The Transcendental: The Church Project

Hermitting

March 17, 2024

I have two topics off the top of my head today: one is the purpose of hermitting in the pursuit of career or work in the spiritual community like being a priest, a nun, or a teacher or just in general, a spiritual worker and two is about public speaking in relation to power, the cultivation of the power of communication in you.

Why do students of spirituality separate themselves from the community for periods of time? Why is it that even as spiritual servants these people are to be found either off the grid or in convents, monasteries, temples where there's this perceived separation from the people they serve, support, or teach?

People would say that's because spiritual servants are supposed to be detached or not have attachments to the 'worldly' things, and if you were to ask them what 'worldly' means, that would be something that goes hand in hand with sins and the indecent. Spiritual servants are above worldliness and are in the likeness of saints - and in this state, they are in that position to be icons or role models for spirituality. It's almost like spiritual servants are seen as light that shines in the darkness.

What does 'worldly' mean? Well, I am gonna invite you to drop the 'ly' and look at the 'world'. The world is the material. The world is not necessarily in darkness, but there is darkness. When the spiritual servant is in the convent, the monastery, or the temple, that doesn't automatically translate to the world outside being in darkness. These people don't turn the light on and off by gathering with people and then withdrawing from the gathering. But they do carry or bear light and where there is darkness, that light is to 'illuminate' things. Why do we need illumination? So people understand why they stumbled, what was on the path that had been hidden in the dark. Where there is darkness, there is something not understood because they're not seen. Where there is darkness, there is need for light or truth.

Now, let's ask that question again but this time we replace 'community' with 'the world'. Why do students of spirituality separate themselves from 'the world' for periods of time? It is to study the world, to study the community - the people they want to serve and support.

You can't study the world, the community, the people while you're with them. You can't observe something when you're a participant. An observer is someone from the outside looking in. Now, here's where this hermitting gets interesting. You can't study the world without looking in. You can't study people in the community without going within and looking inside yourself.

When students of spirituality separate themselves from the community and they live off the grid and people perceive them to be in isolation, they're emptying the cup which is what people do in meditation. Emptying the cup is also the process of purging. Others call it the purification process but the word 'purification' already has dramatic connotations, so purging is better. With purging, we just know that there's release involved and that what gets released is not serving the person's good. Emptying the cup is part of the preparation for the spiritual work. This is where personal healing for the student takes place.

Students go off grid to heal themselves, to find peace, to restore balance and harmony in their own lives. It is where they diagnose themselves and use light to shine on their own darkness. This is where they get to reflect and examine their lives and see where they stumbled and why. And this is the study. This is where the knowledge about darkness comes from. Students don't just have knowledge about: Oh, people struggle because of materialism and greed. They also go: Alright, where or in what area of my life do I have materialism or greed? What was the manifestation of that in my life? Or maybe they don't have it, but they have experiences where they have had relationships or they interacted with somebody who has it. Then the questioning would go this way: How has this person's materialism or greed affected my life? Maybe it made him an angry and bitter/cynical man. And well, that's a diagnosis. And the student while in this retreat, he could heal from anger, bitterness/cynicism. And the emptying of the cup would look like that for him.

But that's how these students study the world.

It's not detachment from the material but purging or releasing problematic things to do with the material. People call it sins, worldliness, but that has dramatic connotations. A lot of it is really bondage and excesses - suffering. The quality of life is not good. There's imbalance and disharmony. People are in hell, they experience hell because of the bondage and excesses.

Suffering makes people feel forsaken, damned. But I always try and put an emphasis on this. It isn't the Source that forsakes and damns, it is the man disconnected from the Source, the man is disconnected with his spirit. How did he get disconnected? It is with neglect. Disconnection with the Source is like deterioration, a withering. What the man experiences as forsakenness or damnation is what disconnection feels like.

Students before they go hermitting, they may or may not be disconnected. 'Cause there will be students who just go hermitting to strengthen the connection, not to do repairs. Christ felt forsaken - when? While he's suffering. You can't not feel damned when you're in hell. You heal, you ascend.

Spiritual workers can't serve people light when they're disconnected, when they feel damned.

The separation from the community is just a retreat. But that is temporary. When the student is healed, he returns to the community and that's your priest, your nun, your spiritual teacher. But the work will be bringing light where it is needed, where there are feelings of forsakenness and damnation.

It is not hard to assess spiritual work. If a worker is damning people who are already feeling damned, well, that's not bringing light, it's turning the light out.

Talking about materialism, bondage and excesses, that's not damning people, 'cause those are the things that damn people, that's what makes them suffer, but if we were to keep saying it is Christ or it is God that damns people, people get lost. Disconnection from God, that will damn people. It is a neglected spirit that creates feelings of forsakenness.

I'll tell you how I neglected my spirit and how I experienced forsakenness. I was chasing material security. It's not material wealth but security. I was still chasing while doing spiritual work up until yesterday. I was seeing a lot of threes, and I was like: Yeah, yeah, I know, but you also know this, you know why. 'Cause I know how God knows what our intentions are, it'd be foolish to think otherwise. So, I was like saying: You know why. I'm just trying to pull some tricks here and see if it's gonna work. I know this is a game of luck but it's also business. I know. I was like: Let's see if we could stretch this like we stretched it before. 'Cause that's gambling, and whatever you are doing, whether you are gambling in business or gambling with cards, you are seeing if you could stretch it. That's why they call it dough, you stretch it and sometimes it does stretch and then it goes back to how it was. I was like: God, I know. But I had to at least try 'cause I was able to stretch it. But yesterday, I was practicing divination and I was like: Hmm, I didn't see it that way before. I didn't see that I was chasing and because of these feelings that I have. I have my disappointments, and when I get disappointed, I have this thing where I go: If you're not gonna do the right thing, I will, I will show you how it's done. But that's because I have experienced abandonment and I have carried myself through things. I have experienced abandonment and I didn't stay in bad situations, I left abandonment behind. I showed people how to care and how to be responsible. I don't do to others what's been done to me. That's what victory looks like to me. But I have my stubbornness too. And yesterday, I didn't just see stubbornness but that I forgot that God had never forsaken me, and I was like: Oh, right, I was kinda getting ahead of myself again. God, you must have felt I doubted you and that I don't trust you. I kind of forgot how we've been a team for a long, long time now, how you're walking and I was running. So, I stopped running and I looked back and I retraced my steps and we're back to walking together. But that's how I neglected my spirit, I didn't notice I was running and God was like: What's she doing running like that again? And then was like: Get back here.

And I did get back and we're walking together again.