Various schools of thought and philosophy talk about the so-called Spiritual path.
But what actually is the Spiritual path all about? Why is there such a thing as a Spiritual path and what is it good for, and what does it have to do with you and me?
Well, in intuitive philosophy there is a concept called involution and evolution, in Eastern philosophy sometimes referred to as the Inbreath and Outbreath of Brahma.
Very simplified, involution deals with the process of the subjective life getting involved in matter. It is the process of life involving itself in substance, clothing itself in a form, commonly called body, and using that form as a means of expression.
The word involution comes from the Latin “involvere,” “in” meaning “in” and “volvere” meaning “to roll.” So involution literally means “to roll into, to envelop, to surround.”
Involution is the process of Divine life rolling into matter, so to speak. It is the process of Divine life involving itself in substance, or descending into matter, in order to express itself in matter, matter just being densified spirit.
Now, the word evolution comes from the Latin “evolvere,” “ex-“ meaning “out” and “volvere” meaning “to roll.” So evolution deals with the process of unrolling.
Evolution is what happens when the Divine Life after having gotten involved with matter, after having clothed itself in a body, after having rolled into a body, if you can say that … adapts itself and uses the form to perfect it, to make it a perfect expression of the indwelling life with the goal of liberating itself from the environing form once it outgrows it. So evolution is the process whereby the spark of life, after having been planted into substance, so to speak, uses the form to make it a perfect expression of the indwelling life. And so from a certain lens and perspective, this process of perfection is the process of evolution.
So part of the idea of involution-evolution is to perfect the relationship between “life and form.”
Life clothes itself into a form that is adequate for its needs. And it expresses itself with the goal of evolving or unrolling. The indwelling life unrolls or evolves through experiences. As the life within grows and expands, the indwelling life outgrows the form so-to-speak. So the form disintegrates – that’s what we commonly call death – and the indwelling life, which in a sense is imprisoned in the form, frees itself and repeats the process on a higher level, within a subtler form, within a higher body, on a higher plane or dimension of reality, all the way back to Source.
And so very, very simplified – this is obviously a simplification of a very complex, multi-dimensional process that cannot be grasped by rational thinking but requires the faculty of intuition – the spirit of divinity descends, and the indwelling life, going through experiences and growing through them, evolving through them, ascends. So from that lens and perspective, the process of involution and evolution is the process of descension and ascension.
