The Soul Knows: A Path of Listening
by Matthew Smith
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Bowen Isle, BC, Canada: Matthew Smith 2004. 141 pp US$15.80, Can$19.99, EUR13.00, £9.01 http://www.trafford.com/robots/04-0962.html
matthew64@shaw.ca
This book deserves acknowledgment as a true gem in the literature on personal spiritual awareness and spiritual development. Matthew Smith’s writing is somewhere between Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (but several steps more likely to touch your heart), and Stephen Levine’s books, such as Who Dies.
Smith presents brief vignettes from his own life and his encounters with others on their paths of exploring the meanings of existence – consciously or unconsciously. "Of the many gifts of the soul, the one gift that has occupied my interest these past twenty years of inquiry has been the gift of soul meaning: the soul's interpretation of each person, experience or event as it fits into the overall landscape of one's soul path." (p. ix) He follows each with discussions of the lessons he learned – cognitively, emotionally, and connecting with body and spirit. He rounds out each one with the ‘soul journal’ message he received during and following the lessons.
Smith’s style is riveting in its poetic imagery, open explorations of inner psychological life challenges, and spiritual insights that surface from experiences with other people, and with his own shadow.
For instance, he describes his brother, John, who was a witty, entertaining, very gifted actor from early childhood. Sadly, as John grew up, he could not connect with his own essence, could not find himself outside of the roles he played. He ended up suiciding. Smith worked through his grief, connecting during this process with his brother’s spirit. Smith comes away with profoundly helpful insights – here, as with each of the vignettes he shares in this sparkling book.
Acting fosters the personality and keeps the pure soul unrecognized and without a voice. It is necessary from time to time for you to exit the stage, return to a state of quiet, and reclaim the soul's voice, that it might infuse your thoughts, and influence your choices.
To allow your personality to surrender to the soul, as it must if you wish to become a spiritual being, it is necessary to be very still, very quiet, so that you will hear the current of soft awareness that flows beneath the current of louder awareness that drives and influences your personality. It is this soft awareness that you are.
The personality's voice, the ego, will put up a resistance to your idea to surrender. Love it into submission. Only love can control the ego, for love is the ultimate voice. Every cell of your body responds to love. Everything in this magnificent Creation responds to love. It is the universal key to understanding consciousness. (p. 23-24)
I strongly resonate with Smith’s advice about inviting intuition to speak about the rightness and wrongness of therapies and remedies that we may consider, to help us deal with life’s challenges.
In all healing allow yourself to be guided to those references and remedies that resonate with you, but in all cases make them pass the test of placing them as an offering before your inner sanctuary where your soul resides. It is only in the light of the soul that any approach will be validated as right for you [...] Nothing is wrong, except when it is not right for you. (p. 37)
Smith extends his personal lessons to suggest insights into societal lessons:
...The shift from a Piscean to an Aquarian age. Of the many variables that are affecting us is in this shift, the one that strikes me as being most present in my life is the shift from an external to an internal referencing. No government, organization or corporation is immune from the effects of this shift. Nothing more deeply confronts the corporate bottom line than the heart that speaks the words, "Something tells me that this decision is not right." In time, I believe, the souls of people will take on a currency that will surpass the unceasing need for profit. (p. 7-8.)
This book is a lovely, leisurely read – inviting us to reflect on the web of our own existence and the lessons that the universe choreographs, with the participation of our higher selves, for our spiritual growth. Another one of the stories mentions a visit to a chocolate store, for a taste of a sweet made by a particular confectioner that has stood the test of time – reliable and unchanged, and the personal and spiritual lessons of that simple search. These stories have that flavor: a delectable collection of literary offerings, to be savored one at a time, when you are in the mood for a heartwarming taste of life that will sweeten your own awareness of your connection with the infinite.
Interspersed with the text are memorable quotes, such as:
When we walk to the edge of all the light we have
and take a step into the darkness of the unknown,
we must believe one of two things will happen—there
will be something SOLID for us to stand on or we will
be taught how to fly.
– Patrick Overton. (p. 43)
Intuition comes as a certain feeling or a still voice....
If you use your intuition, you will know the very
purpose for which you exist in this world;
and when you find that, you find happiness.
– Paramahansa Yogananda (p. 77)
Letting go of the need to always understand is one of the most powerful steps toward living a soulful life. Moving from know-it-all to spiritual trust is the bridge that carries you into soulful spirituality.
– Bradford Keeney (p. 107)
Let the mountain speak through you. Let the bird speak through you. Let the river speak through you. Give them voice and in the deepest caves of understanding you will hear a song. It sings of your oneness, blessed in the eternal fragments of your mind. Let no separation come between you and nature and you will become the guide who will always find his way home.
– Matthew Smith (p. 113)
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