[Tension & Renewal - IX]
The Little Engine that Could offers a great message for children: "You can!" When we’re young and building our ego structure—a necessary tool for survival in this world—we need the message that we can do it. It builds security and promotes maturation, productivity, and a differentiated sense of the self.
The Little Engine that Could is a useless, if not negative, message for the spiritual life. Or, “You can do it!” is quite literally the antithesis to the fundamental message that undergirds the spiritual journey.
The great journey of the soul begins with “I can’t.”
I can’t make sense of this.
I can’t stay clean, sober, steady, stable.
I can’t do this or that anymore.
I can’t handle and deal the present state of things.
Spiritual renewal, then, is just a reiteration of this fundamental message. A great struggle with inability is really the only thing strong enough to break down your commitment to your control systems, finely tuned logic, and airtight theories about the world.
Struggle and suffering are not the end of the spiritual renewal but the (new) beginning.
