Earlier this year I read Part 2 of Robert Spitzer's quartet, and now I am embarking on Part 1: Finding True Happiness. I suppose my approach is non-linear in the way Truth is non-linear. You have to go where the heart sings sometimes, so this book felt right in the moment.
Spitzer's desire model resonates with me, in that, we all have desires, but not all desires are equal. My desire to watch the Walking Dead is not the same as my desire to spend time with good friends which is not the same as my desire to get closer to Divinity. Spitzer categorizes these into four levels:
- Instinctual desires (level 1)
- Ego-comparative desires (level 2)
- Contributive desires (level 3)
- Transcendental-spiritual desires (level 4)
So while we don't want to negate the first three levels, there is something significant about level 4 that most folks never consider. “Level Four happiness arises out of three dimensions of God’s interior call: (1) our five transcendental desires for perfect and unconditional truth, love, goodness, beauty, and being (home), (2) our awareness of the numinous and the sacred, and (3) an interior relationship with a transcendent personal Being, which is so fundamental that ignoring it can lead to cosmic emptiness, alienation, loneliness, and guilt.”
And it's this cosmic dread that creates these existential crises in those of us that fortunate enough to have them. Think of it as God's way of provoking us to search for our true purpose, instead of settling for the finite and conditional things in life.
Sartre, Camus, and the rest of the existential gang were on to something, but they didn't take it far enough. Instead of pushing against our existential crisis with egoic defiance, we can receptively meet it with a surrender to something more PED-like. This calls us beyond the personal to the post-personal, which is still us and so much more.
Spitzer again: “If we take the evidence of human transcendentality seriously, we will see the inadequacies of the first three kinds of happiness, for they can never ultimately satisfy us. Without the fourth kind of happiness, we will underlive our lives, undervalue ourselves and others, and underestimate our full destiny and call.”
Not that we all need a cosmic kick in the arse, but I suppose my stubborn mind did. And I needed several repeatable lessons too. Now, there's the question as to we enter more deeply into the transcendent domain and integrate PED happiness into one's life. Spitzer gets into the need for a spiritual community, contemplation, philosophical and theological inquiry, and service to others. But it all starts with a leap of faith.
“This choice means acting on the call we have received, which can be done by participating in a church community, seeking a deep understanding of spiritual wisdom and God’s self-revelation, entering into a life of prayer, trying to live according to God’s goodness, and helping others to see their true dignity and destiny. When we act on our choice to enter into a life of transcendence, God will invite us to experience Him in ever deeper ways. He will also provide grace, guidance, protection, and inspiration on our journey with Him so that we will be able to reach our most pervasive, enduring, and deep purpose in life, reach new depths of authentic empathy and love, constructively contend with suffering, help others to cope with suffering, and at the end of our lives leave a legacy of transcendent, eternal, and loving goodness. (Spitzer)”
Well said. Now that's a wrap for 2016. Merry Christmas everyone!