12a. The Four Consents, Part 1, with Thomas Keating
The Four Consents
In this section, Fr. Thomas Keating introduces the concept of "The Four Consents" as a positive view of the spiritual journey. He explains that the spiritual journey corresponds to the natural stages of human life and at each stage, God asks us to consent to what is appropriate for that particular stage of development.
The First Stage: Birth to Eleven
- God asks us to consent to the basic goodness of our being in all its parts.
- This stage is characterized by the gradual development of our faculties through external stimuli.
- We develop our imagination, language, memory, play, relationships, and socialization during this period.
- The request from God is for us to accept the goodness of our being and be grateful for it.
Hesitation and Coping Mechanisms
- Due to negative experiences in early life such as terror, rejection, or abandonment, we may hesitate to emotionally consent to life's goodness.
- We develop coping mechanisms and try to find meaning or happiness despite these hesitations.
- Emotional consent is different from biological survival; it refers to fully accepting and embracing life's goodness.
The Second Stage: Eleven to Twenty-Two
- During this stage, we are invited by God to accept the full development of our being and talents.
- Our capacity for doing and creativity emerges strongly during this period.
- Sexual energy arises but is only one aspect of a broader energy related to creativity and relating with others.
- This stage aims at accepting our being with all its capacities for transcendence into spiritual growth and divine union.
Distortions and Difficulties
- If creative or sexual energies are repressed or awakened prematurely without emotional readiness, distortions can occur in relationships and self-perception.
- We may hesitate to give full consent to the goodness of our human potentialities.
The Third Stage: Young Adulthood
- God's invitation in this stage is to accept our non-being.
- This involves letting go of attachments, false identities, and ego-driven desires.
- It is a call to surrender and trust in God's plan for our lives.
The Fourth Stage: Mature Adulthood
- Fr. Thomas Keating does not discuss this stage in the given transcript.
Timestamps are approximate and may vary slightly.
New Section
This section discusses the invitation to accept the consequences of physical death and the need to let go of everything we love in this world.
Acceptance of Physical Death
- The invitation is to accept the consequences of physical death, which involves letting go of everything we love in this world.
- Moving on to other relationships with things that we don't know anything about yet.
- Hope is our only guide since we don't have direct experience of what comes after death.
New Section
This section explores the difficulty in making the consent to be transformed and how it relates to our fear of losing our false self.
Consent to Be Transformed
- The consent to be transformed is the most difficult one.
- Even holy people hesitate because it means letting go of the false self, which is all they know at this point.
- Many people fear losing their false self more than physical death itself.
- Some individuals may opt for suicide when facing these confrontations.
New Section
This section highlights how difficult it can be for young adults today to make these consents due to past pain and a lack of confidence.
Challenges for Young Adults
- Many young adults have experienced significant pain in their youth from various sources, including the pervasive sense of doom created by nuclear confrontation.
- Lack of confidence prevents them from accepting or consenting to the mystery of non-being and diminution of physical being.
- Confrontations with death and loss are particularly challenging for this generation due to difficulties in making previous consents.
New Section
This section emphasizes that these consents are invitations to love life, appreciate the human vocation, and accept God's plan.
Invitations to Love Life
- The four consents are invitations to love life and appreciate the gift of being a member of the human family.
- Consenting to God and His will in enjoying things and letting go of them leads to greater levels of happiness.
- The focus is not on clinging to things themselves but on someone who is present in those things and has given them to us.
New Section
This section discusses how fixations on limited goods can lead to disappointment and frustration when seeking absolute happiness.
Fixations on Limited Goods
- Our fixations on security, esteem, affection, and power/control as programs for happiness can lead to disappointment.
- We treat these limited goods as absolutes instead of appreciating a reasonable amount.
- Seeking unlimited happiness from partial goods results in frustration as they cannot fulfill our deepest desires.
New Section
This section emphasizes that consent is not about hanging onto things themselves but about consenting to God's presence in those things.
