Importance
Roberts writes about her journey to foreground an event that she refers to as "no-self" — the ending of all "self-consciousness" and the revelation of what remains beyond self. She distinguishes between two major milestones in the spiritual journey.
The first of these, the "unitive" state, is the breakthrough of God at the center, followed by a permanent and abiding union in which God becomes the "other half" that completes a person as a human being. This milestone is well known in the Catholic contemplative literature, as well as in other religious traditions, and marks the beginning of a person's mature life as a human being. According to Roberts, this first milestone is often mistaken for the end of the spiritual journey.
The most important element of Roberts' discovery is that there is a further stage in the contemplative journey beyond that of the unitive state. Roberts describes this passage as heading into the complete unknown. This is where the map ends as far as the well worn path of Catholic mysticism is historically described. Roberts discovered this passage — "the path to no-self" — accidentally and describes it as a "falling away" of the unitive centre. However, she believes that other contemplatives also walked the path of the dissolution of self, notably Meister Eckhart, and perhaps John of the Cross himself, who may have been unable to speak of it. Her book The Experience of No-Self describes the journey through this passage in an experiential and autobiographical way, while the following two books are attempts to describe and unpack the experience of no-self for the reader.
"What is Self?" Roberts has understood the answer to this perennial question experientially. She describes the experiences as the process of human maturation but a maturity that is only possible through God's grace. The ego and Self are both self-reflexive and dualistic modes of psychological functioning based on the subtle process of mental discriminating judgment, a process that is inherently built into the structure of the psyche. Her understanding of the spiritual path can been seen as the relationship between self and God, but it is the unveiling of the truth of this relationship where the profundity lies. For the Western tradition in general, Roberts is quite radical: unlike Eastern traditions, there was no human Master or Teacher to introduce her to this state.
Read more about this topic: Bernadette Roberts
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