What Can My Secret Life Offer Me on the Path? (David Herz)

Our private life involves a flow between ourselves and others, and we may choose to share details of it with those we trust will receive it with empathy, responsiveness and understanding. Our secret life, on the other hand, is known only to ourselves. It would be hard to share with others except in a rather touching and intimate way. It's deeply personal and mysterious, unique to our individual being. A secret life can be compared to dark matter, which is not understood but which may be considered as the nothingness from which everything known emerges. We have created the world we perceive by limiting how much we perceive and defining how we perceive it. But the secret life is always behind this. It can open us up to a place where we want to be, where we find refuge and guidance. Poets have a natural intuition of the secret life. They need it to be in touch with what they feel called upon to do. This way of looking at a secret life is distinct from other perspectives we may have about what a secret life is. Different interpretations of a secret life are explored, including one in which addictive habits and shame are hidden. On the spiritual path, we may self-observe a shadow of compulsions and obsessions that can affect our work when they control us, which wait to be addressed. There is also the way some keep their practice secret by not talking about it as a way of protecting their work. In the spiritual process, some may address their need for help by appealing for it in an inner way and may not want to speak about it. But we may also feel a need for intimacy, to share more of our private and secret lives with others with discrimination. Vulnerability to the Divine is a state worth working for. David Herz is a spiritual practitioner who lives in Paris where he has been a journalist, technical writer, communications officer, and an English instructor at universities.