Consent to God's Presence
- We are asked to consent not to cling onto things themselves but rather to someone who is present in those things.
- Consent involves accepting God's will and enjoying His gifts while also being willing to let go for greater levels of happiness.
New Section
This section discusses the concept of the Chain of Being and how we grow and evolve as individuals, leaving behind limitations and embracing higher states of consciousness.
The Meaning of the Chain of Being
- The Chain of Being represents our growth as individuals.
- We don't reject any states we've been through, but leave behind their limitations.
- We should maintain qualities like simplicity, innocence, and immediacy with reality throughout life.
New Section
This section emphasizes the importance of maintaining certain values from childhood and adolescence while leaving behind their limitations.
Embracing Values Throughout Life
- We should keep qualities like a spirit of adventure, search for relationship, personal identity, and growth throughout life.
- Emotional turmoil and panic to establish an identity belong to the limitations of adolescence and are left behind as we become adults.
- True asceticism is not world rejection but rather acceptance and consent to everything that is good and created.
New Section
This section explores the idea that true asceticism involves learning how to use all good things rightly in relationship to God.
Using Good Things Rightly
- Asceticism is about learning to use all good things rightly.
- It's not about rejection but appreciating and loving everything as God's gift.
- As we progress on our spiritual journey, God often asks us to rethink judgments from early childhood that rejected his gifts or goodness.
New Section
This section highlights how God invites us to take another look at the beauty of this universe and appreciate the good things in life.
Appreciating the Beauty
- God invites us to appreciate the beauty in this universe: a meal together, a sunset, music, swimming, resting, and good food.
- God is a tremendous supporter of the universe and his creation.
- He wants us to have an abundant life, which involves openness to higher states of consciousness and union with him.
New Section
This section discusses how true asceticism involves integrating each level of human consciousness into the next one and expressing it in a more mature way.
Integration and Unification
- True asceticism appreciates what was good at every level of human life.
- It involves integrating each level of human consciousness into the next one.
- Integration means unifying our experience as we perceive it from higher vantage points.
New Section
This section explores how our spiritual journey requires us to appreciate the good things but also keep growing into more mature levels of relating to God.
Growing Spiritually
- The pattern of integration continues beyond the listed levels of consciousness into higher states.
- We appreciate the good things at the beginning of our spiritual journey but are willing to let them go as we develop a more mature relationship with God.
- Loving God involves loving what he has made and loving him in everything he has made.
New Section
This section discusses how consenting again under the invitation of grace can help overcome past rejections or fears associated with certain emotions or feelings.
Overcoming Rejections and Fears
- Consenting again under grace can help overcome past rejections or fears related to sexual feelings or any other dangerous emotions.
- Fear can repress pleasure into the unconscious, leading to misplaced energy expressed in other forms of behavior.
- By accepting and integrating these emotions, we can move towards a more mature relationship with God.
New Section
This section emphasizes the importance of a true asceticism that appreciates what was good at every level of human life and integrates each level into the next.
Appreciating and Integrating
- True asceticism appreciates what was good at every level of human life.
- It involves integrating each level of consciousness into the next, leading to a more mature relationship with God.
- This process continues as we grow spiritually, always seeking higher levels of relating to the Ultimate Mystery.
New Section
This section highlights how consenting again under grace can help overcome past rejections or fears associated with certain emotions or feelings.
Loving God and His Creation
- Consenting again under grace involves loving what God has made and loving him in everything he has made.
- We appreciate the consolations of earlier periods but no longer depend on them as we continue to grow spiritually.
- A mature relationship with God requires an openness to higher states of consciousness and union with him.
New Section
This section explores how consenting again under grace can help overcome past rejections or fears associated with certain emotions or feelings.
Overcoming Rejections and Fears
- Consenting again under grace can help overcome past rejections or fears related to sexual feelings or any other dangerous emotions.
- By accepting and integrating these emotions, we can move towards a more mature relationship with God.
- The energy that has been repressed becomes misplaced, leading to various forms of behavior.
