Note: I’d like to experiment with making these blog posts more of a conversation. At the end of this post, there will be a question for reflection. Please feel free to send me a response and depending on the nature of the responses, I will write a new post. Also feel free to ask any questions that you’d like to hear my thoughts about.
More and more, when people are asked about their relationship to deeper meaning and purpose in life, they say “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” This statement can mean different things to different people, but there is a common thread in interpreting this phrase. Whether or not one engages in meditation, wears crystals, or reads self-help books, “I’m spiritual” can simply mean that “I am aware that there is more depth to reality than I can perceive and I’m interested in a greater understanding of that depth. I intuit that this greater understanding brings me closer to truth in a world of lies, and that this greater understanding can help me navigate my world in a way that brings greater clarity, love, and peace.”
“I’m not religious” is another way of saying that “my experience with teachings and practices of a religious faith never helped me gain a greater understanding of the depth of reality. In fact, the idea of God was always just that – an idea, not a living experience of greater depth. In religion, ‘God’ was always defined in a way that was separate from me and therefore I had no connection. As a result, the teachings and practices of that religion might have had the benefit of bringing together community, but didn’t offer a compelling enough path of growth toward greater depth to keep me engaged.”
If we have been fortunate enough to have experiences of greater depth and connection that we might label “spiritual,” we might realize that who we are is the deeper reality that we seek. We don’t have to go anywhere to find greater depth and connection, it is the very nature of our being – our moment to moment reality. Seeking to find God or greater depth in anyplace other than this present moment here and now is idolatry – an illusion of the mind that has defined “God” or “Spiritual” as something in another place or another time.
Even if we accept that this deeper reality is within us here and now, we might think that it is not accessible in our everyday reality. It’s only when we do something “spiritual” – a walk in nature, an artistic endeavor, meditation or prayer – that we can expect to find that depth. A neoplatonic view of the world – espoused by Christianity and absorbed into Judaism posits that we are a body and a soul. The soul is that deeper reality, connected to the One Living God, and the mind/body – with its desires, fears, and heaviness obstructs that soul light. Our day to day lives are lived in the body and it’s the body/mind’s desires, fears, and contractions that keep us in states of suffering – of discomfort and not being content with what is.
My understanding of the Jewish mystical tradition undermines this body/soul duality. Kabbalah teaches that there is only soul and conceptualized five levels or dimensions of soul – nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, yechida. In this teaching, every aspect of who we are is a Divine expression. The deepest reality can be found in the most mundane. What we call “body” – our complete sensory experience is really the level of soul called nefesh. And each subsequent level of soul – ruach, neshama, etc.. is not separate from nefesh, but a deeper dimension of reality within nefesh. A physical metaphor for this is an iceberg and the ocean. We only see the “tip of the iceberg,” but if we dive below the surface, we discover a much greater reality of the iceberg under the ocean.
The practical application of this teaching is that since our body (the tip of the iceberg) is an expression of soul, then every aspect of our experience in this body is a gateway to greater depth of soul, of awareness, of reality. Instead of seeking to find a deeper meaning in another place, we can do it right from where we are – in lives here and now, with whatever we are going through – through our sensory, emotional, or mental experience.
And yet, even if we are aware that the body/mind is the gateway to greater depth and awareness – much of the time, we are focused on our separateness. We’ve grown to believe that who we are is a particular person with a particular identity. For most of us, this identity does not include soul, does not include greater depth. And we look out at the world with our ideas about it – who people are and are not, what is significant and what isn’t, and these judgments of our mind keep us locked up in a limited experience ourselves and the world.
While we may have had glimpses or experiences of this greater depth of reality, our general posture towards the world is one of constriction. Knowing that ultimately “I am spiritual” doesn’t always help us with our day to day experience.
The only way that we change constricted habits of mind is through practice. When we want to learn a new skill -whether a sport or an instrument, it is repetitive practices, given by a skilled coach or teacher that help train our bodies in the forms that we want to adopt. If we want our bodies to be healthy and strong, we need to have regular skillful habits of diet and exercise that keep us tuned like an instrument.
Teachings and practices that help us stay present to the full spectrum of the soul in our daily lives is ultimately the purpose of religion. Study, meditation, prayer, ritual, and conscious acts of kindness are all intended to help change the posture of our body and mind towards greater depth in every aspect of our lives. Like everything in our human world, religion is an imperfect endeavor. The very constricted habits of mind that we are trying to change have also influenced how religion is taught and practiced. Instead of helping people wake up to their own Divine nature, religion has also been about security and comfort in the status quo as well as power and control. And as a result, our experience has ranged from alienation to harm.
In every religious tradition, the mystics – the ones concerned with direct experience of greater depth – have always shown how spiritual teachings and practices help us connect with the greater sense of who we are. And as we begin to see for ourselves how meditation, or prayer, or ritual, or sacred scripture can be doorways into deeper experience of the day to day, then it is incumbent upon us to begin to practice regularly to tune our instrument toward the Divine.
And as many of us have discovered in our lives, it is difficult if not impossible to practice alone. We need regular guidance to make sure our practices are guided by wise intention and don’t become another expression of our constricted self. We need community – other people to share the journey with – to draw inspiration from how the teachings and practices have helped transform each other’s lives. We also need each other for support when we are moving through darkness and challenges. While we may have well intentioned family and friends who can support us in times of trouble, it’s not a substitute for chevruta – fellow journeyers who are also working with integrating mystical teachings into their lives. They may be able to provide insight into how to grow deeper from the darkness and the challenge.
As we approach the apex of the summer months, Rabbi Marcia Tilchin and I and others are exploring the possibility of creating this kind of mystical community here in Orange County CA with additional opportunities online. Right now, our goal is financial – to raise enough money to sustain this community for the first two years and give it a chance to grow legs. The community would be called Or HaNeshama – Light of the Soul and would offer meditation groups, classes, ecstatic music and prayer experiences, and most of all a place where people who want to grow towards deeper depth can do so with one another. It would be a part of the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County. You can find out more about it here: Or HaNeshama Spiritual Commuity
If you would like to be a part of helping bring this community into being, please let me know.
For Reflection:
For you, what is the biggest obstacle to be open to a deeper reality and Presence, moment by moment? What steps can you take to reduce the power of the obstacle?