thought of the day.171

Atheist Spirituality

“The business of human beings is to be alive. Death is not our affair. Our job is to learn, grow, dance, sing, have sex, play with, enjoy and teach our children and grandchildren, and to love one another--especially love one another. Love is the finest thing we do. When we are loving we are doing the best thing human beings can do. It is greater than all our other human accomplishments. Our love is more beautiful than the Mona Lisa, stronger than steel cables, older than the pyramids and more impressive than gods, governments, monuments or the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britanica....

“I'd like to make it clear that I do not equate religion with spirituality. I think religion has often been a great evil in the world. If you look up the meaning of the phrase "auto-da-fe" you will see that it means literally "act of faith." This faith act, however, is tying a living person to a stake, piling wood around their feet and burning them to death. Before anybody protests the good things religion has done--The Salvation Army, Feed the Children, The Friends and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committees, etc.--I contend that faith in the unseen does not make us different people from who we already are. Good people do good things, bad people to bad things and both have, in the past, invoked religion and belief in God as the motivation for their behavior.

“I think that spirituality is extremely important. A healthy spiritual life is important to our development as human beings. Healthy spirituality is as important as good self esteem or good relationships, but I separate spirituality from religion. I don't think it has much to do with divine revelation or worship of the unseen.

“That brings us to the sticky subject of a definition for spirituality. If spirituality doesn't have much to do with gods or divine inspiration, what the heck is it? I've read a lot on this subject and talked to a lot of people about it. The answer is clear--we're going to have to live with ambiguity. There's no single definition. Everyone must find the answer for themselves. Naturally I've come up with a definition for myself and I'll offer it to you, not as the final answer--because I don't believe there is one--but to give you something to think about, or maybe a starting point for your own definition.

“So what is spirituality? What are we doing when we are "being" spiritual? For me spirituality is not a state, but an activity. In my humble opinion spirituality is practice. I can't stress that enough. Traditional Asian sitting meditation is a practice--and a difficult one--even though it looks like doing nothing. Spirituality is not striking a virtuous pose. It's not waiting for a swell of emotion. Usually the spiritual practice is something which is repetitive and which serves to disengage the wandering ever-busy mental processes and allow them to come to rest. When the restless mind quiets we can form an intimacy with ourselves. When that happens we also forge a connection between ourselves and the web of existence. We make a carefully considered, nourishing and replenishing connection with life itself. Spirituality is forming an intimate and loving connection with ourselves and with everything in life.

“What constitutes spiritual practice? What do you do? Some practices are obvious. Meditation is one, an important one. Another traditional practice is contemplation and prayer--whether you pray to someone or not, whether you contemplate the divine or the universe in all its splendor. I dance. I play the drum. I chant and I participate in rituals. But also, I know several people who garden, who paint--both pictures and houses, who work wood or metal, who sew, who jog, who bake bread. Phil Jackson in the book Sacred Hoops finds basketball to be a spiritual practice. There are many ways to celebrate these important spiritual connections and allow ourselves to be nourished by them....

“Ultimately Kuan Yin and Bertrand Russell are telling us the same thing: Be compassionate toward one another. Love one another. Endure the happiness of your neighbors, because their happiness is inextricably bound to your own. And for the sake of your own happiness, forge an intimate connection with yourself and between yourself and everything that is in life, celebrate those connections and be nourished by them.

~ Susan Brassfield, Kuan Yin, Bertrand Russell and Why Atheist Spirituality is Not An Oxymoron