What does it mean to be grounded?
To be grounded is important, particularly for people who tread the spiritual path because the inflow of spiritual energies can easily inflate our ego.
In Assagioli’s words: “An incapacity of the mind to stand the illumination, or a tendency to egotism or conceit, may cause the experience to be wrongly interpreted, and there results, so to speak, a “confusion of levels.” The distinction between absolute and relative truths, between the Self and the “I”, is blurred and the inflowing spiritual energies may have the unfortunate effect of feeding and inflating the personal ego. ” (Psychosynthesis, p. 44)
So what does it mean to be grounded?
In my humble opinion, it is about owning one’s limitations, always keep a loving eye on the flaws and imperfections of our personality. It might be mental limitations, our lack of understanding – our pride and separation, which blocks the wisdom of the soul. Maybe our emotional limitations … our inability to be kind, loving and generous – qualities of the soul. Perhaps our physical restrictions, laziness, indulgence and cravings, which hinders the service and activity of the soul.
Psychosynthesis is a transpersonal psychology, but also an incarnational spirituality which means that we put the emphasis on grounding the qualities of the soul through service instead of seeking the transcendent experiences as a way for personal liberation. Assagioli put it like this:
“One thing that is important to remember, is that in spiritual psychosynthesis the mystic experience per se is not the goal; and that the goal or spiritual psychosynthesis has the very practical purpose of increased creativity, of increased ability to give of oneself to some chosen field, and that for certain types of individuals this may be achieved without any mystical experience what so ever.” (Psychosynthesis p. 207)
The lesson is. Whenever you have a spiritual experience of oneness, wisdom, insight, beauty, rapture, mystery see if you are able to bring it through in the area where you have been restricted before. Have it expanded your ability to serve? This is a very humbling exercise because we find that our subjective truth is often not an objective truth. We are often not able to bring our experience of universal love through to the people who irritate us or make us uncomfortable, revealing that the love was not that universal when applied in the physical realm.
So to be grounded is to be present and aware of the limitations of the ego, to have a clear connection with the reality principle. I have produced a couple of meditations on disidentification, presence and the loving observer, that will strengthen your discrimination and awareness. You can find them here: Seven free meditations
Let us keep our feet on the ground our head in the sky while serving with our heart.