New Section
This section discusses how true asceticism involves appreciating what was good at every level of human life and integrating each level into the next.
Appreciating and Integrating
- True asceticism appreciates what was good at every level of human life from conception onwards.
- It involves integrating each level of consciousness into the next, leading to a more mature relationship with God.
- This process continues as we grow spiritually, seeking higher levels of relating to the Ultimate Mystery.
New Section
This section highlights how early religious education and societal attitudes towards sexual feelings can lead to fear and repression.
Fear and Repression
- Religious education that portrays sexual misbehavior as a mortal sin can create fear in sensitive children.
- The distinction between normal thoughts and sexual feelings becomes challenging for individuals going through puberty.
- Fear can repress pleasure into the unconscious, leading to misplaced energy expressed in other forms of behavior.
New Section
This section explores how fear of certain emotions or feelings can lead to their repression and expression in other forms of behavior.
Repression and Misplaced Energy
- Fear of certain emotions or feelings can lead to their repression into the unconscious.
- Repressed energy continues to function but may express itself surreptitiously in other forms of behavior.
- The energy becomes misplaced, causing exaggerated behaviors or reactions.
New Section
This section discusses how consenting again under grace can help overcome past rejections or fears associated with certain emotions or feelings.
Overcoming Rejections and Fears
- Consenting again under grace involves revisiting past rejections or fears related to certain emotions or feelings.
- Grace invites us to take another look at these experiences from a different perspective.
- By accepting and integrating these emotions, we can move towards a more mature relationship with God.
New Section
In this section, the speaker discusses the repression of fear and how it can emerge later in life, affecting one's emotional capacity and ability to relate to others.
Repressed Emotions and Integration
- The speaker explains that repressed emotions, particularly fear, can resurface later in life.
- This emergence of repressed feelings can be distressing for individuals who believed they had no such emotions.
- God allows this process to happen as part of integrating all aspects of our nature into the spiritual journey.
- Repression in any area can lead to emotional repression across the board, making it difficult to relate positively to others.
Fear of Bursting into Consciousness
- As repressed energy comes closer to the surface, individuals may become defensive and avoid closeness with others.
- This avoidance is driven by a fear that their suppressed emotions will burst into consciousness and become uncontrollable.
- People may feel that being close to others is dangerous due to their inability to handle these emerging emotions.
Repression of Sexual Energy
- Some individuals successfully repress their sexual energy early in life due to religious ideals or personal choices.
- However, around the age of 30 or 40, they may experience an unexpected adolescence-like phase with intense sexual energy.
- Good therapy and spiritual guidance can help navigate this challenging period.
Impact of Early Sexual Education
- The speaker suggests that overly strict sexual education emphasizing fear of sin and damnation can lead to repression.
- Sensitivity towards potential consequences may cause individuals to suppress any sexual thoughts or feelings altogether.
- This repression hinders normal relationships with others and prevents healthy emotional expression.
Confronting Uncontrolled Sexual Energy
- Eventually, repressed sexual energy resurfaces with even greater force, causing distress and feelings of failure.
- Individuals who have served the Lord for many years may feel inadequate and unfaithful to their commitments.
- The speaker poses the question of whether it is their fault or a result of the repression they experienced.
Surrendering to God's Will
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of consenting to God's will, one's own goodness, and the goodness of others.
- This consent also involves accepting the natural decline in physical abilities and letting go of attachments in this world.
- Through these consents, individuals can reach a point of surrender where their true self emerges.
Life's Rhythm and Spiritual Journey
- If early integration does not occur, life's rhythm itself nudges individuals towards these consents.
- Mid-life crises and experiences of going downhill towards retirement can prompt reflection on accomplishments.
- Illnesses and old age further contribute to facing these consents if not addressed through spiritual growth.
Correcting Mistakes through Dying Process
- The process of dying may serve as a way for God to correct mistakes made throughout one's life journey.
The summary has been created using content from the transcript provided.