To be human is to be a “mixed being.”
We are at once animal and spirit.
We are utterly earthy, made of dust and yet, enlivened by the spirit: we are each an image of the Divine.
Our uniquely human task is to learn to live fully in both worlds.
Please enjoy the words of Evelyn Underhill below as she unpacks our apparently dualistic nature. (Bolding added by me for emphasis).
The Two-Storey House, by Evelyn Underhill
What type of house does the soul live in?
It is a two-storey house.
The psychologist too often assumes that it is a one-roomed cottage with a mud floor; and never even attempts to go upstairs. The extreme transcendentalist sometimes talks as though it were perched in the air, like the lake dwellings of our primitive ancestors, and had no ground floor at all. A more humble attention to facts suggests that neither of those simplifications is true.
We know that we have a ground floor, a natural life biologically conditioned, with animal instincts and affinities; and that this life is very important, for it is the product of the divine creativity—its builder and maker is God.
But we know too that we have an upper floor, a supernatural life, with supernatural possibilities, a capacity for God; and that this, man’s peculiar prerogative, is more important still.
If we try to live on one floor alone, we destroy the mysterious beauty of our human vocation; so utterly a part of the fugitive and creaturely life of this planet and yet so deeply coloured by Eternity; so entirely one with the world of nature, and yet, ‘in the Spirit’, a habitation of God. ‘Thou madest him lower than the angels to crown him with glory and worship’.
We are created both in Time and in Eternity, not truly one but truly two; and every thought, word and act must be subdued to the dignity of that double situation in which Almighty God has placed and companions the childish spirit of man.
Underhill’s analogy reminds me that to be wholly and fully alive is to inhabit BOTH floors of our being .
And, these apparently opposite dimensions of human life are “two sides of the same coin.”
The beauty of our soul living in a two-storied house is that it all takes place in ONE house.
And it is our uniquely human task to learn to live fully in both floors, exploring all that it means to be human and all that it means to be divine.
What does it mean for you to live in a two-storied house?
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As always, your reflections and comments are welcome below.
Consider sharing what it means for you to live on both floors, denying nor overly uplifting one over the other!
Keith,
This was beautiful. It explains so much that I have been wrestling with in my wholeness. I have been reading don Miguel Ruiz “The Wisdom of the Shamans” and this reading will help keep me grounded in my humanism as I delve into the book. Thank you! Sending prayers that your retreat will be blessed with both floors
Thank you so much Charlotte! I do appreciate how this uplifts the importance of our humanity, creating real space for honest humanism. Sometimes the spiritual traditions stress the “spiritual dimension” of life too much…getting caught in the trap of transcendence. And thanks for your well wishes and prayers on the retreat…it went very very well! 🙂
Thanks for this, Keith. I happen to be digesting a book on the brain right now, a book by my high school classmate Jill Bolte Taylor called Whole Brain Living. This duality is built into the structure of our brains too. The left brain focuses on particularity, linear time (past and future), and accomplishing things. It includes that part of us which knows where our bodies end and that which is “other” begins. The right brain sees the whole, with all time as present. It is wise, compassionate, grateful, and fun-loving. The right brain knows we are as big as the universe. Life works best, I think, when we allow the right brain and its loving-knowing to be in charge, and make the left brain the master’s emissary, to use Iain Mcgilchrist’s image. Making that shift is part of the work of prayer and meditation.
Right on David, thanks so much for this! Amazing that the dualism is baked into the brain. I think you are right on with what you shared…allowing the right brain to flourish and reach it’s whole potential. The left can be its servant. It seems to have been the other way around for hundreds of years! 🙂 Thanks David!
Your interpretations/translations/observations always open up remarkable concepts such as this one, thank you, Keith! And I love how contemplative prayer and “grabbing some alone time” can give us a sense of solid ground in our first story and at the same time give us access to the second story. And that Jesus of Nazareth himself modeled this for us 🙂
Sending prayers for your retreat (and feeling envious of the lucky participants)!
Hey thanks so much Caroline. Appreciate your prayers and your words here. Yes yes…the alone time is critical to slow down enough to realize we live in a 2 storied universe! Slow down we must!
More food for thought.Trying to balance the two storey house is a challenge. The article articulates the challenge for me. I am a neophyte Contemplation Prayer. I keep practicing and reading.
Thanks Helen…no doubt a challenge to live fully in BOTH worlds. But I do believe contemplation and meditation is a solid path for bringing that wakeful spirit. Meditation is a tool in every culture and religion…a tool for living in both worlds! Keep on practicing 🙂
Your insights on this are so helpful, Keith. One floor without the other isn’t enough. It’s that divine flow between the two that leads us to the love that is God. Reminds me of the need to not only contemplate but to act with that love that is known through contemplation.
Thank you Susan…and amen! We need both the contemplation and the action…I see the love cultivated in the quite contemplation, but it’s not meant to stay there, but to brought into the world, from the second floor onto the first floor. Really, I feel our work as contemplatives is to learn how to live in the stairwell between the two stories!
Just a thought . . . I would skip the word “… yet …” that follows, “We are utterly earthy …” It is a stronger reminder that we are a full and mixed being.
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