Dear Friends,
The October issue of Contempla is here! Listen is our quarterly publication with a written reflection on spiritual companionship, with poetry written by SDI Members, and freely available to all. In this issue I share about the growing number of “unaffiliated spiritual explorers” both in our community and in the population at-large. The larger context is that SDI is going to start offering significantly more offerings to reflect the needs of this important consort of spiritual director and companion guides and explorers.
Here’s an excerpt from the reflection I wrote,
“
As the father of six, ranging in age from 38 down to 18, I am well versed with the generational shift occurring worldwide away from most established religions, and towards the variously named “spiritual but not religious,” “spiritual independents,” or the the title I now tentatively proffer, “unaffiliated spiritual explorers.” Five of my six identify with this category, with only one fitting in an affiliated group.
The Pew Research Center now identifies this consort as the third largest in the world overall, and the fastest growing. Not much surprise here, given the avalanche of scandals, predatory behaviour, power imbalances, corruption and hypocrisy plaguing all of our religious institutions. I say this as a committed Zen Buddhist priest, well aware of the too many sordid abuses in my own root tradition. We could of course say that this type of bad behaviour is simply reflective of human nature, and pervasive in our various institutions throughout time, but simply far more visible now, with the rise of social media, and the ubiquitousness of “smart” phones. And, moreover, it is worth noting that these institutions, for all of their failings, also have had much success in spiritually comforting and orienting many of us.
But it is not my purpose today to launch a defense along the lines of “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” much as that is something worth pondering. Rather, I want to briefly explore the motivations that lie behind these unaffiliated spiritual explorations, as relayed to me by numerous individuals, and backed up by the Pew data I just mentioned. The larger context is that SDI is going to start offering significantly more offerings to reflect the needs and predilections of this consort of spiritual director and companion guides and explorers.”
Read the web version here, or access the PDF here. And, feel free to share with a friend!
May you all be well,
Rev. SeiFu
