THE ROOT OF SPIRITUALITYby jonahTo acknowledge that I am a sinnerIs to acknowledge That I am small;That I am weak;That I am insignificant;That I am not the reason for my existence;That everything I am and haveAre giftsWhich I am allowed to enjoyFor a time.What human experience is at the root of spirituality? Spirituality, I believe, is rooted in our human experience of vulnerability. We experience ourselves as small, weak and insignificant creatures. We acknowledge that we are dependent upon others—ultimately dependent upon a Higher Power.Driving northeast from Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Highway 70 past the White Sands National Monument to Alamogordo and then north on Highway 54, one arrives at Three Rivers National Park over a narrow, windy road that is hardly a road. This is a place where you must want to go. A sacred place. Here on top of a high outcropping of rocks are pre-Columbian petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are images carved in rocks by a mysterious race of Native Americans who disappeared hundreds of years ago. These images are believed to be over a thousand years old. They are pre-literate writings by a people who were beginning to develop a written language. Scholars have been unable to decipher these ancient writings but seem to agree that many of them have spiritual and sacred significance. So these, like the Jewish and Christian Bible, were sacred writings. The high outcropping of rocks, where these petroglyphs are found, looks out over a vast desert plain. The vista stretches for acre after acre and mile after mile of nothing but gravel and dust, with a scattering of small dry bushes. Then at the edge of the vista, huge mountains with sharp snowy peaks suddenly rise up from the floor of the desert. Here, many centuries ago, members of this mysterious race sat and contemplated this panoramic experience of reality. In this setting it is not difficult to image that one is at the center of the world. It is easy to become lost in the view—to feel awe and wonder, small and insignificant.A few years ago, when my late mother-in-law was already in her late eighties or early nineties, my wife and I took her up to the top of Mount Mitchell in western North Carolina. This is the highest mountain in the eastern United States. On top of the mountain is an observation tower. I was standing next to Grandma and heard her whisper to herself: “How great Thou art”. She was expressing the same sense of wonder and awe that the ancient settlers of Three Rivers in New Mexico experienced on top of that small, rocky outcropping. These are very natural human experiences that are at the core of all spirituality. In 1988, I gave voice to this natural human experience of wonder and awe in the poem“The Prairie”:On a cloudless night I see the starsOf countless galaxiesThat reach across a prairie skyAnd touch eternities.At dawn across the prairie grassAs far as eye can see,I gaze upon an endless plainThat’s void of bush and tree.I find embedded in prairie rocksThe bones of creatures past,Whose silent presence profoundly speakOf life that does not last.Then suddenly I am transformedTo rocks and grass and sky.I am the creatures of the pastWhose relics beneath me lie.For all these things I think and speakAnd ask Eternity:“What have we been? What are we now?What shall we come to be?”The Bible says: “Blessed are the poor, for they shall see God.” Who are these “poor”? The poor are those who have eyes to see. To experience is to see. We first experience reality, then we reflect upon that experience, and finally we act upon that experience by our deeds and our words. So spirituality is rooted in our human experience of reality. Religion is the manifestation of that experience in actions (ritual) and words (doctrine). So what is that experience?Our initial experience is mixed. We become aware of our self as a distinct person but at the same time we experience our dependency upon others—generally our parents. They are important because we depend upon them. Our parents or caregivers are our first experience of god, that is, of a greater reality upon which we are very much dependent. As we mature, we more and more experience the distinct-self as independent. We become aware of the limitations of our caregiver(s). The process of individualization is one whereby the distinct-self wants to assert its self reliance. We want to provide for ourselves and assert our independence—our individualism. But the unavoidable reality is that we are weak and small; we are insignificant as individuals. This experience of independence is an illusion. It is a form of denial because deep within we know that we are not the reason for our existence and that in reality we are indeed weak, small, insignificant and vulnerable. The process of individualization, however, must not end in a kind of individualism that imagines that the self is the center of the universe. That all things revolve around the self is an illusion because it simply is not true. This kind of individualism is egotistic, self-centered, and narcissistic and so forth. Such persons use other people and things to advance themselves and to promote their own self-interest. All spirituality, and therefore all true religion that is not mere religiosity, is rooted in the experience that a person is not something apart from the universe but rather something apart of the universe. The ego-self realizes that it alone is indeed small, weak and insignificant. In spirituality, persons discovers that they belongs to—are a part of—a Higher Reality. That Higher Reality is the person’s true self. The true-self finds meaning and strength not in its self as an individual but in relationship to other persons and to the Greater Reality of which it is a part. The true-self represents a further next step in human development. The individual is transcended. The ego-self realizes that being, existence, the universe is not about it. We have no idea of what happens to our ego-self when we die. When we have no body, no arms or legs, no heart or lung or stomach or liver, no eyes or ears or nose or mouth, no brain, what will remain of the ego-self? We will be transformed and all that will remain is our true self, that is, all that will remain is the Higher Reality of which we are a part. Spirituality, and all true religion, is rooted in our experience of our relationship to Higher Reality. That Higher Reality we call God. We belong to God. Apart from God we are nothing. posted by Jonah 3:18 PM . . .
