The world economic downturn of 2008–9 may have caused a crisis of faith in capitalism and consumerism, but according to some accounts, it has inspired a revival of interest in religion, especially in Western society. This has manifested itself not in an upturn in attendance at churches, mosques and temples, but instead in high levels of demand for retreats, meditation courses and workshops, places where participants are instructed in the sort of tools traditionally used by faiths to access what is broadly but vaguely called spirituality.
Spirituality and religion are often treated as synonymous, but they are not. Religion might be better seen as one way to access the spiritual. Alternatively it is an external, communal format for spirituality, in contrast to other more internal, individualistic manifestations that can be accessed via various forms of introspection—meditation, contemplation of nature, or achieving a heightened state of awareness through fasting or other bodily disciplines.
Silence
In recent times, Western monasteries of both the monotheistic and the Eastern religions have reported a surge in inquiries from spiritually hungry visitors wanting to sample a life of contemplation and silence. Church leaders also extol the virtues of silence as a cure for economic and ecological uncertainties. Rowan Williams, the monk-like Archbishop of Canterbury who leads the Anglican Communion, has spoken of “the realm of silence” as a “crucial part of the daily discipline.” The ancient lifestyle of hermits, once central to the early Christian Church and still a feature of Eastern traditions, is likewise undergoing a revival in interest. Silence is prized as creating a complete atmosphere that promotes spirituality and interiority. Most religions regard it as a kind of presence, rather than the absence of something. So by not talking, individuals are enabled to find themselves at a deeper spiritual level.
Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have their particular spiritual traditions, as has been detailed in previous chapters. Each attempts a more intimate, personal and mystical relationship with the divine than is found in the usual rites and rituals. Some are more integrated at the heart of their faith tradition than others. Sufism, for instance, is arguably more acceptable to mainstream Muslims than Kabbalah is to mainstream Jews. Christianity, meanwhile, has a long history of regarding with suspicion, certainly within their lifetimes, those who emphazise the spiritual side of the faith over and above conventional liturgy, rules and structures.
Bede Griffiths
The British-born Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths (1906–93) spent much of his adult life living in the ashrams of southern India, attempting to make a synthesis between Western Christianity and Eastern spirituality. Although he remained a Catholic monk, he adopted the trappings of Hindu monastic life and entered into a dialogue with Hinduism that he chronicled in 12 popular books.
One key concept for him was “integral thought”—the attempt to harmonize spiritual and scientific world views. “We’re now being challenged,” he wrote in 1983, “to create a theology which would use the findings of modern science and Eastern mysticism which coincide so much, and to evolve from that a new theology which would be much more adequate.”
St. Teresa of Avila The Spanish Carmelite St. Teresa of Avila (1515–82) is a case in point. As a young nun in her enclosed convent, she devoted herself to introspection and contemplative prayer, and finally reached, according to her spiritual autobiography, The Interior Castle, states of religious ecstasy in which she felt herself at one with God. She recommended a fourfold spiritual path so that others could follow in her footsteps. It started with “mental prayer” that shut out the world, stepped up to “prayer of quiet,” where she lost herself in God, built to “devotion of union,” where she reached an ecstatic state, and finally arrived at “devotion of ecstasy,” a trance-like state in which her senses ceased to work and her body felt as if it was floating.
Yet in her lifetime, many people believed that Teresa’s trances were actually an indication that she was possessed by the devil. Her fellow nuns often criticized and sidelined her, and when she sought to reform the order, to make it less worldly and more geared to the spiritual life, she faced obstacles at every turn. Like many supremely spiritual figures in Christianity, she has been more appreciated in death—she is now one of only a handful of female “Doctors of the Church”—than she ever was in life.
“Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.”
St. Teresa of Avila
Body and spirit By contrast, in Eastern religious traditions, that division between religion and spirituality scarcely exists. In some—for example, the Jains—the self-sacrifice of monks and nuns is held to enable them to access a higher level of spiritual awareness than the majority of believers, who have also to contend with the everyday details of family and work. Buddhism, however, encourages everyone—monk or not—to meditate, believing that it is a mental and physical discipline that will allow them to separate themselves from their thoughts and feelings and thus reach a higher state of consciousness. Meditation isn’t something apart from the everyday life or ritual practice of a Buddhist. It is at the heart of it.
“Silence is our first human language. Solitude should be in everyone’s life—not as a permanent exterior condition but as an internalized monastery. Then we can live in the world with calm harmony.”
Revd. Cynthia Bourgeault, 2009
In Taoism too there is an emphasis on overcoming the division between body and spirit. It teaches that physical actions have spiritual effects, and so followers engage their bodies in practices such as t’ai chi in order to create the mental space to know the Tao directly. Bodily purity (by, for example, following a strict diet) is inextricably linked to spiritual health.
East–West traffic Eastern perspectives on enhancing spirituality have long been influential in the West. The Transcendalist movement in the United States and Europe in the nineteenth century was profoundly influenced by Vedic and Hindu thought. It emphasized the importance of accessing an inner track or core of spiritual thought and a relationship with the divine that had little to do with institutions of religion.
In more recent times, various popular “New Age” spiritual movements have borrowed aspects of Eastern rituals and practice, though these are sometimes annexed without their original context. Taoism’s Yin Yang and feng shui, for example, have become in Western hands lifestyle choices, all but denuded of religious significance, rather than part of a faith tradition.
the condensed idea
Body and spirit can work as one
| timeline | |
|---|---|
| 3rd century CE | Hermit monks of Christianity go into desert |
| 1515 | Birth of St. Teresa of Avila |
| 19th century | Transcendalist movement |
| 2008 | Economic woes prompt spiritual revival |