Just as we cannot talk of visual beauty if we are blind, so we cannot discuss inner spiritual beauty if we have never perceived it.
—Plotinus
Plotinus echoes the sentiment of most individuals that are on a spiritual path. The seeking of the inner spiritual beauty is thought to be a vision, illumination, cosmic consciousness or out-of-the-body experience where a profound truth of the universe reveals itself and we are forever changed like Paul struck by light on the road to Damascus. Thus, we seek the experience of the spiritual worlds before we have undertaken the practice that reveals its meaning.
There have been thousands of people who have had profound experiences through deep meditative states, or prayer, or hallucinogens, or lucid dreams. And sometimes, out of the blue, the universe will reveal an aspect of its supernal beauty quite independent of our own efforts. When the experience has faded into memory, it is sought again, again, and again. The experience of the inner worlds, the spiritual fountainhead from which all life appears and into which it disappears, is often sought before, or instead of, the expression of our soul through the virtues of the heart.
The reason is quite simple: we desire to claim spiritual experience as our natural birthright on one level, and on a more human level, we want undeniable proof that what we are invested in as a belief system is indeed authentic. To be sure, it is our natural birthright to live in the enlightened states of interconnection with the reality matrix of the Designing Force, but to do so requires a balance between what we express and what we experience. The when-which-how practice creates the opportunity to experience the spiritual beauty and appreciate its deeper meanings because what we express magnetically attracts the experience that is aligned to our expression.
There are roadmaps to the structure of the universe, and these can be attention-grabbing to learn, though they seldom conform to a single perspective. You can study hundreds if not thousands of books that depict the soul, the spiritual worlds, the higher wisdom, and you will certainly learn from these endeavors, as they can be part of the path of enlightenment. I would caution, however, that you read not more than you practice the six heart virtues. The encyclopedic mind is far less magnetic to the spiritual terrain than the expressive and expansive heart.
One of the key words in Plotinus’ quote is “discuss,” but there is little or no purpose in discussing inner spiritual beauty unless it is expressed in your behaviors first and then attracted into your sphere of experience as a result. Only in rare and most often inexplicable cases, does it work in reverse. By talking about the inner spiritual realms you might activate an interest in the experiential side of the equation, and this is good, but if the interest is already there and you desire only to talk or discuss, you will seldom attract the experience you seek, and almost never the meaning.
In the Lyricus teachings, there is a construct that if the aspirant desires to speak of divine experiences then they are unaware of their meaning. It is like a friend who describes a dream they had, and you can see so clearly what the dream means, but your friend who experienced it firsthand is oblivious to the dream’s deeper messages. The meaning is absent because the dream is too abstract to them. This is similar to how the aspirant is with the spiritual wisdom, seeking the experience of spiritual worlds before the practice has enlivened their understanding of the meaning.
And so we are back to the concept of living from the heart because here there is room to grow your own knowledge, to find your own sense of artistry in the wielding of the six heart virtues. Here you can define the magnetics of your IHEF. It only requires you to redirect your attention from the discussion of the inner spiritual worlds to the when-which-how practice, knowing that if this is accomplished the experiences will find their way to you. More importantly, when they do, their deeper significance will be known without interpretation or comparison.
