The Spiritual Fire

By - Marshall Vian Summers

"Within you, deep within you, beneath the surface of the mind, in a place you barely know, there is a Fire, a spiritual Fire. It is the source of your inspiration. It is the Fire of Knowledge, the deeper Mind within you, burning like a hearth, consuming your errors and your pain, purifying you, blessing you, guiding you.

But you are far away from this hearth—living at the surface, the turbulent surface of your mind; living at the surface of the world, with all of its tragedies, inducements and misfortunes; busy, caught up in things, stimulated but agitated, driven on by your life and your needs and your possessions and the requirements of others. You do not feel this Fire, though it is burning within you.

As a creature of the Earth, your heart will continue to beat, your body will work. But these things cannot produce the desire to create, the desire to establish true relationships, the desire for meaning and the search for meaning. These must come from a deeper incentive that lives within you, deep down within you.

This comes from the Fire, for the Fire is the engine of your greater life. It is generating a greater incentive beyond merely surviving and indulging in things in this world. It produces a search for meaning beyond comfort and security. It takes you farther than you would go otherwise. It challenges you. It seeks to have you go further, beyond this point, even beyond whatever success you feel you must have for yourself. To assure your happiness and safety in the world, there is this greater Fire urging you to a higher purpose and calling in life.

How will you know this Fire is there? Because when you become still, when you sit quietly, you can feel it. It does not reside only in one part of your body, but you can feel it in your heart and in your stomach. You can feel the pressure to seek that which is calling for you in the world.

You cannot be comfortable with comfort alone. You cannot be self-assured with all the trappings of security. You cannot be satisfied with little things because the Fire is there. It is mysterious. You cannot conceptualize it. You cannot use it for your own intentions. You cannot use it to gain wealth or privilege or to win over others. The Fire has its own purpose. It has greater plans for your life.

Here Knowledge is not merely a concept or an imagined thing. It is a visceral reality. You can feel it in your body. It is the source of your life force here. It is powerful. It is subtle. If you were to come into its proximity, you would see how strong it really is and how it illuminates the landscape within you.

But far away, it is a single point of light, a flickering light on the horizon within yourself. You cannot yet feel its warmth, its power, its encouragement and its direction. For you are lost in the world—caught up in the world, caught up in your mind, which is caught up in the world; fascinated and frightened by the things around you, over-stimulated and over-involved. Your mind is dominating your attention. Your activities are using up all of your time. So the Fire is barely felt, except in moments of sobriety or repose. You can feel there is something in you—the source of your energy, your greater energy.

You are going to need this Fire. You are going to need this Fire to face a world of increasing environmental, social and economic instability. You are going to need this Fire to face the rising uncertainty in people around you. You are going to need this Fire to build the Four Pillars of your life—the Pillar of Relationships, the Pillar of Health, the Pillar of Work and Providership and the Pillar of Spiritual Development. These are the Pillars that uphold your life and will give you strength to endure hardship and the great change that is coming to the world.

You need this Fire to prevent yourself from falling into despair or from becoming jaded and cynical. You need this Fire to keep your eyes open, to keep listening, looking and watching the horizon of your life. You will need this Fire to find those people who hold a key to your greater work and relationships in life.

For if you live only at the surface of your mind, you will perish there. You will lose your direction. You will lose your incentive. You will lose your passion for life. You will lose your inspiration. And you will fall into despair. Even if you live with affluence and luxury, you will fall into despair."