Browsing the archives for the Spirituality tag

17 Dec 12

4 way to embrce and understand your spiritual-but-not-religious family members

by Robert V. Taylor

This opinion piece first appeared on the FOX News website December 16, 2012

Across the country, parents and grandparents constantly ask me, “How do I deal with family members who don’t share my faith yet tell me that they’re spiritual (just not religious)?” I respond by telling them that holiday gatherings present an opportunity to engage and embrace them.

I often hear “My religious faith is so important to me that I don’t understand how people talk about being ‘spiritual.’” Or else they dismiss their kids or grandkids with, “Spiritual-but-not-religious just sounds like a cop-out; it’s wishy-washy to me.” Beneath such responses lie a gulf of misunderstanding that can be bridged.

The Pew Research Organization reveals that the “Nones” – those who self-identify as having no religious affiliation – now represent twenty percent of the population. For those under 30, it is thirty percent. Pew data consistently shows an upward curve in the number of people in the United States who are None. It is time to engage with them.

Among these 46 million Americans, two-thirds believe in God or a Higher Power, and half report that their spirituality is affected by a connection to nature and the earth. The Nones are shaped by their rejection of organized religion’s focus on what they describe as money, power, rules, and an over abundance of politics.

Engage and embrace them with simple steps that require two things of you: the capacity to listen attentively and remaining compassionate in your conversation. Rigid posturing or anything perceived as proselytizing will serve to only deepen the divide. Your authentic curiosity offers the possibility of new connection between you. Here are four practical steps to engage and embrace your family members:

1. Ask about a spiritual experience that has shaped their life. You are likely to hear about the importance of yoga or meditation, the experience of awe revealed in nature, or the search for leading a life in which spirituality and authenticity co-exist. The responses will reveal a life that has been expanded and transformed by participating in something bigger than them. Be willing to reflect on an experience from your own life that speaks to similar truth or revelation about your experiences of awe or a surprising experience that placed your life in the context of the sacred.

2. Engage in conversation about the importance of love and compassion. Avoid the language of religious dogma or rules unless you wish to end the conversation.

Many of the Nones view religious organizations as sidelining the central importance of compassion and love, ceding it to doctrinal purity or judgment. They place great importance on aligning acts and words about love and compassion. Most None’ are not looking for institutional based experiences but those that reveal a capacity to be generous, forgiving and responsiveness. As you talk with one another, allow yourself to be present to the conversation; in your attentiveness be willing to share your own stories of experiencing love and compassion.

3. Express your own doubts or questions about religion. Not because you intend to abandon your religion or faith but because doubt is a common shared human experience. Talking about your doubt reveals your authenticity and invites conversation. As you describe the new insights and faith practices that doubt has led you to a new landscape of connection becomes possible. Be prepared for your spiritual—but not religious — family member to draw on spiritual wisdom and practices from a variety of traditions. Be aware of how they might connect with a practice from your own religious faith.

4. Invite a conversation about how spiritual values shape your respective lives. Defensive rigidity will not enhance the conversation! The spiritual-but-not-religious, and particularly those under 35, tend to have close non-sexual friendships with persons of the opposite gender, friends from diverse religious, racial and cultural heritages and those of sexual orientations that differ from theirs.

Their spiritual values are typically inclusive and expansive. It is an enlivening way of being human to them. While they don’t necessarily expect you to fully embrace their spiritual values they will be drawn to your authentic stories of how you integrate your spiritual values with the choices you make.

In each of these four steps, be willing to engage in stories that have shaped or changed you; those that have presented an invitation to see beyond an assumed belief or view. In your stories and those of your family member a shared connecting ground will be discovered. Approach each conversation with curiosity and a willing to engage.

These four steps are usually not reserved for just one conversation, but are an opening to understanding and embracing one another. Beyond dismissing, judging or writing off the spiritual-but-not-religious each conversation will reveal a new appreciation for the depth and joy of your respective experiences of spirituality and religious faith.

In the spirit of the four steps a new tenderness, compassion and love will be discovered in your embrace of one another.

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26 Jan 12

God Pukes at Gays?

by Robert V. Taylor

Robert V. Taylor

This blog appeared on Huffington Post January 27, 2012

Does God vomit at the thought of gay and lesbian people? That’s the graphic image that O’Neal Dozier, pastor of Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach Florida, uses. It’s radically different from the one that many of us know of as a God of inclusion and love. Not vomiting but smiling on us – all of us!

