Finding the Sacred in the Profane

Spirituality is increasing its market share. Inspirational books are getting more shelf space at Waldenbooks. We see frequent cover stories in Time and Newsweek on angels and miracles. National polls reveal that more Americans than not say they have had experiences of the sacred. Spirituality is even entering academia. Not that they're saying prayers in the classroom (although my students and I do in our Atlantic University classes!), but the academes are paying increasing attention--serious attention--to spirituality. They see it as a legitimate guiding force in shaping people's personal lives and even as a "paradigm" to influence a shared worldview. Spirituality, in other words, is becoming part of the Zeitgeist, the mental set of the times.

As an indicator of how normal, or mainstream, it is becoming, spirituality now has received recognition for even its most mundane manifestations in daily life. The mammoth, 25-volume World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest (Crossroad Publishing Company) has just released its 22nd volume, Spirituality and the Secular Quest. Under the editorship of Peter H. Van Ness, Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Union Theological Seminary, twenty university scholars have contributed heavily footnoted essays to prove that spirituality exists independent from religion and that there is a difference between a secularity devoid of spirituality and a secular spirituality.

Secular seems opposed to spiritual. In the dictionary, the two terms are listed as antonyms. But another meaning of secular is that it is something outside the church. Ecclesiastic is also listed as an antonym for secular. We commonly equate spirituality with religion in the same way that we often define mythology as everybody else's religion but our own. This implicit connection between spirituality and the home religion occurs also in Buddhism and even among indigenous shamanistic peoples. So a secular spirituality is something of an odd duck--finding the sacred in unconventional ways--but it's not necessarily new.

In the Western world, secular spirituality had its modern origins in the Age of Enlightenment. Philosophers and a new breed of radicals called scientists were scoping out a fresh perspective on the world and how to live in it most optimally. Here the essence of spirituality appears as perceiving oneself to be connected to a larger whole through some unitive principle, and living one's life accordingly. This same approach to spirituality was evident in the ancient Greek philosophers.

There is a repeated theme to spirituality that spans the centuries. It asks, "How are the Many and the One really the same?" The scholars in this volume answer the question by describing the many ways in which people make a secular connection to the sacred. The sacred moment can come in the same breath that allows a fan to shout a curse to a baseball umpire or it may even appear while a fast food patron is munching on a Big Mac. Their research shows that spirituality doesn't have to be pious. They give many examples of the lesser known aspects of spirituality that not only are inspiring but also would humble even the most righteous.

What do feminists, nature lovers, scholars, sports enthusiasts, gays, artists, and mystics have in common with their spirituality? It is an informed effort to shape one's individual life in harmony with a larger whole, to feel directly connected with a meaning that transcends the personal. "Transpersonal," the academic term for the spiritual dimension of the human being, means that an individual, personal unit can be analogous to the greater whole, that a personal, individual experience can actually transcend the subjectively bounded, private moment, and can participate in and help define a transcendent reality.

Take your pick of secular activities or mundane pursuits, and you'll find in this volume some interesting observations on how the spiritual urge can use the most unexpected tools to create an encounter with the sacred. I turned to a page at random and I learned, for example, about ocean surfing as a spiritual quest. "Surfing is more than merely 'riding waves,'" the author notes as he quotes some previously published words (which is what scholars do) to the effect that the surfer becomes extremely familiar with the waves and finds them to be alive with personality and shifting moods, requiring the surfer to form an intuitive, intimate connection with their spirit. The waves are likened to a lover, but a lover that can turn murderous in a blink of an eye. The spiritual quest is to become one with the wave. Like other mystical pursuits, surfing is a demanding discipline, requiring years of effort to achieve brief and unpredictable moments of ecstatic encounter. Clearly, the blissful rewards are worth the effort. Mark Foo, who said, "if you want to ride the ultimate wave, you have to pay the ultimate price," drowned for his mysticism.

Whether your ultimate wave appears as salt water, the Dodgers, or the Holy Ghost, learning to become One with the play is what spirituality is all about, sacred or profane.