The Social Action of Mysticism
Spiritual Energy Part 3
Mysticism is often seen in duality as an opposite to social action. There is the life of prayer and contemplation, alone in the closet, removed from the world. And then there are those who go out and get things done, help people, and change things.
Even if you don’t believe that harsh framing, perhaps you sometimes find yourself asking, “How can I navel gaze when the world is on fire? Shouldn’t I be doing something about it?”
So let’s consider it this way: How do you put out a fire?
Do you throw nearby cups of water onto the flames? No, you need more force than that, more resources. You need to connect down into the deeper source of continual water flow.
That’s not to say that our small actions don’t help, or that there aren’t immediate needs at all times. But right now, in the midst of a global stay-at-home situation, might be a good time to consider expanding our inner resources. After all, most of us are being forced to some extent to release our actions and “retreat from the world.”
Or are we? Perhaps we’re looking at this all wrong. Perhaps there are deeper realities beyond this dualism. Perhaps we can still make a difference, even now.
This is where spiritual energy changes the equation. When our spiritual practice, our “navel-gazing” taps us into the deep surge of love, the energy of vitality and attraction, then not only do we have access to the potency necessary for significant action, but we also are engaging in the very forces of evolution itself—the strongest and most penetrating change possible.
This is a certain type of mysticism, an energetically engaged form of practice that moves us into a fusion of mysticism and social action. Mysticism as social action. This happens through a concentration specifically of what Teilhard de Chardin calls “radial energy.”
Tangential and Radial Energy
“Energy is divided into two distinct components: a tangential energy which links the element with all others of the same order (that is to say, of the same complexity and the same centricity) as itself in the universe; and a radial energy which draws it towards ever greater complexity and centricity—in other words forwards.”
–Teilhard de Chardin
Spiritual energy has different frequencies and qualities. Teilhard recognized and proposed two primary forms or directions. Tangential energy is that which matches and operates at the same general frequency from which we are already operating. This can still be a helpful energy for support and comfort. It can give us the sustenance that we need to go out and operate in life and do the things we need to do. It can fill us up to go and be poured out.
However, much energy is wasted and lost in tangential output. Think of political discourse that just continues to reassert the same group perspective over and over, filled with incredulity, dismay, or anger. Think of preaching to the choir and reaffirming that which has already been established many times over. Think of business as usual and the rat race. It’s just not taking us anywhere. Tangential energy always eventually exhausts itself.
Radial energy is of a different order. Teilhard describes it as that which draws us forward, that which helps pull us along and further into greater consciousness, greater complexity and centricity. Centricity is the inward movement further toward our core self, our deepest identity. Wait, how is that forward? Aren’t we’re going within again, away from social action?
Have you ever been in the same space as someone who just emanates this “radial energy”? Some might call it a powerful aura or a dynamic presence. It’s not just something you notice, but something that even soaks into you (if the person is open to giving that flow). Sometimes that’s just our golden shadow projecting our own higher calling onto a spiritual figure, and sometimes it’s a genuine transmission of energy that can be received—radial energy.
Now turn it around. What would it look like for you to be a person like that? For you to emanate that energy? To do so, you don’t have to become a spiritual master or learned sage. You only need to begin to open yourself to the flow of Christ energy, the deep surge of love from your radiant heart that is already there, present and ready to embody itself through you. Ready to draw us all forward.
Transmission and Mystical Action
“The further the living being emerges from the anonymous masses by the radiation of [their] own consciousness, the greater becomes the part of [their] activity which can be stored up and transmitted.”
–Teilhard de Chardin
We are always transmitting to one another, to the world. The quality of whatever we send out, whether in word, deed, or force, is dependent on the source of energy we have access to and the freedom to draw upon. The more radial energy we can channel, from within and among us, the more we will be able to participate in expanding the field. When we participate in this receiving and giving of the vibrant, reciprocal current of energy, we are engaging in the flow of loving evolution, the movement of the body of Christ in service to the world.
Teilhard, again and again, points us toward recognizing “the dynamic relationship existing between the within and the without of things.” This is not a balancing act between two opposing poles, but an integration of the underlying loving energy that must propel both mysticism and social action.
Enacting this energy in service and solidarity can come in many different forms. But we can be sure that it will find expression. Energy cannot remain still. It will always work its way toward movement, toward being shared, toward action. We all can and must do what is ours to do. When we do it with the energy of “should” or because of hidden ego compulsions, it not only eventually burns out but also doesn’t transmit the same to the receivers. When we act out of the flow of this deep loving energy, we are compelled ahead into mystical action.
Mystical Action is that which is charged with the dynamic power of radial energy, transmitting the attractive force pulling us all forward, together. Every action matters, but those embarked upon with the impetus of radial energy will be charged with a different light, a clearer force. The giving and receiving will be of a different quality and if I dare to use the word, effectiveness. We will find ourselves part of the surging waves of vital love and flooding change.
Burning Through and Forward
Radial energy is necessary not only for the worth of our endeavors, but also for the strength and endurance to challenge the enormity of the forces of the systems of the world. As Raimon Panikkar says, “In the modern world only the mystics will survive. The rest will be crushed by the ‘system’ if they rebel, or will suffocate within the system if they seek refuge in it.”
This inner source of energy is not only the primary way by which we bear the system, but also the way that we are able to access and traverse the pathways necessary to not always be at the mercy of the system. Radial energy moves us outside of the weight of the forces of oppression and into the generative movement of possibility, of hope. This is the fire that illuminates our vision and burns through the ensnaring and suffocating status quo. It is the inexhaustible fuel of the compelling drive forward.
So then our primary task—and this is the necessary work of mysticism—is to bring us to the place of having continual access to this energy, of connecting to the radial source and moving in the generative fields in our practice and with one another. Without this source we gain nothing, we are clanging symbols echoing in the wind. With it, we not only find the inner resources to keep going but are able to transmit and infuse all of our actions with engaging vitality.
Our world is in desperate need of a stronger calling forth and participation in radial energy. We need spiritual practices and communities actively participating and empowering one another into this movement. Integral Christian Network seeks to tap into, engage, and share in this energy through our spiritual practice of Whole-Body Mystical Awakening.
We can move into this practice on our own, but we find that collective fields of highly generative and creative spaces are the best way to move into this radial energy. We experience this in our WeSpace groups. Practicing this with others increases our capacity and transmission of the loving energy in mystical action needed for the world today.
The con-centration of radial energy into inner and inter complexity, or the coming together of people on this level in a collective, creates the environment for loving evolution. That’s what we’ll explore next week!