I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be "spiritual," and it seems to me that to be spiritual is to be progressive.
I just finished reading Brene Brown's newest book Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, and she uses the following definition of spirituality:
Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion.
Not because I think it is absolutely "right" or "true," I actually don't think that really exists for such huge words like "spirituality" (or god for that matter).
No, I like it because it seems to simply name or label what most of us experience in a "spiritual moment" which is that there is "something" occurring that is beyond the parameters of I, me and mine.
Perhaps that "something" is a something we can observe directly with our 5 human senses, or perhaps not.
Perhaps that "something" is a something we can describe with words and language, or perhaps not.
Perhaps that "something" is a something that we fully understand and could explain or maybe even teach to another, or perhaps not.
Regardless, spiritual moments grant us the opportunity to see beyond the limited geography of the "I, me, mine" that organizes the vast majority of our waking lives.
Enter the word: progressive.
The online Merriam Webster Dictionary identifies the word "progressive" as one of those words that can have several different meanings, however, the following definition is the best fit for what I am investigating in the context of spirituality:
Making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities; moving forward or onward: Advancing.
I like this definition too. Because it captures the essence of what some might describe as the virtue of an unfolding human evolution or the awakening of consciousness that has no known endpoint,
This, to me, is inherently spiritual.
Though I would not describe myself as a Humanist, I think the world and history of math and science has much to teach us about the relationship between the spiritual and the progressive.
Listen to an interview with a modern day mathematician, scientist or physicist who has "discovered" a new formula, algorithm, star, or theory of the universe, and you will often hear them say that they do not believe that they in fact "discovered" anything.
They will say that the formula, the algorithm, the star, or that theory of the universe was always there- we humans, just did not yet have the ability and/or understanding to put a name to it yet.
I love this idea.
That there are evidenced-based people out there who go about their lives with a faith that deeper connections are already in existence whether we can see them or not- whether we acknowledge them or not.
It reminds me of a quote by 20th century writer Mary McCarthy from an article of hers in The New Yorker in 1958:
There are no new truths, but only truths that have not been recognized by those who have perceived them without noticing. A truth is something that everybody can be shown to know, and to have known, as people say, all along.
In 2016, Hollywood touched on this same theme in a film called Hidden Figures.
This movie is based on the true story of three 20th century African American women who made significant contributions for NASA while simultaneously breaking through both sexist and
racist policies and procedures that had kept women and people of color excluded from this area of science, math, physics, and space exploration, and in the film there is theme that is both explicit and implicit about seeing beyond what is there.
To me, spirituality and progress are absolutely about seeing beyond what is there.
This theme is first stated explicitly when the head of The Space Task Group at NASA, played by actor Kevin Costner, says to his staff of geniuses:
I need a mathematician who can see beyond the numbers, at math that doesn't exist.
But this faith can be seen as quite radical at times, and even heretical.
Think about Galileo.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the famous Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist who chose to defend the Copernican system of Heliocentrism (the theory that the earth and planets revolve around the sun, and not the other way around) during the time of the Roman Inquisition.
This brave decision of course led this man to be put under house arrest for the rest of his life because
the Catholic Church interpreted Galileo's scientific work as a threat to the authority of the church and the bible, which at the time was thought to be the authority on everything within the cosmos.
To me, this decision to pursue a life dedicated to greater understanding about the interconnections of the universe (both the visible and the hidden) is the essence of what it means to be spiritual and progressive.
Which has led me to wonder, why would anyone resist spirituality and progress?
To date, I have come up with 4 possible reasons:
1.) Fear of becoming obsolete (e.g. the Arab Spring, the French Revolution, Shareholders in the Harvey Weinstein Corporation),
2.) Fear of changing values and priorities (e.g. Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring, Climate Change),
3.) Fear of losing power and/or status (e.g. Women's Suffrage Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Marriage Equality), and/or
4.) Fear of scarcity and unwillingness to share resources (e.g. Occupy Wall Street).
Fear. That is the common denominator. And we know that fear is a very powerful motivator.
Nonetheless, to be spiritual is to be progressive, and for me, this reality fills me with hope for the future of my children, and my children's children.
I'll close with a small excerpt from Chapter 71 of the 6th century BCE text, the Tao Te Ching:
Knowing that you do not know is the best. Not knowing that you do not know is an illness.
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