What is the Purpose of Spiritual Imagery?

Dear friends,

Clearly one cannot see Spirit, nor touch it. In fact, none of our senses can make it known or heighten our awareness of its presence. If that is so, why do we have images of saints, enlightened beings, or other images on our altars, walls, and shelves?

Well, we live in a material world and we thus have a generally materially-oriented mind. We can try to conceive of Spirit as something like "The Cosmic Ground of Being," but I have to say, for me at least, that is not especially inspiring or heart-opening.

Again, for me, when I look into Paramhansa Yogananda's eyes I feel moved and uplifted. Is it literally his eyes? A reminder of his consciousness? A reminder that he has my back in a world of challenges? I can't say I know, but I can say I don't especially care!

We are here to learn our lessons and in so doing ultimately be able to merge into pure Spirit. But to do that we must both feel secure (it can be a scary process, after all), and we must open our hearts. If spiritual imagery helps us in that process, the exact workings of the mechanism is actually beside the point.

We are children of Spirit and are here because we forget that fact. May we each develop the courage, faith, and wisdom to drop our defenses and habit of self-preoccupation so that we may come to see that our separation is merely perceived, and is our own creation.

Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West