Fighting Spirit

Tikkun magazine's Michael Lerner, moving beyond 'politics of meaning,' calls for radical transformation

Jonathan Curiel / SF Chronicle 12dec00

Michael Lerner -- rabbi, magazine editor and author -- advocates an "emancipatory spirituality" that would transform people's inner lives and society as well. Chronicle photo by Kendra Luck

Michael Lerner keeps a photo of Hillary Clinton in his Berkeley home, tucked in the back of the living room mantelpiece. "It's buried away here," he says, laughing, before finding it behind another framed snapshot.

When Lerner sees the photo and thinks back to 1993, to Clinton's speech that catapulted his name into the public consciousness, he shakes his head in disappointment. The first lady's call for a "politics of meaning" was a direct echo of his philosophy, but instead of inspiring change, it begat ridicule of Clinton and her "New Age guru." She retreated from her declaration -- and from Lerner, a rabbi and editor of the liberal magazine Tikkun.

"I was definitely misled," says Lerner. "The woman said, 'We're going to do this together, Michael. We're going to make this "politics of meaning" the central reality in American politics today.' Well, that was hard to resist."

Seven years later, Lerner has written a follow-up to his book "The Politics of Meaning," this time explaining how people can transform their spiritual lives, protect the environment and create day-to-day goodness for rich and poor alike. If it sounds like an all-encompassing platform that extends well beyond politics, it is. "Spirit Matters" (Walsch Books, $22.95) may be Lerner's most radical work.

[Excerpt from Spirit Matters below]

"This is the only book I know of that really pays attention to both the transformation of our inner lives and the transformation of the economic and political structures of society," he says.

The 364-page tome -- and his many appearances (a talk tonight at San Francisco's Modern Times Bookstore is one of a series he has given around the United States) -- are striking a nerve among those who see too much corporate influence in American society, too much voter cynicism, apathy and greed.

""He's a breath of fresh air,'' says Nancy Hedin, executive director of the City Club of Portland, which Lerner addressed recently to rousing applause. ""When you come out of an election cycle like this one, his theories about what it takes to fix society are especially timely.''

At the core of Lerner's new book is a plea for an ""emancipatory spirituality.'' Lerner says American culture is suffering from a ""spiritual depravity'' that is evident everywhere, whether in it's entertainment, education, law, politics or business.

He writes that the TV show ""Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?'' … a ratings hit in February that featured 50 young would-be brides … was a ""striking example of the ethos of selfishness and materialism that have become the "bottom line' in American society.''

The Columbine High School shooting spree, he writes, reflects the absence of compassion among American students … an absence that is worsened by teachers and parents who push children to succeed and be highly competitive. ""Most of us survive high school, (but) we emerge spiritually battered and scarred for life.''

In ""Spirit Matters,'' Lerner offers a mix of solutions:

• At work, people should have time to meditate and pray.
• To stimulate emotional healing, hospitals should have poetry readings and live music.
• Police officers should be trained in mediation so they become part of a ""layer of community healers.''
• Academic testing, such as the SAT, should be eliminated, and students should spend more time learning to care for other students and studying nontraditional subjects such as dance, theater and storytelling.
• Everyone should be guaranteed access to a college education, and … to inspire lifelong learning and community involvement … people should be eligible for a sabbatical year once every seven years.

Lerner, whose Beyt Tikkun synagogue meets every other week at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, says his ideas could form the basis of a new political movement … and, in fact, some elected officials are listening to him. Bev Stein, a Democrat who is running for governor of Oregon in 2002, has had Lerner speak to her closest advisers and made sure they all had copies of his articles.

""I've tried to incorporate (his ideas) into my speeches,'' says Stein, who is chair of the Multnomah County Commission, one of three main elected bodies that oversee services in Portland, Ore. ""They coincide with my own. My personal belief is that every person should be valued for who they are.''

Some find For some, Lerner's prescriptions are too unconventional to implement. He writes, for instance example, that people should invite strangers -- including the homeless --into their homes for food and discussion, as a way to connect with others and to follow the example of mimic the patriarch Abraham, who opened his tent to passers-by.

