Sisyphus is an unfortunately apt metaphor for the attempt to achieve
Individual Evolution through ceaseless Work on oneself. The mythical figure
was condemned for eternity to push a huge boulder up a steep hill, only to
have it roll all the way back down again (and again and again). The goal is
admirable; the method doomed to fail.

A similar myopia of method affects many spiritual pursuits. The attempt is
usually to “lift oneself up,” to “raise one's consciousness,” to “rise above”
one's “lower nature.” My Teacher referred to this fixation on upward mobility
as trying to “spiritualize matter.” Which, he said, was getting it backwards.
The goal should be just the opposite: “To materialize the spirit.”

Descent, Not Ascent

The direction of true Work is not up, but down. Consciousness does not ascend,
it descends. Always. Instead of ascent, raising earth to heaven, the secret is
Descent, bringing heaven down to earth. In the description of John the Baptist
as he baptized Jesus, it is “the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and
it abode upon him.” (John 2:32 KJV)

In prayer, one seeks the influx of the Most High. And yet, one assumes a position
of obeisance or supplication.

Personality exists on a certain level. You can teach it fine manners, dress it
up, polish it till it acquires a luster, if not an aura. But it will not, in
the process, have become spirit. It will not transcend the level it occupies.
The chimp, tuxedoed and manicured, remains a chimp.

Self-improvement is an admirable pursuit. Refinement is not to be scorned. A
flower girl becoming a lady, as Eliza Dolittle under the heavy-handed tutelage
of Henry Higgins, is no small thing. But the change does not constitute
spiritual metamorphosis. For that to occur, not only the flat Cockney vowels
must be transformed, but the person speaking the newly rounded vowels.

That can happen. My Teacher once told me: “If you were to ask me how to tear
Personality to pieces, I would say, 'Improve it.' If you were to ask me how to
improve Personality, I would say 'Start tearing it to pieces.'”

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Materializing the Spirit vs. Spiritualizing the Material