What makes Dozier’s view so prominent is that he is the Honorary Chair of Rick Santorum’s Florida campaign. Although Dozier believes that homosexuality is the “paramount of sins” he is an equal opportunity exclusionist. Mother Jones reveals that his Islamaphobia and local crusade against Muslims are fueled by his belief that Muslims have an agenda for taking over America. Dozier, who claims to know the mind of God on election results, has used his position on the Florida judicial nominating committee to seek “God-fearing” judges. The test for him is whether those nominees support anti-sodomy laws.

Dozier believes America should be taken over by those who share his exclusionist views and create a fundamentalist theocracy. The constitution in his view was created only for those who are a “moral and religious people.” God-fearing in his view translates into a projectile God who throws up on those who do not share his religious vision. Thankfully there are other more spacious religious and spiritual paths.

Like millions of other LGBT people I feared God as a young person because of the religious messages I received that God had disdainful disgust for us. Like millions of other young LGBT people I considered suicide. That is one of the reasons that Dozier’s imagery and words are destructive not life-giving.

If the arc of spirituality bends towards inclusion Dozier’s views are not part of that moral trajectory. Pew Research polls reveal approximately 65% of Catholics and Protestants have positive views of gays, while only 29% of Evangelicals do. Among Post-Moderns 91% have favorable views of LGBT people while 80% of them support same-sex marriage.

The moral arc towards inclusion has a foundation of spiritual wisdom from many traditions. Christian wisdom settles largely on a message of generous expansive love matched by acts of mercy, kindness and justice. The notion of repairing the world is a central underpinning in most branches of Judaism. While Buddhist philosophy is rooted in seeking the happiness or well-being of all Buddhist practice points to the inter-connectedness of all sentient beings.

Religious leaders can be found in most traditions that, like Dozier, use their position and authority to tear apart, diminish and demean others at any cost. The climate they create is quite different than that of those who beg to differ but who seek a world in which none are harmed or excluded. The bullies who cloak themselves with the mantle of the Divine are no different than schoolyard bullies who are stopped only when their behavior is challenged.  That choice is in our hands.

We participate in the movement of the moral arc of inclusion when we actively engage in creating a world which acknowledges the goodness and compassion inherent in every person. A world in which imagery of a puking God is replaced with a spiritual path of generous inclusion in which there are no outcasts. That is a life-giving journey acknowledging and celebrating difference.

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31 Dec 11

Steps to New Year Peace?

by Robert V. Taylor

Robert V. Taylor

Is it possible to imagine peace in the New Year? It is if you claim your voice and imagination. The world needs that from each of us. Every intention and act of yours shapes what it means to be human and create a culture of peace as you take steps in that direction.

Peace sounds too big, too overwhelming to many.  Instead of being debilitated by what you can do to bring peace about back up and approach it from two other vantage points. Peace emerges when conflicts are resolved and ended. Peace in the tradition of the Hebrews is all about actions that promote the well-being of all. Not too different than the Buddhist intention of happiness for all beings.

When you think of ending a conflict, or seeking the well-being of another, or desiring happiness for others the possibility of peace is reimagined.

Your own choices and awareness will invite you to make a difference in the year ahead. These steps might add to your intentions:

Be Intentional. Peace is only possible when your hope becomes an active virtue. A specific intention to make peace will ground and make you accountable. Perhaps you will actively work with the children in your life to model attentive listening that transforms misunderstandings and makes reconciliation possible.

End a Conflict. Choose to end a conflict in your community, at work or in your family. When the happiness or well-being of all is a goal it becomes possible to imagine a resolution that moves those involved beyond entrenched positions.

Choose Compassion. We are made for compassion. Your intention to live a life of compassion creates a ripple effect among all whom you engage with. Every compassionate action of yours invites others into the circle of compassion. Learn from organizations like the Charter for Compassion or the Compassionate Action Network.

Say Yes to Peace by saying No to violence or bigotry. Join others in breaking the silences that give permission to violence or threats against people who are perceived as different.  Show up to a rally against school bullying; participate in a school board or legislative meeting to provide protections against discrimination.

Engage with the world and Universe to remember that we need one another.  Learn about an issue affecting the well-being of the planet or about a religion or culture you do not understand. Share your learning’s with those in your orbit; write, blog and speak about them. Your voice will mitigate fears of the unknown, illuminate others and point to our oneness.

