CHAPTER 1
Spirituality Is the Experience,Noticing Is the Practice
"Every day I listen to the dirt. What are you telling me? What do you need? Whatdo you want to give?"
—Dirk Gianinni, fourth-generationfarmer in Salinas, California
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Maybe I Really Am the Center of the Universe
Spirituality is a commonly used word these days, and it has many differentmeanings and perspectives. If you google "spirituality" without any furtherdefinition, you will get nearly 100 million references. Christian spiritualitybrings 5.6 million results; Sufi spirituality, 4 million; Buddhist spirituality,8 million; Hindu spirituality, 12 million; and so on. It is a topic of someinterest.
While definition and use vary, we can safely say that spirituality is somethingabout having an experience beyond ourselves, within ourselves. It is aconnection with an entity beyond our personal reality of heart, body, and mind.Whether we call this other reality God, or this "other" is some aspect of thecreation or even solitude, we seem to yearn for connection outside ourselves.
As we noted in the introduction, spirituality has not always been the purview ofthe individual. All cultures throughout time have valued some sort of spiritualexperience as part of the framework for their common life. Historically,organized religion has been the place for integrating the development of aninner life, community, and service to humankind. Most cultures would haveunderstood these as part and parcel of one another. But they are nowincreasingly segregated. Harvey Cox shares these thoughts on the increasedinterest in spirituality apart from religion:
"Spirituality" can mean a host of things, but there are three reasons why theterm is in such wide use. First, it is still a form of tacit protest. Itreflects a widespread discontent with the preshrinking of "religion,"Christianity in particular, into a package of theological propositions by thereligious corporations that box and distribute such packages. Second, itrepresents an attempt to voice the awe and wonder before the intricacy of naturethat many feel is essential to human life without stuffing them into ready-to-wearecclesiastical patterns. Third, it recognizes the increasingly porousborders between the different traditions and, like the early Christian movement,it looks more to the future than to the past.
As a spiritual and religious leader, I would add to Cox's comments. Deep in theAmerican cultural DNA is the inalienable right to pursue happiness. This is afounding principle, one of our non-negotiables. I wonder if this conviction hasevolved over time to mean that if we are not happy and personally pleased withlife, then we are being denied the right to be fully who we determine ourselvesto be. More communally minded cultures do not place the same value on personalhappiness and satisfaction that we do. Ancient spiritual practices originated inthese kinds of highly communal contexts, but the American quest seems to havedisconnected spirituality from its roots and reframed it as part of ourindividual pursuit of happiness. The conflict comes when we want a community'sspiritual offering, but do not want the accountability that being in communityusually involves.
As I write, Arianna Huffington (whose online news outlet The Huffington Posthosts some of the most important religious and social conversations in America)is working with app wonks on creating "GPS for the Soul," so that with a brushof the finger, a person can come back to his or her inner center after havingveered away. On the current website there are many ideas, personal stories, andencouraging words, not necessarily religious or connected to a divine energybeyond ourselves. They are intended to reconnect a person to "that place" withinwhere we find peace and a clear sense of self. Huffington notes her originalhope: "That one day someone would create an app that would gauge the state ofyour mind, body, and spirit, then automatically offer the exact steps you wouldneed to take to realign all three aspects of your being." I will leave thereader to ponder this next electronic solution to all of life's challenges. Butif it were just a matter of reading an idea perfectly tailored for one'sspiritual make-up to regroup the grounding of the soul, why are we stillsearching?
Our American mindset pursues happiness and we think we can buy it. Yet the mostgrounded and wise spiritual teachers and practitioners usually have the leastamount of stuff and are not typically looking up spiritual wellness on theirsmartphones. But for the average American, the practice of spirituality, in itsmost primal form, has come to mean the individual pursuit of happiness, offeeling better through various self-selected mental and physical practices, notnecessarily connected to other people, a religious tradition, or even a divinepower.
Spirituality has come to include any and all self-stylized options for apleasurable inner experience, stress-reduction, or mental clarity. It issometimes a means to an end, rather than a way of being in touch with eternalthings. More deeply, though, perhaps it is a yearning for the reintegration ofself, others, and service to humankind, or the discovery of one's purpose inlife. While extreme individualism seems philosophically ideal, it does notalways work out practically.
