead end and that alcohol or substance abuse will not fill our inner emptiness, we can then begin to take steps through a spiritual path to immerse ourselves in its teachings and practices. According to Twelve-Step Programs, many individuals need to “hit bottom” (Anonymous 2001, 187) before they are able to recognize the extent of their problem and to seek help. It is in reaching this nadir through excess that the following insight by William Blake (1757–1827) can be understood: “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.” (1906, 14). A willingness to engage in reformatory changes is only the beginning. Spiritual traditions talk about what is traditionally known as “the descent into Hell” (Perry 1971) or when one “falls into abysmal darkness” (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11:3), for it is only through fully fathoming our desperate plight that “the lower possibilities of the soul are revealed” (Lings 2006, 80). For the bystander, change is logical and necessary; however, for the individual in the throes of addiction, change can be very frightening and painful, a hell-like experience. In the face of so much suffering and perplexities, we are all in a sense – like Job – crying out: “Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” (Job 35:10). Some have compared this process with entering a “dark night of the soul” as taught by St. John of the Cross (1908, 84–85, 86): The shadow of death and the pains and torments of hell are most acutely felt, that is, the sense of being without God… a fearful apprehension has come upon [note: the soul] that thus it will be with it for ever… It sees itself in the midst of the opposite evils, miserable imperfections and aridities, emptiness of the understanding, and abandonment of the spirit in darkness. An essential facet of the world’s religions is principally affirmed in the injunction of dying before dying, illustrating the importance of attaining a spiritual death in this life. As Eckhart (1981, 216) made clear, “a truly perfect man should be accustomed to regard himself as dead”; or, as found in the Jewish tradition, one should aspire to the “cessation or annihilation of existence” (Heb. bittul ha-yesh) – by implication in the Absolute (Schaya 2014, 13). This teaching was made explicit in the renowned words of the Prophet of Islam: “Die before ye die” (Arabic mūtū qabla an tamūtū). Joseph Epes Brown (1920–2000), renowned scholar of the Native American tra-
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