With these and other choices you may already have made your voice and imagination is engaged in shaping a world where a culture of peace is possible. The happiness and well-being of yourself and others is all bundled together. Ending conflicts wherever you encounter them opens the path to a happy life of well-being for all.

Peace in the New Year depends on your active engagement!

Post your comments and steps to peace below

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29 Dec 11

Your Voice as Person of the Year?

by Robert V. Taylor

Robert V. Taylor

The Protester has been elevated by Time Magazine to a richly deserved new status. When you claim your voice as an individual you become more fully alive. When your voice joins together with the voice of others for the well-being of many you become more fully human. The Protesters invite us to new awareness about our oneness as human beings.

From the streets of US cities to those of Egypt, Libya, Syria, Myanmar and other countries a common human thread is being given voice to. It is the human yearning for our interconnectedness and shared humanity to be dignified and honored.

In place of the narrow interests of a few, the Protesters who Time honors as the Person of the Year demand that the well-being of all be reflected in political and economic arrangements marked by fairness and opportunity.  It is a reminder that our humanity is all bundled together. 

While the specifics of what that looks like will always vary from country to country the yearning for freedom and accountability stands in stark contrast to the violence inflicted by severe distortions of economic and political benefits that accrue only to a few. The magnificence of each person flourishes when the well-being of all marks how we engage with one another.

No wonder Time highlights the Protesters. They invite us to remember that our humanity and purpose is best discovered together.

The invitation to this truth is discovered each time we claim our voice. With every seemingly small contribution in our local communities our voices collectively turn into actions that seek to expand what it means to belong as members of the one human family. Every voice is of value; every voice is important; every voice is needed.

How will we each join with others as Persons of the Year in words and acts that point to the truth that we perish or flourish together?

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8 Sep 11

Silencing the Dalai Lama?

by Robert V. Taylor
Robert V. Taylor

Robert V. Taylor

The attempt to silence His Holiness the Dalai Lama is an exercise in futility akin to trying to block the flow of eternal spiritual truths. Yet this is what the government of South Africa is trying to do. Their refusal to grant him a visa to give a lecture in Cape Town in honor of his friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s eightieth birthday is ironic at best and, at worst,  hostile to free speech and religion.

     These two iconic human beings are honored in much of the world for their willingness to speak truth to power out of the spirituality of their respective Buddhist and Christian traditions. Tutu’s fearless defense of the voiceless and the inclusion of all people is an expression of the abundantly generous love of the God he believes in. The Dalai Lama’s insistence on the inter-connectedness of all beings arises from his Buddhist tradition.  He says that his religion is one of kindness. These two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates share a common spiritual and pragmatic insistence on the power of forgiveness over retribution.

     There is nothing kind, inclusive or generous about the obfuscating responses of the South African government as they dither about whether to succumb to China’s pressure to keep the Dalai Lama out of South Africa.

     In 2009 the Dalai Lama was denied a visa to give a lecture in South Africa with News24 reporting that the government admitted its move was made “in order not to jeopardize ties with China.”  The Sunday Independent reported that the South African Embassy in New Delhi had not received the Dalai Lama’s visa application. On August 22, 2011 the Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman was quoted by Phayul News saying, “The Dalai Lama’s visa issue is not only administrative but political and diplomatic in nature.” In others words the South African government is considering colluding with China in an attempt to silence His Holiness’ voice in South Africa.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

    The irony lies in the history of apartheid giving way to a robust democracy in 1994. Many members of the current government were silenced by the apartheid regime under which freedom of expression and association was unknown. It was Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s voice against apartheid that could not be silenced at home or on the global stage. Calling for the end of apartheid and for justice he insisted that the human family is made not for separateness but for togetherness. He calls it Ubuntu – we are only human beings in the context of others human beings.  

     The long fought for freedom of expression, association and democracy in South Africa is called into question by not granting a visa to His Holiness to deliver the inaugural Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture in honor of his good friends eightieth birthday on October 7.

     Driven by the spirituality of their respective traditions Tutu and the Dalai Lama tirelessly work for freedom, reconciliation and the inclusion of all. In addition to the Tutu invitation the Durban based Gandhi Development Trust intends to honor His Holiness in South Africa with the 9th Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace.

