Spiritual Literacy Blog

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat read the "book of the world" for spiritual meanings.

In a report on global pop culture for the Christian Science Monitor, Amelia Newcomb writes that Japan is "setting the trend in what's cool." Japanese women are experimenting with blogs and cellphone novels but the big news is in serial cartoons. "The American 20th-century ideal of the individual superhero is wearing thin," says Roland Kelts, professor at the University of Tokyo. "The Japanese model is of self-denial and the sublimation of selfish desires for the sake of group harmony. This is becoming a multipolar world. The desire to be part of something harmonious rather than the leader of the pack is growing." Manga creators Shin Kibayashi and his sister Yuko believe that the way we perceive villains and good guys is also changing: "Now the world has changed. Nobody is sure who is good or who is evil . . . The whole world is becoming borderless and unstable. The manga world's ambiguity has become realistic."

We have noticed this Japanese contribution in the films of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle) where there is no simplistic division of "us" versus "them." Humans, demons, sorcerers all demonstrate moments of goodness, selfishness, and folly.

Japan's pop culture creators deserve to be commended for advancing our appreciation of the interconnections of all beings, no matter how strange or unappealing they may seem at first!

Nanci Rose-Ritter, a writer and student of world religions and philosophies for over 35 years, pays tribute to the life and writings of the American-born Tibetan Buddhist monk Pema Chodron. She, as we do, appreciates her unique blend of Tibetan wisdom spiced with personal stories and practical suggestions for spiritual practice. Rose-Ritter singles out Chodron's emphasis on the eleventh century lojong (mind training) teachings which spark the cultivation of compassion. Equally important are her tonglen exercises which open our hearts to others. Chodron teaches regularly at Gampo Abbey, Nova Scotia.

The "Idea of the Day" column in the New York Times quotes an article in Travel & Leisure by Peter Jon Lindberg, He complains about the noise pollution in public spaces — not people talking, but the omnipresent bad music in shopping centers, elevators, fancy resorts (even underwater in pools), airports, and on and on. He makes a whimsical point that if he has to listen to music, he would much prefer Mozart to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Bob Dylan to The Eagles.

We concur with his affirmation of "the right not to listen to music." Why do we have to have some kind of noise always besieging our already fried brains? Can't we do anything without a soundtrack? And what does this assault on our ears say about our fear of silence?

On his official website, the prolific and always entertaining Robert Fulghum notices that in these economically depressed times, shoe shine stands have proliferated. Many of those doing this work are now old men. Fulghum recalls that when he was a freshman in college 50 years ago he landed a part-time job in a shoe repair shop in Boulder, Colorado. Meryl, the owner, gave his customers 100 per cent attention and always knew what they needed just by looking at their shoes.

Fulghum remembers his experiences there and muses on the importance of taking care of your feet, shoe maintenance, the realization that no job is small or unimportant, and that you can apply creativity and imagination to everything that you do. He outlines what it means to practice spirituality at work.

In this thought-provoking piece from Design Observer, Michael Erard reflects upon the future of attention in a time when people are overwhelmed by information coming at them from all directions. He suggests making things more brief and then goes on to imagine "attention festivals" where one tent would show 30-second films, guitar solos, haiku, and in another tent you could listen to ringtones and read tweets. He foresees a retail sector for cultural products where the aisles were organized around the attention span required. Pricing would be different too; single TV episodes would be more expensive than the whole season of shows. Erard also advocates software to help us audit our attentional expenditures.

These ideas pump up the importance of the spiritual practice of attention and its many roles in our life as we consider the information culture, time, and creativity.

In an article for the Huffington Post written in August, Ed and Deb Shapiro observed: "We are witnessing an outbreak of panic and fear as people in the US respond with misunderstanding and ignorance to falsely perceived threats to their welfare. There is a tremendous fear of and resistance to change, which cause further suffering." We recalled this piece when we heard that a U.S. Senate committee had rejected a public option for health care; it appears our elected officials are afraid of making real change.

The Shapiros take a cue from Tibetan Buddhists and suggest that panic can be turned into happiness by three steps. This process forms the basis of meditation and offers us the opportunity to empathize with all others who experience panic just like us. In this confrontational period of our history, understanding those who are fearful is more important than ever.

In this fascinating article by Brad Stone, we learn that whereas families used to gather to eat breakfast, maybe look at the newspaper, and talk a bit; parents now check their e-mail and Facebook or Twitter accounts, and kids start each morning with text messages, video games, and Facebook. Some parents even text their children to get them up.

Technology has altered the once predictable rituals of the morning. Liz Perle, a mother in San Francisco is quoted as saying of her two teenage children: "They used to have blankies; now they have phones, which even have their own umbilical cord right to the charger. If their beds were far from the power outlets, they would probably sleep on the floor." The surge of early risers going online is reflected in heavy duty Internet traffic patterns.

Starting the day with technology is not a bad thing. This ritual could become a spiritual practice by the addition of a few flash prayers, gratitude practices, or mindfulness exercises. In the weeks ahead we'll provide some suggestions and resources.

Although 76 percent of Americans continue to identify themselves as Christian, more and more of them are coming to think like Hindus in terms of God, ourselves, each other, and eternity. In a Newsweek article, Lisa Miller points out that in a 2008 Pew Forum Survey, 65 percent of Americans believe that "Many religions can lead to eternal life" — including 37 percent of white evangelicals who were taught that Jesus is the one and only way to salvation. Hindus, of course, believe that there are many paths to God.

