Depth

Originally posted on May 24, 2006

Just as a tree knows how to grow, I know in my deep self  (which I refuse to call spirit or God) how to be me.

Kathy was puzzled at my proposal that some things, lumped together under the word “spirituality”, are too precious to be spoken about. I’m grateful to you for picking me up on this, Kathy. You are right to say that we need to speak up on behalf of the dumb trees and animals. But when we enter into their world deeply, we become dumb too, and I am struggling to find words.

One the one hand, there is a vast web of concepts, woven over thousands of years into cultures and beliefs. It’s impossible to use language without invoking that web of concepts, because they have shaped language and been shaped by it.

On the other hand is our own private experience. When it flourishes in a place where language does not reach, when it joins that silence in which the inanimate is eloquent, or in which the past is just as real as the present, it does not fall naturally into language.

The word “spirit” has a long history. It relates to breath. Spirit for the ancients was that invisible substance which gives life when we breathe, and leaves our body after we have breathed our last breath. As a symbol or an article of faith, spirit has sustained and inspired religious movements of the past, and continues into that post-religious movement which some call the New Age spirituality: a synthesis of the major religions, shamanism and traditional medicine.

Beliefs sprout ultimately from a hidden root of private experience, and are always falsified when they are made public. Language cannot reflect raw experience without interpretation. “Spirit” says too many things to too many people. It meant something to the mystics of old, but now we glibly set it up in opposition to “materialistic”, “sensual”, “gross”.

“Spiritual” all too easily becomes a new elitism, a new way to divide sheep from goats. I don’t want to be involved in that kind of judgement. I find myself using the word “deep” instead of “spiritual”.

Darius in a previous comment said: “That response to nature is fascinating to me too. It seems as though while a lot of us have it, some don’t.” Yes, but my point is that everyone can have and does have deep experience. Being with nature, or specifically walking the earth under the canopy of the sky, is one way to feel depth, but it is not the only way.

Kathy says, “we need to speak up” (on behalf of peace and nature). Yes, we who feel called do so need to speak our soul truth. Just as a tree knows how to grow, I know in my deep self (which I refuse to call spirit or God) how to be me.

4 thoughts on “Depth”

kathy
Vincent hi, your thoughts are interesting to me and different…I’ve never heard it put this way. you make me think.Thank you!
Vincent
For this kind of mutual influence this experimental blog was started, Kathy. It changes the world! Thank you too.
Darius
I agree – the terms are all so loaded with connotations that it’s hard to find the right ones because you don’t know how the other person may be hearing your words.Yes, I agree that there is a depth dimension to who we are – I’d add, that runs deeper than psychology. Not that psychology isn’t important, especially since most of us have psychological stuff that interferes with getting in touch with the depth. You write well…
Vincent
Again, Darius, you raise a cogent point: “Most of us have psychological stuff that interferes with getting in touch with the depth.” Now there’s something else which deserves a fresh look! Maybe in tomorrow’s post . . .