Robert V. Taylor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Archbishop Tutu

Dumisa Ntsebeza, Chair of the Desmond Tutu Peace Center in South Africa, expressed a generous hope saying, “Althoguh uncertainty over the visa has proved challenging…the Peace Center is confident the visa will be granted.”

     Archbishop Tutu and The Dalai Lama will not be silenced by any government. The question is why, given the remarkable history of South Africa’s journey, it would even consider trying to keep the Dalai Lama’s voice out of the county?

      It is a futile flourish that the old apartheid government would have been proud of.  Perhaps it is the South African government that is need of reconciliation – the reconciling of a country’s liberation and constitution with a visa that will welcome one of the great religious and human rights crusaders to its country. What is to be feared from the voices of these two Nobel Laureates celebrating their voices and those of humanity in the quest for spiritual and human freedom?

Join the conversation! Post your comments below

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22 Apr 11

Is Gay Spirituality Better…?

by Robert V. Taylor
Robert V. Taylor

Robert V. Taylor

“Gay spirituality is better than any other” – the reporter desperately wanted me to endorse his belief.  I wasn’t going there. Righteous spiritual segregation is antithetical to the idea of a spiritual journey. So where does spirituality
for LGBTQ people connect with the human family and the Holy?

Our normative story usually includes experiencing bullying, fear of coming out, rejection by family when we do, the Holy used by religion to condemn.  We
might even be the victims of violence or discrimination. Our journey also
contains another story line. It is about courage and love birthed in us.

A more spacious invitation than the reporter’s belief invites us in. Spirituality in not about a theory, it is discovered in the reality of who we are. I’ve discovered that in the spiritual journey of immigrants, women, people of color and other minorities my own journey is inspired. Many of us fall into several self identifying categories.

The question is not whether your spirituality or mine is “better.”  It’s how does your journey create empathy with others?  How does your spirituality get fed by the
wisdom of those who are different from you? How does it connect you to oneness
with others?

Unlike the belief of that reporter my spirituality is not celebrated as a “better” treasure. I discover a much richer inclusive path in three pathways to celebrate and share the gift that is my life.

Whoever and whatever tries to define you wants to confine you. It creates an enclosure keeping you from the Holy discovered in your life. In accepting an enclosure you become cut-off from the unique gifts that only you have to offer.
You deprive yourself and the world of them. Allowing yourself to be enclosed can happen subtly over time. The good news is that we have a choice to break out of the enclosure.

When we discover our voice and claim it as an LGBTQ person we are on sacred ground. Instead of listening to the bad advice of those who do not want you to claim your voice, you discover that in the Holy is present in it. Not outside “there” somewhere, but in you.  You begin to be free of a narrow consciousness. Claiming your voice is a spiritual practice taking you to a field of feasting with others.

The Universe needs your story as much as that of anyone else. As you tell your story you discover self-compassion. In the telling you become awake to the sacred in you as an LGBTQ person. As you settle in and celebrate your voice you begin to listen to the stories and voices of others with new attentiveness. They become connecting stories. Through them your appreciation and love for yourself and others deepens. You discover a new way of being alive.

These three pathways of moving beyond enclosures, discovering and trusting your voice and connecting stories are markers of your authentic experience of being gay.

Love is the only thing that matters on our spiritual quest. Everything else pales in comparison. I am loved by the Holy for all of who I am. It’s a struggle for many to know and believe it every day. When I love myself and know that I am loved life becomes more radiant. I become more fully human, more alive as I am.

It takes courage to journey through the three pathways. The root word for courage means love. To be grounded in love we cannot avoid being courageous about who we are. Not the lonely isolated warrior courage, but the courage discovered in trusted people to call on along the journey. It’s all part of our spiritual positioning system.

When I’m grounded in these three pathways my encounters with others become sacred ground. Like the Hindu greeting Namaste the light me honors the light in you.

The three pathways are not just for GLBTQ people. Love and courage are not confined to GLBTQ spirituality. They’re each part of our common journey to become fully human –  as we are. We bring to the journey the only gift we can – ourselves.

So what are the markers of your spirituality?

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14 May 10

What in God’s Name…? The Thin Place

by Robert V. Taylor
Andrew Russell

Andrew Russell

A blog conversation between Robert V. Taylor and Andrew Russell about the world premiere of a play in which Robert is one of the characters.

