SoulTypes: Decode Your Spiritual DNA to Create a Life of Authenticity, Joy, and Grace - Brossura

Norton, Robert

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0787968722 ISBN 13: 9780787968724

Casa editrice: Jossey-Bass, 2004

Riassunto

We are all wired for God, but our needs, inclinations, and personalities are all different. Using the metaphor of "spiritual DNA," SoulTypes will help you assess your own inborn qualities and find a spiritual path that will support your quest for a richer, fuller, more integrated life.

If you consider yourself spiritual but not religious, SoulTypes will help you discover just what works for you. With its inventory and assessment to guide you to discover and interpret your spiritual type, SoulTypes helps you in answering the most profound questions:

* Who am I What is my authentic identity?

* What’s important to me What are my values, my gifts, my passions?

* Why am I here What is my purpose or mission in life? 

* Where am I going What is my vision of my future?

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

Robert Norton and Richard Southern have taught the principles of SoulTypes to thousands of seekers. They are also principals in Church Development Systems, a nonprofit organization and national consulting practice.

Dalla quarta di copertina

Find the Spiritual Path and Style That’s Right for You

We are all wired for God, but our needs, inclinations, and personalities are all different. Using the metaphor of "spiritual DNA," SoulTypes will help you assess your own inborn qualities and find a spiritual path that will support your quest for a richer, fuller, more integrated life.

If you consider yourself spiritual but not religious, SoulTypes will help you discover just what works for you. With its unique inventory and assessment tools to guide you, you’ll discover your spiritual type and find the answers to the most profound questions:

• Who am I? What is my authentic identity?
• What’s important to me? What are my values, my gifts, my passions?
• Why am I here? What is my purpose or mission in life?
• Where am I going? What is my vision of my future?

The SoulType processes will help you find your unique answer for these questions, and then turn to the most crucial question: how do I get from where I am to where I want to be?

"If you have been bewildered by the glut of writings about spirituality, Norton and Southern’s book offers a voice of clarity. SoulTypes helps us to sort out who we are, what we value, and where to look for spiritual nourishment. This book is a must-read for every seeker who longs to deepen their journey."
–Lauren Artress, Canon for Special Ministries, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; author, Walking a Sacred Path; Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool

Estratto. © Ristampato con autorizzazione. Tutti i diritti riservati.

SoulTypes

Decode Your Spiritual DNA to Create a Life of Authenticity, Joy, and GraceBy Robert Norton Richard Southern

Jossey-Bass

Copyright © 2004 Robert Norton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7879-6872-4

Chapter One

Who Are You?

Discovering Your Spiritual Identity

Look for it and you will find it-what is unsought will go undetected. SOPHOCLES

Two friends, Mike and Frankie, were walking near a lake on a quiet afternoon. Mike says, "You know, no one's around, so why don't we do some skinny dipping?"

"Sounds good," Frankie replies, "but I have a problem. I'll have to take off all my clothes to skinny dip, so how will I know who I am when I get out of the water?"

"Hmmm," says Mike, mulling over the problem. "I've got it. Here, I have a piece of blue twine in my pocket, we'll tie it around your big toe, so when you come out of the water, you'll know who you are."

They agreed and the twine was tied. But while they were swimming, the twine slipped off Frankie's toe and wrapped itself around Mike's toe. When they came out of the water, Frankie looked down at his toe, and the blue twine was missing. Then he saw that the blue twine was tied around Mike's big toe. Flabbergasted, Frankie said to Mike: "I know who you are, but who am I?"

Versions of this story are found in many traditions and cultures. They all make the point that "Who am I?" is an important question that can only be answered by each individual. Yet most people live in a fog about their spiritual identity; they put energy and time into other things that distract them from answering this simple but fundamental question.

ARE YOU YOUR SOUL?

The Titanic disaster, on April 14, 1912, was heralded by a headline that read, "Titanic Sinks: 1,620 Souls Lost at Sea." This headline presupposed a common acceptance of what a soul is. Actually, there was not then, nor is there now, a universally accepted definition of soul.

Many believe that you're born with your soul, and when you die it dies with you. Others say your soul lives on beyond your physical death. Still others feel that your soul is preexistent and enters your body at conception, or at birth, and when you die it travels on to another body, before reaching total union with God. Some argue that your soul is the real essence of your being, and that your body is nothing more than a vehicle for your soul. Some say your body is simply an outer expression of your soul within, while others insist that your soul and body are fused together to form you as a complete being.

All living religious traditions have something to say about the concept of the soul. Hindus refer to an individual soul as the atman, or the highest self, a part of God, an expression of God-which, in reality, is God. Sri Aurobindo said the soul is an alive, evolving, psychic being; that once it understands its connection to cosmic consciousness, the soul displays not only its unique individuality but also its relationship to the totality of being.

