Centre of Infinity

The Difference's™ Theme For The Month Of August Is: Groundedness

Groundedness is essential for psychological health, especially for those throngs of humans who are running, jumping and standing still along the spiritual path. We sometimes hear of people being described as "off the planet" or "away with the fairies". It's a condition that particularly afflicts some of us in the New Age movement. Think of it this way: we are not yet in the fourth or fifth or seventeenth dimension, we're incarnated here on Earth, in third-density physicality, because we're meant to have our feet on the Earth, even if we are exploring other realities. We're here to make a connection between this Earth and what lies beyond, to become more divine by being more human. Being here, walking the sacred ground, drinking the sacred water, bringing up the sacred children, is as deeply "spiritual" a thing as any of our mystical flights into the beyond. To be grounded is to be truly here, planting spuds, washing the dishes, changing nappies, doing what needs to be done-in other words, being responsible in what lies before us. If we do this with a conscious acceptance and good humour, we are already bringing heaven to earth, and earth to heaven. This is transformative stuff. For what else are we here for but to bring about a new heaven and a new earth?

Groundedness In The Mundane Is The Deep Part Of Being Human That Allows Us To Also Be Divine

Being grounded in the solid earth is necessary to counter the temptation to think of ourselves as very spiritual, flying our kites high above the grubby affairs of other humans. Remember our earlier theme of Connection to Nature: as Nature can show us the face of the Divine, so groundedness in the mundane is the deep part of being human, that allows us to also be divine. Incarnation is common to all of us; being grounded allows us to live by common sense as well as idealism. Carl Jung spoke of the urgent need to live his earthly life, in order to ground himself in the face of the unknown world he was exploring (see quotation below). St Teresa of Avila, the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, found God among the pots and pans. The Russian hermit in his poustinia would come down instantly from the mystical heights, if a neighbour knocked on his door needing help. The parables of Jesus and the poetry of the Sufi mystic Jelaluddin Rumi lodge in the imagination, because their metaphors are drawn from ordinary agricultural and domestic life. And perhaps such groundedness is more than ever necessary in a world that is, for more and more of us, becoming a virtual one that is far removed from physical reality.

We Know In Our Bones Where The Real Is To Be Found

We love stories about peasants and donkeys and ploughed earth, or for that matter peasants and buffaloes and rice paddies - anything that isn't the frenzy of an artificial urban life. We know deep down that here is the real stuff - the place where the real business of being human happens: grounded in Nature, in the ordinary, in the humble every-day, there is space for a sense of the Divine without kidding ourselves that we've "arrived". We can take heart from living with a practical common sense that is not a limitation, but can be a platform for taking flight. If we have as a society gone sideways into the artificial and the false, even as we enjoy our urban culture we know in our bones where the real is to be found-where, in Yeats' words, "peace comes dropping slow". It is simply good to be ordinary; if we have a sense of paradox, we can rest happily in the knowledge that this is at the same time extraordinary. And if we truly are into the pursuit of spiritual things, we may have the clarity to live two lives as one.