Religious Scholar

This blog has a new Journal accessible from a link on the right-hand column of your screen. The new Journal, "Ecology and Spirituality," will explore the relationship between spirituality and the natural world, a study  pioneered in the mid-19th century by the author and environmentalist, Henry David Thoreau.

 One of the main goals of this Journal in 2008 will be to advocate for the preservation of parks, semi-wilderness and wilderness sites in the United States, especiallly New Jersey, where draconian budget cuts are threatening the state's dwindling natural resources.

It’s sad to see science and religion still pitted against each other as though enemies. Each makes sense only when complemented with the other. Think of the taiji symbol, two perfectly balanced drops each nested in the crook of the other’s arm, each containing the seed of the other.

Or, to bring the metaphor into the 21^st century, think of the “layers” function in the computer software, Photoshop. Layers in this program replicate transparent sheets of acetate, one overlaid on the other. The layers can be viewed individually but make most sense—make a complete picture, in fact—only when seen together as one unit.

Science deals with the material world and its processes. Religion deals with the immaterial, with matters of spirit and soul. It won’t do, Science, to crow that soul does not exist, cannot be measured and classified. As Religion declares (in the Hindu Upanishads), “When I see, who is it that sees? When I hear, who is it that hears?” The answers to such questions are the province of religion, the mechanical processes and organs the estate of science.

Together they work amazingly well. Apart, they are incomplete. Why can’t we accept that each has a role to play in our understanding and happiness?

Attention deficit disorder is more than a disease: it’s the nature of modern times. We have lost the ability to concentrate, an ability which is more important than any other skill because it is the foundation from which all other skills are developed.

In the June 1993 issue of New Frontier magazine, my “Contemplating Yoga” column focused on concentration. The point of the article was that the act of developing concentration and learning how to pay attention is in itself a practical spiritual practice.

Teens complain about having to study “impractical” subjects such as Latin and algebra, but the process of learning these subjects teaches us the most practical of all lessons: how to focus the attention, “listen” single-mindedly to what is being said and zero in on a single thought or process. Science fiction films do a great job showing us the power of concentration. Think of Luke Skywalker roaring down that final stretch, like a desperate hockey player who must land the puck squarely between the goalie’s ankles, or Neo and Trinity in The Matrix whose every move must be perfectly focused in the service of their ideals.

Concentration takes the infinite power of the human mind and compresses it into a laser beam of red-hot intensity. One of my favorite writers on the subject is Simone Weil (1909-1943). In an essay urging young people to apply themselves to their studies at school, she wrote that it’s not what we learn but how we learn it, specifically the degree and quality of the concentration we bring to our studies.

“The development of the faculty of attention (concentration) forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies,” she wrote. “Never, in any case whatever, is a genuine effort of (concentration) wasted. It always has its effect on the spiritual plane…and the intelligence, for all spiritual light lightens the mind.” (Weil, Simone, Waiting for God, “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God,” HarperCollins/The Perennial Library, New York, 1973).

In an article in the Spring 2008 edition of Self Realization magazine, the 20^th century teacher, Paramahansa Yogananda, puts it simply: “Concentration is power.” Yogananda in fact offers the strikingly original idea that everything was created by the power of divine concentration. Imagine it: God concentrates, and a passionflower blooms! When we concentrate fully in a positive way, we are partaking in this divine, creative energy. Yogananda notes that people “who live in a state of restless distraction” lead unsuccessful, unfulfilled lives.

Certainly, concentration can be a boon to people in business and government, but it is something that can transform the life of every individual. Even if one is not religious or is suspicious of faiths other than one’s own, the practice of focused concentration in meditation or contemplation can have unimaginable benefits. Let’s teach our students and children not only the practical lessons they must learn, but also the process of concentration, the tool that enables us all to see deeply, widely and far.

Do we have souls? Scientists cannot measure or weigh anything called “the soul,” and have rightly concluded, based on their own material criteria, that it does not exist.

But the question remains:  Is there such a thing as the soul? Of course there is! It’s just that we’re using a word to represent it that may no longer have meaning.

When we talk about soul we really mean the essential nature or who we really are. This nature is deeper than personality or appearance. It goes right to the root of our being. The Hindu scriptures ask, “When you taste, who is it that tastes? When we see, who is it that sees?” What animates us? These questions imply that there is more to each individual than meets the eye. People we identify as good (Mother Theresa) as well as those we call bad (Hitler) equally can be said to have an essential nature, though how it is expressed in the world may vary widely.

By this new definition of soul, human beings are not the only creatures that have essential being. My cat, Charlie, racing through the house in pursuit some imaginary prey, certainly has a core of being, an essential nature that animates and enlivens him, and makes him unique from any other being. Charlie has this core nature, and I can’t imagine it will just vanish into thin air when his body stops working (though it could be argued that the soul decomposes with the flesh, if we are in fact a mind-body continuum).

“Soul” is not the only religious or spiritual term that may not work for all people. The word “God” suggests to some the Bearded Old Man in the Sky, the deity of slave-owners, fascists, homophobes and misogynists. . Depending on one’s personality and intellectual bent, more descriptive terms such as Ultimate Reality, Divine Being or Great Spirit may work better. I suspect many have turned from a religious perspective altogether because they could not stand the conventional imagery provoked by the word “God.” Aldous Huxley addressed this question in the mid-20^th century by referring to God as the Ground of All Being, though this is a bit antiseptic for my taste. I like images of the divine that have a bit of flesh and bone on them.

Then there’s the word “mysticism.” Most people associate this with mumbo-jumbo, being “way out there” or simply with mental derangement. Quite a different definition comes from Evelyn Underhill, an English scholar who worked in the first half of the last century. For Underhill, mysticism was the study and experience of reality. Appearances and the phenomenal world count and matter deeply. But there is an essential reality underlying everything, and it’s each person’s charge to discover, explore and experience this holistic source. Like Thoreau, we each must find our own Walden, “to front only the essential facts of life, and see if (we) could learn what it had to teach, and not, when (we) came to die, discover (we) had not lived.”

Since it is easy to go off the deep end, especially if one is unbalanced to begin with (and who isn’t in this wacky world of ours), the safest route is to embark on this exploration in the context of tried and true religious traditions. Blow the dust off your own half-forgotten faith and see if there’s a framework there that will steady you on your journey. If not, and your friends and family members attest to your basic sanity, be a trailblazer and discover truth on your own terms.

By viewing it as a key to practical knowledge, we are flipping the conventional definition of mysticism and making it the most stable, concrete and foundational practice we could and should embrace.

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to understanding is the way in which we are defining the terms. Pry the words up from their sticky context, clean them up, examine them and see if there’s more meaning there than meets the eye.

There is a famous saying in Eastern philosophy:  When the time is right, the master will appear.  What the saying doesn't tell us is that the time may be right, the master may appear, but the student may not recognize him or her! Sometimes years must pass, and during an "aha!" moment, the student will shout, "Yes! He was the one!" or "How could I have not seen it. She is the right teacher for me." Hopefully, it will not be too late for the student. But even if it seems too late, the master's key teaching may have been communicated in that moment of realization.