Nesting Dolls

‘Picture the nesting dolls that keep including smaller dolls inside of ever larger ones.’ When I read this sentence in a daily meditation by Richard Rohr, it was as if a lightbulb went on on my head. I was used to thinking of spiritual maturity as an onion, where every time an old layer was removed, there was another to be found beneath it. But here was brand-new example, one that instead of making the new smaller, actually envisioned that which is new as larger I found myself saying a fervent ‘YES’ as I read and reread this small part of Rohr’s posting. [As an aside it is funny how so often these ‘throw-away’ lines are what catches my attention and stay with me]

It brought to mind in 'The Road Less Travelled' by M. Scott Peck where he said that the only way around something was through it. And so the way to greater spiritual maturity can only be by first going through each of the preceding stages. Rather than shucking off the old, in favour of a new idea, the new is built on top of the old. It must of necessity encompass all that had gone before, becoming something larger and more inclusive in the progress. Then in turn it will be covered by the next level of spiritual maturity.

Each time this metamorphosis happens it is a Resurrection. As Rohr says so well in his posting ‘The Risen Christ is a great big yes to everything (see 2 Corinthians 1:19), even early, incomplete stages. “Transcend and include” is an important principle here… Your ordinary life and temperament is not destroyed or rejected. It is “not ended but merely changed,”…—one including the other, not one in place of the other.’

Each time we take the step into the unknown by our questioning of what has always been, by our doubting of pat answers, by our search for something more, whatever we find will add to our spiritual maturity, not delete from it, making it more inclusive and changing who we are. This explains why someone can only guide others to the level of maturity he or she has attained. What has gone before is contained in the present, but what is yet to come is unknown.

All this resonates with my experience that as my concept of God has changed, so has my life: becoming more, not less inclusive, more, not less tolerant, more, not less empathetic. I hope it resonates with your experience as well.

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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