Andrew Russell is the Conceiver/Director of The Thin Place and Associate Director of the Intiman Theater.   He has worked with Tony Kushner.  Andrew’s credits include directing for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Public Theater and the Sundance Theater Laboratory. He was assistant director to Kate Whoriskey for the premiere of Ruined and The Miracle Worker on Broadway.   

RVT: The Thin Place is an intriguing title for the play you have conceived!  In Celtic and other traditions the thin places are those borderlands where human life, the Holy and creation meet.  They are openings into new insight.  How does The Thin Place offer such an opening?

AR: We’ve interviewed over a dozen individuals of varying faiths who have encountered their own deeply personal Thin Place. What’s interesting is that the borderlands where human life and the holy meet, as you put it, aren’t always places of grace or bliss. As you’ll see in the play, encountering your version of the divine can be rough, complicated, frustrating and difficult to endure — but often it’s because of this complex journey that one is able to arrive and embrace one’s own Thin Place. We’ve also expanded on the traditional definition of this term. In our play the term can also mean the specific moment when someone’s belief enters a very thin and fragile state, or the moment someone reaches awe-inspiring bliss within their mind. Our hope is that by sharing all of these real stories in one play, we will create an actual Thin Place in the theatre where audience members will be able to step outside their comfort zone, consider things slightly differently, and potentially rethink their opinion of themselves and others. It’s funny that you refer to this idea as that of an “opening” because in one of the final lines of the play the central character references this idea — and talks about how all of these perspectives and voices he’s encountered from Seattle’s community create a new opening for him, a dawning awareness.  

Robert V. Taylor

Robert V. Taylor

RVT: What sparked something in you to conceive of this play?

AR: I’ve always had a complex, and often frustrating, relationship with the idea of faith and religion and was fascinated with Seattle’s rumored pride in being “Godless” or “one of the least churched cities in the country.” Kate Whoriskey (the new Artistic Director at Intiman) and I listened to Dan Savage’s podcast on This American Life about his fraught relationship with the Catholic Church after his mother died, and became curious about exploring the depth of faith in Seattle. I worked briefly on a film called Questioning Faith with director Macky Alston and producer Leonard Cox many years ago and Macky’s quest to question God’s presence after losing a friend from AIDS stuck with me — and this also influenced our quest to explore the subject. We were also looking for a project that embraced Seattle and acknowledged something special about the city — its open- mindedness and unique spirituality. Personally I’ve been very moved and enlightened by this process, and consider my outlook on God and faith, and those who believe deeply in any form of dogma, to have matured. 

RVT: The ads for the play ask the provocative question, “What in God’s name is Seattle thinking?”  It’s been said that the Cathedral of the Pacific Northwest is the splendor of the environment.  Have you been struck by unique expressions of the spiritual quest in the Northwest?

AR: I grew up in the mid-west where church attendance is incredibly common. When one moves to a new city the first thing they’re often asked is “have you found a church” or “would you like to go to church with me?” When I first came to Seattle to start work on this project I began to ask people where they went to church, and the responses were more along the lines of “I don’t go to church,” “I’m spiritual,” or “we don’t really go to church much in Seattle.” But, I’ve also listened to many stories about the power of faith in this region. There’s this deep hunger for the truth, or a personal truth rather, in this area and it seems to result in a diverse and very authentic group of people. People seem less interested in conforming to something that exists and more interested in exploring, questing, and discovering a path of their own. This manifests itself on stage in The Thin Place, as all of our characters are on a religious and spiritual journey yes, but they are also simply searching to find their voice, their identity. 

RVT: The number of Americans describing themselves as spiritual rather than religious keeps increasing.  It’s around 25% of the population now.  Does The Thin Place offer a way for people anywhere to engage in conversations about the nexus of spirituality, meaning and purpose?

AR: We’ve had an outreach team that’s been visiting many different religious institutions over the past weeks and through this process we’ve realized how interested religious (and non-religious) communities are in the subject of our play. I should also say that we’ve got a website called TheThinPlace.com, which was constructed so that people can share their own stories of journeys to and from The Thin Place. Also, we will keep the bar open every night after the show’s opening performance for a post-play discussion and conversation.

