On.The Way of The Cross

Life is a journey, a way that we must all walk.

We all know this, but since we often do not know what kind of a journey it is to be, we create expectations of the way we want it to be, and then frequently find that it is not what we expected.

In the Western world we often associate the Plan or God’s Plan for us with comfort and ease.

We think that if everything is going along well, if we do not have too many challenges or troubles and if we are comfortable, that God has blessed us.

In fact, religions have erroneously taught us that pain is a result of sinning against God, that pain is punishment for doing wrong.

Even if you do not consciously believe this, you probably believe it unconsciously.

"What have I done wrong?" is often asked when things do not go the way we want.

We tend to associate happiness with the lack of pain and disturbances, and assume that such happiness and good feelings are God’s blessing.

In the Eastern world there are many gods and goddesses of darkness or destruction.

In the West we have only a God of Light.

Even Jesus is presented as the Son of God, a God of Light with no dark elements.

When there is no divinity that embraces the dark, then all of that which is of the dark must be contrary to divinity.

Pain is indicative of darkness, and therefore cannot be accommodated as blessing in the God of Light philosophies.

What we seem never to grasp is the truth that the human life journey, the way, is the via crucis - the way of the cross.

This is not basically a Christian concept, but a universal truth.

Religion and mythology have often portrayed this for us, but we do not want to hear it so we just feel sorry for the hero in the story who gets crucified.

We never stop to think that the hero is us, the true inner identity that we are, the Soul in incarnation.

It is we, as Souls, who are the crucified.

Crucified means to take the way of the cross.

The cross is a universal archetype signifying wholeness within the tension of duality.

There are the opposites of vertical and horizontal dimensions and the God-human relationship, or the spirit-matter relationship.

Jesus is reported to have said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me ... (Matt. 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23).

He did not say only: "Follow me" or "Take up my cross."

He told us specifically to take up our own cross and follow.

The ‘follow me�?expression means ‘and follow the journey, the way, the path,�?reflected in his other statement, "I am the way ...

"In the inner dimensions of our true nature, the "I" is the Soul.

The Soul says to the personality: "Follow me with your cross."

What does it mean to take up our cross?

Basically it means to accept where we are in incarnation and enter fully into the experiences of our life.

It means to learn about ourselves through our life challenges.

It means becoming ourselves, being individuated, living as souls in form.

It means to accept the limitations, obstacles and challenges in our personal lives and learn from them the true nature of reality.

To become ourselves in the truest and deepest sense we must face our own duality, which of course includes facing our darkness, our shadow.

This puts us on the cross.

We must stay there, enter it fully and emerge cleansed by its painful affront to our sense of perfection.

This dose of realism balances our life in such a way that our sense of responsible ownership of our inner reality stops us from projecting it outward, and then condemning and blaming others for what we do not like.

The cross is the symbol of wholeness, not the symbol of failure or of the need for perfection.

As souls we strive for wholeness, not for perfection.

The cross is a privilege and a way we have chosen.

When we incarnate - i.e., are born into form - we enter the world of the four elements (water, earth, fire, air) and the fourfold nature of the lower world.

These four elements constitute the cross.

We enter them so that we can truly know them intimately, become them, and eventually redeem them by making them suitable vehicles for Spirit, for unconditional Love.

Where does this take place?

Primarily within ourselves and within our lives - in our bodies and in our relationships.

All of our earthly experiences take place symbolically on the cross of matter (the four elements).

At first we really do not know what is going on or why we experience what we do.

We just find life difficult, challenging and often painful.

Suffering is seen as intrinsic to human life.

But we really do not know why.

Eventually, after much experience and reflection, we start to find meaning in it all and gladly accept the responsibility of the cross as the purpose of life and the means whereby we can do the Soul work we have come for.

We become conscious as Souls and walk our journey purposefully, embracing the reality of our earthly nature along with the truth of our divine nature.

1. In what ways have you experienced the cross you bear in this life? 2. Do you see the cross as a blessing, no matter what the experiences are? 3. What you have learned as a result of your path?

Go beyond just understanding and attain more perspectives, experiences and integration to enable you to heal the past and create the future.