Wednesday, April 29, 1998
Supermarket spirituality fails to satisfy
RELIGION: Self-evaluation key to fulfillment within any
tradition of worship
By Rev. Giles Asbury
Over the past week or so I have read with interest the
editorials from a variety of correspondents relating to the topic
of religion and spirituality. The topic has evoked a lively
exchange, and I think has illustrated not only the variety of
feelings regarding this issue but the hunger that exists within
peoples’ lives for a sense of ultimacy to give meaning to their
daily round of activity.
As a priest within the Christian tradition, I could probably
gloat and say that this is only the "chickens coming home to
roost." The very institution which has done so much to drive the
dimension of faith out of reasoned academic discourse is now
actively engaging itself in promoting "spirituality."
I refuse to be drawn into that sort of diatribe, except to say
that it is illustrative of the universal human need to identify
with and seek communion with the "Ground of All Our Being."
I believe that we have become increasingly aware of the fact
that all of the intermediate and partial satisfactions of our needs
only emphasize that we have a desire for something which lies
beyond our powers of addition and detraction – and beyond our
commercial and material possibilities to quench this thirst. It may
well be that we are coming to realize that we can not, in the end,
fulfill ourselves. No matter how much we eat, drink, buy, sell,
consume or exchange, we still look for fulfillment that is not
provided in these relationships. When we are serious, in the dark
of the night, about our most intimate connections (our lovers and
our partners) in this life, we come to the realization that we know
that they are pointers and direction markers that carry us beyond
ourselves into unexplored and unmarked territory.
All of the religious traditions that have been the root-stock of
our human cultures have pointed to this reality. "Now I see in a
dim mirror, then I shall see face to face" is how the Christian
apostle Paul described it. It is the awareness that grows that our
knowledge, no matter how finely adjusted and defined, is still only
partial, and that at some point we will see more clearly and
completely. The whence of this revelation is dependent upon
different traditions. Some say that through discipline or the
Creator’s good graces we can behold this in our lifetime; in other
perspectives, this understanding is reached beyond the bounds of
our own mortality.
All religious traditions make this search for connection,
communion, identification and affirmation the basis of their
instruction. Each tradition provides paths that the devout pilgrim
may follow which will lead him or her into the presence of the
Creator. These paths involve preparation, study, discipline,
discernment and the regulation of desire. Each one of them
challenges the pilgrim to higher callings, self awareness and
transcendence. Each one of them reminds the seeker of something
which Nietzsche once observed. He wrote something to the effect
that you should beware when you look into the abyss, because you
may find that it is looking back.
As we draw closer to the goal of our journey, we find that we
are not only affirmed but called into question and placed in
judgment. Perhaps this is because what we seek is the sum total of
all of our partial imaginings and suppositions. These realizations
call us to get beyond all of our idealizations of ourselves and see
ourselves as we are. This apprehension of who we are can be
alarming, but is indicative of the ways in which we need to change
ourselves. "After enlightenment, wash the dishes" is how a teacher
of Zen meditation put it. Affirmation and confirmation go hand in
hand with judgment, reconciliation and amendment of life.
The difficulty that I find with most modes of modern
spirituality is that we pay court to affirmation and confirmation,
and all of those things which build the seeker up, but rarely do we
give credence to the other factors of spiritual development which
bring us to the test or call us to awareness of how we fall short
of what is possible for each one of us.
In much of what passes for spirituality today we take a
supermarket approach. We go down the shopping aisle of traditions,
culture or therapies, and we pick out what is most attractive to
us. We use them and appropriate them for our edification, all the
while ignoring much of what is part and parcel of their discipline.
We pick out what is bright and attractive and divorce ourselves
from what might be difficult, challenging or problematical. We take
this from the Native Americans, that from the Buddhist community,
another piece from the yogic tradition and practice them all while
listening to a Benedictine choir sing Gregorian chants. More often
than not, what we have chosen is edifying and beneficial. However,
it may never really call us to question ourselves or move beyond
our own self-definition.
Unfortunately and tragically, these practices, as well
intentioned as they may be, may never call us to move ourselves
beyond our own spiritual fascination with ourselves into a deeper
engagement with the fact that every spiritual being is also a
community being, and is bound not only to themselves but to the
whole chain of being.
Much of it is reminiscent of a story told by the Sufi master
Idries Shah. He told of a dilettante who visited a Sufi teacher and
told of all the religious traditions and schools of meditation that
she had explored. Following the interview, the teacher said he was
fascinated by her exploration and would send her a demonstration of
her spiritual quest.
The next day the woman received a package from the master. She
opened it and found a crystal vial, almost filled to the top, with
layer upon distinct layer of beautifully colored sand. There was a
note with the vial which read, "Shake the vial and it will show you
what you are." The woman took the vial and shook it up. and
immediately the layers of brilliantly colored sand were mixed into
a single band of ordinary beach sand.
I pray daily for the spiritual growth of the members of this
community, just as I hope, work and pray for my own spiritual
quickening. I only hope that we can never forget that each
tradition is a vehicle that takes us down varied paths to an end
that is the goal of all human spiritual endeavors. My hope is that
each one of us will not forget that these traditions are of a piece
that we need to ground ourselves in a faith and let it convey to
the end of our all our aspirations.