There are many versions of the stages and maps of the spiritual path. Teresa of Avila describes these stages as seven mansions, inner mansions. Many others have described stages ranging from as few as three or four to as many as fifteen recognizable stages. A Course in Miracles describes the path in six stages.
The traditional Christian path describes three phases: 1-Purgative, 2 - Illuminative, and 3- Unitive. John of The Cross describes it as Four Nights of the Soul: Active and Passive Nights of the Senses and Active and Passive Nights of the Spirit (Soul). And all the other traditions have their own maps. But the thing to remember is that “the map is not the territory,” as Alfred Korzybski said.
There are many maps for this journey each using their own mythological language to describe it. The fact that these maps exist is in itself encouraging in that they document the possibility inherent in the human condition. But, it is important to remember and act on what Lao Tzu says in the Tao Te Ching: “Every journey begins with a single step.” We all have to take our own steps, as the opening lines of The Tao say:
The Way that can be told of
is not an unvarying way;
The names that can be named
are not unvarying names.
It was from the Nameless
that Heaven and Earth sprang;
The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures,
each after its kind.
On reading Roberts’ booklet, concerning the Ox-Herding Pictures, I could identify five or six of the stages described, and I could precisely name the event or experience that had been a milestone or transition from one stage to the next.
I had never been able to do this while on the path, but now, four years after the end of seeking, I could recognize stages I had passed through. So, I started to write descriptions of the stages I recognized. Over the coming days the stages I hadn’t recognized became apparent. In about two weeks, the whole path had been written as it happened in my personal experience.
Every version of the spiritual journey is but a particular version of a universal process.
However, while going through it I could not ever identify where I was on the path. I couldn’t distinguish between the various stages in anything I read. But, I did know and was comforted and inspired by writings documenting the stages of possible evolution for an individual.The very idea of this possibility made it too much to ignore.