The goal is that we continue the conversation that is already naturally percolating in this city onto the stage, and that the conversation continues after — even more intensified.  We feature personal stories from individuals from very different backgrounds — varying religions, ages, sexes, races, sexualities — and in the end our main character embraces these diverse stories as his new power, his opening, his own voice. There’s a lot that happens — and therefore a lot to discuss! 

RVT: The play weaves the stories of ordinary people talking about defining moments that have shaped their spiritual journey.  How did you think about whose stories to include, and why?

Sonya Schneider

Sonya Schneider

AR: We wanted to include as diverse a group as possible, and so we set out with simply that mission in mind. And, we wanted everyone to be from Seattle. Then we layered in the need to find individuals who have questioned, confronted or discovered their faith, and who have been through their own personal struggle. Through speaking with Board members, friends, churches and organizations the stories started to trickle in. Then Marcie Sillman of KUOW interviewed over 15 people and we handed those raw transcripts over to playwright Sonya Schneider who has sculpted them into the story that’s onstage now.  

RVT: The Thin Place invites people into the practice of telling the stories that have shaped and formed each of our lives.  It becomes an invitation to engage in story-telling and see the sacred in our own stories.  Will this be a shocking revelation to audiences? 

AR: Theatre, much like church, has the ability to remind people that their lives are sacred, that there is a deep meaning to their being on earth. A group of people in a dark room, listening to a story, becomes a very sacred and beautiful event. Theatre asks people to reexamine their version of normal, and asks them to look at their life (and the lives of others) through a different frame. Will this be shocking? I don’t know. But, I do hope it will act as a reminder that the depth and texture in our lives is incredible — sometimes we just have to look a little deeper and listen to ourselves. It has been very moving to hear the responses from the people we interviewed — they’ve all read the script — they have had reactions that might verge on shocked. They’ve commented on how well we’ve crafted their story, or how exciting we’ve made it, or how they cannot wait to see it on stage. This gives me goose-bumps because meanwhile I’m thinking “You can’t wait to see it on stage? I can’t wait to meet you. This is your story, this is your truth — that’s even more profound.” Theatre is as real as the people that make it.  

RVT: One of the characters in the play says that her religion was hijacked by terrorists.  I often hear similar comments from people who feel that institutional religion hijacks the essence of a spiritual message.  Is this something that the play sheds light on? 

AR: Well, yes, but it should be clear that the play is merely an examination of a lot of real personal stories, and we are only reflecting those stories back to an audience. So in that way yes, almost each of these stories touches on the idea that an institution can interrupt one’s personal quest. There is also a great deal of questioning authority, which is something I think is very interesting. Whether it is religion or any belief or organized life system, I think people should question authority and really examine what it is they’re told to believe. If something is that meaningful and filled with truth, shouldn’t it be able to withstand the scrutiny? 

RVT: What have been your greatest surprises in taking this play from conception to the stage?

Gbenga Akinnagbe

Gabenga Akinnagbe

AR: Working with Gbenga Akinnagbe has changed the evolution of the process in an exciting way. He’s an incredible actor and he brings an energy and charm to the stage that is essential in carrying a 90 minute show with one actor. Sonya has sculpted the show with him in mind, and we’ve weaved the stories around a protagonist (based on one of the real interviews, someone going through their own current Thin Place) who encounters all of the other people we interviewed. This evolution of plot and construct for the story was a big surprise and healthy shift. Also, we’ve been working with Donald Byrd as a choreography/movement consultant and that has made for all sorts of surprising and insightful moments in the play.

I’m also surprised, and moved, at how much the “real” people have embraced this story. I thought they might be shy or be skeptical but they’ve all come forward and participated in outreach, and some have agreed to have their photos in the program and most of them will be at opening night. 

RVT: How has The Thin Place shifted or affected how you think of the spiritual and everyday life?

Honestly, it has had a profound effect. I look at people on the street and think how each of us has a story that is deep and worth exploring on stage. Deeper than that, I’ve become less rigid in my fundamentalism as an atheist. I realize that fundamentalism of any belief system is dangerous and one must always take in and consider everything else being experienced in the world. I’ve also enjoyed researching the history of religion, and that’s put everything in a new context for me. Much of the debate about God and Faith and Religion (I use capital letters on all those because they become loaded words very quickly) is really a debate about definitions. We use different words and prayers to explain and explore the same things, and different stories to make similar points, but we embrace the notion that our worlds are so incredibly divergent. I challenge that they aren’t.

