Few people question the pressing need for each of us to have some kind of trans-personal orientation to our lives. Generally speaking, this is the realm of ethics and religion, especially the former. Ethics for me implies a much deeper engagement with the ambiguity of daily life than does religion, which so often shields a person from it. Life is challenging and does not have easy answers.
But spiritual development requires exposure to many different approaches and traditions, as well as an exploration of self. Both of these routes tend to turn back on themselves. Looking at different ways of being "spiritual" can seem like shopping, but why not? Why shouldn't we approach important things like we approach everything else?
Self-exploration is often incoherent. Age nineteen was a disaster for me. I was depressed and overwhelmed and far away from my best self. That was the year I lost three jobs and spent far too much time alone. It was also the year I met or became close to people who would stay in my orbit from then on. I discovered the I Ching, Gurdjieff, P.G. Wodehouse, the Athenaeum, and Harvard's Widener Library, and dove into the underground music scene (it was 1984, a great year for music in Boston). I was all over the place and not much was working for me, but I was stumbling across alot of what would later become crucial to me.
I keep that year in mind when I worry about my older students.
Humanism often gets missed when discussing this subject. Slowly, TAS is going to be introducing a special track for students interested in their own spritiual development. It won't be simply Zen oriented, but it will be fairly disciplined and require a commitment. Will the school districts that pay us get queasy? If they do, then what? Ironically, most schools in our area don't even teach secular-humanist philosphy (which is what they are supposedly doing anyway); they don't teach much of anything in the way of consistant personal development and integration.
Over the next few weeks I will be posting some of the aspects of the proposed TAS program. Let us know what you think. Meanwhile, drift over to this site, the web HQ of secular-humanism.
But spiritual development requires exposure to many different approaches and traditions, as well as an exploration of self. Both of these routes tend to turn back on themselves. Looking at different ways of being "spiritual" can seem like shopping, but why not? Why shouldn't we approach important things like we approach everything else?
Self-exploration is often incoherent. Age nineteen was a disaster for me. I was depressed and overwhelmed and far away from my best self. That was the year I lost three jobs and spent far too much time alone. It was also the year I met or became close to people who would stay in my orbit from then on. I discovered the I Ching, Gurdjieff, P.G. Wodehouse, the Athenaeum, and Harvard's Widener Library, and dove into the underground music scene (it was 1984, a great year for music in Boston). I was all over the place and not much was working for me, but I was stumbling across alot of what would later become crucial to me.
I keep that year in mind when I worry about my older students.
Humanism often gets missed when discussing this subject. Slowly, TAS is going to be introducing a special track for students interested in their own spritiual development. It won't be simply Zen oriented, but it will be fairly disciplined and require a commitment. Will the school districts that pay us get queasy? If they do, then what? Ironically, most schools in our area don't even teach secular-humanist philosphy (which is what they are supposedly doing anyway); they don't teach much of anything in the way of consistant personal development and integration.
Over the next few weeks I will be posting some of the aspects of the proposed TAS program. Let us know what you think. Meanwhile, drift over to this site, the web HQ of secular-humanism.
No comments:
Post a Comment