{"id":1065,"date":"2007-04-25T14:23:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2007\/04\/myss-and-beast-in-jungle.html"},"modified":"2007-04-25T14:23:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-25T14:23:00","slug":"myss-and-beast-in-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/04\/myss-and-beast-in-jungle.html","title":{"rendered":"Myss and ‘The Beast in the Jungle’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I was reading Valerie Reiss’s interview with spiritual teacher and medical intuitive Caroline Myss <\/a>this morning, and I got caught up in what Myss says is today’s most common source of spiritual discontent. She said of her students: <\/p>\n

People say things to me like, “I know I was born to do something, but what is it?” That incredible discontentment is like an epidemic in this spiritual community of ours. [It’s] a passion to be of service to something greater than themselves. They misinterpret it as a search for an occupation. But what they’re really tapping into, what they’re really sensing, is that they have a need to discover their profound capacity to channel grace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This quote reminded me so much of the themes at play in Henry James’<\/a> 1903 novella “The Beast in the Jungle”<\/a> that I just had to mention it to you. The book is the tale of John Marcher, a man so detached from the moment, so separated from grace, that he just keeps waiting for his life to begin. He meets a lovely woman who relates to his fears and longings for something <\/em>to happen. They see each other at fashionable parties and always speak of what he’s going through. She is kind, intellectual, perceptive. Nothing happens until something<\/em> happens that gives Marcher’s life a shape. And then…<\/p>\n

I don’t want to spoil the plot. A lesson in “how to live” is embedded in this great novella. I used to keep passages of it taped all over my refrigerator. So if you’re looking for a small book you can knock off in a weekend, try “Beast,” or reread it if you studied it in college. It’s a wonderful text to discuss in a spiritual book group in light of what Myss<\/a> is saying here about our communal search for ourselves and our connection to grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading Valerie Reiss’s interview with spiritual teacher and medical intuitive Caroline Myss this morning, and I got caught up in what Myss says is today’s most common source of spiritual discontent. 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