The Holy Longing: The Hidden Power of Spiritual Yearning

By Connie Zweig

Book Overview

In Every Mystical Tradition, saints and poets speak eloquently of the soul's search for the divine, its yearning for the gods, its longing for heaven. This holy longing for something transcendent, something beyond our skin-bound individuality, leads us to sit still, eyes closed, as the splendors of spring pass us by. It urges us to lose ourselves in one another in ecstatic embrace, glimpsing the divine beloved in another human being. It guides us to teachers and priests who offer timeless wisdom and a direction for our devotion. And, if we learn to hold the tension of our yearning, to honor the restlessness of the soul rather than resist it, our holy longing points the way home. In her counseling work with clients from many religious denominations, Dr. Connie Zweig found that this universal yearning -- a secret feeling with many disguises -- lies hidden at the source of our life stories. This obscure object of desire calls us to follow it, and we respond, even unknowingly. We pursue a romantic union, imagining that it will finally meet our deepest needs. Or we long for the light of god and undertake a demanding religious practice or discipleship, hoping that it will quench our thirst. Or we chase a vision of the ideal home or community, which promises an end to our wandering. In this way, a life story unfolds, invisibly shaped by the object of our longing. But sometimes our religious yearning goes awry. We may misplace it onto concrete objects -- sex, food, drugs, or alcohol. Then our longing becomes craving and is held captive in a substance. Or we may attribute it to an authoritarian personality who abuses us, leaving us feeling shocked and betrayed, even by god. Or we may direct our holy longing to the other world, devaluing the pleasures of human life. Or worse, like cult members or fundamentalists, we may mistake death for transcendence and sacrifice our lives for paradise. If you feel a gnawing yearning beneath your other yearnings no matter how many desires you satisfy; if you feel disillusioned with traditional religions but seek spiritual values and practices elsewhere; if you or a friend or family member suffer from religious abuse but long to rekindle the flame of faith, then this book can guide you from spiritual innocence through loss to spiritual maturity. Book jacket.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585422045
• ISBN13: 9781585422043
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Tarcher
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

home to your soul... smiling

Rebeccasreads highly recommends HOLY LONGING as an adventure in looking at your spiritual path. Why do we search for someone to guide us to the holy of holies? Why do we accept there's someone "out there" -- like a priest or a guru, who has the answers to how to get closer to God? Why do we believe there's someone who knows better or more than us... about something so intensely individual as our experience of God? Connie Zweig gently ( & firmly!) takes us by the hand & shows us how to look back along our spiritual path to see the shadows & our loss of spiritual innocence, so we can look into the brightness of our soul's future, stepping forward, perhaps for the first time, in spiritual maturity -- "grown-up-ness". If you have ever felt that HOLY LONGING then Connie Zweig's stories will feel like a coming home into yourself. Healing, mind-changing & well written, & simply... outstanding! I was grinning with recognition all the way through. Dare I say, great fun?

This book speaks to your soul

If you long for something greater than yourself but believe it's a romantic partner or a spiritual teacher, think again. This book gets to the root of our restless yearning and urges us to follow it consciously, not unconsciously as most of us do. It tells the stories of yogis and saints, as well as folks like us, who reach ecstatic moments and also suffer dark nights, when their holy longing goes off track. In this book Dr. Zweig extends her brilliant work on the shadow into the spiritual and religious worlds, joining spirituality to psychology and shedding light once again into the remote corners of our lives.Bravo!

A fellow therapist reacts

As a therapist, I must say that this effort by Connie Zweig is an important work. Beyond being a good read and filled with fascinating prose, the Holy Longing strikes at the heart of the problem with most spiritual practice. The bottom line is that people don't handle their issues, their defenses, their pain and their disowned parts. Instead of studying their conditioned mind, their own holy longing leads them into dangerous territory with others - seekers and teachers who also have not looked deeply at their own pain.The result is what Ms. Zweig so adeptly calls a "shattering encounter with spiritual darkness." The Holy Longing is a flashing amber light along the spiritual path that can help us avoid pitfalls, disappointments and outright degradation. The message she so wonderfully delivers is that there is no transcendence without shadow work. Those of us who want to skip that step will see it emerge dead ahead on our path to the Beloved. Read the Holy Longing and avoid that landmine.

a much-needed book

Religious yearning is the mother of all desires. Underlying all of our drives and aspirations is the urge to transcend the boundaries of individual identity and unite with the sacred. Connie Zweig does a magnificent job of describing and explaining this primal urge in all its myriad forms. Some authors have treated spiritual longing with disrespect, writing it off as some displaced psychological need. Others have treated it with such reverence that they ignore the potential dangers to which the holy longing can lead. Zweig's psychospiritual approach balances the light and the dark, standing as both a beacon for seekers to follow and a warning system to help them avoid the hazards. Its graceful writing, and its mature, sensible, and grounded approach makes it a welcome addition to the spiritual repertoire.

Longing for This Book

Dr. Connie Zweig's, The Holy Longing is beautifully written. It is eloquent and deep. It courageously weaves the author's depth of personal experience and clinical expertise with a comprehensive knowledge of the world's religions. And although the book deals with the deepest currents of the human psyche it is fully accessible and engaging. As a psychologist I find that at the core of my client's presenting problems there is often a profound Holy Longing that was misinterpreted as simply a psychological problem. In every mystical tradition saints and poets speak eloquently of the soul's search for the divine. Many of us experience the burning of this holy longing in our search for romantic love, a precious object, a child, the ideal home, a perfect teacher, or a community of like-minded seekers."It is because of this longing that we build Sistine Chapels, sculpt the David and compose the Messiah," the author writes, but "the longing for the light typically evokes its opposite: a shattering encounter with spiritual darkness." Dr. Zweig asks, "What is the proper stance toward our holy longing?" She offers informed and compassionate insights into the universal yearning of the soul to transcend our skin-encapsulated individuality.