I just posted a new article on the Buddhist Geeks site this morning, entitled The Path of Wholeness. I wrote the article as a way to explore a shift that has happened in my orientation, over the last couple of years, wherein I’ve moved away from a view of spirituality dominated by transcendence, toward one of integrated wholeness. A little snippet from the article:
What I found, after several years of dedicated searching and practice, was that my orientation had gradually shifted away from transcending life, to a more inclusive relationship with it. I began to feel that the purpose of my life was to be more whole, to include what had been left out or what had seemed undesirable.
It was fun to write on this topic, because it’s such an important aspect of spiritual maturation, and now that I’m leaning in this direction, I’m seeing so many amazing people & teachers who have this orientation. One of my teachers, Jack Kornfield, has really influenced me in this regard. His books A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry are brilliant contributions to a spiritual path that focuses on wholeness.
I’ve also been really drawn to a teacher named Diane Musho Hamilton, who teaches in the Zen tradition. She really exhibits a kind of openness and embrace of life that is something I feel represents a real type of freedom in the world, rather than freedom from it. Emily and I are going on a Zen Sesshin with her next week, and we’re thrilled to be practicing with her. This will be my first longer retreat outside of the Theravada tradition, since I started practicing in 2002. I finally feel that I’ve gone deep enough in that tradition to begin exploring what other traditions have to offer. Here’s to exploration and to being a whole human being!