Buddhists, on the other hand, have no teaching about a deity or creator god, so there is no affirmation of a separate soul and no individual expression of the divine. They see the concept of a separate soul as an expression of clinging to the self. For Buddhists, the purpose of discovering your spiritual DNA would be to assist you in realizing your true nature, an effort that typically requires a focused and disciplined mind.

In the Hebrew scriptures, the Book of Genesis relates that God formed the human race from the dust of the earth; when God breathed life into humankind, we became living souls. The essential dichotomy of seeing humanity as both soul and body gave Judaism a holistic understanding of individual existence.

According to Sufi teachings, your soul, or ruh, is connected to God-even if you are not conscious of the connection-at seven soul levels: mineral, vegetable, animal, personal, human, secret, and inner secret, with unique gifts and skills for each level. By conscious development you can express these gifts for your personal benefit and for society. Your soul, Sufis say, goes through an evolutionary process as it grows through these levels, until finally it reaches a holistic state in which it encompasses all aspects of your individuality: mind, body, and spirit.

Christianity uses the Greek word psyche for soul more than one hundred times in the New Testament, indicating a number of understandings of the concept. Rather than a separate, immortal soul, the central theme here is that your soul is one aspect of your individual identity, which will be restored at the resurrection. In the formative days of Christian teaching, St. Augustine's concept that the soul is the image of God was widely accepted. By the medieval period, the soul was referred to as "the echo of the body," in which soul had some connection with God and yet maintained its own separateness. The Protestant Reformation brought a strongly rational view of humans as having a dichotomy of body and soul as two separate spheres of being. Today we see a decided shift back to a unitary concept of mind, body, and spirit.

Clearly, there are many definitions for soul!

In this book, when we speak of the soul we mean the organizing principle for an individual life, which can be perceived and expressed in a variety of ways: through the mind, through the affect, through silence, and through activity. Whatever the origin of the soul-or the origin of the concept of the soul-the fact is that from a spiritual perspective you're created in love, sustained in love, and called to love. In this sense, soul is, as Huston Smith has said, "the final locus of our individuality."

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Names are intended to distinguish individuals from one another. Imagine how difficult it would be if we did not use names. Instead of saying "Marie," for example, one would have to say something like "the beautiful blond woman who lives in the green house down the street"!

Names are convenient. Some names carry information about roots, such as inherited family, clan, or tribal names. If you look in the phone directory, you'll see many listings for a common last name such as Jones or Lopez or Wong.

Names can serve other purposes as well. The Chinese use names to identify the generation of the bearer. African cultures use names to describe the order in which siblings are born. Given names (first names) are generally bestowed at some point after the birth of a child, or they are decided upon before birth.

Life Map Notes: What's in Your Name?

1. Print your first name (or middle name, if you go by that) here (or, preferably, in your journal): __________________________

2. If you're known by a nickname, print it here: _______________

3. Have you ever been identified by a negative name? Did you buy into it at the time? ____________________________________

If you find the process of naming particularly intriguing, explore these optional questions.

4. What is the etymology (derivation) of your given name?

To research the meaning of your name, search the Internet using the keywords "names," "meaning of names," "etymology." You'll be able to research names from most cultures. If your name was specially created for you, you probably won't find it; however, you might find a name that sounds like yours and probably has a similar meaning. For example: Donna means "lady" in Italian. Jeffrey or Geoffrey, a variant of Godfrey, means "peace of God."

5. What does your surname (last name) mean?

You can also search the Internet using the keyword "genealogy" for the meaning of your last name. For example, Williams is from Wilhelm, composed of will ("will," "desire") and helm ("helmet," "protection").

6. Do you feel you fit your name? Yes No

7. If you were to change your name, what would you choose?

Would you choose it just because you like it, or because you've researched the etymology and you find that the derivation fits you?

Negative Names Are Not Who We Are

Sometimes people are identified by negative nicknames that are suggestive of mistakes, low self-image, or physical attributes (Klutz, Lazybones, Slut, Fatty, Four Eyes).... We hope you do not identify with any of these or other such names; but if you do, remember that such a name is not who you really are. The great traditions got it right by bestowing positive names such as "God's own," "God's creation," "my beloved," "precious child," "chosen," and "friend." In these teachings, God sees you as very valuable.

Overcoming Negative Names

Long ago, a mother suffered great pain in childbirth. To punish her son for her agony, she named him Jabez (pronounced jay-bez), which in Hebrew means "born in pain." It makes you think twice before assigning names to kids, doesn't it?

Very little is known about Jabez. His great accomplishment is that he made it into the pages of sacred scripture. His "story" is briefly told in 1 Chronicles 4:9-11, buried in a list of long-forgotten people. What we do know is that he turned his negative name into a positive, and he created a simple prayer said by millions of people each day. It's a prayer for healing, abundance, creativity, and blessing, a prayer that serves as a reminder that whatever you are called you are a child of God, and you deserve the best. Here's his one-sentence contribution to the world:

Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying "Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." And God granted his request.