One of Lerner's most controversial recommendations: adding a Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment would require those corporations with annual budgets of more than $25 million that do business in the United States to renew a charter every 20 years … a charter that could be denied if the corporation didn't behave in ethically responsible ways, such as producing socially valuable products and giving ""global environmental concerns a high priority in making corporate investment and production decisions.''

While many laud Lerner … Harvard Professor Cornel West calls him ""a modern prophet'' -- critics say he is a self-promoter whose vision of America is skewed by therapeutic jargon. (Lerner, 57, was trained as a clinical psychologist, and has doctorates Ph.D.s in philosophy and psychology.) A reviewer in the Atlantic Monthly called ""The Politics of Meaning'' an ""unreadable compendium of gaseous bromides.'' Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh scorns Lerner as ""the official rabbi to Hillary Clinton.''

Their enmity seems only to have strengthened Lerner's resilience and his determination that people must stand up for their beliefs in the face of detractors.

"This book came out of a recognition that the "politics of meaning' "The Politics of Meaning' was not going to come through famous people in government -- that it would have to come from below, from the rest of us at the grassroots level,'' Lerner says. ""I tell people that if they go for their highest ideals, they will not be alone. In fact, the big thing I'm asking people is to come out of the closet as spiritual human beings.''

AUTHOR APPEARANCE

MICHAEL LERNER: The writer will discuss his new book, "Spirit Matters," at 7: 30 p.m. tonight at Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia St., San Francisco, (415) 282-9246. Peter Gabel, associate editor of Tikkun magazine, will also speak. The book has its own Web site (www.spiritmatters.net) and is linked to Tikkun magazine (www.tikkun.org)

E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com

Excerpt from SPIRIT MATTERS

MEDITATION and PRAYER

The inner change that we need most to make is to recognize ourselves as part of the Unity of all Being, manifesting the goodness and love of the universe. It sounds so simple: recognize and rejoice in the Unity of all Being, stand in awe and wonder at the glory of all that is, bring as much consciousness, love, solidarity, creativity, sensitivity and goodness as we possibly can. But living this way involves much more than holding a correct opinion or subscribing to a good idea. To actually dwell in this experience, to sustain this kind of consciousness is extremely difficult. A momentary elevating thought-sure. But as an ongoing frame of our awareness-not so easy. For thousands of years spiritually oriented people have struggled with a major stumbling block: the ego is typically out of control, its fear of its own obliteration is so overwhelming that it cannot calm down enough to allow this new awareness to take root. Spiritual teachers talk about "monkey mind," the chatterbox tendency of the mind to jump constantly from one thought or feeling to another, unable to slow down and take in the essential unity of all. Much of what we call spiritual practice is actually exercise in slowing and quieting the mind. It is only in this relaxed state of being that the mind is able to recognize itself as part of something larger. This is where meditation enters the picture. Meditation trains the mind to be still and attend only to the present moment, rather than jumping forward into fears, or backwards into angers and regrets. Meditation trains us to notice and accept the various states of the mind as it rushes around on its various trips. We sit quietly, gently noticing how our mind wanders, and gently returning it to focus on something specific (often our breathing, but sometimes on a particularly evocative phrase or mantra). The more we succeed in quieting the mind, the more receptive it becomes to the Unity of All Being. And the more it can deeply acknowledge the truth of this experience and hold onto it, the less frenetic it becomes. Eventually, we become far more capable of integrating this awareness into our daily lives. Don't underestimate the degree to which the organization of daily life in a competitive, obsessive society like our own tends to undermine many of the benefits of meditation. Even spiritual masters often retreat to monasteries to seek a supportive environment. But for most people on the planet, life in a monastery is not really an option. The solution is to work on one's meditative practice, and to work on changing social institutions as well! Prayer too, can help quiet and focus the mind on a deeper awareness of ultimate Unity. But too often prayer is rushed through, as though the main goal were to get certain words said and have it over with. In those cases, prayer becomes just one more instance of monkey mind, not a counter to it. Yet prayer can be a rich opportunity to connect with Unity. I generally do daily prayer after morning meditation, and I find that the two reinforce each other in a very powerful way. Along with prayer and meditation, try singing and dancing. Try them by yourself, but even better, try them in groups. I often sing a blessing before and after each meal, and when possible, invite people to join in other meal-time singing. If you have teenagers in your family, they may think it's weird, but they think everything their parents do is weird. And even they have a great time when they are doing it with enough of their peers.. Similarly, dancing can be approached in a meditative mode or as a form of prayer. Moving one's body often helps connect with aspects of reality that words cannot access by themselves. Prayer, meditation, singing and dancing, are extremely nourishing and health-producing. But they are only rarely sufficient in themselves to sustain a spiritual consciousness through a normal day in the contemporary world. Think back to the world of work I described in chapter three, with Samuel, Joan and the others-and recognize that the spiritual consciousness faces a massive wall of resistance in the world around us. Every interaction, every bit of language, every work situation, every communication we receive from television, radio, e-mail or the Web tends to restimulate the fragmented, anxious, lonely and frightened consciousness that finds its expression in monkey mind. My conclusion: a healthy person will combine inner work like meditation and prayer with outer work aimed at transforming the institutions of our society. So, if you've gotten this far in reading this book, and you are convinced now that Spirit Matters, then this might well be the right time to begin the process of deepening your inner life. For those who wish to develop some of the appropriate skills, I suggest the following resources: Lorin Roche's book Meditation Made Easy (HarperSanFrancisco 1998) is a user-friendly place to start meditation practice. Then turn to Sylvia Boorstein, teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California ( www.spiritrock.org ) See particularly: Don't Just Do Something: Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat and It's Easier Than You Think (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997). Another brilliant teacher is Sharon Salzberg (cofounder of the Insight Meditation Center at Barre, Ma., www.dharma.org ) particularly in her Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary art of Happiness . Finding a way into prayer is more difficult. I suggest you start with a book by Tamar Frankiel and Judy Greenfeld, Minding the Temple of the Soul: Balancing Body, Mind and Spirit (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1997).

Mindfulness

The more we can clear the mind of its tendency to be everywhere but here and now, the more we are able to develop mindfulness, the active attention to what is. To be mindful is to know ourselves, to feel our bodies, to be in touch with our emotions, to honor our intuitions. To be mindful is also to be present to others, to experience them in their fullness, to allow ourselves to know what we intuit from them. To be present is, most of all, to not impose our preconceptions, judgments and cunning commentary on what is happening, but to allow ourselves to be receptive to it and to take it in. There is no way to fully overcome seeing reality from the standpoint of who we are, individually. Even the greatest spiritual teachers were limited beings, and they understood truth through the framework of their own reality. Gandhi could see the suffering of the Indian people, and he taught people how to effectively resist British rule, but he was remarkably silent when spiritual leaders should have been teaching the world how to resist Hitler and the Holocaust. We can reduce the distorting lens of ego, so we stop seeing other sentient beings through the lens of our own needs. But we don't want to reduce that awareness too much, because our ego orientation provides useful information, because our own needs are also valuable and worthy of attention. The goal is not to annihilate the ego, but to make it an object of awareness. Part of our task is to heal it through gentle acceptance rather than to repress it through harsh self-criticism. Part of being present to "what is" involves opening ourselves to the omnipresent possibility of possibility, to the presence of the Force of Healing and Transformation (YHVH) or, to put it in other terms, the Voice from the future drawing us toward what could be. To hear that Voice in the present, to know that the potential for transformation is in everything, is to touch a central truth of Biblical religion. Yet that is not all there is to being mindful of what is before us. We will also be overwhelmed by the beauty and luminosity of all existence. We will be filled with radical amazement at its grandeur.. We will feel unable to articulate the wonder that we see. And at the same time, we will be filled with sadness and compassion for all the pain and suffering that fills our world. We will feel joy at the life force that flows through us all. Here are some resources for enhancing mindfulness: Joel Levey and Michelle Levey: Living in Balance (Conari Press, 1998) provides a very useful account of how to achieve a spiritual balance in one's mind, in one's relations, in the rest of one's life. Its subtitle: A dynamic approach for creating harmony and wholeness in a chaotic world may over-promise, since it lacks a serious sense of social transformation, but it contains a lot of good tips for a mindfulness approach. So, too, does Larry Rosenberg in Breath by Breath (Shambhala, 1998) and Lama Surya Das in Awakening the Buddha Within (Broadway Books, 1997)--both rooted in a non-sectarian approach to Buddhism. Also very accessible is Thich Nhat Hanh's wonderful The Miracle of Mindfulness (Beacon Press, 1976). For a powerful integration of mindfulness with the need for tikkun (healing and transformation), see Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush's Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service. (Bell Tower, 1992).

Getting in Balance: Steps on the Spiritual Path

When we begin to experience the joy of being liberated from "getting and spending" and the extraordinary personal gifts that come from a regular spiritual practice, we sometimes begin to lose perspective and think that we have found the one true answer that will work for everybody or the one truth that obliterates all others. Spirit Matters-but, as I've learned in my life, it is not the only thing that matters. It changes many things, but not everything. The Buddhist teacher Chugyam Rinpoche wrote of the dangers of "spiritual materialism" when people reduce the spiritual life to yet another product to be consumed. Balance requires a certain maturity that cannot be fixed by formula. Aristotle talked about it in terms of the need to find the mean between two extremes, but when asked how one could know the mean, he talked about finding and learning from a person who already exhibited "practical wisdom." But how identify that person? Any formula can be misused. "It takes one to know one"-you have to develop your own life experience and wisdom to know from whom you can learn. The reason we need accomplished spiritual therapists is that all the spiritual truths must be applied in complex situations. In my own work as a spiritual counselor, I've found that people sometimes may need to develop a particular understanding at one point in their development, and need a move in just the opposite direction at another point. No formula can replace practical wisdom and openness to one's own experience. One excellent place to read about achieving this kind of balance is Elizabeth Lesser's The New American Spirituality: A Seeker's Guide (Random House, 1999). Lesser's book combines practical lessons with a stunningly comprehensive review of new spiritual thinking.

Letting go of Control

One of the great illusions of the ego is that it can control everything. Fearful of its own dissolution, the ego seeks to convince itself of its own solidity and power. We've all suffered the consequences. In our own lives, we've tried to control others, only to find that doing so ruined our relationships. Or we've succeeded, and then found the person became less filled with life, less like a real partner, because in succumbing to control they lost what we valued in them, the ability to be themselves. Or we've belonged to groups only to see a member or leader intent on controlling everything and everybody make the rest of us feel so uncomfortable that we eventually dropped out. Or we've allowed others to control us, only to find ourselves filled with anger and resentment-and then we've eventually abandoned the situation. Ironically, the best way to build a different kind of world is for each of us to learn the practice of giving up control. This is not easy. But it's a powerfully important experience: to allow things in our life and in relationships to develop without us always needing to be in the driver's seat. Even allowing ourselves to think about the world without putting ourselves and our desire to control things at the center is an important first step. The world is continually being recreated by each one of us, and we must never minimize the amount of power we have. But neither should we forget that we are just one part of a vast picture. And we must recognize that we are on this planet with six billion other human beings. The world was not created just for you or just for me but for all of us. Giving up control is actually giving up the arrogance of imagining that we are in control when in fact we rarely are, and giving up the futile ego drive for control over all things. Ironically, once we give up this fantasy, we are better able to take control of things that ought to be under our control (e.g. the ways we pollute the environment or the ways that corporations shape the economic and political life of our planet). Giving up our grandiosity is a first step toward increasing our actual power. In the current historical moment, the spiritual task is to reverse our energies so we are willing to share control in our loving relationships and communities and take more control over our economy, political life, media, and the other major institutions that shape our lives.

There is Enough--You Are Enough

The world is not running out of food, shelter or clothing. If we share the world's riches, and plan sensibly, there is enough for everyone. When we see that there is enough, we can get off the endless cycle of producing and consuming more and more, while always feeling empty and unsatisfied. So what if we didn't produce a new model of car or supercomputer each year? What if we just slowed down? We'd still have enough. We need to focus on seeing the world from the standpoint of gratitude for what is already there, and learn how to share it in a loving and caring way. One reason we have trouble slowing down is that we feel internally that we ourselves are not enough, that if only we accomplished some great feat, won some trophy, got our picture in the newspaper, had an attractive lover or partner, had a bigger house, a more powerful position at work or a more successful stock portfolio, then others would recognize that we are okay and then we'd start to feel okay. The deep truth the spiritual tradition has to teach is this: you are ALREADY enough. You don't have to do anything You are created in the image of God, an embodiment of sacred energy, a miracle that is already happening, an heir of the greatest possible wealth, namely the goodness and love of the universe. There is nothing more you have to do but rejoice in who you are and all you have. Once you realize that you are already enough, you can begin to feel good about being promiscuous with kindness and concern for others. Just as there is no shortage of goods, so there is no shortage of love. Love is like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Or, as a pop song puts it, the more you give away, the more you have. This simple wisdom is so counter-intuitive to marketplace consciousness that we need to remind ourselves of it every day.

Give to Give, Not to Get

Generosity to others means giving for the sake of giving without expectation of a "return on the investment," without feeling hurt or angry if we do not get back from them in equal measure. Giving to give quickly becomes its own reward. The inner pleasure of giving can be one of life's great joys. Model the kind of love you want to receive and you will receive that kind of love in return. Be the goodness that you wish for in the world. If you give to get, you will likely distort the quality of your giving, and the gift will feel more like a demand to those who receive it.

Even prayer can be like that: not a statement of awe and wonder and celebration, but a demand on God to deliver something. If you are calculating and controlling, if you make a move for some personal advancement, people know it, the universe can feel it, and you end up being disappointed by their response and by yourself. So giving to give is the key: give without hope of reward and without anticipation of gratitude. Imagine that people around you are in so much pain that they are not going to be able to really appreciate your goodness, and so distorted that no good deed will go unpunished. Nevertheless, in the midst of that world, see your task as lighting a beacon of hope by being the one person who is giving goodness without expectation of real appreciation, and knowing that others who feel unable to be equally giving may even be somewhat resentful. Start with this simple exercise: Every day, find some way to be giving or loving or to do some act of kindness and generosity for someone you barely know, someone who has not done something to "earn" this favor. Spontaneous acts of giving for the sake of giving are good places to start your spiritual practice.

MONEY and MEANING

If you are someone who has been blessed with financial well-being or wealth, you have a special opportunity to advance the process of spiritual development. You can become a living proof to others that it is possible to live a life in which the pursuit of money is not the bottom line. But money can also be a burden and a curse. I've worked with families that have been broken apart by the anticipation of inheritance, or by the resentments that developed when one family member became wealthy and others remained under financial pressures. I've watched as parents lavished wealth on children and found their children becoming distant and rejecting the parents' best values. I've seen people born to wealth unable to trust others, fearful that everyone they met was more interested in their money than in their soul. I've seen people who earned lots of money spend much of their psychic energy worried that their success would never last and hence felt unable to act with generosity toward others. Many people who have money are so sure that others will resent them for it or seek to put demands on them, they feel they have to hide what they have. So lets start with this: if you have money, rejoice in the opportunity it gives you. There was a time when liberal and progressive circles thought money was a contamination and that the highest goal was to live a life of poverty. Poor people never shared this philosophy. Emancipatory Spirituality does not call upon you to be poor. It rejoices in well-being and seeks to build a world in which everyone can also enjoy a life of plenty. And that does not depend on you giving up all that you have. The first challenge in dealing with your money is to give up attachment to it, and instead see it as a momentary gift which you have received and for which you are the steward. Your task is to learn how you can use your resources to best serve God or Spirit. There was a time when this meant: give it away to some charitable institution and let them worry about it. I know many decent people who do this still. But increasing numbers of those who have suddenly come into wealth, either because of good fortune in the marketplace or through inheritance, are becoming involved with their charitable giving, taking a more hands-on approach. As this involvement grows, these people are beginning to ask themselves a central question: do I want to do more with my money than put Band-Aids on societal problems? For some, the answer is "no!" They are afraid that asking those kinds of questions may force them to challenge the very institutions and economic practices which gave them the money in the first place. Others are excited about the possibility that they might use their money to make a real difference, to provide ways to fundamentally change our world. From my standpoint, the key in evaluating any potential recipient of support is this: Are they explicitly helping people with whom they have contact recognize themselves as part of a growing spiritual movement that seeks a new bottom line for our society based on love and caring, ethical, spiritual and ecological sensitivity, and awe and wonder? If they are explicitly developing that consciousness, please help them. I've seen so many good people and foundations squander huge amounts of well-intentioned charitable giving on projects which provided Band-Aids, because they never really were clear enough to ask: how exactly do we ever expect to create a society which might reflect the values in which we believe? Charitable giving should focus on supporting those projects which, in your opinion, seem to be providing the best answer to that question. Of course, there are many other wonderful and important ways to be of service. Every time you enable others to act from the standpoint of their own inner goodness, or empower them to recognize that they too are manifestations of Spirit, you make an important contribution. One important practice: talk to your children about money and about the responsibility to use it to serve the advance of Spirit in the world. Share with them your most idealistic feelings about how to use money, and involve them as early as possible in the discussion of how they might use any money you might e able to give them. Talk to them about the fears you have and about the hopes you have for using money in a spiritually healthy way. If you're unsure how to begin the conversation, spend some time writing an ethical will. Talk about the values you hold and how you wish they could manifest in the world. Then talk about what you wish your children could do with whatever money they might inherit or earn in the marketplace--and how they might embody your values. Then, invite family members to read that will out loud and discuss it together. You don't have to be "rich" to engage in these kinds of conversations. Many of us are struggling financially, and don't share the problems of the wealthy. Yet talking about money can be an important spiritual practice for us as well. Helping family members talk out their fears and their hopes around money will make everyone feel less alone. You don't have to feel that you should be protecting everyone else from your fears. Here, as elsewhere in the spiritual life, being honest, open and real will often produce unexpectedly good results. The universe has been amazingly generous to each of us. One of the traditions in Jewish life is that even a poor person who receives charity should give to others in need some of what she has been given. The opportunity to give to others is one of the great blessings of life.

* Hospitality

The Biblical Abraham kept his tent open in all four directions to make sure he could greet passersby and invite them in to share his hospitality. Today, we treat our homes as fortresses against the world. The Biblical command: "Thou shalt love the stranger" seems the most foreign element of ancient spirituality. Many a spiritual practitioner will soar high in feeling connected to all, but will not invite a homeless person in or take active steps to reach out to the shy and the lonely. Jewish Biblical commentators have argued that the sin which drew down the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was the way the way those cities closed their doors to the homeless. If so, contemporary America needs to reform itself quickly. We have passed legislation denying social services and other important benefits to immigrants both legal and illegal. We have created an Immigration and Naturalization Service which harasses rather than greets the stranger. As long as the advanced industrial societies have so much more than the rest of the world, others will want to immigrate. But the solution to that is obvious: if we do not wish to be overrun, we have to share. If we were to devote fifty years to building up the productive capacities of third world countries, sharing and transforming the way we produce, we could have a world in which the incentive to immigrate would dramatically decline. Similarly, local governments in the U.S. argue "We can't be too generous lest we start attracting homeless people to our city from all over the country, thereby overwhelming our capacity to be generous." The answer, of course, is to have these cities coordinate with each other and for each to make a solid commitment to building adequate housing for tens of thousands of the homeless. But, in the meantime, we face the situation by ourselves. The place to start is right here and right now. We could work to create an international peace corps made up of people who voluntarily go to Third World countries and to our inner cities, and whose first task is to rebuild the economic infrastructure. I'd like to see every young person take two years of national service to do this kind of work before going on to college. But in the meantime, the first step is for you and me to practice hospitality in our own lives. Hospitality means inviting the homeless to your home. But it should also include people who aren't homeless but who would benefit from more connection with others-which is almost everyone around you. Invite more people to come over for a dinner, a picnic, a pot-luck gathering. You don't have to have a big or fancy apartment or house to invite others, it does not have to be all neat and orderly, and you don't have to "make a good impression" by having the right clothes or the right decorations or furnishings. If you don't have time to cook, ask people to bring something to share. In the Jewish religious world where the custom of inviting people to come home for Shabbat (Sabbath) lunch is widely practiced, I've frequently found myself with a group of 10-12 people stuffed into a tiny, tiny apartment space in which we shared very unfancy food, but had a wonderful time singing together, talking about the weekly Torah reading or politics or shared stories about our lives-and almost everyone feels nourished by such occasions. Open your home like Abraham opened his tent. Reach out and invite people in your workplace, your church or synagogue or mosque or ashram, your community organization or your political movement to share a weekday evening, a weekend afternoon, a walk in the park or a swim at the beach or some other opportunity to open your life and your abundance with others. If this sounds overwhelming, start by taking one day a month to work on this practice.

*Graceful Simplicity

Ecological sustainability and spiritual wholeness both suggest that we learn to detach ourselves from our frenetic accumulation of things. While it's an illusion to believe that we can change the world without collective social action, in transforming our individual patterns of consumption we can make an important impact on our own psyches. For example, we don't really need to get a new automobile every five years, and we don't need to upgrade computers every two years. We often don't need new clothes if we refused to pay attention to those whose job is to make us feel awkward if we aren't keeping up with what they define as "fashion" in order to induce us to consume. Many of us buy far more than we need. Next time you are invited by some advertisement to surf web pages devoted to selling you things, "just say 'no'." Generosity can be shown in other ways besides buying material things. One step on the path may be to give away some of the "stuff" that fills our homes, the stuff we don't really need. Others in our lives might actually need some of what fills our closets-and if we each understood this kind of sharing as a spiritual practice it would be less awkward to ask others to take what we don't need. An equally important spiritual practice is to learn to give to others what they need, and often that is not just stuff. Imagine if people in our society could stop buying so much for Christmas, Chanukah, birthdays, anniversaries and weddings, and instead asked themselves, "What does person X really need in her life and how could I help her get it?" For example, imagine if you gave someone a gift certificate that said "I will give you five hours of childcare or care for your elderly parent" or "I will supply you with five hours of grocery shopping" or "I will give you X hours of assistance in painting your house, working on developing a garden for you or doing some form of housework." Imaginative giving is only one of the steps toward simplifying our lives together. Jerome M. Segal's insightful book Graceful Simplicity: Toward a Philosophy and Politics of Simple Living (Henry Holt, 1999) provides a fascinating introduction to how to build such a life for ourselves.

Treasuring The Body

Our bodies are a gift and we need to learn to treasure them. This may sound strange to those of us who grew up in religious or spiritual communities that identified the body with a lower, material existence which was suspect at best, and prone to sin and evil at worst. The truth is, many forms of spirituality have denigrated rather than treasured the body. Yet there has always been a counter-tradition which understood bodily existence as inherently good and potentially sacred. Rather than repress our enjoyment of the body, contemporary versions of Emancipatory Spirituality unequivocally affirm bodily pleasure and consider honoring the body a high spiritual task. As with all spiritual practice, balance is the key. Bodily pleasure cannot be pursued without regard to the consequences for others. Profligate sexuality divorced from loving relationships has been a quintessential aspect of contemporary narcissism. The contemporary obsession with looks and with a single societally sanctioned ideal of the attractive body is just as limiting. Similarly, the focus on providing food in a way that is healthy, sustaining, aesthetically pleasing and joyous can be turned into an obsession with the perfect gourmet experience that becomes a new enslavement. Emancipatory Spirituality, on the other hand, seeks to affirm pleasure, sexual joy and ecstasy, yet to place them in the context of a balanced life, integrated with attention to the needs of others and our sense of Unity with All. One place to practice this joy is in eating. You can start and finish each meal with a blessing. Bless the universe or Spirit or God for making this planet Earth which has so many wonderful things that can sustain us. Then, shift your focus to the hundreds of generations who developed techniques of agriculture and cooking to make this available, and bless them. Bless the people in our own generation who grew the food, harvested it and brought it to market. Bless the person who bought it, who brought it home, who prepared it and set it before you. Eat slowly. Enjoy looking at the food. Taste every bite--and be aware of the tastes buds that are being stimulated. Pay attention to the decision to stop tasting and to start swallowing. Allow this to be the moment you reconnect to the Unity of All Being, as you consume that which the goodness of the universe has made available.

• The Commonweal Research Institute, directed by Steve Lerner
• Purchase Spirit Matters
• Purchase The Politics of Meaning
• The Age of Extinction and The Emerging Environmental Health Movement by Michael Lerner

source: Tikkun http://www.tikkun.org/meditation_and_prayer.htm