Return to Alagoa

I have always enjoyed short holidays as a welcome break from the daily routine. Even the negative experiences that inevitably occur while away can enable one to forget normal concerns.

For many years now I have been accustomed to visit the Algarve, usually west of Faro near Albufeira.

However this year I was based on the eastern side close to Faro in Olhao. 

The only other time I had been on this side was some 21 years ago when I stayed in a small seaside resort, which at that time was known as Alagoa (now Altura).

I do not remember a great deal regarding that previous visit. However the opening day still stands out in my memory (but alas for the wrong reasons).

Though due to depart on an early morning flight there was a significant delay (of 90 minutes or so before boarding).

When eventually boarding commenced, I asked a flight attendant the reason for the delay and was told that it was due to a tyre puncture.

When we were all seated another significant delay took place due to refuelling of the plane.

Then when this was completed the captain calmly announced that one of the brakes on the aircraft wasn’t working and that due to aviation regulations we would therefore not be landing at Faro (in Portugal) but rather at Seville (in Spain) which has a longer runway. No apology was given for the inconvenience caused and no assistance subsequently offered to then enable passengers get back to their original destination.

To add to my apprehension, I happened to be seated next to an exit and was promptly approached by one of the cabin crew frenetically offering instructions on how to open the door in case of emergency.

After eventually landing at Seville a long wait ensued in the baking hot temperatures there (typical of early August weather). As this was a time before the Euro became established one therefore had no currency to even buy a drink at the Spanish airport.

Some of the passengers were due to be picked up in a coach at Faro to be brought on to our destination in Alagoa.

Eventually after some difficult and strained communication our hosts reluctantly agreed to come to Seville to collect the group. So some four hours later we eventually started the drive back to our destination.

I still remember the heavily cracked windscreen on the coach (serving perhaps as a good symbol of the journey so far) and the sullen silence of our guides throughout the journey.

When we eventually arrived at our apartment I found that I had been allocated a spring bed - how I hate spring beds - which was significantly bent. Then when I tried to obtain a replacement little sympathy was offered at reception, where I was curtly informed that they were completely booked out with no spare beds available.

So to add to my woes I arose each morning with a significant pain in my back.

Not surprisingly it turned out to be one of the less enjoyable stays abroad. One thing however that still stand out in my memory is that a future Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) was also staying in the apartments during the same week. 

However for some reason I felt drawn to return on this visit back to Alagoa to see if it could spark some recollection of events long forgotten.

The previous journey had occurred following a period of personal psycho-physiological stress which I have profiled in my “Spectrum of Development” blog as signifying the reaching of a certain peak with respect to the transcendent aspect of contemplative development. So at this time I would have seen myself at the commencement of the transcendent descent, with the eventual hope of becoming firmly grounded in the world of everyday affairs (reflected through the light of an ever present spiritual reality).

However the early moments of my return to Alagoa did not seem promising. As I journeyed down the wide street leading from the main highway into the town, everything appeared dead - not perhaps surprising in mid October - with no landmarks that I could recall to light my way. In fact the visit was beginning to appear somewhat pointless.

When I eventually made my way down to the beach I was surprised to discover that it was one of the finest in the whole Algarve, extending for miles in both directions. Strangely I had remembered this beach as much smaller as if it started in Alagoa then stretching down from there towards Manta Rota. However as I looked now in the opposite direction I could see Monte Gordo appearing in the distance, which I did not recall from the earlier visit.

It then intimately dawned on me in a precious moment of insight that this recollection of the beach paralleled in a significant manner my own spiritual journey. 

Again when I first visited in 1997, I saw my future journey as a progressive transcendent descent (before the world of form could once more be properly reborn).

However I was only later to realise that this view was too simplistic.

So properly understood, for appropriate balance, one must give equal emphasis to both the transcendent and immanent aspects of spiritual development.

Now the transcendent aspect - as exemplified in the writing of St. John of the Cross - is portrayed as a steep spiritual mountain climb i.e. The Ascent of  Mount Carmel. 

However I had come to slowly realise that St. John places little explicit emphasis on the corresponding need for a transcendent descent, which is so necessary for proper engagement with the physical world of form.

So this was my position on that earlier visit as I saw myself now embarking on this transcendent descent (mediated in a refined rational manner).

However from a related perspective, it is equally important to embark on an immanent descent into the subterranean levels of the unconscious, where primitive nature resides, to gradually erode the repressive barriers that prevent one's baser instincts from being properly acknowledged. For without such acknowledgement these instincts then inevitably intrude in an involuntary manner into conscious behaviour, thereby representing a considerable restriction in true spiritual freedom.

For the past 10 years or so I had become especially aware of this complementary immanent dimension of development, discovering remarkable parallels in the process with the holistic appreciation of the true nature of the Riemann Hypothesis. 

In other words, from a psychological perspective, primitive instinctive behaviour is very closely related to the fundamental nature of prime numbers in holistic mathematical terms.

However, just as there is an eventual need for a transcendent descent (once the ascent has been successfully negotiated) likewise there is a complementary need for an immanent ascent (once the descent has been correspondingly negotiated).

And the purpose of this ascent is to enable all one’s instinctive energy, now suitably refined in a spiritual manner, to fruitfully engage once more with the physical world of form.

So from the transcendent direction, refined cognitive ability (where analytic thinking is balanced by true contemplative vision) can ultimately be integrated with everyday activities.

Then equally from the immanent direction, refined affective ability (where one’s senses and feelings operate without undue attachment to phenomena) can likewise be integrated with these same activities.

And it is this harmonious working of both cognitive and affective aspects, continually balanced by the central volitional mode of will, that constitutes true spiritual marriage for the personality.

So as I glanced now up and down the beach standing close to the one landmark that I readily recognised  - an established restaurant - I could see both of these spiritual directions now momentarily merging in my own personality.

And after so many years journeying in the wilderness this was a truly wonderful epiphany confirming that I had indeed already arrived home.

It has been my experience that important growth can incubate slowly in the personality over many years without any outward indications being given.

Then in the change of environment that for example a holiday can bring, suddenly this new perspective can enable a fresh clarity to be given to the psychological development that has already taken place.

So in leaving Alagoa last week I realised how important it had been to return there so as to act as a vital catalyst for that precious illuminating experience, which with great certitude, briefly answered all longing.