For many the goal of religion is simply peace. Indeed, “spirituality” often conjures images and feelings of peace, calm, stillness, equanimity. The spiritual goal of peace is not to overcome the challenges of life but to distance oneself from them, not to “win” with one side of the struggle against the other, but to unite the sides and forget the struggle.
We’re talking about personal spiritual goals this season, between December and April.
These are the goals that people are working toward when they do their spiritual practice.
We looked at the what of spiritual practice back in the fall. What do you do?
Now we’re looking at the why of spiritual practice. Why do you do it?
In previous sermons I suggested that some people are seeking wisdom. Some are seeking courage. Some are seeking joy. Others are hoping to feel more personally resilient, powerful and in charge of their own life.
And today, I come to the quality that I think is maybe the most common among spiritual seekers. People are seeking peace.
Calm. Stillness. Equanimity.
Amid an everyday world filled with activity, stress, anxiety, aggravation, we seek in spirituality, a letting-go. Peace.
Amid traffic, and noise, and 24-hour cable television, and news alerts on your phone (and the news is never good), we seek peace.
Amid climate change, and cruelty, and Covid-19; and amid an over-loaded calendar and an underfunded bank account, amid the need to drive the kids somewhere, and dinner to make, and laundry that won’t do itself, we seek peace.
And peace-seekers turn to spirituality. Spiritual practice is affirmed in our culture as a healthy and effective way to achieve peace.
Indeed, the word “spirituality” conjures images of peace. Being peaceful is what it means to be spiritual. To be at ease. To go with the flow. To chill.
If you google the word “spirituality” and look at the images. Here is what comes up:
The first image, the number one hit for the word spirituality, I kid you not, is a flaming chalice. Seriously.
It’s not actually a UU-style flaming chalice, but it is definitely a flame burning in a chalice-shaped holder. The flaming chalice is silhouetted in the foreground. In the background are out of focus waves and a distant shore.
The second image that pops up with a google search of “spirituality” is a painting of divine hands holding a globe swirling with galaxies, bright flame colors at the top half, cool colors below
The third image: a tree silhouetted against a dark ocean, clouds in the sky, the sun rising from the horizon directly behind the tree.
Fourth image: another silhouetted tree, this one includes a silhouetted person meditating under the tree.
Then, the next fourteen images, numbers five through nineteen show individual people silhouetted against the sky in one or the other of two poses: either standing with hands up and outstretched; or sitting cross-legged, meditating.
That’s what it means to be spiritual, according to google: to be alone, in a landscape, nothing but ocean, and sky, maybe a tree: quiet, still, peaceful. Maybe hands up embracing the universe. Or maybe eyes closed communing with your inner universe.
Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
If you click on the first image of the (sort-of) flaming chalice, it takes you to an online magazine called, “The Conversation” and an article titled, “What does it mean to be spiritual?”
The author, Galen Watts, a doctorate student in the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, asks “What does it mean to be spiritual?’ in the context of the rising number of persons who call themselves, “spiritual not religious” emphasis on “not”
His answer to the question?
I believe when people call themselves spiritual, they are basically signaling three things: first, that they believe there is more to the world than meets the eye, that is to say, more than the mere material. Second, that they try to attend to their inner life — to their mental and emotional states — in the hopes of gaining a certain kind of self-knowledge. Third, that they value the following virtues: being compassionate, empathetic and open-hearted.
Spiritual, in the research Galen Watts conducts, contrasts with the word “material.” In other words, to be spiritual, is to be removed from the material. It’s a withdrawing from the world, not necessarily from people, but from things. Spirituality is an escape. A vacation for the spirit. A massage for the soul. I’m just going to go sit under a tree somewhere, with the ocean behind me and a dark sky above me and do some yoga poses.
Of the word, “religion”, Galen Watts said his interview subjects had this to say:
For many, religion does not seem like a viable option. It seems outdated, or at odds with a scientific understanding of the world.
I would add, religion, is now associated in popular thought with patriarchal authoritarianism, hypocrisy, bigotry, and ignorance.
By the way, if you google the word “religion” you get image after image of symbols of the world’s religions. At least religion has good graphics.
Some people adopt a spiritual practice because they are seeking peace. In a hectic, confusing, sometimes infuriating world, they are seeking respite, a break, a retreat.
Blessed Spirit of my life, give me strength through stress and strife;
help me live with dignity; let me know serenity.
Fill me with a vision, clear my mind of fear and confusion.
When my thoughts flow restlessly, let peace find a home in me.
Ironically, when a person’s spiritual journey leads them to join a spiritual community, like a visitor arriving Sunday morning at UUCLB, what they find is probably not peace. At least not at first.
Sure, there’s a moment for peaceful contemplation in our worship as we mark our joys and sorrows. But our worship is mostly active and loud. The service is meant to engage you with the world not cocoon you from the world. UU Worship is filled with words to attend to, and music more often intended to energize rather than pacify.
And then you go outside to the activity of coffee hour. The energy is buzzing. People are friendly. But it’s time for chatty talk, not quiet.
And then, as one gets more involved in the church, the church itself can become a source of busy-ness, responsibilities, maybe even anxiety. One more job to do. One more problem to solve. One more program to drive the kids to.
That’s the nature of being in community. Personally, I enjoy all the committee meetings, and parties, and programs, and even budgets and congregational meetings. But, let’s be honest, the annual church meeting is no peaceful meditation, beneath a tree, beside the ocean.
But that quality of church, the busy-ness, the chat, the people, the work, can itself be peaceful.
Just as being spiritually wise is more than being really smart, and being spiritually joyful, is more than being really happy, spiritual peace is more than just being quiet.
Spiritual peace is an inner quality that allows one to be at ease in the world, even in the midst of the activity and stress of the day.
As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us practice the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth.”
Spiritual peace does not require a vacation, or being alone on a hill somewhere. Spiritual peace does not require withdrawing from the world. Spiritual peace allows us to engage with the world, even the suffering parts of the world, without allowing the nature of the troubled world, to trouble our souls. Spiritual peace is a skill we develop through spiritual practice that we then carry with us into the rest of our lives and call upon when needed.
Perhaps you develop your spiritual peace, by meditating under a tree by the ocean, but if that’s the only place you can feel peaceful, then you have more work to do. You need to feel the ocean in you, as you do the laundry. You need to feel the tree growing inside you, as you drive through traffic. You need to connect with your inner meditator as you check the latest news alert on your phone.
That’s the goal of peace.
And so, while the life of an active, self-governing, engaged with the world, spiritual community like our church is not always peaceful in itself, if you seek the spiritual goal of peace, I hope that you can find peace here. It is here, if it’s in you. And I hope that the church and its programs can be useful to you in developing your inner peace, and finding your way to the peace you seek.