INTRODUCTION:

     If we want to organize and focus our inner lives,
we need some practical methods of cultivating our deeper dimensions,
so that our inner sensibilities will put down deep roots and flourish
rather than, once sprouted, wither and die away.

     Solitude is the precondition of any life of the spirit.
We should not expect to be busily engaged every moment of the day
and still hope to have some inward depth.
 

 A human being who has not a single hour of his own every day
 is no human being.                         ---Rabbi Moshe Leib

     If we want to become sensitive to our inward spirits,
we must find a time and place
away from the distractions of people and events.
Perhaps we should take an extended 'vacation from life',
a period of solitude to reflect
on the whole scope of our lives and deaths.
Rather than a vacation of escape, looking for new experiences,
this could be a period of probing more deeply into ourselves.

     Besides solitude to recollect ourselves,
we need some actual activities to help us to deepen our lives.
This article describes 5 ways to expand our spirits:

OUTLINE:

A. Written Meditation---A Journal of Spirit.
B. Spirit-Stimulating Books.
C. Small Groups of People Discussing the Life of the Spirit.
D. Letters about Matters of Spirit.
E. Individual Conversation and Sharing with other Persons of Spirit.

A. Written Meditation---A Journal of Spirit.

     Perhaps contemplative monks who have spent years practicing meditation
have developed a knack for focusing their minds and spirits,
but most of us probably have difficulty directing our attention as we wish.
Writing down our private thoughts
helps to keep them focused and flowing.
The appearance of definite ideas on paper or on a computer screen
forces our minds to move ahead
without doubling back to check over old thoughts again and again.
And writing also helps to control 'irrelevant' matters of consciousness.

     Actually, almost anything important is valid for our journals of spirit.
Perhaps personal problems preoccupy us to such a degree
that we cannot tune-in to our inner states-of-being
until we have written out everything else going on in our heads.
We may write pages of 'irrelevant' thoughts
before we get to the deeper issues.

     Meditating in writing, even on 'irrelevant' matters,
may be a way of disposing of obstructing commitments too.
When we realize how strongly our preoccupations grip our minds,
we may be moved to redesign our lives from the bottom up.

     Experimentation will lead to the best ways
to use the practice of writing.
Some of us may want to establish a definite time
set aside for personal meditation in writing
---perhaps first thing in the morning.
When we are asleep, we are not persons of spirit.
So if today we are going to be alive in spirit,
we might seek to become responsive and focused as early as possible.

     Such journals of spirit can take almost any physical form:
spiral notebooks, bound blankbooks, loose-leaf notebooks,
tape recordings, typewritten pages, electronic memory.
We might begin with one form and switch to another later.
It may require discipline to force ourselves to begin to write,
but if writing proves helpful to our growth in spirit,
we will continue.

     We might begin by writing whatever comes to mind.
Perhaps we will review our activities of the day or week before,
partly because these matters are already on our minds
and partly to discover how focused we have been.
Then we can project ahead, choosing our way into the future,
organizing our lives more clearly around our ultimate purposes.

     After we have expressed our first layer of thought,
we can proceed to the most important questions
for rearranging our lives:
What is our fundamental inner state-of-being?
Can we turn-in better to our usually-silent inwardness?

     This practice of written meditation, consistently carried thru,
can become sensitivity-training for our spirits,
helping us to come into closer relationship with our deepest selves.

B. Spirit-Stimulating Books.

     If and when our own thoughts come up against a blank wall,
we can turn to the writings of others
who have expressed their inner lives.
Probably we will have to taste around
until we find some helpful authors.
Søren Kierkegaard, Rudolf Bultmann, Martin Buber,
& Thomas Merton have all been helpful to me
in different phases of my inward development.
Even tho I no longer agree with
some of the mythology used by these writers,
I can demythologize as I go along, finding the existential dimension,
discovering what these ideas really mean for human existence.

     Perhaps a part of each day could be set aside
for significant reading directed toward the life of the spirit.
And when we feel especially distracted and spiritless,
we may want to intensify our reading
of other people's expressions of spirit.