Miller also points to the phenomenon of people who now identify themselves as "spiritual, not religious." These individuals have no qualms about doing yoga, going on vision quests, or meditating. This kind of experimenting with whatever works for you also sounds Hindu. According to a 2008 poll, 24 percent of Americans believe in reincarnation and there are many more cremations than ever before. Yet more Hindu practices and another sign of the changes taking place in beliefs about important matters. Although only about a million Hindus live in the United States, their understanding of things is gaining ground.

We always like to keep up with what Robert Fulghum is writing about in his online journal. He has a knack for finding delightful things in the ordinary experiences of everyday life. In an entry for May 31, 2009, he shares an encounter with a group of little children out for a stroll after a rainstorm. One of the children steps out of the line because he's seen a rainbow — not in the sky but in a puddle of water. His act of wonder opens the eyes of the other kids and the teacher to the path of imagination. This teaching story reminds us of the boy who, when asks the color of apples, says "white." The teacher says apples can be red or green or yellow, but the boy has looked inside them.

On August 28, 2009, we watched on television the over three-hour wake for Senator Edward Kennedy. The service was called "A Celebration of Life" and was filled with magical and memorable moments of praise, insight, laughter, song, and tears. The speakers and guests included a formidable collection of family and friends, aides and constituents, local politicians and national leaders from Congress, starting with Paul G. Kirk, Jr., chairman of the Kennedy Library where the event was held and ending with Vice President Joseph R. Bidden.

We already knew about Ted Kennedy's extraordinary work as a liberal Senator committed to justice, peace, and the welfare of the poor and the powerless. But in this deeply moving service we learned much more about the spirituality of this father, husband, brother, uncle, grandfather, and friend.

Here was a man who walked his talk about doing good in the world. We heard about the ways in which he was present as a surrogate father for the Kennedy children who had lost their fathers; the countless times he visited friends when they faced sickness, crisis, tragedy, or loss and relied upon his counsel and concern; the special relationships he developed in the Senate even with those who disagreed with him vehemently; his remembering and honoring of birthdays, anniversaries, and other personal details of friends and family; and the vibrancy he brought to others with his wild sense of humor and his vital love of laughter and singing.

There were stories of the public man, but just as many of the kind deeds he did when he was off-camera and nobody but those directly affected knew about it. Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, told how after the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin, Kennedy spread soil from the graves of his brothers Robert and Jack on the new grave. "No publicity," observed Patrick, "just a good man doing a sweet thing."

We've long known that Ted Kennedy was a practicing Catholic who went to mass and prayed in churches during moments of crisis. But what came through during the wake was his deep and expansive spirituality. He was all about the spiritual practices of love, compassion, hospitality, joy, justice, kindness, nurturing, play, and zeal (which means having a zest of life). We can't remember when we were so moved by the shape and spirit of a memorial service built around such a incredible human being who so broadly and deeply impacted the lives of those around him!

You can watch the memorial service at TedKennedy.org.

In an article for USA Today, Cathleen Falsani writes about the variety of technological services for sending prayers. For example, you can tweet a prayer on Twitter and then send it to a fellow in Tel Aviv who will then have others take it to Jerusalem where it will be tucked into the Western Wall for you. She also notes that The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College has set up six separate "prayer feeds" on Twitter. Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus also provide comparable services for prayer wheels, five-times-a-day prayer, and devotional songs. You can also visit any one of thousands of online prayer rooms or light a candle at our sister site, Gratefulness.org.

In her blog for the National Catholic Reporter website, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes gives an incredibly moving plea for our spiritual identification with immigrants from South America who are trying to make their way to a better and more fulfilling life in the United States. She sees them as the brother who can't swim crossing a dangerous river, a sister who is ill and facing a slow death-sentence, the workers exploited in cities by unscrupulous employers, the day laborers who are mocked and harassed, and all the other illegal émigré brothers and sisters. Estes challenges us to appreciation a soul connection with them and their struggles. She closes with: "We are not separate from one another nor from El Cristo, He, first and foremost, an immigrant without papers fleeing Egypt under cover of night, across all national boundaries set against He and His family."

In an article in Everyday Christian, Peter Elliott reports on teens telling him that they are upset by old people who are "ruining Facebook." He quotes a study by eMarketer.com that in the first three months of 2009 the most common demographic to start a Facebook account were women 45 and older. Additionally, 22 percent of the folks on the web are women 45 and older. Sixty percent of baby boomers aged 43 to 63 are regularly populating Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Social networking is no longer only the domain of youth! (To connect with Spirituality & Practice via the social media networks, use the links in the left column of this page.)

Karen Maezen Miller has noticed the flourishing happiness industry in America. She googled "ways to be happy" and found 129 of them on just the first page of returns. But ask people about happiness, and they will most likely they will talk about how difficult it is to hold things together in these hard times. Miller points to the novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) and her grandmother's struggle during the Depression as truly hard times. She wonders whether much of the unhappiness lies in the mind's ability to come up with judgments, fear, and darkness when asked about happiness.

August is "Happiness Happens" month and on Twitter Frederic Brussat is presenting a quotation each day, which he's calling A Mini-Course on Happiness. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/FredericBrussat or read his feed here.

Jos Houben celebrates the humanizing, educational, spiritual, and transformative powers of laughter in this sprightly article in Ode Magazine. He points out that "an infant's smile is the universe's seal of approval. 'Being' goes with 'laughing' from the start." Children learn best when they are playing or having fun. Even adults follow this pattern when they experience joy on a vacation or when they are having a great time.

We see the world afresh through laughter. All the world's religions have individuals (tricksters, fools, shamans) who reveal to us the human condition of impermanence and vulnerability through humor. Houben concludes that comedians are popular when they connect us with our humanity.