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1 Apr 10

Waking Up to New Life in You? An Easter Insight?

by Robert V. Taylor

Our lives are like the Universe and Creation. Like them, there is always something breaking out or unfolding in our lives. We are not static! For many, the Easter celebration is about new life emerging from the old. Is there an “Easter gift” in thinking about new life, new possibility, breaking out in your life?

Happiness research reveals many of us think that new variety and activity will make us happier. The research shows that most of us get great satisfaction and enjoyment from returning to something familiar. Is this because you and I are hard-wired to be grounded?

Being grounded doesn’t mean I’m resistant to change. In fact, being grounded makes it possible to be alive and open to new life, new insights, and new possibilities emerging in my life.

My friend Kay emailed me this week to say, How do I get my Easter back? I really don’t want it to be colored eggs and bunnies. I have always used the time working in my yard as a reflecting time. As I worked in the yard I was giving thanks for the blessing of new life in my flowers and yard. She answered her own question! Instead of looking back to the past, she discovered an answer among the living things in her garden. She is literally grounded in the experience of the dirt of the earth!

Knowing what grounds us is like preparing the soil for planting. Knowing who I am grounds me. Practicing mindfulness each day grounds me. Finding delight in the course of every day is grounding. Values of compassion and love center and draw me into new possibilities. You probably have your own pathways of grounding.

The Easter image of a tomb empty and open is a life-giving invitation to think about your own life. Like stones used to seal a tomb, most of us build self-fulfilling enclosures around our lives. We use them to keep ourselves away from experiencing new life – “I can’t do that!” Old ghosts, words of reprimand, addiction to an old image of self all conspire to keep us from new creation in us. Perhaps what was once erected for self-protection has no purpose now? You probably have your own list of the bricks which make up your enclosure!

In some traditions, Easter is called the “eighth day of creation”. It imagines that old patterns, old cycles can be broken, stepped beyond! Most of us take small steps towards new life, new possibilities. It’s not about abandoning the past or ignoring our life story. For some of us, each step is like a dance or walking on a labyrinth. Each step builds on the previous one, making way for what follows. Each small step is cause for celebration!

Perhaps the gift inherent in Easter is a “Wake Up” call to become fully alive? The things which ground us become pathways to new life. Nothing of the past or present is wasted. Each step invites us into the new emerging from the ground of our life. “Wake Up” to what invites attention!

Robert V. Taylor – Saying Yes to Your Own Life

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27 Dec 09

A New Year Spirituality of Hope?

by Robert V. Taylor

Does the turning of a year invite some spiritual optimism and hope for what lies ahead?   Joyful, festive celebrations express a spirituality of delight and feasting.  But is there something that reminds us of the other dimensions of a spirituality of oneness, of unity and of justice for all?  I believe there is.

For over three decades my own New Year’s Day practice has been to recite, sing or reflect on the words of the gospel song, This little light of mine.   The song is a reminder of the spiritual light which flickers in each of us, going before us, illuminating the path and inextinguishable.  This annual practice has always felt to me like a reminder of the light which precedes us in the world.  A light which invites us to be radiant in what we try to do.  This annual practice and tradition is a reminder of the ground beneath me and before me.

A practice much older than mine provides a reminder of a profound spiritual yearning for freedom, emancipation, justice and liberty.  For surely these things are the expression of any spirituality of love and compassion?  At the cusp of a new year the reminder of this yearning comes in the form of Watch Night.

Watch Night is a prayer service that takes place on New Year’s Eve in black churches across the United States.  The practice began in 1862 when free African Americans, joined by abolitionists, gathered to pray that the Emancipation Proclamation would be signed by President Lincoln as he had promised to do on the next day, January 1, 1863.

In many black churches the Emancipation Proclamation is still read in its entirety, or in part, at every Watch Night service.  In some churches the lights are dimmed for the service and then completely turned off for the five minutes before midnight as congregants kneel in prayer. As midnight strikes, the lights are turned on and people rise from their knees and a new year is celebrated!

This tradition may celebrate one particular emancipation epiphany.  Its particularity invites reflection and participation in the universal hope it points to. It invites us to the window of what a spirituality of being beloved of the Holy means for the emancipation of all people.  The Watch Night rhythm of prayers offered on bended knees, the movement from dimmed light to darkness which welcomes the blazing light of a New Year is a metaphor for the cycles of dimness, darkness and the many shades of light which lead into promises of hope, justice and emancipation for all.

