Process Spirituality
a very short introduction
Be like the lilies, without why and without care. They bend and blow under the gentle listing of the breeze, which is the ruach Elohim, the soft winds of the spirit blowing across the epochs from creation that caress us.
-- John Caputo |
Let’s say that there are soft winds of the spirit blowing across the epochs from creation and that we can be caressed by them in our daily lives. The winds are not all-controlling or all-powerful. They can be overwhelmed by storms of our own making: wars, injustices, cruelties inflicted upon other people and animals, cruelties inflicted on ourselves. But the winds are good, gentle and refreshing, and they never give up on us. Even after storms the soft winds return with their grace, keeping life in motion. They are the winds of kindness and beauty, justice and joy, intimacy and merrymaking. [1]
These winds cannot be locked within a box or placed within a verbal frame. They cannot be contained in a specific creed or ritual, or owned by a single community of believers. They are open and free. Spirituality is attunement to these winds so that we become their carriers in daily life. The winds need not be named in order to be carried. They can be understood naturalistically, theistically, or in both ways. [2] The interpretation is less important than the attunement. Understood in this way spirituality is ecumenical in the widest of senses,. You find it in people who are spiritually interested but not religiously affiliated: that is, in spiritually independents. You find it in people are primarily secular or naturalistic in their outlook, not interested in talk of "higher powers" and "deeper sources." And you find it in people who belong to a religious community and follow a religious path, including people who believe in a personal God who loves the world. The winds of the spirit are free and can be felt and known by all. In moments when we are attuned to these winds, we feel more alive and awake, more fully ourselves. Often, however, we find ourselves spiritually stagnant. We lose track of the winds and lose touch with ourselves. [3] Spiritual renewal is the process of reclaiming the winds by growing in emotional intelligence and spiritual wisdom, as catalyzed and expressed in concrete acts of love. The rest of this page offers a further interpretation of emotional intelligence and spiritual wisdom, with help from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Greater Good Science Project of the University of California at Berkeley, and the world's most inclusive interfaith network: Spirituality and Practice. |
Emotional Intelligence
"Emotions drive learning, decision-making, creativity, relationships, and health. The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence uses the power of emotions to create a more effective and compassionate society. The Center conducts research and teaches people of all ages how to develop their emotional intelligence."
"Psychology once assumed that most human emotions fall within the universal categories of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust. But a new study from Greater Good Science Center faculty director Dacher Keltner suggests that there are at least 27 distinct emotions—and they are intimately connected with each other."
Spirituality
"Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of our existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Someone will say, 'I come alive when I listen to music,' or 'I come to life when I garden,' or 'I come alive when I play golf.'" Wherever we come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual. And then we can say, 'I know at least how one is spiritual in that area.' To be vital, awake, aware, in all areas of our lives, is the task that is never accomplished, but it remains the goal."
Spiritual Wisdom
Emotional Intelligence
admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, surprise
Spiritual Practices * |
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[1] The 'winds of the spirit' is a metaphor for the living spirit of God at work in the world through energizing "initial aims." When we are attuned to these aims, we are receptive not only to divine guidance but also to divine desire, divine energy.
[2] Process philosopher and theologians understand the winds of the spirit, but they can also be understood naturalistically, as energetic outcomes of an evolutionary process or as the 'moral arc of the universe.'
[3] The aims of God for the world, as present in fresh possibilities or initial aims, are that we realize our potential in community with the world, and thus become fully ourselves.
[2] Process philosopher and theologians understand the winds of the spirit, but they can also be understood naturalistically, as energetic outcomes of an evolutionary process or as the 'moral arc of the universe.'
[3] The aims of God for the world, as present in fresh possibilities or initial aims, are that we realize our potential in community with the world, and thus become fully ourselves.