Would you sound below the restless ocean of the entire world? Would you know the dissatisfaction? The urge and spur of every life; the something never still’d—never entirely gone?The invisible need of every seed? It is the central urge in every atom to return to its divine source and origin, however distant. -- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.
In the first of these four lines, we’re asked a vital question: is there a part of us that longs to know—that’s willing to seek out—what lies hidden just beneath the thought-tossed surface of ourselves? If our answer is “Yes,” then Mr. Whitman goes on to suggest what awaits us there in that great, undiscovered country of our innermost Self.
In summary, he asks: Are we willing to bear—to share in the being of an unceasing creation—to embody what he calls “the invisible need of every seed”? And then, for those who still affirm their wish to drink from that eternal cup of life, he pours out the rest. We learn, at once, why seekers of all ages have always felt this “central urge” to merge with the highest part of themselves: we are called…to “return to our divine source and origin.”
Those Who Feel the Call Are Not Alone in their Search
It may be difficult to see at first, like a pearl washed ashore nestled into a bed of small pebbles, but hidden within this last idea is a beautiful spiritual fact: those who feel this call—who “hunger and thirst after righteousness”—are not alone in their search to find their way back home. A simple example proves this point:
A child at play in the yard can’t see the concerned parent whose voice calls out to him, “It’s getting dark, time to come in!” And yet, even that small child understands that although the parent isn’t in view, he’s still there: unseen doesn’t mean unreal. With this truth in mind, follow the logic of the next few ideas; your patient work to understand them will help open your eyes to the light of a new hope in things unseen.
Seeking the Divine
No natural need can exist without that which has been created to directly answer it. For instance, a creature couldn’t thirst for water if water didn’t pre-exist its need to drink. This feeling of attraction that we have—whether to take a drink of water or connect with the world above us—is proof of the existence of two parties. First, is the part of us that feels this draw, and then there is by necessity something acting upon us to create the longing itself.
As paradoxical as it may seem, if we are moved to seek the Divine, it’s because the Divine is calling us! Let’s pause here to see how this celestial need expresses itself through some simple examples that are common to all of us: Where does our longing for someone to love originate? Is it not with the awakening of an internal force urging us to explore and experience the deepest parts of ourselves? When we say—or feel toward another—”You complete me,” what we’re really saying is something like “Through you I’ve realized parts of myself I wouldn’t have known even existed; you have helped introduce me to who I really am.”
Perhaps we’ve a yearning to learn how to paint, write poetry, climb a mountain, or become a chef. We are drawn to that pursuit—whatever its nature—for much the same reason we search for a lover. Something in us knows that it is only through this relationship that we will be introduced to—awakened to—our own higher possibilities.
C. S. Lewis, the great author, essayist, and Christian apologist, supports this important finding in The Problem of Pain:
All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it—tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if IT should really become manifest—if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself—you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, “Here at last is the thing I was made for.” We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work.
The Yet To Be Realized Presence Within Us
The need for whatever it may be that we’re drawn to is the yet to be realized presence within us of that very thing to which we are drawn. This means that no matter how distant seems our guiding star, or how isolated we may feel in our journey towards its light, these higher truths we’re learning would have us know otherwise; we are not alone. Even more importantly, just as a small filing of iron must fly to the magnet that pulls upon it, so too must those who are drawn to the Divine eventually answer its call.
There is but one seeker, one search, and one sacred intelligence awakening you with its call.
©2011 by Guy Finley.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Weiser Books,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. www.redwheelweiser.com
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The Seeker, The Search, The Sacred: Journey to the Greatness Within
by Guy Finley.
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About The Author
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of over 40 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. For more information and to download Guy’s Free 60-minute MP3 “Five Simple Steps to Make Yourself Fearless,” visit http://www.GuyFinley.org/kit
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Watch a video and Interview with Guy Finley on the topic of "who we are".