The celebratory partying of New Year’s Eve need not stand alone as an expression of a spirituality of delight and joy.  The Watch Night tradition is a reminder of the hopes for oneness and unity emerging from the shadows into the full disclosure of light.  The two strands of celebration are not separate but spiritual cousins.

My own treasured tradition with, This little light of mine, at the turning of the year is not diminished by these other traditions.  It is enriched and enhanced by them.  I am reminded that we each play a role in making the promises of the year ahead happen.

Perhaps your own traditions at the turning of the year reveal spiritual insights for yourself and others?

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23 Dec 09

Is There a Spirituality of Christmas?

by Robert V. Taylor

Is there a spirituality to Christmas that reaches beyond religion and Christianity?  I believe so.  It is more than gift giving, baubles and Santa’s that draw so many non-Christians to this holiday.  Christmas invites people into three compelling spiritual truths:  the promise of becoming fully alive; discovering the Holy in the midst of the messiness of life and, hope.  The disruptive manger scene is an invitation to see beyond the lines of religion.

Almost 800 years ago Francis of Assisi created the first Christmas manger scene.  His live tableau reflected his imagining of the people and creatures gathered for the birth of Christ.  Francis’ nativity scene was a spiritually disruptive event – one of those moments that disrupt and open up the prevailing or dominant way of thinking.

Francis’ stealth move of cracking open a window into the Holy shed light on the distant, stultified view of the Divine which prevailed in the Western European churches.  God was omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.  The disruptive brilliance of the manger scene was a seismic change in re-ordering the spirituality of everyday life.

The infant in the manger scene is a crying, giggling, charming, annoying, playful, sleeping baby.  The infant is an invitation to become fully alive with all of the contradictions that make us human.  To be spiritual is after all about becoming fully alive.  The word for spirituality means “breath of life”.   One of the invitations of Christmas comes in the notion of Incarnation – of the Holy taking on human form.  Whatever one’s personal belief of that view is, it is an iconic image of Divine life pulsating in a tiny child. For many, celebrating Christmas is an earthy response to the spiritual truth which it conveys – of the breath of life, of being fully alive, as spiritual gift for every person.

The second compelling truth that Christmas conveys is that the spiritual is discovered in the messiness and complexity of human life. The so-called Holy Family are comprised of a teenage mother who became pregnant before marriage,  a husband who is so disorganized that he cannot even arrange accommodation and a child given birth to on a rock among animals.  It is a homeless holy family.  This family dysfunction is part of the universal appeal of this holiday – the spiritual truth that the Holy is discovered in the messy, unfinished nature of our ordinary lives.

The third thing that invites celebration of Christmas is love and hope born in a child.  A child who represents the universal pathway  between the human and the holy.  A child who offers the promise of the holy present in the messiness and breath of everyday lives.  For many, Christmas is a renewal of hope, of re-imagined belief in the possibility of the impossible; of the chance to re-birth and renew that human and the holy meeting in our lives.

The electric snow-person that I received as a gift may be beguilingly silly as it changes color.  It might amuse us in the way that the inflatable plastic helicopter with Santa aloft on someone’s lawn caused me to smile as I drove by it.  Or the sparkling lights adorning people’s homes may enchant us, reminding us that the flickering lights dance with life. Or the vast plastic Santa’s on the wall of an office building in Tokyo may cause us to stop and ask if our eyes are tricking us. For many, this is the sum of Christmas.

For Christians, their entire faith and belief system is predicated on the birth of the Savior at Christmas.  The Christ whom they see as having been foretold in the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures is the fulfillment of an ancient promise they believe.  No wonder Christians sing about the “Holy Night” on which Christ was born and revel in songs like “Joy to the World”.   The beauty and joy of many Christian celebrations of Christmas is enough to thaw the heart of a turgid curmudgeon.

But for many others, those who are spiritual but not religious, or those who practice another religious tradition, there is a gracious universal invitation to Christmas.  The promise of becoming fully alive as a spiritual person, the reminder of the Holy mixed up in the bundle of life and the hope represented in a universal child revealing the Divine – these are spiritual truths and gifts to many at Christmas.  So the celebrations are joined for many varied reasons.

What does the spirituality of Christmas say to you and even those you love?

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