I know this is a well-known story, but I’d like to record it here for memory. For me, this story points out why it’s so important to be curious about metaphysics. To take your spiritual journey seriously. It has on many occasions been the only thing to keep me going. But in other ways, it makes me reach out to see others as more than just sacks of flesh, means to an end. Mysticism through Christ takes me out of the conceit and selfishness of my own existence, and connects me to those I love, and those beyond that, to all of humanity.
There are many ways to this path. Merton captures it as such:
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
– Thomas Merton, https://amzn.to/40LqPO5
To me, this is the goal of paying attention in our lives. Every generation from the beginning of time to the present day has felt His presence, whether you know it or not. Even if you don’t call it God, and feel this sort of connection, has anything changed? You are soaked in his spirit, and the only loss is the loss of joy one feels when they realize this simple, good news.