Soul Work

Rev. Abhi Janamanchi

June 8, 2008

Do you know when you are in a Unitarian Universalist church? When you hear people arguing that animals have souls but human beings don't!

Unitarian Universalists, in general, are a bit skeptical about the concept of soul. We are not sure if it's a 'thing,' a ghost in the biological machine we call our body. Some of us wonder if the soul can exist independent of the body; whether it survives death; or if it transmigrates. And we wonder if other animals, birds, reptiles, insects, plants, and trees have souls too.

Like many of you, I am a bit unclear about the notion of soul. I tend not to see it as a distinct entity, made up of some kind of rarefied material. I am skeptical about the soul being a distinct piece of the human puzzle, a supernatural appendage, or the source of our religious consciousness that can somehow be separated.

My skepticism is deepened by all that I see happening in this world - a world besieged by fear, anxiety, and suspicion; besieged by jingoism that passes for patriotism; by uncertainty, escalating violence, instability, and despair. I wonder at times whether our society still has a conscience, a soul, to be reclaimed.

The Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska eloquently captures how I sometimes feel:

 

A soul is something we have

Every now and then.

Nobody has one all the time

Or forever.

 

Day after day,

Year after year,

Can go by without one.

 

Only sometimes in rapture

Or in the fears of childhood

It nests a little longer.

Only sometimes in the wonderment

That we are old.

 

It rarely assists us

During tiresome tasks,

(such as moving furniture,

carrying suitcases,

or traveling on foot in shoes too tight.

 

When we’re filling out questionnaires

Or chopping meat

It's usually given time off.)

 

Out of our thousand conversations

It participates in one,

And even that isn't a given,

For it prefers silence.

When the body starts to ache and ache

It quietly steals from its post.

It's choosy:

Not happy to see us in crowds,

Sickened by our struggle

For any old advantage

And the drone of business dealings.

 

It doesn't see joy and sorrow

As two different feelings.

It is with us

Only in their union.

 

We can count on it

When we're not sure of anything

And curious of everything.

Of all material objects

It likes grandfather clocks

And mirrors, which work diligently

Even when no one is looking.

 

It doesn't state where it comes from

Or when it will vanish again,

But clearly it awaits such questions.

 

Evidently, just as we need it,

It can also use us

For something.

But my cynicism and skepticism is leavened by my universalism which gently reminds me that underneath all the short-sighted, delusional, violent, defensive, and paranoid thinking in our world, there is still a salvageable soulful quality in every single one of us. And that soulful quality helps us to see and relate to the world in ways that relieve our anxiety, deepen our appreciation, induce greater joy, and establish stronger and healthier relationships. What is 'soul?'

I prefer the way Thomas Moore uses "soul" when he writes: "It is impossible to define precisely what the soul is. Definition is an intellectual enterprise anyway; the soul prefers to imagine. We know intuitively that soul has to do with genuineness and depth, as when we say certain music has soul or a remarkable person is soulful... Soul is revealed in attachment, love, and community, as well as in retreat on behalf of inner communing and intimacy."

Emerson offers a good explanation as well:

"Let us learn the revelation of all nature and thought," he wrote, "that the Highest dwells within us...there is a deep power in which we exist...whose beatitude is accessible to us... It comes to the lowly and simple; it comes to whosoever will put off what is [arrogant] and proud; it comes as insight; it comes as serenity and grandeur. The soul's health consists in the fullness of its reception... Within us is the soul of the whole; the wise silence, the universal...to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One. When it breaks through our intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through our will, it is virtue; when it flows through our affections, it is love."

I believe that we are all born with an unlimited potential for soulfulness, and with an initial orientation to soulful living. We see that manifested so potently in children who demonstrate openness, expectancy, and a holy curiosity about life and the world that we adults yearn for and envy. But then as they grow older and start to develop the capacity for critical judgment and rational thought, this radical openness starts to diminish.

As I grow older, I have come to the realization that for all its amazing creativity and receptivity, the mind erects barriers to our perception, circumscribes the ability of the senses to apprehend the greater Mystery, and impedes our ability to break the barriers of prejudice and judgment that surround our hearts.

I am feeling pulled more and more strongly away from the mind towards the stirrings of the spirit within. I want to learn to quiet and steady my mind, to develop a deeper and more active sense of the holy, and to establish a more lively and engaging relationship with the expanding grandeur of the universe.

I feel drawn toward spiritual practices and disciplines that ground me in body and spirit to the earth and push me harder to do the inner work in order to live more soulfully.

So, this morning, I wish to explore what I consider to be important principles that might enable us to lead a soulful life. They are gratitude, acceptance, service, and practice.

GRATITUDE

Gratitude is a relationship we take with life. Contrast this unconditional gratitude with a thanksgiving which only arises when we have gotten everything that we want. Such a conditional limited theology is calculating. It is gratitude by barter.

