"What Spirit is Man Can Be"

“What spirit is man can be”

For most of my life I would have said that this was utter nonsense. I was for most of my life a more or less convinced atheist, certainly agnostic. I would not or could not believe in any concept of God, or Spirit or even Soul. They all seemed unfathomable or unknowable and certainly unreachable. This though is no longer my truth. I believe in Spirit and God and Soul. I’m not overly sure how I articulate any or all of these, or for that matter what the difference is. To be honest I don’t really see the difference, they seem the same to me.

A few years ago, I began to connect to that which is described by these words that are often spoken but never really understood and began exploring religion. It is always interesting to me that the changes and experiences occurred before I began the exploration not after. Exploring religion was really about trying to make some rational sense of my experiences. I’m told that this is classic liberal religion of the old school type and not how people are supposed to do things today. While I accept that this may be true in theory it is not what happened to me in practise. I experienced first and then I sought an explanation. To be honest I’m not wholly sure how much this has helped, it has not provided me with the answers, just more questions. I’m ok with this today. I do not expect to get a full answer

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Around this time I was working near Manchester University across the road from the Holy Name church on Oxford Road and every lunchtime I would go there, primarily to pray and sit quietly. I was attracted to one particular figure of Jesus, a “Sacred Heart” Icon. It was the glowing heart at the centre of the icon that I became fixated by and I would meditate every day on this. It brought me an incredible sense of peace and connection.

At the same time as I was experiencing this I was also meditating on the following paragraph in the Chapter “We Agnostics” in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous”.

“We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend. Sometimes we had to search fearlessly, but he was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. It was so with us.”

The Great Reality deep down within us...my problem was that for so long I could not believe that this was deep down within me. That said I could see it in someone else. I could see it in my friend Claire’s son Ethan. From this I reasoned that what was in him had once been in me. Today I understand this to be the soul that has been spoken of through the centuries.

Classic Christian theology sees the soul not only as eternal and immortal; it also sees it, following the teachings of the Greek Philosopher Plato, as unchanging and separate from the body. This is distinct from the Jewish understanding, if there really is one. What they would refer to as soul is really spirit or breath of life that is bestowed on creation by God. There is no concept of a separate soul in Judaism. Genesis 2 vv 7 says “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” It is spirit that is really being talked about here, ruach, meaning breath of life, wind, spirit. It is this that creates all life, including human beings. It is important to realise here that this is not unique to humans; it is stating that all creation is formed from spirit

In Hinduism the soul, Atman, is understood to live many lives. The purpose of these lives is to unite the soul with the one God, the Brahman, this is known as the Brahman Atman synthesis. It is generally thought that Buddhism rejects the concept of the eternal soul. During his long night of meditation under the Bodhi Tree, the Buddha found no evidence for the basic Hindu doctrines that he was taught.  Through his ESP vision the Buddha looked high and low for the Hindu Godhead Brahman and the eternal and unchanging soul that was our share of the Brahman.  What the Buddha discovered has been confirmed by contemporary physics: nothing, not even an atom, endures; all things come into being and then go out of being; all things flow like a river.

Many later Buddhists assumed that because Buddha did not find the Hindu immortal soul that he did not believe in a soul or even a self.  But this is correct only if you define the soul as eternal, immortal, and unchanging.  While the Buddha rejected this idea, he still believed that every human and animal were "living beings". I believe that this is similar to the Jewish concept described in Genesis.

Personally I cannot separate Soul, Spirit and God for me they seem one in the same. I don’t believe anyone has discovered an adequate explanation for this essence, which comes into being, and yet is so much more than mere material existence, whatever name we give it. Any reductionists arguments I have heard seem wholly inadequate and fail explain many of my own personal experiences.

 I find myself drawn to what Emerson understood as “The OverSoul”. He saw God as spirit which can be found within each of us but at the same time was greater than any of us. He saw “The Oversoul” as the great sustainer that holds and supports us "the Earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere." If we allow it to have its way with us, he said, the Oversoul will animate our being with compassion and love. So it is not just there forming life it can be ever present if we allow it to have its way with us.

The “Oversoul” to me is spirit. If the soul is spirit then it must be in all life and beyond all life or not at all. Therefore it can and is experienced in life itself; it is more than just a life giving force. The soul is experienced in the very reality of life itself and not by fleeing from it.

This is also how the soul is fed, in life itself. Yes it is fed in worship in words in silence, in music in prayer and in the images all around us. It is fed in ordinary human interaction. At meal time, during conversation, walks in the park and listening to people coming to terms with life’s struggles. It is fed in political and social action. I know my soul was fed when I marched with other Unitarians at the Manchester Gay Pride parade recently, carrying that banner proclaiming that “Unitarians Welcome All God’s Children”.

I am grateful that I found my soul, what animates my life, because without it my life seemed devoid of meaning and purpose. I’m also glad I am able to feed and nourish it and that by doing so I am able to help and perhaps inspire others to do likewise.

“What spirit is man can be”

The Power of Now: There's Nothing New in the New Age

This a re-telling of an ancient Zen Buddhist tale

A man was walking across a field when he heard a rustling in the tall grass beside him, and turned to see the hungry eyes of a large tiger staring at him. The man began to run, fear giving him greater speed and stamina than he knew he possessed. But always, just behind him, he could hear the easy breathing of the hungry tiger. Finally, the man stopped, not because his strength had failed but because he had come to the edge of a high cliff and could go no further. "I can let the tiger eat me, or take my life in my own hands and jump." The man turned and saw the tiger slowly walking toward him, licking its mouth in anticipation.

