Spiritual practice as a path to inner peace
What is the meaning of spiritual practice?
I hear the term “spiritual practice” a lot these days but I wonder what it means to people.
When I was growing up we asked people what religion they were. As if we wanted to know their family origin. And if they answered “I don’t have a religion” or even “I am not anything. I don’t go to church,” it felt a bit as if they didn’t have a family.
That would be like saying of someone whose name wasn’t Smith, or Jones that they didn’t belong somehow.
Even though I was raised in a particular denomination, today I consider myself ‘interfaith’, a term consistent with Thich Nhat Hahn’s ‘interbeing’, a concept that places humanity in the mix with all creation.
Religion is like medicine. It is a practice. Within the field of medicine, a doctor may practice surgery or optometry, or psychiatry.
Within the field of religion or spirituality, I have friends who practice as Roman Catholic, Buddhist, Wiccan, and Native American.
Then there is a large segment of people who are what research refers to as ‘Nones’ – people who answer ‘none’ to the religion question on a survey.
Talk about an identity crisis! Apparently, if you don’t align with a particular tradition you are a Nobody. But I digress…
How do you identify when it comes to religion or spirituality?
About fifty years ago I was admitting my infant son to a hospital for tests and the desk attendant was checking the form I had filled out. I had entered “Christian” where it asked for religion.
She looked up with annoyance. “Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish?”
I repeated “Christian.”
She grimaced and scribbled something I couldn’t see. It seems those were the only alternatives available. I don’t know what I would have put there if I were Hindu or Spiritualist.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what you put on a form unless you wish to see a chaplain of that particular cloth or who is at least comfortable with interfaith ministry. What does matter is your own sense of identity.
Are your choices a result of generational tradition?
If great-grandma was a Baptist she might roll over in her grave if her descendants left the church. Familial roots can be very grounding, and at the same time restricting.
Have you chosen to study world religions and align yourself with the one that makes the most sense for your life circumstances? Deep reflection about the purposes of life and how we celebrate it can be life-changing.
Perhaps you were raised in one tradition and married someone from another, opting to follow their practices. This is a path that can strengthen a relationship and be good. Or not.
Perhaps you have felt wounded by a person or group and divorced yourself entirely from any organized religion. Of course. Why would you submit yourself to the possibility of more trauma?
The bottom line is not how you got where you find yourself today, but where are you going?
How to stay nourished on your spiritual path
We are all created with a body, mind, and spirit and all these parts get hungry.
When my body is hungry— I eat. Food is the only thing on my mind. And when I go long periods without reading a book or listening to a podcast I begin to thirst for knowledge and you may find me hunkered away in a library.
You and I have different appetites. I like fish and you may be a steak person. I enjoy non-fiction and you are strictly into mystery stories. We don’t have a problem with this and often go out to eat or to the movies together.
But if our hunger is for inner growth, or connecting with the Divine there sometimes arise all manner of debate and prophecies of the dire consequences of partaking of the ‘wrong’ spiritual food.
I was told as a young person that if I went to a certain church I would go to hell.
Funny thing though. My friend went there every week and she was told the same thing if she were to come to church with me.
It took me years of study, prayer, miracles, and love to discover that there is nothing wrong with any particular spiritual path.
What is wrong with different spiritual paths?
What is wrong is when there is an absence of love on the path. And with a lack of love, we have a toxic experience, and we naturally reject what has made us ill.
I have a friend with celiac disease who can not eat anything with gluten or wheat.
I have another for whom mushrooms make her quite ill. Clearly, not all food nourishes every person equally. The same can be said for spiritual practices or religious choices.
A contemplative or a mystic is going to have a very different practice than a person called to make soup for the hungry.
A musician will express gratitude totally different than a gardener, and the way a child hears a story of faith and says a prayer will not necessarily bear any resemblance to their understanding and practice as an adult.
I have been exploring these thoughts out of a concern that we seem to be able to feed ourselves physically and mentally but struggle with spiritual nourishment because of unchallenged ideas about religion.
In these last couple of years, we have found a way with technology to have “take out” for our spiritual practices, the same way we bring food home from a restaurant or books home from the library.
I wonder if there are as many places to partake of spiritual practices as there are libraries and restaurants and how do we find them.
Perhaps a topic for another blog post.
[Photo Credits from Unsplash: religious-symbols-by-noah-holm; line-of-people-with-open-hands-by-pedro-lima; library-by-guzel-maksutova; fork-in-path-by-caleb-jones; restaurant-by-alex-haney]
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Rita Poirier
During the pandemic I read more than usual. Spirituality was a hot topic. Hoping for answers, but mostly finding more questions. “Take-out” Sunday services on Zoom or You Tube made it easy to anonymously visit a variety of worship services and hear different points of view. I wish I could say there was a flash of lightening and everything became clear, but alas nothing like that happened. What did happen is that I became more comfortable with being a “searcher”. But don’t tell my grandmother…
Ardis Mayo
Your grandmother – and mine – are perhaps seeing things from a different perspective? We are so limited with our two eyes that only see in one direction at a time and are often willing only to trust that which we can ‘see’.
lyn G. Brakeman
Good thoughts Ardis. Now you can also write about theology, a third member in the great trio of religion, spirituality, and theology. Happy Holy Week.
Ardis Mayo
Ahh, my Trinitarian friend who thinks in threes! But this is a good suggestion. I will be writing about technology and spirituality soon and I have written about creativity in this context also. Theology awaits.
Bette Ryah
Religion and Spirituality. Excellent summary of a difficult topic. And we can add “new science” to the mix. It sems to me that recognition of a “power greater than ourselves” is fairly common. Why don’t we just start from there, add LOVE, and allow freedom of expression to find the prayers, names, songs, and customs that speak to our own hearts.
Ardis Mayo
That’s an excellent question, Bette. Why don’t we?!
Rev Anneli Sinkko
Ardis – this is a difficult question to ponder. I would have written in the form that asks my religion ‘Christian’.
So I am telling you about my experiences – and that is the only pathway I can take. I always considered myself as Christina but then it started to become serious; not just lets go to church every Sunday Christianity.
So I will print here something I wrote in my book – God is bigger than Google.:- ouch – cannot paste.
So I promised to give my life if a couple of people I knew will be saved. And they were. Afterwards I became violently ill; lying on my bed I thought – now Jesus will take my life.
My husband came in and called ambulance – I had burst appendix – I almost died – well, but didn’t.
When I came home, still very weak I was lying on my bed being grateful to Jesus that I did not die. All of the sudden Jesus was in my bedroom – He spoke to me and said that I am His – He has called me by name. And then I started to speak in tongues [and still do].
I am still His – but my entire world view is now different: I am walking along the Thin Places where the created world is less clear than the Kingdom of God. I am blessed – am I spiritual. Not really – just loved and blessed.
Ardis Mayo
What an encouraging story! thank you for sharing. WE each find our path in this world but not everyone is lucky enough to find the affirmation that you have. There will always be differences, not only in the paths we find ourselves on but by the language we use to share it, and by the obstacles along the way. My prayer is that our differences bring us together and not be a separator.
Susan Shofner
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Ardis. And thank you to all those who have responded. As we approach the closing of our church, I have been thinking about what to do next. Have not found an answer yet.
Ardis Mayo
Please accept my condolences on the closing of your church. One of the gifts of its closing is the gift of faith…for traveling on without knowing what to do next. The answer will reveal itself. Perhaps you will write a blog??