PREVIEW:
SPIRITUALITY HAPPENS
Four Major Turning Points In A Rather Eccentric Spiritual Journey: Some Brief Synopses
by Dennis L. Trunk
Part 1:
Turnabout Is Fair Play
or
Born Again, But Without the Politics
The first experience arrived in disguise. In early 1963, as I was descending a staircase during my first year at a Catholic university, I suddenly turned around and went back up the stairs in order to go to confession in the chapel. I have no idea why I made that decision at that moment. It seemed to happen to me, instead of being done by me. In itself, the act was mechanical, having no particular feelings associated with it. But that literal turnabout seemed to symbolize the metanoia, the spiritual turnabout, soon to follow.
Although a faithful believer, I was not a particularly fervent or active Catholic. I did only what was needed to get by within the Church's guidelines, sometimes stretching the limits of tolerance. No matter how often I resolved to improve, no intended improvement would take root. The nuns, brothers and priests who taught me had probably all written me off as hopeless.
But, within the next few weeks after the turnabout on the staircase, it was apparent that some fundamental change had occurred. I grew increasingly motivated to participate in the sacraments and the sacramentals, often on a daily basis, and to change my life radically in accord with the spiritual and moral teachings of the Church. Moreover, the change took place with ease, because I no longer felt any resistance to it at all. On the contrary, I pursued it eagerly with reading, study, meditation and resolve. I had never felt so cleansed and purified. All impediments in the road I was now traveling seem to disappear on their own.
Interestingly, there seemed to be an internal physiology to the experience. At the heart of my increasing fervor, and driving it, was a warm inner life that seemed to radiate blissfully from within the center of my chest. I didn't have the words to describe it properly, but it felt like an intense relationship with a very loving person. It was, as I would learn many years later, what some Protestant traditions call being born again.
As the intimacy of the relationship developed, a decision arose within me to devote my life to it forever. In January of 1964, I entered a religious order and eventually took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. For the next two years or so, for as long as the sense of relationship lasted, I felt completely at ease and at home with my decision, tending to an intense spiritual life.
Next:
Part 2: A Satori Story
or
The Mind And The World Aren't What They Seem To Be
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Dennis L. Trunk
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