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"We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic seashell, and when applying our ear to its lips, we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore. Citizens of two realms, we all must sustain a dual allegiance."

– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was an American rabbi and one of the leading theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, authored numerous books and was deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement. He argued that spiritual encounters with the divine are fundamental to human life.

The quote above comes from his book Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion. This writing is essentially a treatise on how human beings can understand God.  While recognizing a difference between humanity and the divine, Heschel suggests that encounters with the Holy are a part of human experience.  The book explores the problems of doubts and faith and the human yearning for spirituality. While distinctively Jewish in its theological frame, the book has much to offer the contemporary seeker, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or another faith. Even the agnostics among us, who are many, would appreciate Heschel's writings, for he is far more universal than one might suppose.

I'm particularly attracted to that last sentence from the opening quote. "Citizens of two realms, we all must sustain a dual allegiance." Heschel seems to be suggesting that we humans live in two realities that are of equal value. This idea is very much in keeping with the writings of the great wisdom traditions as well as the field of depth psychology. While most of us today live very much consciously aware of a realm of paychecks, grocery stores, and automobiles, we also have an intuitive sense that there is something else.

That something else is difficult to describe, so we do not tell it or even talk about it most of the time. Yet, given an opportunity and a safe environment, I have found people willing and eager to tell of their encounters with the sacred realm. Years ago, I preached an unusual sermon while visiting Trinity Church in Chelmsford, MA. The homily consisted of four stories of encounters by people who experienced something out of the ordinary. In conversations with congregation members after the worship service, an older man described a time in his late 20s when he heard a voice caution his over-obsession with his career. That encounter, which he described as holy, changed his entire approach to his family. "I vowed to spend more time with my wife and children." He said. "In fifty years since that voice spoke to me, I've never regretted that decision." I also learned that he had never told anyone about that experience.

Increasingly, I hear stories like this from people. They had something unusual happen, but they never told anyone. It's as if that old joke rings true, "why is that when someone says they talk to God, we call it prayer, but if they say God talked to them, we call it crazy?" For a long time, that had been a prevailing attitude in our society, but it’s beginning to change. More people are coming forward with their stories of an experience of this other realm.

Last week, I spent three days with Andy Root, the US American theologian who has written extensively about the secular society as a context for ministry. He outlined the gradual shift from the sacred to the secular over the last 500 years. He made the case, obvious to many, that we no longer live in a culture that lives in a fully sacred framework. Today our experience of life is guided by the rational and the scientific. One example that illustrates this shift: If your child got sick in the 1400s, you thought it to be an attack of the devil or demons and sought out a healer, shaman, or priest to rid the child of the demons. One lived in a spirit-infused time. Today if your child is sick, you take them to a medical doctor. You think it might be an infection and need antibiotics or another treatment. While we welcome the prayers of friends, it's unlikely you will rely on prayers alone.

Dr. Root pointed out that we are grateful for many of the accomplishments of living in a secular worldview. For example, antibiotics, indoor plumbing, food safety, and transportation make our lives safer, longer, and more comfortable. I'll be honest. I like living in this secular scientific worldview. I’m writing this on a computer that allows me to edit with ease, in a room that’s heated following breakfast that was easily procured. Life is good in the secular world.

Yet, has the secular gone too far?  Have we so emphasized rationality that we have pushed away from the sacred? This brings us to the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, an early founder of modern psychology, along with Sigmund Freud. Jung parted ways with Freud primarily over the latter's insistence that all neurosis is about repressed sexuality. Jung then set about a lifelong project that focused on our need for a spiritual dimension. While there is much in his Collected Works about psychology, we can find a great deal about Jung's efforts to help the modern world rediscover a new way of accessing the sacred. Unfortunately, Jung was misunderstood in his lifetime, though today, his work is receiving a more favorable audience.

He often wrote of his efforts to provide modern people with a new sense of the sacred. One example comes from a book he published just a few years before his death.

"This is not to say that Christianity is finished. I am, on the contrary, convinced that it is not Christianity but our conception and interpretation of it that has become antiquated in the face of the present world situation. The Christian symbol is a living thing that carries in itself the seeds of further development. "C. G. Jung in The Undiscovered Self © 1957

Jung, like Heschel, advocated that we all must find a way to live in two realms and hold a dual allegiance. Our society has neglected the realm of wonder, mystery, spirit, the holy; call it what you wish. Instead, we have become one-sided in valuing only the world we can see, touch, taste. Another way to think of it is our emphasis is on the five senses, to the neglect of the sixth sense. This causes us to be heavily ‘materialist’ in our orientation. The word ‘materialist’ because it seems to describe our orientation toward things. It also results in a materialistic emphasis that pairs well with consumer capitalism.

I’m deeply concerned about this imbalance. If Heschel and Jung are correct, and we do indeed live in two realms, yet increasingly ignore or deny the realm of mystery, wonder, and God, where will that lead us?  An exclusively materialist worldview leaves people bereft of meaning. Or simply meaning found solely in the acquisition of more stuff. I’m not against the comforts of modern life, but almost anyone with enough life experience recognizes that more stuff, new stuff, and bigger stuff does not lead to fulfillment.

Much of what you'll be reading in these Notebooks will circumambulate these ideas. "Man cannot live a meaningless life," wrote Jung. Today, we are engaged in multiple activities that seem to be distractive and self-destructive. I can't help but wonder if this is rooted in our need to regain a balance of the two realms in which we live.

We have found meaning for most of human history when our individual lives are connected to a larger story. That larger story is a realm beyond the day-to-day of life. The good news is that we have at our disposal multiple ways of reengaging with that realm. The long history of wisdom traditions points us to many options. These “Notebook” writings will be practical as well as poetic and philosophical. I intend to amplify the opportunities to rekindle meaning and connection with God in the coming issues. Through story, cinema, dreams, the arts, meditation, folktales, and such, I'll describe ways people can connect with the larger story of life.

I'll leave you with a delightful reading from William Stafford

The Way it Is

There's a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.

Until next time…

Jim