In an article written for the National Catholic Reporter, Joan Chittister recalls seeing a road sign when she was in Bhutan in June. It said: "Start early / Drive slowly / Arrive safely." She immediately knew that she was in a special place. While the rest of the world is in hot pursuit of the success and prosperity brought by development and consumerism, the tiny kingdom of Bhutan has adopted a different standard — Gross National Happiness. Chittister calls this "a spiritual rather than an economic metric of achievement."
Posted by Frederic Brussat on August 19, 2013
Posted by Frederic Brussat on August 9, 2013
"Imagine a country where everyone acts like a reality show contestant — obsessed with power, status and appearance, and is comfortable manipulating others for their personal gain. 'I'm here to win not to make friends' would be the national motto." That suggestion is from an article on the website of the American Psychological Association by Sadie F. Dingfelder on the upswing of the personality disorder of narcissism in America. It has become one of the hot button topics in psychology.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on July 22, 2013
"At 80, one can take in the long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age," writes Oliver Sacks, professor of neurology at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine and the author of Hallucinations. He is thankful for having the time and energy in his life to write 12 books. Just to balance things off, he admits that he is sorry "to be as agonizingly shy at 80 as I was at 20" and that he has not traveled as much as he should have.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on July 11, 2013
In a post at TheInterfaithObserver.org, Anne Benvenuti writes about the "Nones," the largest and fastest growing segment of the population in the religious landscape of America, according to the most recent survey from the Pew Research Center; they are now 20% of the population and are disproportionately young. They are people who don't have any religious affiliation and are not amenable to labels. Benvenuti compares this band of seekers to those who get off the tour bus because they would rather discover a place as it really is. We suspect they've grown tired of taking the same routes and hearing the same explanations from the guides sanctioned by the religions. Instead, they value experience and variety. Interestingly, Benvenuti notes that many of the Nones are really Alls.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on July 3, 2013
Statisticians put the number of people who die each year at 56 million. That comes out to 153, 000 deaths a day, 107 deaths per minute. Death speaks quite loudly to some of us, Erica Brown notes in Happier Endings: A Meditation on Life and Death. But most people still harbor a deep fear of death and refuse to focus on it.
Some, of course, have always taken death head on. Monks, both Buddhist and Christian, have kept skulls in their cells so they could ponder death and the impermanence of life. An equivalent practice is talking about death and dying openly and discussing what needs to be done as the end of life approaches. This is now happening in "Death Cafes." In an article in The Independent, Molly Guiness reports that the Swiss tradition of cafe mortels is now happening in Paris. The idea, according to Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, is to gather a small group of strangers in a café that serves coffee and then to talk about death for a few hours.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on June 25, 2013
Wonder is one of our favorite practices in the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy. It begins in the senses, comes alive in the imagination, and flourishes in adoration of the Divine. Wonder directs us to the feeling textures of life — to what Diane Ackerman calls "the sense-luscious world."
Posted by Frederic Brussat on June 24, 2013
The word robot was coined in 1921 from the Czech word "robotta" meaning compulsory labor. Since then, we've been treated to a variety of science fiction tales about these technological creations. The growing presence of robots is already changing the labor market. Experts believe that robots will evolve into companions and information bases, similar to C3PO in the Star Wars trilogy. With their fast silicon brains and their tireless bodies, these intelligent machines will be capable of round-the-clock work, creative thought, and perhaps even independent action.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on May 20, 2013
On June 28, 2012, peace activists Sister Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli broke into the Oak Ridge Y-2 nuclear weapons production facility in Tennessee to symbolically disarm these weapons of mass destruction. No security came to stop them as they cut through the fences surrounding the facilities, hung up peace banners, spray painted some slogans, and sang some songs. When they were done, the three non-violent protesters surrendered peacefully and were arrested and jailed. The next day they were charged with federal trespassing, a misdemeanor charge that carries a penalty of a year in jail.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on April 15, 2013
Benjamin Franklin was very interested in monitoring his daily movements and activities. His goal was to progress in the development of 13 virtues including frugality, silence, and moderation. In an article for Vanity Fair, James Wolcott dubs him "the founding father of self-help" and the pioneer of "self-tracking." Today, many young men and women are keeping tabs on their activities through a variety of digital devices.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on April 4, 2013
One definition of spirituality is the art of making connections. Separation is best avoided as a stumbling block to human flourishing. In an article in The New York Times, Barbara L. Frederickson points out the excessive use of digital screens as the post-modern habit of social connection. She reports on recent studies which have shown that the more attuned you are to others through face-to-face interpersonal conversation with them, the healthier you will be:
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About This Blog
Spiritual literacy is the ability to read the signs written in the texts of our own experiences. It is recommended and practiced in all the world's religions. Whether viewed as a gift from God or a skill to be cultivated, this facility enables us to discern and decipher a world full of meaning. More