Resolved to take his own life, the man stepped to the edge of the cliff and bent his legs to jump, when he suddenly noticed a thick vine growing out of the side of the cliff, several feet from the top. Carefully, he let himself drop down the cliff face, catching hold of the vine as he slid past, and thanked God when it was strong enough to support his weight. Hanging now, the man looked up and saw the tiger's eyes peering over the edge of the cliff. It roared down at him, then began to pace back and forth along the top of the cliff. For the first time, the man looked at the vine that had saved his life. It was thick enough for him to wrap his legs around, resting his arms, and long enough that he might be able to let himself far enough down to jump safely to the ground below. And the moment he had this thought was the same moment that he saw the second tiger, pacing back and forth at the foot of the cliff, licking its mouth, and looking hungrily up at him. Well, thought the man, if my strength and the strength of the vine are great enough, perhaps I can outwit the tigers. Surely, they'll go some place else to eat when they're hungry enough. And the man prepared to settle in for a long wait. His preparations halted quickly, however, when he heard a scurrying, scratching sound close to his own face. Glancing upwards, he saw two mice, one white and one black, emerge from a small hole in the cliff. They made their way swiftly to the base of the vine, and began to gnaw through it with their small sharp teeth. There was nothing else he could do, a tiger above, a tiger below, and the vine that kept him from their jaws about to break. The man was closing his eyes to begin his prayers, when he noticed, a little to his right, a tiny patch of red colour on the face of the cliff. He reached toward it precariously, pulled, and brought his hand back beneath his eyes. There, in his palm, was a luscious, red strawberry. The man swiftly pressed the strawberry between his lips, onto his tongue, and hanging between those still visible tigers, he enjoyed the finest , juiciest, sweetest meal of his life.

The idea that the gift of life is found through experiencing the joy of the present moment is not a new concept. The faith traditions have been teaching it since the early days of human history, it is one of the great universal principles. There really is nothing new in the “New Age”

While there is something rather beautiful about this ancient Buddhist tale of the man the tigers and the strawberry, there is also something sad. In many ways it is a powerful metaphor for life. How we often only really stop and appreciate the gifts that are there when there’s nothing else to do nowhere else to turn. The tiger chasing the man could be our past, which often we are on the run from; the tiger at the bottom of cliff could be our futures which we are in fear of, the unknown, the unpredictable. The vine could be our minds which we often believe can sustain us through all that life throws at us and the mice could be that corroding thread that eats away at our rationality, our fear and anxiety...seen this way the story does indeed seem a little scary.

And yet there is the strawberry, the beautiful juicy strawberry that can be enjoyed regardless of all that is going on all around us. The problem is of course that we don’t see the fruit until the point of death or at least this man didn’t. It wasn’t until he had surrendered to his fate that he could see the strawberry and then enjoy it.

Is this what happens in life? Do we fail to enjoy its fruit because we try to overcome fear by thinking we can either out run or outwit it? Should we instead simply surrender to the reality of the life we are currently experiencing so as to fully enjoy whatever fruits are available?

Jesus (Luke 12 vv 22-31) reminds us not to worry or be anxious about life, to be like the ravens or the lilies of the field. He suggests that what we need is to have faith and to concentrate on building the Kingdom of God. But what is the kingdom of God? Where can it be found? Well it seems that it can be found by surrendering to the present moment, to the reality of the life in which we find ourselves rather than fleeing it or trying to overcome our anxiety of it with our minds. Perhaps we simply need to accept nature, life, the kingdom of God as it truly is and to trust.

Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed this in the nineteenth century, he said.

“...man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.”

Eckhart Tolle, in “The Power of Now” describes an experience he had which led him to transcend his anxiety riddled life. For him the change happened one day while listening to himself think. He realized in that moment that there was more than a single unified and separate him. There is who we are in our daily actions and then there is the part of us that witnesses what we are doing, thinking and feeling. The part of us that watches is our true self. That bears witness to what we are doing without getting trapped in it. It is not wrapped up in the past and is connected to the greater whole. Or put more simply, we are not always what we think we are.

Descartes said, “I think therefore I am.” According to Tolle this is the most fundamental error of our time. It is what has set us apart from each other and the rest of creation. We “think” we are somehow separate and therefore unique; unique in our suffering, unique in our troubles, unique in our feelings, and thus utterly alone. The moment we start watching our thinking is the moment we realize there is more to existence than us and what we think. We are not all there is of beauty, love, grace, creativity, joy and peace. Well thank goodness, thank God for that.

How many of us can say that they truly give their full attention to what they are doing? Tolle claims that this is the key to happiness and peace, giving our full attention to what we are doing. When we are truly present in what we are doing we are totally at peace and we are happy, we are not in fear and we are not in anxiety. Being present is life’s gift. That’s why it is called the present. I occasionally get glimpses of this; I occasionally get a taste of this in my life. It happens when I am in the company of some people, in my personal life and also in ministry. One of the great joys of ministry are the conversations I have with people. I become totally absorbed in them at times, especially when people speak from the heart. I also experience it while singing, especially during singing meditation. Here I feel I am floating above time, here I feel I am transcending self. I can experience it in worship too. We all experience it in the activities we love, when we totally abandon ourselves to whatever it is we are doing. Tolle says we can experience it in all that we do. We can give ourselves wholeheartedly and be present in everything that we do; whether that is washing the pots or cutting the grass, or reading a book or watching children play or watching birds flying above our heads, or considering the lilies of the field.

These are the moments that we can truly experience the Divine, in the moment in the NOW. Not in the past which no longer exists; nor in the future, which is yet to come. Fear and anxiety only exist when our minds are not with our bodies in the gift of the eternal now. This is what Tolle is suggesting in our present age; this is what Jesus was teaching when he talked about building God’s Kingdom in our time and not just the time to come; this is what Emerson was teaching and this is what the Buddhist story is teaching too. There is nothing new in the “New Age”, it is an eternal truth.