It is helpful to be aware of why spirituality personally interests us. What dowe hope to gain by developing the inner life? If we are not clear on thisquestion, we run the risk of perpetuating our dissatisfaction by not committingdeeply, at least for a time, to a single spiritual way or practice. Commitmentin and of itself bears the fruit of spiritual depth and inner peace. The pursuitof spirituality can, however, become like any other addiction: something wepursue for the high it delivers in a given moment.
The Spiritual Practice of Noticing
A meaningful spiritual experience that can become a spiritual practice is"noticing." It is a simple concept, I know. Yet how often do we move throughlife not noticing much at all? If we wish to move beyond a temporary goodfeeling that leads to ultimate joy despite life circumstances, we must beginwith where we find ourselves. And so the first step is to simply noticeyourself.
If you are unhappy, acknowledge it. Often in our efforts to feel better, we runto the next thing, trying to get away from the experience of feeling bad. If youare content, pay attention to that too. Noticing, elevated to the level ofspiritual practice, helps us hold still and take stock of where we are. Theearliest experiences of this practice only need to be momentary. When you areready, you can begin to sit for longer periods, noticing thoughts and feelings.Practice noticing your thoughts and feelings each morning and evening. Move fromthere to noticing your surroundings and how they affect you. Both our inner andouter environment make a difference to our experience of life.
If we have previously been running away from ourselves, wanting to be anywherebut in our own lives, the first fruit of the practice of noticing is awarenessthat whatever we have been doing to find satisfaction is not working. This is avery important harvest, even if it feels small. Such an acknowledgment precedesany future change we might make. We cannot discover where we are going if we donot first know where we are. We cannot grow something new in our lives if we arenot first willing to acknowledge the condition in which we find ourselves.
If we are blaming conditions or people for our unhappiness, until we noticeourselves we will not release them from culpability. Others are not responsiblefor our inner peace. If our choice is to "feel better," to pursue joy throughspirituality, such transformation begins inside our own soul, not outside withblame of another person or life circumstance.
Soul and Spirit
There is a vast array of philosophical writing on matters of the self, thespirit, and the soul. Our view of them is culturally influenced. In the West, wetend to use these words interchangeably in our everyday cultural language. Iwould like to differentiate them even if only briefly and simplistically.
When I speak of the soul, I mean the very heart of who we are, that which mayextend beyond our corporeal selves. The soul connects our deepest self to theself of all else. It is our essence. Some would say our soul is connected toeternity. When we speak of "soul mates," for instance, we are communicating thata particular relationship touches and shapes us at the deepest level of who weare. When we speak of soulful language or music, we are speaking of genuine andheartfelt expressions from the core of someone's being, artfully made knownthrough the disciplined engagement of that person's spirit.
Our spirit is expressed as the synchronistic engagement of mind, heart, andwill, through which we become more conscious of and strengthen our connection tothe soul. Think of the spirit as a muscle. We can experience greater well-beingand grounding that brings deeper contentment and self-understanding when weexercise our spirit. Spiritual practices mobilize the spirit for its proper useof knowing the unseen realities of life. It can be either strong and healthy orunderutilized and inefficient, contributing little to the strength of our being.When we use the word "self" with "spirit" and "soul," we are referring tointertwined intangible realities that are part of who we are, and which make upa healthy spiritual system (like any important physiological system) that keepsus living well in the world.
Some religions understand the soul as eternal, or at least connected to theeternal, which has no beginning or end. In this understanding of soul andspirit, one assumes the presence of another entity, God, an energy or a groundthat connects all being. It is a distinct reality, with which we can be united,and which has the power to transform us. This understanding of the spiritualquest beckons our engagement of something other than ourselves. We experiencethat it really isn't just about us, and that synergy with the other makes usfully alive.
The Dream of a Common Language
With the decline of Christianity as the primary faith in America, we have alsolost a common language with which to convey spiritual truths in the widerculture. Remembering Cox's quote, perhaps if Christianity had focused less onthe "packaging of theological propositions," we might be more of a resource topeople seeking spiritual conversation today. Religions do hold valuable truths,grounded in ancient faith tradition that would prove helpful to the spiritualquest of Americans. Without those roots, many of us lack spiritual language thatcould be helpful to develop our inner spiritual lives.
