The sacred soul

'... there is in all things... a hidden wholeness.'

Thomas Merton

It was in my early twenties that I was introduced to the writings of the humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers. His philosophy of human nature is one that affirms our inherent worth and dignity as human beings. As a result of his many years of experience as a therapist, he came to believe that the innermost core of our being is essentially positive. His was not, he said, ‘a Pollyanna view’ of human nature for he knew from experience that all of us have flaws and all of us are capable of behaving in irrational and destructive ways. But his conviction that human nature is positive at its core, never wavered.

And since encountering his teachings, neither has mine. As all of us are, I too am well aware of how destructive human behaviour can sometimes be. Like Rogers, however, I have learned to hold this awareness in tension with what I have learnt about the essence of our humanity from my deepest encounters with others. Over the years, these encounters have led me to believe that our capacity for destructive behaviour flows not from the soul, but from the depths of our human brokenness and woundedness. It is when we are wounded and hurting, when we are lost and broken that we sometimes lash out at ourselves and others. And the wounding we have suffered also disconnects us from that which is deepest within us. It distorts our perception of ourselves, others and the world in which we live and, in an effort to survive, causes us to behave in ways that inflict more damage, both on ourselves and others. This is the tragedy of human existence.

And yet at the same time, we are capable at our best of doing so much that is good. Any philosophy of human nature must also grapple with its positive side. It has to be able to account not only for human nature at its darkest, but also for the countless acts of honour, integrity, altruism, generosity, self–sacrifice, compassion and loving tenderness of which we are capable. And it has to account for the longing to do what is good, to be ‘a better person’ that most, if not all of us, will have experienced at some point in our lives.

Like many of us who have a Christian faith, I was taught that human nature is inherently sinful, that all of us are born into ‘a state of sin’. I vividly remember struggling with a deep sense of shame week after week on Sundays as the words we recited together spoke of our ‘manifold sins and wickedness’ and of our unworthiness ‘to gather up the crumbs’ under God’s table. What I knew so well as a therapist is that being bombarded with such negative messages over and over again is highly unlikely to help us to engage in the process of becoming more fully human. Indeed such teachings are far more likely to cause us to shy away from the inner journey altogether for they distort the way we see ourselves and effectively trap us in a destructive inner battle which is deeply wounding of our humanity. When we are given to believe that we are by nature corrupt and sinful, we lose any sense of our own value and worth. We become unhealthily obsessed with our sinfulness. We live in fear of judgement and struggle to hold onto the hope of being able to redeem ourselves. I am deeply saddened by the damage that such teachings have done to so many over the centuries.

Over the years, I have come to believe that what is truest and best in us flows from the soul and that it is when we are living from this deeper self that we are most fully human. For the soul is not evil, but good. It is not ugly, but beautiful. It is not sinful, but sacred. When we call something sacred we are holding it in the highest esteem. We are honouring it as something that is worthy of being approached with great respect, with reverence and with awe. As I have come to see it so, something has changed within me. This deeper knowing has opened my eyes to a much more balanced and compassionate way of seeing humanity. Despite the woundedness in the outer layers of our personality, I know now that within all of us - no matter how broken we may be - there is something of the ‘hidden wholeness’ of which Thomas Merton writes.

What I have come to know too is that all of the major world religions recognise this inner wholeness. Buddhists call it ‘the Buddha nature’, Hindus call it ‘the atman’, Jains call it 'the jiva', Muslims call it ‘the fitrah’ and Christians call it the soul. None of them see our inner self as inherently bad or sinful. Indeed it is, they say, the soul that gives us dignity and worth. What is deepest and truest in us is both most fully human and most sacred.

The wisdom of the Celtic tradition teaches us that the More flows through everything that exists. It is at the heart of everything that has being. It is the essence of all life. And as each one of us is a unique expression of the More, our soul  - the essence of our being – is also sacred. Each of us carries within our soul a spark of the More and so our humanity and our divinity are closely interwoven. Hindus have a wonderful way of acknowledging this inner wholeness in each other. When they meet, they press their hands together at the chest and with a slight bow, they greet each other with the word 'namaste'. It means 'I bow to you.' It is a gesture of deep respect which recognises the divinity we all share and the sacredness of our inner being.

As writer Philip Newell puts it, each one of us is 'an utterance of the divine, a sacred sounding, each creature and life-form a unique and unrepeatable expression' of the More. He urges us to reawaken to the sacredness of every human being, regardless of gender, race or religion; to recognise and honour 'the sacred dignity of our being'; and to 'safeguard and protect' it in each other. Therein, he says, lies our hope for the future of humankind.

Biography

Philip Newell (2021) Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul. William Collins

©Copyright Kaitlyn Steele 2025

Kaitlyn Steele

www.insearchofsoul.co.uk

kaitlynsteele16@gmail.com