Find Spirituality in Everyday Life "We can no longer afford the luxury of a spirituality that is separate from the world. Even if we had the time and inclination for such a pursuit, the increasingly precarious predicament of the planet and its inhabitants cries out for greater involvement and concern than ever before. The difficult problems facing us on all sides...call for a new vision of human purpose. Human life on this planet can survive and prosper only if there is a radical shift in consciousness. We need to realize that the purpose of being here is not to conquer and control, but to serve something larger than ourselves: life itself and our fellow beings. To that end, we need to develop a grounded spirituality, one that can affect the quality of life on this planet through being thoroughly committed to the here-and-now." Thus does John Welwood, a transpersonal therapist, express his basic theorem about the spiritual anecdote to the contemporary crisis. We are distracted, as human beings always have been, but the modern world offers more distractions per given moment than ever before, so we are even busier in our distractions, trying to do many things at once, seriously off balance, struggling to regain control. We need to let go of these struggles and focus on the present moment. In the magic of the moment, he proposes, the solutions we seek will appear on their own. To support this proposal, Welwood has created a new book, Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path (Shambhala). He has gathered experts from a variety of disciplines to share their thoughts on the creative magic of the eternal now. Each promotes the value of meditative awareness in the flow of the day's events. The emphasis is upon the practical aspects of meditation. Driving your car, for example, can be a better experience if you drive meditatively. Kevin and Todd Berger, brothers who are a journalist and psychotherapist team, share their secrets about how to sit behind the wheel and observe what passes through one's awareness. Can you observe your anger-adrenaline response to a person who cuts you off and then let it go? Looking at the scenery with a fresh perception can turn a monotonous routine into a novel experience. Many experts report the joy they've rediscovered in daily life simply by being more attentive to the present moment. According to Karlfried Graf von Durkheim, repetitive tasks are especially useful in promoting spiritual awareness. Because we've done the task so many times, the ego can let go of its need to master it and focus on the "inner game" of the task, the process itself. Taking out the trash can be performed with the same meditative awareness as exists while performing a Japanese tea ceremony. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk, agrees. He quotes a poem that shows just how much you can get from a simple act: While buttoning my jacket How do we bring this kind of awareness into our relationships with others? The most frequently mentioned suggestion in the book was to smile. |