Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday a topic is printed inviting a response. Submissions are edited for content and length.
Editor’s note: “Spiritual leaders answer” is a weekly column inviting Kaua‘i’s religious and spiritual leaders to share their doctrine’s perspective on a suggested subject. Every Friday a topic is printed inviting a response. Submissions are edited for content and length. Thoughts or suggestions for future topics are always welcome. Next week’s topic is marriage. The topic at the end of the column is for the following week.
Pastor Wayne Patton
Anahola Baptist Church
The biblical character Stephen is an excellent example of spirituality. Over and over in Acts 6-7, the Bible uses the word “full” to describe Stephen. It was as if the Lord read and recorded a series of five gauges of spirituality in Stephen’s life.
The first gauge was labeled Holy Spirit. Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. This means to be so utterly and fully committed to Jesus Christ that He has control of every corner and crevice of our lives by means of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. On the spirituality gauge labeled Holy Spirit, the needle needs to point to full.
Second, Stephen was full of wisdom. Stephen responded to difficulties and opportunities with steady, measured maturity which gained the respect of his hearers. He had the ability to consistently apply biblical truth to daily life situations. Stephen’s spirituality gauge of wisdom registered full.
Third, Stephen was full of faith. He had an abiding, unwavering trust in God that kept him from falling apart or becoming flustered when things did not work out as intended. His composure was impressive. Glancing at Stephen’s spirituality gauge of faith, it read full.
Fourth, Stephen was full of grace. He understood the grace of God. He communicated it. It overflowed from his life into those of others — even to those stoning him to death. Stephen’s spirituality gauge of grace was full.
Finally, Stephen was full of power. He was initially ordained as a deacon and put in charge of food distribution, but his gifts propelled him into preaching, evangelizing and proclaiming the Gospel with power.
In the book of Acts, God found a man named Stephen who kept his spirituality reserves topped off, a man who lived life to its fullest. God is still looking for people like that today.
Rev. Dr. James Fung
Lihu‘e Christian Church
Spirituality is the door that we open from the inside of our soul so that the divine breath of God can breathe its life-enhancing spirit into the deepest part of our being. It’s not a mere coincidence that the word for spirit is the same as the word for breath in so many of the world’s languages. It’s as if ancient peoples realized that when we slow life down, relax, soothe our emotionality and take a deep breath, we not only gain a better perspective, but we feel lighter, freer, happier and more at peace.
We are created to be in relation with God, with each other and nature. And when we embrace that unity we begin to experience a harmony — an integration — within ourselves and with all of God’s creation. A cultivated spirituality allows us to love all that life is with curiosity, wonder and gratitude. As spiritually-attuned people we are able to transcend the kind of separateness that leads us to be too quick to judge and criticize others. Instead we are more easily able to enter into the subjective reality of another person and celebrate our common humanity.
The spirituality of the Christian faith is not the dissolving of individuality into a oneness with the divine; it is a harmony that is achieved in deep intimate relatedness with the spirit of God. Through prayer, meditation, study and worship we are mentored into discerning the voice of God, feeling the nudging of the divine spirit which we experience as love, warmth, a sense of belonging, an apprehension of the divine spirit that lets us know that we are not alone. We intuitively know that God’s love will never let us go. And with that comes a peace and love that casts out any and all fear.
Baha’is of Kaua‘i
The following from Shoghi Effendi, great-grandson of Baha’u’llah and appointed Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, provides guidance as to how spirituality can be developed and the consequences of a society without it. This counsel is particularly relevant to youth as they search for direction and purpose amidst the chaos and confusion that surrounds them.
“The problem with which you are faced is one which concerns and seriously puzzles many of our present-day youth. How to attain spirituality is indeed a question to which every young man and woman must sooner or later try to find a satisfactory answer. It is precisely because no such satisfactory answer has been given or found, that the modern youth finds itself bewildered, and is being consequently carried away by the materialistic forces that are so powerfully undermining the foundations of man’s moral and spiritual life.
“Indeed the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence.
“The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious. Man’s outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the spirit.
“It is this condition, so sadly morbid, into which society has fallen, that religion seeks to improve and transform. For the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites Man with God. This state of spiritual communion can be brought about and maintained by means of meditation and prayer. And this is the reason why Baha’u’llah has so much stressed the importance of worship. It is not sufficient for a believer merely to accept and observe the teachings. He should, in addition, cultivate the sense of spirituality which he can acquire chiefly by means of prayer. The Baha’i Faith, like all other Divine Religions, is thus fundamentally mystic in character. Its chief goal is the development of the individual and society, through the acquisition of spiritual virtues and powers. It is the soul of man which has first to be fed. And this spiritual nourishment prayer can best provide.
“Laws and institutions, as viewed by Baha’u’llah (Prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith), can become really effective only when our inner spiritual life has been perfected and transformed. Otherwise religion will degenerate into a mere organization, and becomes a dead thing. The believers, particularly the young ones, should therefore fully realize the necessity of praying. For prayer is absolutely indispensable to their inner spiritual development, and this, as already stated, is the very foundation and purpose of the religion of God.”
Lama Tashi Dundrup
Kaua‘i Dharma Center
This word arises from the two worlds or states of being: 1) carnate (animals and humans) and 2) discarnate or spirits. In the spirit world there are four levels: 1) Demonic spirits of the 18 kinds of hells, 2) Deprived spirits of 260 different categories, 3) Spartans or jealous power-mongering gods and goddesses of 18 divisions, and 4) Celestial gods and goddesses of three levels (desire realm, radiant form realm and formless realm).
All of this is called cyclic existence because its basis is a belief in a “self,” ego or soul, existing separate from every one and every thing, in nature. This temporal existence is based on karma, or cause and effect.
Each of these states of existence involve pain and suffering because of one’s emotional involvement with what one thinks and one’s state of being; form or formless.
There is another path of spirituality that says all of this drama and the universe itself is illusory and that mind and the universe are inseparable, and that realizing this is to simply, through spiritual discipline, develop an open mind free of emotional involvement and the heart of loving kindness, compassion, insight and power. This is the accomplishment of perfection in the human condition and the end result of our evolutionary process on this planet.
Topic for two
weeks from today
• Will you speak to us on art?
• Spiritual leaders are invited to e-mail responses of three to five paragraphs to afrainier@ thegardenisland.com.
• Deadline each week is 5 p.m. Tuesday.