Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
Many of us, especially in the Christian West, carry a sense of God as “out there.” Images such as the bearded man in the clouds watching our every move from a throne above contribute to a sense of God as separate from creation. The religious practices that tend to flow from this perception of God lean toward appeasing and appealing to the almighty One. The perceived need to appease tends to form into habits of thought which emphasize a sense of unworthiness and sinfulness. Practically, in this theistic model, we end up putting a lot of our time and effort into catching up with the Goodness of God.
Another option is to carry a sense of God as “within.” Lesser known traditions offer images such as the Divine spark of light that never goes out, or the diamond within that never tarnishes. The spiritual practices that emerge from this theistic model tend to emphasize inherent goodness and encourage practices that help to improve one’s state and purify one’s being. A common shadow side to this model is arrogance or super-sized egos—especially if the practitioner turns the spiritual work into a “self- improvement” project, forgetting to look up and out sometimes, obsessed with the view from “in here.” Effort in this model can easily get stuck in the self.
While both the “out there” and “in here” models have some light and some shadow, a model with more powerful funneling of efforts might be one that works to hold the tension of “out there” and “in here” together. I think of the Kabbalah myth that tells of God’s wholeness before creation getting shattered and scattered, with the consequential spiritual work of gathering the pieces together again. There is also the image from Rumi of a Holy Hand polishing one’s mirror within, in order to refract the Divine into the world. Jesus speaks of His Holy Light as that which shines into the world. This third model encourages efforts that weave together the inner and the outer, the Soul and the Whole. Such efforts seem less likely to get stuck in “out there” or “in here,” and more likely to contribute to the common good while drawing from the powerful force of reconciling that emerges when we hold opposites and lean into wholeness.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- Do you tend to conceptualize God as “out there,” “in here,” or something/somewhere else?
- What images of God feel truest or most meaningful to you: the bearded man in the clouds, the inner diamond, Rumi’s mirror within, others?
- Has your conception of God as “out there” or “in here” changed over time? What teachings or experiences have shaped your understanding?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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Christine Luna Munger
Christine Luna Munger, PhD currently serves as the director of the Episcopal House of Prayer. She previously served as Coordinator of the Spiritual Direction Certificate and Professor of Theology at St. Catherine University. She regularly writes, teaches, and leads group prayer sits at EHoP.
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