Terry Patten – Beyond Awakening
Omtimes: You’ve often heard from students that you’ve reawakened their ability to relate to God in the 2nd person. What does this mean?
Terry: Ken Wilber noticed a profound distinction that he summarized in what he called the “1, 2, 3 of God”. The idea is that we relate to God in a 1st person, 2nd person, or 3rd person mode.
Thus, we can contemplate Spirit through: 1st person spirituality- the I Amness of 1st person self.
2nd person spirituality- we can relate to Spirit as “thou”, as our most intimate Beloved through prayer and sacred dialog.
3rd person spirituality- we can relate to Spirit as object, which includes such things as nature mysticism and philosophy.
I persuaded Ken that a more suitable name was “the 3 Faces of God”. This is a liberating concept for a contemporary spiritual practitioner. These practices, while rich with philosophy, nature mysticism and nondual intuitions of I Amness, often fail to deeply explore 2nd person spirituality.
Almost everyone in Western Greco-Judeo-Christian culture has inherited the imprints of a confused mythic 2nd person spirituality where people prayed to God in a childish way.
Most people involved in progressive spirituality have seen the limitations of that. Part of my special work is to help them rediscover the ways in which 2nd person spirituality is profoundly true and real, and allows them to wake up more fully into a spiritual existence
in all 3 Faces and in all dimensions of their being. This is such a source of joy and enlivenment and empowerment and inspiration- for them and for me!