Consider the story of the birth of Jesus. Americans celebrate this event atChristmas as a secular expression of gratitude, family, and gift-giving. Moredeeply, Christians celebrate in awe and wonder that God is not separate frompeople's lives, but in Christ, God dwells and lives fully with us. We use theword "incarnation" to express that in Jesus, God is made known, "enfleshed," sothat humanity can have something tangible through which we might experience thefullness of God.
Whether the story of the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem ishistorically accurate is less relevant to our spiritual growth than theknowledge that as we seek to draw closer to God, God has already drawn close tous. The story behind the holiday of Christmas celebrates a spiritual truth thatopens the heart and mind to the idea that a divine entity outside of ourselvesmay be interested in a relationship with us.
That is one way a religion helps to deepen spiritual awareness. Jesus himself isanother. He was a first-century Palestinian rabbi, a spiritual teacher. He spokeoften in stories, parables, and metaphors, using everyday things to conveyspiritual truths that would enrich people's understanding of God. He empoweredthe synergism between human and divine.
The life of Jesus was very specifically and intentionally about revealing Godand helping people draw close to God. This was his human purpose. WhileChristian doctrine understands Jesus's identity in a particular way (savior,messiah, son of God), he could also be viewed as a metaphor for God: a story whoin his person conveys God. In The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus BecameFiction about Jesus, John Dominic Crossan defines the relationship betweenparable and metaphor in this way:
A parable ... is a metaphor expanded into a story, or, more simply, a parable is ametaphorical story. But what is a metaphor, what is a story, and how does theircombination as metaphorical story differ from any other type of story—from, say,the novel you have just read or the film you have just seen? The term "metaphor"comes from two Greek roots; one is meta, "over" or "across," and the otherpherein, "to bear" or "to carry." Metaphor means "carrying something over" fromone thing to another and thereby "seeing something as another" or "speaking ofsomething as another." ... [A] parable, that is, a metaphorical story, alwayspoints externally beyond itself, points to some different and much widerreferent.
To see meaning beyond the simple details of parables or metaphors, you must bewilling to be "carried across" to something deeper than what at first mightappear. If you remain only at the level of story, or the details of historicalaccuracy, then you miss, or worse, avoid deeper spiritual truth. Every wordJesus spoke was meant to facilitate the connection between God and humanity andto create community around that union.
Returning to our spiritual practice of "noticing," a parable that might beuseful is the Parable of the Sower (found in the Gospel of Luke 8:4–15, also inthe Gospels of Matthew 13:1–23 and Mark 4:2–20, all three slightly differentfrom one another).
Jesus spoke these words. Sit with them for awhile.
When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he saidin a parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell onthe path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell onthe rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell amongthorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, andwhen it grew, it produced a hundredfold." As he said this, he called out, "Letanyone with ears to hear listen!"
Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "To you it hasbeen given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak inparables, so that 'looking they may not perceive, and listening they may notunderstand.'
The Parable of the Sower Explained
"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones on the path arethose who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from theirhearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock arethose who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root;they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. As for whatfell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way,they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruitdoes not mature. But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, whenthey hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruitwith patient endurance." (Luke 8:4–15)
I am not a farmer, but I admire and appreciate them. They possess skill,knowledge, wisdom, and intuition honed over many seasons. In both small andlarge enterprises, I am always impressed that farmers are so mindful of theconstant play between weather, viruses, mold, bugs, weeds, economy, labor force,market demand, and soil.
I often drive the 101 freeway, the major artery running north and south thelength of California. In the region where I live, it runs for miles throughfields where all sorts of fruits and vegetables are grown. I am now accustomedto watching the growth, development, and harvest of various crops at differenttimes of the year. When driving with others at seventy miles per hour, we play"Name That Crop!" The rhythm of a regular growing cycle is clearer to me now,and I notice when weather or other circumstances force humans to adjustaccordingly, speeding up or delaying a harvest. Everyone is paying attention andmaking daily shifts to their lives. Farmers elevate the practice of noticing toan art form. Noticing farmers and thinking of them as metaphor has helped my ownspiritual practice and made me more conscious of the subtle shifts in my innerlife and surrounding environment.
