Dear ,
I hope you are well. I’ve been living like a hermit over the last month or so, spending a lot of time working on my new book. It is now officially
titled “Spiritual Science: Why Science Needs Spirituality to Make Sense of the World.” It’s close to complete now - I only have one and a half chapters left. The whole book has come very quickly and easily, almost as if it has been writing itself, but I think that’s because it has been inside me for many years. Certainly, I’ve been thinking (and in some cases writing) about the issues for at least a decade. After my last newsletter, I had quite a few negative responses from you about the
publisher’s idea for the cover, so they came up this one instead:
I like it a lot more - let me know what you think. Parenting and Spirituality
I often feel that having young
children keeps things real and grounded for me. On the one hand, I think it reduces the chance of me getting too full of myself, thinking that I might be more important than anyone else. It also reduces the chances of disappearing into abstraction, or coming to think of the world as a sort of waking dream. Unlike some other spiritual authors, I am not an 'idealist' - that is, i don't believe that consciousness is the only reality and everything I see just exists in my mind. My perspective is
that the body and the world are just as 'spiritual' and real as consciousness itself - because they are manifestations of spirit and they are pervaded with spirit. Spirit manifests itself as individual mind, and equally as the body and the world... I also don't feel at all that the self is an illusion. The separateness of the self is illusory but my self is real and valuable - and is a part of the whole cosmos, as a wave is part of the whole ocean.
I was reminded of this last week when I ended up doing a delayed radio interview at the same time as making dinner for my kids. (I was literally speaking to the radio station on my mobile phone at the same time as stirring the pasta and sauce.) There was also on occasion several years ago when I was asked to do a telephone interview with a major radio station in the US (I
was told it would have two million listeners.) My wife was supposed to come home and take over childcare so I could do the interview, but there was a mix up with daylight savings time, and I had to speak at the same as caring for with my son, who was just a toddler at the time. I was downstairs, answering the tricky question, “What is the difference between a religious experience and an awakening experience?” Then I heard my son’s voice from the toilet upstairs: “Done a poo Daddy!” So I had to
go up and wipe his bum at the same time as trying to speak to the utmost of my philosophical and intellectual ability. I thought there was something marvellously fitting about it! It was a sign that you can’t get too rarified and ethereal, and too far away from the body.
Having kids can be challenging and tiring, but I see it as a form of spiritual
development - a kind of spiritual path, involving a great deal of self-sacrifice and altruism, entailing a good deal of patience, tolerance and self-control, and containing a great deal of joy and wonder. Event in Dublin
On February 16th I’m holding an evening event in Dublin, Ireland. I’ll be exploring some of the themes of The Calm Center and The Leap. focusing on the characteristics of spiritual wakefulness. I’ll be illustrating these with some of my poetic meditations and leading some
exercises to cultivate them. For further information see here. New On-Line Course On January 14th, I’m beginning a five week on-line course based on my book The Leap. I will send you further details - including information about content and how to enrol - in a week or two.
Free On-Line Meditations Let me remind you that you can listen to a series of different meditations I have recorded and uploaded for the InsightTimer website. You can view them on my InsightTimer page. The Spiritual Power of Music
In connection with Dublin, Ireland, a few days ago I went to a concert at a venue in Manchester. The concert was by an American band called Fleet Foxes. They were wonderful, but when I arrived at the venue, I had a flashback to another concert I saw there, about 30 years ago, when I was still at school. It was a concert by U2, just before they became incredibly famous and successful. It was an incredible concert.
The music was so passionate and life-affirming and the audience were so ecstatic that I had a spiritual experience. I remember thinking to myself “This is a religious experience!” even though at the time I didn’t really know what that meant. All boundaries faded away, between members of the audience, between us and the music, and us and the band. The whole audience became one being. A wave of euphoria swept through us all, a feeling of being taken over my something transcendent - as if we were
all surfing on a giant wave of ecstasy. I remember going to school the next day and still feel ecstatic. (And on top of all that, me and my friends hung around by the stage door, waiting for the band to appear. The rest of the band went straight to their coach, but Bono said “I’ve got about 15 minutes - ask me anything you like” and just stayed there chatting to us.
Ever since then, I’ve felt that musical performances can be
collective spiritual experiences - although I’ve never done much research into it. Let me know if you’ve had a similar experience!
New Poems
As I don’t have so much to say this month, I will leave you with two poems. The first is a little strange, unlike anything I’ve written before. It came out of me spontaneously in half an hour or so - I'm not sure what to make of it! The second is a more traditional type of piece, about the importance of sadness.
Everyone is Unhappy
The tidy family scoff at the scruffy family across the road -
‘They’re so lazy; they live like pigs.’
And the scruffy family scoff back at them -
‘They’re so neurotic; their priorities are all
wrong -
we’ve got more important things to do with our time
than run around vacuuming and wiping surfaces clean.’
The slim woman scoffs at the fat woman next door but one -
‘She’s just a slob; she’s got no self-discipline.’
And the fat woman mutters back under her breath -
‘She’s so vain and so uptight; she doesn't know how to enjoy
herself.’
The rich people complain about the poor -
‘It’s all their own fault. They don’t work hard enough.’
And the poor people snipe back at them -
‘Privileged posh fools - they don’t know what real life is like.’
The social activists shake their heads at the spiritual seekers -
‘How can they be so narcissistic?
They just ignore the world and try to change themselves.’
And secretly (because they know they’re not supposed to be judgemental)
the seekers shake their heads back at them -
‘How can they be so deluded?
They just ignore their inner life, and try to change the world.’
And so everyone believes they’re superior to one another
and everyone passes judgement on each other
and everybody is unhappy with each other -
and especially with themselves.
Sadness
Why be ashamed of being sad?
It doesn’t mean you’re imperfect.
It means you are human.
Sadness is a release
of pressure,
like steam from hot water.
It’s the sensation you feel
as surplus emotion flows out of you
so that you can get back to equilibrium.
Without sadness, how could we survive
in this world that makes so many demands on us
and is so full of suffering and injustice?
Sadness is cleansing and healing -
it flushes out stress and bitterness
that would poison our souls if it stayed inside.
So don’t be tempted to close yourself down
and build inner barriers that are so strong and
impermeable
that nothing can escape
and then convince yourself that you’re perfect
and have transcended every human emotion.
If you suppress your humanness
your inner space will turn dark and oppressive
and eventually you will explode.
All best wishes and blessings, Steve
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