Seeking the Sacred

Thomas Moore in describing his own spiritual quest, describes for us all the universal elements of our shared spiritual quests. Joseph Campbell describes the Quest as having three parts: the departure, the adventure and the return. Within his encouraging explorations of the quest these four themes appear:

The Church Community. Is is in the religious community that we first experience spirituality. For community is the custodian of the eternal mystery in all its diversity and in its commonality. Is is here that many first hear the still small voice of God. It is here that we experience the example of the saints before us and among us. It is here that compassion often awakes. It is here that justice often recruits its helpers. Some carry out their quest within the community.

VIDEO. Discernment - Here I Am Lord. 380 secs. YoutubeLink.

But the community of faith does not handle doubt well. And this is the departure point of many on their Spiritual Quest. There are three aspects of this quest, this journey: mind, body and heart.

The Journey of the Mind. For some the quest begins with study. We plumb the Depths of Theology, Philosophy, and Other Religious Traditions. We embrace the fundamentals of our traditions. We explore what lies beyond our fear, our "dark nights of the soul". Faith becomes a learning. Spirituality is seen as a matter of ideas.

VIDEO. Reaching For Wisdom. 100 secs. YoutubeLink.

The Journey of the Body. For others the quest begins with involvement in the World at Large. We work, and do business, and join professions, and create, and commit. We engage in family and friendship. We repair what breaks in people and things. We learn of ethics. We learn of society. We laugh. We weep. Faith becomes a living thing. Spirituality is seen as a matter of love.

VIDEO - The Road of Empowerment - 115 secs . YoutubeLink.

The Journey of the Heart. And for others the quest comes as an unwanted journey into the mystery. We are taken up by powers and circumstances beyond us and come to accept what is beyond understanding. We learn of prayer. We experience music. We learn of meditation. We find life in and around us. Faith becomes submission. Spirituality is seen as a matter of transcendance.

VIDEO - Dark Night of the Soul - Prayer Song. 200 secs. YoutubeLink.

But all quests are completed with a return to home. Moore speaks of a community that "can enjoy each member's individuality, imperfections, and eccentricities." A place where we find "the courage to be". A place where we find "multiple sources of spirit, which has the added virtue of finding spirituality in every aspect of daily life, without exception." Spirituality is seen wholistic.

       We shall not cease from exploration
          And the end of all our exploring
          Will be to arrive where we started
          And know the place for the first time.
                        -- "Little Gidding" T.S.Elliott.

VIDEO - I Have Loved You. 160 secs. YoutubeLink.

Thomas Moore Links

Thomas Moore's Website: www.careofthesoul.net Selected Writings (9 articles), Books, Tapes, Events. Routine publishers stuff.

Of far greater interest and far more activity, this intriguing series of blogs by Deborah Jessop http://barque.blogspot.com. There are themes and forums to contain her ideas including the opportunity to participate yourself.

"Thomas Moore's official site is Care of the Soul. Occasionally additional web resources become available, interesting to those who are attracted to his writings and explorations. I hope that this site, Barque: Thomas Moore, will help us to find such links in the bobbing, tidal, ephemeral, impermanent world of the web.

I teach at Centennial College’s Centre for Creative Communication in Toronto. Deborah has compiled a great deal of information including links to excerpts to his many books and audio interviews.

Wikipedia Article on Thomas Moore the Spiritual Writer. (There are many Thomas Moores after the famous Irish poet.)

Moore suggests Zen is a worthy study on one's spiritual quest. A most accessible way to listen to a most worthy voice on Zen is available (free) at Apple's itune store. Once you have itunes on your machine you can search their lists. Search for Alan Watts. Sign up for the podcast and every few days you will get a little 15 minute meditation. Watts was an Anglican priest who studied Zen and was one of the first to explain Zen to a North American audience.

Here are excerpts from Crooked Cucumber - The Life and Zen Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki, another voice suggested by Moore.

James Hillman was Thomas Moore's teacher. One modern expression of "The dark night of the soul" is "depression". Hillman (and Moore) do not see depression as a sickness alone. Here's a flavour of the discussion in Hillman's essay "Giving Depression a Fair Hearing - an afternoon with James Hillman" by John Söderlund

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's example and his theology from a war time Germany continue to speak to us. PBS did a movie on his life and APM's Krista Tippet did a podcast you can listen to about this remarkable man. We also studied Bonhoeffer a few years back.

Some quotes from Paul Tillich - much easier than his theology!

Astonishment is the root of philosophy.

Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.

Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.

Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.

I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment.

Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.

The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.

The first duty of love is to listen.

There is no love which does not become help.

We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.

"Open my grave when I am dead, and thou shalt see a cloud of smoke rising out from it; then shalt thou know that the fire still burns in my dead heart -- yea, it has set my very winding-sheet alight."

"If the scent of her hair were to blow across my dust when I had been dead a hundred years, my mouldering bones would rise and come dancing out of the tomb."

"I have estimated the influence of Reason upon Love and found that it is like that of a raindrop upon the ocean, which makes one little mark upon the water's face and disappears."

The Songs of Hafiz - The love poetry of Sufi poet Hafiz of Shiraz

Discussion - Discuss: How do I integrate the sacred and the secular in my life?

I do not disinguish between the two. Both are integrated naturally in how I live.

Soul, for me, is a mind/body spark.

I stay connected to the soul, and the sacred, by living in the now. I take sabbath time to provide me with the "will" to engage with life creatively.

I have needed to reframe and redefine what spirituality is in my life from what I was originally taught, and this has not always been easy. Yet, it has been important for me.

I find mysticism is an important spiritual dimension with which to engage.

Life is not just doing. It is being.

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