Moving Beyond the Status Quo: Further Reflections on Accepting “What Is”

At Journeys we recognize that there are a variety of expressions of spirituality. This is what attracts so many of us. This morning I would like to speak of a very different expression of spirituality that has sustained me during my periods of seeking, and helped give me a sense of direction and purpose.

Several weeks ago Michele reminded us that the Buddhist practice of accepting “what is” in one’s life is a powerful and personal lens through which to discover a sense of inner peace.

One of the gifts that Journeys Community has given to me has been this Buddhist cultivation of accepting “what is” in my own life. A sense of being “at one” with me and others. But over the years I have also discovered that spirituality has to include compassionate action on behalf of others. Otherwise, spirituality is only a gift I can give myself. Accepting “what is” in me is not enough. If the acceptance of “what is” extends to “what is” in society and leads to condoning or supporting the status quo that perpetuates injustice, then this “what is” has to be challenged and changed. Spiritually, I had to redefine the meaning of “what is.”

The introduction to my spiritual awareness of “what is” arose out of my sensitivity to injustice early in my life and consequently resulted in my involvement in social action. As we know, we draw upon our own lives as the ground for our spiritual practice. Those of you who know a little of my early life can understand where this came from. Emotionally, spiritually, and physically my exposure to injustice in my early years made an indelible impression throughout my life. Out of this early experience I have been driven to do something, create something that would make life better for others. To confront injustice and the status quo in society enables me to get to the very heart of injustice that I had experienced in my own life, and I could then find a peace that comes with accepting “what is” in a more authentic way. Part of my spiritual history has been not to accept “what is” - and this has enabled me to accept the “what is” for me.

Many men and women have guided me on this spiritual journey. Let me introduce a few of them to you through their words - words that have been written on my soul.

Rabbi Hershel as he marched with Martin Luther King said: “For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet, our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”

“I do not know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know:

the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who

have sought and found how to serve.” ~ Albert Schweitzer

“I was able to survive the Nazi death camps because I had found a sense of purpose and meaning in my life, and I realized that I had something significant yet to do.”~ Viktor Frankl

“Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.” ~ Mother Teresa

“Some people see things as they are and ask, “Why?” I dream of things

that never were and ask, “Why not?” ~ Robert Kennedy

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are

you doing for others?” ~ Martin Luther King

My spiritual mentors, for the most part, came out of the 1960’s era in which I discovered my spiritual grounding. And this grounding came out of the social action and prophetic work to which by circumstance and temperament I was drawn. Because this was always related to my impatience with social and religious conditions that controlled, minimized, and diminished people, I could never accept things as they are. Too many people are hurt through the violence of institutions which allow things to stay as they are. Robert Kennedy said in a speech in South Africa commemorating Affirmation Day in 1966, “The future does not belong to those who are content with today-apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike…rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason, and courage in the face of new ideas and bold projects.” His brother said this about Bobby at his funeral: “He was a man who saw wrong and tried to right it; saw suffering and tried to heal it; saw war and tried to stop it.”

The paradox along my spiritual path has been that by not accepting “what is” in the outer world, I have discovered “what is” in my inner world, in my soul!! It is in vision, action, and response to the needs of others that I recognize “what is” in my life. It took many years for me to get it, and this is the heart of my spiritual grounding now.

I would like to share with you a couple of stories of how my own inner sense of realizing and accepting “what is” in my life has supported me in times of conflict when I was unsettled by “what is” in the world.

From 1969-72 I was the director of the Northeast Community Organization, a grass-roots organization in Baltimore. Whenever our opponents did not like our tactics and programs, they either tried to discredit me or cut off the funding for the organization. In an attempt to dissuade people of good will from participating in the community organization, stories were circulated that when I was in Chicago in 1968, I left dead rats on the front steps of City Hall. For law-abiding, upstanding middle-class people who would never consider such a tactic, this was a complete turn off. The point was made: “We cannot follow someone who does that!!” Never mind that the story was a complete fiction, and that I always wished I had had the nerve to do that!On another occasion, when I was requesting grant funds from a national Catholic organization, my opponents and detractors, again in an attempt to discredit me and the organization, would go through my trash out on the street late at night to find drafts of funding applications or anything else they thought would be an embarrassment to me, and sent them to the funding organization in New York in an attempt to raise questions about my ethics and thus jeopardize the financial viability of the organization.

Over the years, I discovered in myself a lack of fear of this opposition to change in the community. I didn’t like it; I stayed awake at night worrying about it, but I still had the vision and courage that came from an inner sense of peace that I was engaged in my own expression of spirituality, fighting “what is” that hurt people.

I am beginning to reconcile the acceptance of “what is” in my personal life with challenging “what is” in our common life. I have come to recognize and celebrate within myself what the Dalai Lama said about inner peace; “In my own limited experience, I have found that the more we care for the happiness (and well being) of others, the greater is our own peace of mind.” And in reference to Maggie Oman Shannon’s words in our reading,” How We Pray”, I am able to get my own spiritual house in order precisely because I attempted to change the larger institutions in our lives.

My spirituality is both my marching orders for meaning, fulfillment and happiness in life through opposing injustice in all its forms and creating a vision of what can be, and the inner strength and courage to bring to reality what can bring happiness to others and me.

I would like to conclude with a definition of spirituality from the Dalai Lama that combines his acceptance of “what is” and my drive to change “what is” when it brings pain and unhappiness to others: “Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit-such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.”

Combating injustice, creating a vision or what can be, bringing change and caring to the lives of others are some of the ways to bring happiness and justice to others, and certainly they are the spiritual qualities that bring happiness to me.

CONVERGENCE QUESTION:

What are some of the ways you discover “what is” in your life? How do you find your peace?

I have come to accept “what is” in my life by not always accepting “what is” in the world.

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