Her questions: "You talk about being spiritual in your teaching. What
does that mean? How can you be both an intellectual and spiritual? Isn't it
an either/or proposition?"
My answer: "Let me put it this way. A student once came up to me in
class on the first day of the semester to inform me that 'I am an honors
student.''
"I answered, 'I'm glad to hear that. But, tell me, are you" an "honors
person?"'
"She didn't understand my question. I told her, as I now tell you,
that we each should focus on who we are rather than merely on what we do, or
have, or know."
"Now, before I go any further, let me say what I think my 'spiritual'
is not. It's not synonomous with formal religion or institutionalized church.
My 'spiritual' has no interest in and is not rooted in any isms or -ologies.
It doesn't mean a strict adherence to some dogma, dogmatically following the
"true way," meticulous performing rituals or ceremonies, having an exclusive
possession of truth, or being on some higher plane. It's not a promise to be
more knowledgeable or have greater insight. It's not a preaching of a gospel
or starting a movement. It's not asking for some monastic withdrawal and
isolation. And, because I love my glass of red wine and bit of cheese each day
with my Susan, it certainly is not a rejection of material things."
'Spiritual' for me, as I once said over a decade ago and have
struggled to lived by since, is to realize I am not a ' human thinking,' 'human
doing,' 'human having,' 'human feeling,' or 'human knowing.' I am a 'human
being!' At that time I wrote a poem at the end of which I asked, when there
are no titles to display, when there are no roles to play, when there are no
masks to wear, who is each of us? So, to paraphrase the Bard, I ask, do you
really believe the resume doth make the person? We often heed the "ghost of
the machine," that we are some apparatus that can be disassembled into separate
parts. So, we point to this separate intellectual and that distinct spiritual,
of this emotional intelligence and that social intelligence and those multiple
intelligences. But, the reality is that such talk is merely for the sake of
convenience and to segregate and isolate each from the other has no bearing on
reality. Emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and actions all interact and influence
each other. 'Spiritual,' then, is my personal story of learning that I am a
holistic, harmonized 'human being,' and learning how to live my life
holistically from the essence my integrated and inseparable heart and mind and
soul rather than from the facades of my pocketbook, position, title, social
role, or resume. It's about turning myself upside down and shaking all the
nonsense of appearance and image out of my soul and striving to live a life of
compassion and unconditional love. I think when I mean 'spiritual,' I mean
being true inside, for I truly don't believe I can see clearly and honestly
what is outside until I can see clearly and honestly what is inside. It's
about my personal development and transformation to a connection with and unity
of all that diversity in here and out there. This is not 'values added.' It's
'values ingrained.' It's 'values essence.' That is, like chameleons, we take
on the color of our moral character. I mean being and living those values, not
just saying or listing them. I mean having and exercising character that
focuses on three things. First there is service to others, giving of myself
to others. Second, there is everyday practicing of those values in the
everyday world. And last, there is a humbling, liberating, and honoring of
differences rather than an accusing, denigrating, enslaving, and demand for
conforming. By 'spiritual' I mean a way of living that permeates my emotions,
attitudes, thoughts, and actions in everything I do in concrete ways. I mean
not cubby-holing my professional apart from my personal apart from my social
life. I mean not separating what some would call my spiritual life from any
other aspect of my material life. And, if at the end of a day I can pause,
think back, take a deep breath, and give out an honest fulfilled "aaah," I know
I've done it that one day."
"You see, I am not spiritual in my teaching, or in my gardening, or in
my periodic sculpting, or in my occasional poetry, or in my spoiling of the
grandmunchkins, or in my nudging of Susan, or in my conference presentations or
in my workshops, or in my pre-dawn walks, or in anything else I do or with
whomever I do. I am spiritual in me. That is critical. I think it was Rumi
who said let the beauty that you love be who you are, to which I add: and be
what you do. That means, always being intensely aware and mindful of, to
paraphrase Jon Kabat-Zinn, that wherever I go and whatever I do, there I am. I
mean being, what my son, Michael, calls that "romantic-realist." The two are
so deeply, and often invisibly, enmeshed you can't tell them apart. I draw
upon them to avoid the extremes of doing nothing on one hand and attempting to
do everything on the other, but always striving to do a bit more. You see, I'm
really not looking for meaning; I'm looking for significance; I'm just looking
to feeling intensely alive. Who was it that said you can't give your life more
days, but you can give your days more life? Doing that, however, is not a
piece of cake; it's not something you can do in your sleep; it doesn't 'come
naturally;' it's not something you can do eyes closed, legs crossed, arms
outstretched, upraised fingers pinched together. No, if all weath is the
product of labor, then, all of life's riches are equally the result of
determination and effort. So, you've got to open your eyes, get up, and move
around. You've got to out there, get 'down and dirty,' exert and sweat,
consciously and conscientiously work at it each day. But, if you can do that,
I tell you, you'll see a new world being born in front of your eyes. And, as
you fill the world with your own special dreams and desires and hopes and
loves, as you inhale that fresh and empowering air, you will come to life, be
alive, feel that you're living fully, and know that you're part of the solution
rather than a cause of the problem."
"Now, one last word. Someone told me that neuro-research is reducing
all what I have said to firing of mere neurons. My answer is that there is
nothing "mere" about any firing neuron. If anything, that research makes me
fired up, intensely aware of connections within myself, and connections with
both myself and things beyond and larger than myself. There's more to my
answer, but for now that's enough."
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
(O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ /
\
(C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \
/\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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