We live in the
Psychological Age. Every modern malady is traced back to psychological roots.
Another mass shooting? Mental health problem. Homelessness? Mental health
problem. Depression and anxiety? Mental health problem. What is the deal with
Donald Trump anyway? Mental health problem.
There’s no doubt that psychological healing modalities –
talk therapy, wisely applied pharmaceuticals – have healed families and saved
countless lives. But by ascribing nearly every form of human suffering to
mental health imbalances we might be missing out on a deeper, even more
foundational dimension.
Western psychology is after all only a hundred years old.
With roots in the groundbreaking work of Sigmund Freud and William James,
psychology was born largely out of the medical sciences. Some maladies could
simply not be traced to physiological causes. They seemed to rise up out of the
uncharted depths of the mind. And if we wanted to do anything about it we needed
to chart those depths.
In the twentieth century psychological knowledge grew by
leaps and bounds. Mistakes were made, as in any endeavor, but great gains were
realized. As James taught us, we ought to judge the value of any practice by
its pragmatic value, that is, by whether or not it works. Are there measurable
positive benefits? Good. Then we’re moving in the right direction.
But what if the psychological approach alone is not
enough?
What did people do before the invention of psychology? To
whom did they turn when suffering from debilitating sadness, alienation,
anxiety, or worse – suicidal fantasies, psychosis, and violence? They turned to
the tribal healer, a multi-faceted practitioner knowledgeable not only in
botanical medicine, but also in divination, shamanism, and ritualized
spirituality.
In other words, what we now call psychological problems
were for 99% of human history known as spiritual problems. Maybe it’s time to
reacquaint ourselves with this perspective.
Throughout
the world’s mythologies and religions there is a unifying archetype – the idea
that the sensory world is a foreground behind which lies a hidden background
beyond the reach of sensory or even conceptual awareness. And that this unseen
background is superior to and in fact the source of the foreground. Most
cultures conceptualize and personify this hidden background as gods or
goddesses, or as the one true God. Others understand it to be a non-conceptual,
impersonal force like Dao, Brahman, or Being. But the fact remains – everything
in the seen world is rooted in the unseen world, (and in the end both are
simply dimensions of one singular reality). When we lose our original
relationship to our sacred source, by whatever name you call it, we feel lost,
alone, frightened, and deeply unwell, as if we’d been hollowed out. For indeed
we have.
Spiritual practices then are designed to bridge the two
worlds so that the infinite wisdom and creative energy of the unseen world can
imbue the seen world with its restorative powers. This is why we pray, worship,
study, meditate, chant, walk the labyrinth, serve, and perform all manner of
sacred acts. Throughout time and across cultures an unshakable realization has
taken hold – our lives are an expression of that unseen source, and the closer
we stay in touch with it the closer we stay in touch with our own essential
nature.
Organized religions began with the best of intentions.
But for many of us, their attempt to codify these insights into narrowly define
doctrines and practices did as much harm as good. It is the sad history of all
institutions that their original intentions are eventually and inevitably
drowned in a sea of self-preservation. Soon it is not the teachings of the
founder that matter – it is the maintenance of the institution that matters.
Many of us still participate in the faith traditions that have meaning for us,
while at the same time maintaining somewhat embarrassed distance from the most
regrettable aspects of our tradition’s teachings. It is often the case that
those who most stridently claim to speak for God have the least to say of any
value or consequence. As Laozi put it, “Those who know don’t say, and those who
say don’t know.”
That is why more Americans than ever before are defining
themselves as spiritual, not religious.
It would be foolish to advocate for the abandonment of
the psychological model in favor of the spiritual. For me, it’s never either/or
but always both/and. I see both psychology and spirituality playing crucial
roles in the maintenance of our sanity both individually and collectively. I
have benefited greatly from periods of psychotherapy in my life, and I have
been woven back together again and again by spiritual practices. I see
absolutely no reason not to use every tool in the box.
So what now? What drove me to a study of philosophy and
religion in the first place many years ago was my own alienation and depression,
coupled paradoxically with a nearly ecstatic conviction that the universe was a
holy place. I could feel it. I felt
it just on the other side of the sadness, on the other side of the curtain –
that infinite healing, ungraspable beauty, the mesmerizing thrum of the
sublime. I didn’t have words for it, but it called me into its heart. The closer
I got to it, the more I came home to myself.
For me, philosophy, religion, and spirituality are
healing modalities, like talk therapy, surgery, and pharmacology. And when I
look out at the world, and within myself, I see an endless need for healing. That’s
what drives me to this work.
For 27 years I’ve been teaching philosophy and religious
studies in academic settings. And for the last ten years I’ve ventured further
and further off campus to bring the life-changing insights of the world’s
wisdom traditions to audiences far and wide. For the last four years I’ve been
leading meditation workshops teaching and encouraging others to deepen into the
wisdom welling up through the cracks of their own suffering. And through it all
my guitar was always close at hand – I keep writing and performing songs from
this same place – the longing for healing and connection.
And all of that work is coming to a head on Saturday,
September 8 when I’ll be facilitating an all-day retreat at The Chopra Center
in Carlsbad, California called “The Heart of Being.” My partnership with The
Chopra Center, one of the world’s premier spiritual healing institutes, is a
wonderful synchronicity – we were bound to cross paths one of these days. And
when we did we both agreed that what we wanted to create was an all-day
immersive experience where all of these different elements were woven together
into an integrated whole – guided meditation, philosophical inquiry, spiritual
practice, meaningful dialogue, interactive engagement, musical performance, and
more.
What’s at stake? Everything. As Ramana Maharshi said,
“Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” After
our day-long retreat we will return to our messy and wonderful everyday lives
renewed, realigned, and restored to our rightful place in the centered
wholeness of the Heart of Being.
1 comment:
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