It was in this context that Jalaluddin Rumi, the Persian poet and mystic, announced that no matter what the conditions are of your life, "if you are not offering your praise and thanksgiving, you are stealing from the whole world." 'You are," he insists, "a shoplifter." If you just take all that is a blessing in your life and then refuse to acknowledge how richly you have received, you are no better than a thief.

"Most of the unhappiness in the world," writes Unitarian Universalist psychologist Mary Pipher "is caused by people who are ninety percent happy, going for that last ten percent." When we learn to be grateful for that ninety, or eighty, or fifty, or twenty percent - whatever is our measure for that day, our measure of happiness grows. Gratitude shifts attitude; it shifts the quality of our being.

For how can we respond with real sympathy to others if we are focused on our own troubles, held hostage by our own unhappiness, and fixated on our own discontent? If "misery loves company," and if misery and negativity are all people have to share, where does hope lie? In the final equation, it is gratitude that lifts, strengthens, and transforms our lives and inspires us to live soulfully.

ACCEPTANCE

Gratitude is a relationship we take with life. Contrast this unconditional gratitude with a thanksgiving which only arises when we have gotten everything that we want. Such a conditional limited theology is calculating. It is gratitude by barter.

When we can shed our prejudices about how things are and our judgments of others and develop a broader perspective; when we can put away our self-absorption and self-pity, we may be on our way to "radical acceptance." There are two sides to acceptance - acceptance of self and acceptance of others - and they are both connected. Without self-acceptance it is hard to be accepting of others.

But it takes sustained effort to reach even partial acceptance of self and circumstances. Let me elaborate from personal experience. Since childhood, I used to constantly compare myself to others who were engaged in similar work. As a minister, when I went to clergy gatherings or church-related events, I found myself secretly lamenting that I was not as creative, as visionary, as savvy, or as organized about growth, church programming, and organizational principles as other colleagues appeared to be. This feeling came partly out of a sense of insecurity about the tasks that I was expected to fulfill but mostly out of a sense of envy about other people’s gifts and capabilities.

It's only in the past couple of years that I've come to understand the spiritual toll that lack of acceptance exacts on one's soul.

What I've learned is:

I cannot derive genuine satisfaction from my own work if I am always trying to perform it the way someone else would. I cannot respond appropriately to the hopes and dreams and needs and aspirations and challenges of this community, if I am operating from a set of imported assumptions and expectations. And, to be at my best, I simply have to do my best and be humble about not knowing everything. And that must be enough.

You see, acceptance of ourselves and one another requires prying our hearts and minds a little more, so that we can truly listen to ourselves and one another. And in that listening, we do find something to connect with - be it our common humanity, our common fragility, our common joy.

SERVICE

George Bernard Shaw wrote, "This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live."

"Soul," "spirit," "heart," "spark" - whatever word we use for the mysterious force that animates us, its full potential cannot be realized in isolation. Individual growth is possible only through engagement with the human and natural world, and through experiences that challenge, stretch, and expand us. "Souls are like athletes," wrote Thomas Merton, "that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers."

Time and again, I've said that we become human only in the company of other human beings. And this involves both opening our hearts and giving voice to our deepest convictions.

When I was first thinking of becoming a minister, I don't think I understood this idea let alone gave it much thought. Sometimes I could not even quite figure out why people who had broken away from traditional religion kept doing something as traditional as being part of a religious community such as ours. Was it just custom? Habit?

And now, ten years into this wonderful vocation called ministry, I have become aware that our mission, yours and mine, must do this: no matter what fears we face, what baggage we carry around, our job is to choose wholeness over brokenness, hope over despair; and that hope must emerge from within the soul and be aimed at the soul, if it is to help the whole world to grow in soul.

PRACTICE

Remember the old joke? A fellow walks up to a street corner musician on a Manhattan street and asks, "Excuse me, sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The man sternly replies, "Practice!" and walks away.

One of the most essential teachings of all spiritual traditions and saints is to perform serious, diligent practice. Even the most sincere reading and study are not enough to effect genuine transformation.

Growing our soul is a lifelong process. If we grow all our lives, our perspectives will widen to the point that we love universally. We see this stage of spiritual development in the lives of those that author Sally McFague calls "saviors of the world" - Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa. These folks exhibited a universal commitment to truth, justice, and peace and went about making them a reality by leading reverent, compassionate lives.

It is our responsibility as a religious community to create a safe and accepting place where such saviors can emerge. We must begin here and now, in a small way, by accepting one another, making a safe, hospitable place for each of us to share our stories, where our fragility and suffering can be revealed, not to be reviled but to be affirmed, and our courage strengthened to do the work of justice.

These are trying times for our souls.

And yet, these are the times to try our souls.

So, may we practice living soulfully, every single day of our lives, with gratitude and acceptance, in service of a Life much larger than our own.

REFERENCES - Resources used to prepare these reflections include Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore, Soul of a Citizen by John Rogat Loeb, writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Bernard Shaw, and sermons by Michael Schuler and John Buehrens.