     We will direct and evaluate our reading,
according to what we need
at any particular time in our spiritual evolution.
And when we are stimulated to think about our own lives,
we can pause and ponder,
perhaps doing some writing in our journals of spirit.

C. Small Groups of People Discussing the Life of the Spirit.

     Being in the physical presence of other people who are alive in spirit
can sometimes be very helpful for our inner life.
Occasionally we can be together in very deep and sensitive ways.
If we don't know of any such gatherings,
we may have to create our own groups.

     A study group might be the easiest to organize.
Some of the books we have found meaningful for our own reading
might lend themselves to fruitful discussion in a study group.

     A personal sharing group might be more difficult to gather
because it seems more risky to share our deepest thoughts and feelings.
But such a group might find ways to share
the matters we have been writing about in our journals of spirit.
Perhaps a study group will evolve into a personal sharing group
after we become comfortable with one another.
Some members of the group
may be experiencing similar internal difficulties.
And talking about such problems with other sensitive, tuned-in people
can help us to clarify the deep struggles we all encounter
and help us avoid some of the futile efforts others have already tried.

     It may be difficult to devise a small group with these specific goals,
but certain moments in receptive groups gathered for other purposes
may become moments in which we can share our inwardness.

D. Letters about Matters of Spirit.

     Writing about our own inward changes
to people who will understand
can help us to think more deeply about our lives.
Those who receive our letters can respond in kind,
sharing similar events in their own lives.
Such communication is completely individual,
focused on our own particular dynamics of spirit.

     Perhaps we can think of only a few people with whom to correspond
concerning the life of the spirit, but it might be worth a try.
Writing letters is sometimes intermittent communication,
but we usually take more care with writing than with talking.
Those who receive our letters or e-mail
can wait until the right time in their own internal rhythms to respond.

     Writing letters about our deepest lives can combine
many of the best elements
of the first three ways of expanding our spirits:
(A) Letters may be more directed and focused
than a journal of spirit because we know
that someone else will be reading and responding to them,
which may stimulate us to be more serious about what we write.
(B) Our letters may introduce our correspondents
to books and authors that might be helpful to them as well.
(C) And altho it is not as immediate as talking with a small group,
letters can still be a means of deep sharing of spirits.
Some of us may find it easier to write about our inward struggles
than to share them in face-to-face encounter.

E. Individual Conversation and Sharing with other Persons of Spirit.

     It may be helpful for our quest to live more deeply
to talk privately with someone
who has similar concerns and experiences.
Another person who cares about our deeper lives
can help us to focus better.
And when we have a conversation scheduled,
we will not put off our deepest concerns until "later"
---which may mean never.
Such sharing of our inward struggles
can help to keep us on the right track,
keep us coming back to the problems
we might otherwise avoid indefinitely.

     We can keep experimenting with new ways
of focusing our inner lives,
constantly evaluating our experiences,
until we discover the combination of ways of opening our spirits
that works best for us in our current phase of inward development.
And as we mature in spirit over the years,
different practices of the interior life may become valuable.

AUTHOR:

    James Park is an existential philosopher.
This article was adapted by the author
from a section entitled "Spiritlessness"
in an Afterword called "Obstacles to Existential Freedom"
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/XP275.html
in a book entitled Our Existential Predicament:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/XP.html

    If you would like to explore this specific form of spirituality,
several books on existential spirituality are reviewed here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/B-XSP.html

    Much more about James Park will be found on his home page:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum .
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/

    If "Ways to Expand Our Spirits" has stimulated you to think,
pass it on to friends in your computer's address book.
(But be selective, don't just send it blindly to everyone.
We do not want such articles to become
another form of electronic junk mail.)
You might simply send the URL of this article:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/HMS-SR5.html

    This article is just the beginning
of an on-going discussion of development in spirit.
Send your comments and questions to the author,
who promises to respond to all e-mails.
James Park's e-mail address is: PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
The best of such exchanges will be posted on the HMS home page,
linked to this article in the same place:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/HMS-SR5.html

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.