I was raised in a family of "devout atheists". We were liberal, ethical humanists, trying to save the world from within that narrow band of reality called the "rational mind". So even when I began to question some of these assumptions, as a teenager, and look for something more, I didn’t turn to religion.
My spiritual search developed via introspection, meditation, yoga, psychotherapy, breathwork, and experiments with altered states. My friends on this path were a loose assortment of independent seekers whose lineage was more Beat or Woodstock than Church or Temple. I was hostile to organized religion, and scoffed at the way most religious people spoke of “God”.
But then, after many years of looking within, I was overwhelmed by several dramatic spiritual experiences that felt like direct revelations of the mind of God, reaching through the skeptical walls of my reason. This was not the angry, jealous God cited by Bible-thumping preachers, but a God beyond boundaries—a pure intelligence, a limitless field of love. Prompted by these experiences, I wrote a small book, Becoming Me, a creation story as told by the Creator.
When Becoming Me was published, I figured it would appeal mostly to fringe spiritual types like me, as it doesn’t quite fit into any one particular religious tradition. Like most things mystical, it’s beyond all that. It’s a bit Jewish, a bit Christian, a bit Hindu, a bit Sufi, a bit Buddhist, and a bit Native American, to name a few.
But the book has been endorsed by many religious leaders, and enjoyed by many committed religious people. Thanks to that, I have met many people who are happy to practice in their faith-of-origin, and yet are open to ideas and experiences well beyond orthodoxy. They are actively seeking to understand the different points-of-view of other traditions. They are helping their faiths to be more inclusive, and are exploring holistic and contemplative practices long suppressed from their own traditions. They question traditional teachings when necessary. They are frustrated by the media’s tendency (now changing, at last) to be cynical about issues of faith. They are much more moderate in their political beliefs than the far right of their religions would like to believe.
In short, I encountered a huge number of religious people who are more like me than I imagined. The fact that I didn't know about them, and was not open to their perspective, continues to amaze me. In my post-religious liberalism, I had been profoundly ignorant and deeply judgmental.
Eventually I too made a religious commitment, to Zen Buddhism. I did this not in rejection of other faiths, but because I wanted a container and community in which to practice regularly. The word "religion" comes from the word "to bind", and in this way, my religion helps keep me on course, and confronts me with myself.
So why this blog?
I believe that many of the political and cultural conflicts in the world do have a spiritual basis and a spiritual solution, but this possibility is ignored when we see only the conflict between religious right and secular left.
I believe that through the coming together of different faiths, we can encourage what is common to all to emerge more clearly. I believe that what is common to all is actually not limited to scripture, but is renewed and recreated in new ways and new language by each generation.
In my own small way, I would like to help the independent, unaligned spiritual seekers meet the many religious people with whom they have so much in common. Can we get beyond lifestyle and language? I'd also like to include all those people who, though disenchanted with their church-of-origin, don’t want to throw out ‘the baby of spirituality’ with ‘the bathwater of religion’. I'd also like to include all those atheists who, in spite of their atheism, want to live more from their deep sense of wonder.
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