In our own time, there's a young woman who wouldn't let herself be named "homeless." On the basis of her early life circumstances, Lauralee Summer would have been prejudged a loser with little or no chance of success. She grew up homeless, with a single mom who struggled each day just to find a place to stay, food to eat, and secondhand clothes for herself and her daughter. Their days were spent living on the streets and sleeping in shelters or welfare hotels. Like many homeless, they moved frequently: California, Arizona, Oregon, and finally across the continent to Massachusetts. Lauralee grew up with few expectations and little security. Yet she had an enormous reserve of inner strength, and she learned to love reading. Through books, she was able to get beyond appearances and began to find her true self. In Boston, while they were living in a shelter, she enrolled in high school.

As Lauralee became more self-aware, and as her life settled into a pattern, her views of herself changed and her academic scores soared to the honor level. Her self-confidence reached the point where she made up her mind to be the first girl to compete on the boys' wrestling team! This was the stuff of dreams for the media, and the nation began to hear about her. By the time she appeared on Good Morning America and had been featured in People magazine, millions knew about Lauralee Summer, the girl raised in homeless shelters who was accepted into Harvard University.

Lauralee is now twenty-five, a graduate of Harvard, no longer homeless, and working on an advanced degree at the University of California at Berkeley, studying children's literature. From homeless to Harvard is a winning theme; she has sold her life story to a major publishing house for a substantial retainer-and she's sold the movie rights, too. How did all this rags-to-riches stuff actually happen? Lauralee said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, "When you can never expect what you'll see next or what life's going to be like, it makes it easier to try new things. Would I want a home? The feeling of home is just getting to know yourself."

Actor Christopher Reeve, who played the role of Superman in several films, knows who he is. Superman, you recall, is the superhuman guy from the planet Krypton who is faster than a speeding bullet and can use his X-ray vision to look through walls of steel. Reeve, who played in other films as well, was at the top of his acting game when he fell off his horse and suffered total paralysis of his body. Now, instead of "leaping over tall buildings in a single bound," he is confined to a motorized wheelchair and must speak with the aid of a breathing tube. Is his life over? Not at all. He didn't define his life by his career, and he will not be defined as handicapped. Though he can't use his talents in the old way, he's capitalized on his prominence to become a strong advocate for disabled people. Christopher Reeve is clear about his identity.

WHAT ABOUT GOD'S NAME?

Even God has been assigned names by others. Did you know that "God" is not God's name? Are you also aware there are an infinite number of names for God?

The character Pope Xystus I in the play The Ring says, "God is not the name of God, but an opinion about God." It's probable that no one actually knows what the sacred name is, but this hasn't stopped people from searching for it and, in the meantime, deciding what to call God.

The divine name was so sacred to ancient Hebrews that it was never to be uttered, so when they wrote it they left out the vowels, which produced "YHWH." Scholars use the Greek term tetra-grammaton, which means four letters, to describe this usage. The missing vowels are probably a and e, so that the sacred name for Jews and Christians is most likely "Yahweh," but we're so used to saying "God" there hasn't been much of a move to switch to Yahweh. In the scriptures the first basic name for God is "Elohim," which is a variant of El (the godhead) in Semitic languages. Ancient Ugaritic used El, and in Babylonian it was Ilu, and in Arabic, Allah.

Other religions and cultures have their own names for God. In Islam, in addition to Allah there are at least ninety-nine names for the one God. Hindus can multiply that by ten plus one and claim at least a thousand Sanskrit names for the sacred, each name having its own special meaning. Christian Science and many New Thought philosophies refer to God as "Mind," "Spirit," "Soul," "Principle," "Life," "Truth," and "Love." Masonic writings refer to God as "TGAOTU," The Great Architect of the Universe. Native Americans invoked God as the "Great Spirit," and "Manitou." Alcoholics Anonymous and related support groups don't use the word God but prefer the more generic term "Higher Power." They do this because some people either have been (or perceive that they have been) wounded by others in God's name.

So since no one really knows what God's name is-if, indeed, God has or needs a name-we have the option of using whatever name or term we find fits us best. In this book, we have used God, but you are welcome to mentally substitute any other word.

Here are some other names and terms for God that we've come across (and you can probably add a few more): Infinite, Source, Divine Energy, Uncaused Cause, Spirit, Ground of All Being, One Life, Universe, Divine Mind, Divine Thought, Infinite Love, Changeless One, Prime Mover, Father-Mother, Presence, Absolute, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Universal Flow, Radiant Light.

THE POWER OF NAMES

We had an excellent experience of the power of names when we visited the Provincial Museum of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, which was hosting a special exhibit: "Anno Domini: Jesus Through the Centuries-Exploring the Heart of Two Millennia." According to the catalogue, it was a "glimpse [of] some of the ways Jesus has been understood and how this understanding has shaped and reshaped culture."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from SoulTypesby Robert Norton Richard Southern Copyright © 2004 by Robert Norton. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Jossey-Bass
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0787968722
• ISBN 13: 9780787968724
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Lingua: Inglese
• Numero di pagine: 192
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile