On Theologically and Geologically Accurate Mountains
(The second of my seminary reflection papers)
"In order to fully recognize our place in creation," Sherri Mitchell writes in Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, "we must realize that our stories are not the only stories that are being told." I feel this quote serves as a good introduction to the topics covered in Global Spiritual Traditions 1 (GST1), as the class not only covers religions and worldviews less understood by the West but ones which have been systematically silenced and suppressed. Much of the lessons we can learn from these faiths come from a rich and ancient practice of deep listening which Western society has long lost. Given how much history and how many concepts GST1 covered, including all of the lessons I took to heart from this class would require a much lengthier paper than anyone wants to read, so I will try to hit the highlights with some brevity.
What I vibed with in the readings:
I knew going into this class that I would enjoy many of the readings - in fact, several of the required books were ones I already owned. Restoring the Kinship Worldview by Wahinkpe Topa and Darcia Narvaez has been in my digital library for a while, though I had not yet had a chance to read it, so this was a delightful opportunity to bump it up my to-be-read list. I found the chart of common worldview manifestations extremely helpful as a quick overview of the Western versus Indigenous mindsets, and especially appreciated the highlighting of the dichotomy between ceremony as rote formality and ceremony as life-sustaining. I also appreciate that the authors emphasize, "All people are indigenous to Earth and have the right and responsibility to practice and teach the Indigenous worldview precepts." When we try to respect closed traditions and historically marginalized populations, sometimes in doing so we struggle with recognizing the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation, and between learning from shared wisdom and stealing ideas that are not our own. I imagine many non-indigenous folks worry they have no right incorporating aspects of the Indigenous worldview into their lives, so this statement is a valuable confirmation and invitation to all to learn from the text.
I also knew I would enjoy the readings on Buddhism, as I have felt drawn to Buddhism for several years after reading about the Buddhist response to the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. Buddhism's emphasis on the cessation of suffering led some Buddhist sects to denounce nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 disaster as being anathema to the preservation of life, a stance which was obviously quite unpopular with the Japanese government. This was also how I learned about bodhisattvas, as the bodhisattva Jizō is beloved in Japan as a protector of children and many of his statues mark areas where children died during the 2011 disaster. Thus Mahayana Buddhism's focus on bodhisattvas and service to others speaks most strongly to me, as I can think of many souls - not just humans! - I have known in my life that seemed like bodhisattvas. They often challenged the status quo and inspired those around them to be better simply by exhibiting honorable qualities like humility, patience, empathy, humor, inclusivity, and reverence for all life. They demonstrated a dedication to coexistence and nonviolence that I strive to attain on a daily basis. As Buddhist Pamela Ayo Yetunde says in Casting Indra's Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community, "If our compassion bypasses what we find most difficult, we will not develop the strength to weather our most profound challenges."
What I did not expect was to enjoy and align so much with Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu! I was least familiar with the Tao Te Ching coming into this class and found myself nodding along in enthusiastic agreement during the readings and lectures. When Dr. John Mabry writes in the introduction to his translation of the Tao Te Ching, "The Taoist follows the example of the animals and the Earth herself, and perceives of the divine in the same way," I feel this in my bones. Animals do not question their experiences; they do not second-guess their senses or accuse their minds of playing tricks on them. Only humans ascribe so many rules and rights and wrongs to everything around them to the point where we hardly know what to make of the divine when it is right in front of us. We struggle with the concept of Yin and Yang because we hate thinking about 'bad' things - even though 'bad' is merely another concept we have pinned on some parts of our world and not others. No wonder we cannot keep our environment in ecological balance when we have forgotten what balance even means! It makes sense, then, that many pillars of the Indigenous worldview are also reflected in the Tao Te Ching, such as cautions against exalting people of extraordinary talent (thus fomenting competition) and public displays of wealth (thus fostering envy and discontent), and of course the idea that true strength comes from gentleness of spirit, not violence and aggression.
I would be remiss if I did not also mention how much I appreciated Hinduism's concept of ishta, or one's chosen aspect of the divine which holds a special place in the heart. Many modern pagans call this a 'patron god' or something similar, and this is often the deity to whom they first became devoted or with whom they primarily work. My ishta or patron god is Bast, the Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) goddess of war, love, protection, the home, and of course felines. Bast has been part of my life as long as I can remember, since I have always had a fascination with both cats and ancient Egypt, but I never really realized I could worship her legitimately. Then one morning when I was 25, Bast came to me in a way I could not ignore or disprove and opened my eyes to the spiritual journey before me. I am forever grateful to her for helping me embark on what has become quite the spiritual adventure! She will always be my soul-mother and the main deity I follow, no matter who or what else I incorporate into my practice.
What I struggled with in the readings:
I feel like I should preface this section by saying I actually enjoyed Huston Smith's Buddhism and Hinduism chapters in The World's Religions. I think these chapters were two of his strongest and provided good foundations for the rest of the readings on those topics. However, I do want to quibble a bit once more on one place where his monotheistic bias shows through (for the sake of brevity I cut a few others). In The World's Religions Smith writes, "It is possible to climb life's mountain from any side, but when the top is reached the trails converge." While I greatly appreciate the pithy poeticism of this line, I politely must beg to differ. For one, that just isn't how mountains work and I dislike inaccurate metaphors, even pithy ones. Mountains have no single summit, no point at which myriad trails can converge to one singular place, but instead a range of peaks and ridges (or perhaps wide plateaus for the more rounded summits) to which many trails may lead yet never cross paths. Think of the many sacred mountains which make up the Himalaya, for example, or the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest. A better metaphor instead might be to think of divinity not as the point at which the trails of life's mountain merge, but as the stone of the very mountain itself and all its sisters in the range. I have a hard time believing, after all, that we are all climbing the same mountain - even in a metaphor. Plus, since no two mountains are alike in composition or ecosystem, it better suits the fact that no one's experience of the divine is the same as another's, and many people experience it as a multiplicity of identities or entities, not a homogenous whole.
Setting Smith aside, I do have to admit that I struggled a bit with some of the chapters in Restoring the Kinship Worldview despite fervently agreeing with much else in the book. So many of the readings for this class cautioned against rigid binaries yet it feels like the binary of Indigenous versus Western worldview is just that - rigid. For example, I felt uncomfortable when Topa and Narvaez essentially blamed the Sumerians for the creation of the Western worldview when they were neither white nor European, and existed over 8,000 years ago. I know the Western worldview is not necessarily a new thing, though of course modern society has exacerbated it beyond any other time in history, but it seems unfair to wrap any society that built permanent settlements or developed agriculture into what has become a deeply white supremacist and capitalist worldview. There were plenty of non-white cultures that built great cities and enacted war or conquest on each other - do they deserve to be stripped of their indigeneity for it? Do the Sumerians, who in some ways had one of the most gender-progressive societies in human history, deserve to be tossed aside completely as part of the Western worldview with all the negatives that brings to mind? I understand the intent of the binary, I do; I just worry that its rigidity means we lose valuable nuance on both sides, and that Western as a term is beginning to lose its precision as its umbrella continues to expand. At the very least, it is a good reminder that we can become entrenched and unbalanced in even the most well-meaning of views and should regularly check-in with ourselves to see if we have become overly dogmatic.
Lastly, something I knew I would struggle with in the readings, because I already struggle with it when I read about some of these worldviews, is the concept of nonviolence. I understand and embrace the concept in theory, and I truly believe it is necessary for our global society to embrace nonviolence on a grand scale if we are ever to solve the issues plaguing us. Yet when it comes to individual situations, to specific circumstances, I find it so much harder to adhere to a nonviolent approach to resolution. This is especially difficult, of course, when something or someone I love is threatened or impacted, but with my fiery temper I tend to struggle no matter what. Releasing that anger is important, yet it often feels like in doing so, or in advocating for a peaceful resolution versus punishment, the original act of violence is condoned. That punishment equals justice is perhaps the hardest part of the Western worldview for me personally to release, though I think I have made a small bit of progress over the last year or two. Chapter 18 in Restoring the Kinship Worldview was immensely helpful for me in reframing how we can go about conflict resolution with its emphasis on how "offenders help the community by drawing attention to imbalances." Focusing on the greater imbalance helps me recognize that no offending action is done within a vacuum and any resolution also has to take the entire network into account.
What this may mean for my future work:
While the worldviews and traditions covered in this class span greatly in both space and time, they all in some way address the concept of change and how humans can become unbalanced and unhappy when we fight change instead of accepting its inevitability. This is especially so for the major systemic changes we face as a global society such as climate destabilization, increasing wealth inequality, and armed conflict. "The time has passed for us to opt out of change," Mitchell so sagely writes in Sacred Instructions. "Change is upon us." As someone in the field of emergency management, I want to help people through this process of acceptance so they can become more resilient to the changes we know are either inevitable or very likely. There are also a lot of overlaps between emergency management and Buddhism specifically, which I wrote about here, and I think there are great opportunities for incorporating a Buddhist worldview into emergency management. I definitely intend to incorporate aspects of various Indigenous worldviews, Buddhism, and Taoism into my future work to bring a more spiritual dimension into the work I do each day and into whatever I find myself doing post-seminary. (Not to mention that the readings on Indigenous worldviews are quite valuable for my work with our tribal nations in general!)
"Filling your cup until it overflows is not as good as stopping it in time," states the Tao Te Ching. "Oversharpen your sword and it will not protect you very long." I also want to use the lessons learned from these sources to help people, especially those in emergency management, develop a better relationship with self-care and wellness. Ours is a 'tough it out' field where burnout runs rampant and I think these worldviews have a lot to offer in terms of moving us toward a healthier professional, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual environment. This need not be 'religious' in the overt sense; after all, Mitchell reminds us that, "We are tied to every ascended master that has ever lived." I experienced this myself when the renowned writer Rachel Carson came to me in a dream, a treasured visit which served as a powerful reminder that our ancestors include not just those of our blood and our teachers not just those enshrined in holy books and mythology. They can be those who walked similar paths to ours, who fought the good fight and can help us do the same without exhausting ourselves completely. I hope I can assist others in making similar connections and discovering the aspects of these worldviews that will best guide them toward a more balanced life of service to self and others.
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