17. Union with God

The final goal of spirituality we’ll be talking about is the big mystic center of spirituality—Divine unity.  Some might think of this as unity with the universe, or achieving Nirvana or, as Pascal succinctly put it, “Fire.”

It’s the goal of many monastics, the calm, blissful joy of complete submission to the Divine.

Just to let you know, I’ve never achieved this goal and I personally know of no one who has.  I’ve read about people who have, and some keep working toward that goal.

That’s great.  It’s quite a goal.  Big stuff.  But it’s not for everyone.  This goal requires a lot of attention and time and discipline.  You don’t have to starve yourself to get it, nor do you need to spend 23 hours a day in prayer.  But it helps if you can focus pretty much your whole life toward this goal.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from striving toward union, but most of us just don’t have time.  And I don’t think the Divine would be very happy if we all sought union and nobody cooked dinner.  It’s a good goal, but it’s for those who have made some pretty good strides in spirituality before that take on that one.