The Deep Tradition, part I

L'Abbaye de Chancelade

December 28, 2019

The word tradition means what is given over or handed over, coming from the Latin roots trāns and dare. Our modern sense of it means what is handed down to us from the past.

We have the outer traditions, which we call forms. These are common to every cultural environment; the honoring of forms and obedience to forms are essential to the creation of cultures. In general, we see these forms as outward phenomena. When we speak of it in spiritual terms, automatically we think of Christianity or Buddhism or Judaism, and so on.

Yet each of these forms is meant only and exclusively to refer to an inner meaning. Such forms mean nothing if they’re divorced from our inner state: what we feel, what we think, what we believe in. And the inner tradition is the essential one; what is handed down from within to our inner self is what truly matters.

This handing down takes place from the flow of an inner energy that arrives in us. It is the true tradition, the true giving over and handing down. If I don't participate in this, I miss the entire point of tradition. Every time I encounter this energy I encounter something as ancient as mankind itself; I am one, in this action, with the man who painted the caves and those who built the pyramids. To participate is to enter a timeless action which all of humanity is invited to dwell within.

In this sense, tradition is what is handed down to us now, as God flows into our Being in the act of creation. 

This is the deep tradition; and if we receive it in to ourselves as deeply as we can, even unto the place of its origin, we taste something of life that cannot be replaced with the external things we crave.

This is well worth thinking about. Just a little bit of this food goes a very long way with in the soul, sustaining it against the onslaught of everything that wants to enslave it.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.