Spirit and Belief

Developing mind, body, and Spirit are essential to a life well-lived. 

A friend, a Deacon in the Catholic church, asked what I mean by Spirit and whether or not I believe in God. We decided to meet for breakfast to discuss it. 

Over the course of a two-and-a-half-hour conversation, we found plenty to agree on, along with some fundamental differences in our Spiritual understandings. The most rewarding part of the discussion was respectfully endeavoring to understand one another. That’s a rare privilege in this day and age. 

I’ve been thinking about our conversation and whether key elements would be appropriate for a post. More importantly, I wondered if it would be a good idea? Viewpoints concerning Spirituality differ widely. I’m fascinated by those differences, feeling there is always something to learn. At the same time, there is no surer way to alienate people than delving into religion or politics. 

Maria Popova echos that point in her blog, The Marginalian, “Nothing, not one thing, hurts us more — or causes us to hurt others more — than our certainties.” 

For me, Spirituality involves exploration, rather than certainty. Others might disagree.

As a forewarning, I decided to accept that risk in this post.

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Spirituality involves witnessing our connectedness. 

I prefer to not name God. Names imply possession and boundaries. When someone asks if I believe in God, I find it’s usually because they want to see if we are on the same page or members of the same tribe. My usual response is to ask how they define God, which always invites an interesting discussion.  

Some define God in declarative sentences, like “the creator of heaven and earth” or “the all-knowing power of the universe.” Their certainty always amazes me.   

I am unable to define God in an objective manner. I relate to God as an energy that manifests in the world as a pull to union. This ubiquitous force brings things together, forming atoms, molecules,  organisms, and galaxies. We are living manifestations of this energy. What we choose to call it, for me, is beside the point. 

Think of a world where everyone surrenders to this pull to union rather than focusing on differences! My experience is that glimpses of a universal “We” are within reach. It feels to me that life is more than physical form. But, unlike my Catholic friend, I do not resonate with the concept of a personal God that intervenes in our daily lives. 

Katherine May captures the essence of my experience in her book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder In An Anxious Age (2023). “I don’t have to believe in God as a person. I can believe in this instead: the entire mesh of existence binding us together in ways we perceive only if we listen. Each of us is a particle of this greater entity.”

A metafor might help to further clarify what I’m trying to express: 

It’s one thing to believe in love and quite another to be in love. While I find beautiful elements in the world’s religions, institutional authority and exclusivity claims bother me. I was raised in a Christian family but didn’t experience Spirit in organized religion.

This, of course, was a significant difference with my Catholic friend.

Church attendance is declining in The United States. There was a time when religion held sway; now, increasing numbers of people look to science to explain our mysteries. Science for me isn’t enough. Science is good at explaining the what and hows of existence, but it’s not much help when it comes to the meaning or why of our existence. 

I don’t attend church, but I regularly devote time to Spiritual contemplation. Church services I’ve attended focus too much on doctrine and tradition rather than Spiritual transcendence.

I find statements of belief concerning God to be provisional truths. They are beautiful and powerful factors in the lives of believers. However, when taken exclusively, they divide us.

Foundational truths, on the other hand, are universal. The greatest foundational truth is love. Another is kindness.  Love is an unknowable mystery. When we open ourselves to love, it becomes a powerful force in our lives. Love is mysterious. Believing in love falls short of experiencing love. The same thing for me is true with God.

My libertarian approach to Spirituality could be accused of lacking structure. I don’t experience it that way. Love and unity are the foundation of honest community living.

If forced to put an affiliation to my Spiritual understanding, I am comfortable with the term mystic. This word is often misconstrued, so allow me to clarify. 

In her 1903 book Practical Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill defines Mysticism as “the art of union with reality.” I find union to be the core of Spiritual practice. Mystical understandings are present in many religious traditions. Mystics I resonate with in Christianity include Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, and Richard Rohr. In Judaism, I am drawn to the writings of Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel. In the Sufi tradition, I find beauty in the works of Rumi and Kahlil Gibran. Others include Indian Yogi Sri Aurobindo and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn. These great teachers speak of love and union beyond boundaries. References for their writings can be found on my website, tim-coats.com, under the further reading tab.

It troubles me that diverse beliefs concerning God divide the world despite broad agreement on the power of love. The magic of God is contained in the wonder of what I do not know. When I surrender my thought-imprisoned Self, I experience an indescribable peace, a communion of Spirit arising from participation rather than a belief. 

In closing, I am grateful for my Catholic friend’s question regarding belief. I wrote the first draft of this post over six months ago, but wasn’t satisfied with it. I’ve thought about it and revisited it many times. 

I began by asserting that developing mind, body, and Spirit are essential to a well-lived life. I found  thinking deeply enough about my Spiritual understanding to express it in writing highly beneficial.

Despite clear differences that surfaced in the discussion with my friend, there was strong agreement on matters of fundamental importance to both of us. The core of that agreement could be summarized in three words:

God is love. 

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