Spirituality has become a fad, especially during this Covid age. It started with the elites, the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, then the Fortune 500 CEOs, and now it’s everywhere. Meditation apps, mindfulness books, yoga studios, Buddhist podcasts, blogs on Zen lifestyle … it is as if you don’t attend a retreat by an Indian guru, or have a spiritual coach, then you are just so “out”, relegated to a primitive species that is no better than animals.
What is spirituality exactly? When most people use the term, it is usually in the context of “I’m spiritual, but not religious”. But that is an evolved application of the term. Traditionally, spirituality refers to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man", oriented at "the image of God". It’s an idea shared by many religions that some divine being (God) has somehow created the world and there is a journey humans go through to be close to God and the truth. Modern usage, however, has diverted from the rigid definition implied in organized religions, and has adopted a more liberal use of the word to encompass any experience related to personal growth and search for meaning.
But it is not a clean break away from religion as the claim “I’m spiritual, but not religious” asserts. Rather, it is a movement away from Western religions like Christianity and Judaism to Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. Or a movement away from religions with strict dogma like Islam to more tolerant religions like Buddhism. Surely, for anyone who grows up in the 21st century, Bible teachings like non virgins should be stoned and bastards need to be outcasts just seem outdated and outlandish. It would require a reframing and reinterpretation of epic proportions to resolve the cognitive dissonance between praying to a God who would forgive all of our atrocious sins and send us to heaven as long as we are loyal to HIM and all that we intuitively know to be true that such a God would not only be unreasonable but also cruel. Some people choose to suspend their disbelief and only focus on the aspects of God that work for them in modern life, but for many well-educated elites, that chasm is just too wide to cross. So it is somewhat understandable that they are turning to Eastern religions, romanticizing concepts like enlightenment and transcendence.
It is exactly that movement to Eastern religions that I have a problem with. Having grown up in the East, I have a much more intimate understanding of Buddhism than the Westerners who are mystified by their recent discovery. In my view, Eastern religions, while imbued with much philosophical wisdom, are still religions, which indoctrinate blind faith in some supernatural explanation of the unknown. Because it is blind faith, there is no need or space for further questioning or exploration. In fact, Zen theories are very good at circumventing further examination by answering questions with riddles that are completely open to interpretations.
We need to look no further than Deepak Chopra, an Indian guru and American writer whose books are popularized by Oprah. Educated in medicine and physics, Deepak knows just enough science to inject quantum physics into his word salad and string together sentences that seem profound but are completely non sensical. Here are some examples: “We do not exist in the body. The body exists in us. We do not exist in the world. The world exists in us.” “DNA is a quantum computer that localizes a non local omnipresent consciousness or spirit into space time energy information and matter.” “Nature is a self regulating ecosystem of awareness.” To millions of his fans, he is an enlightened teacher and prophet. To others, he is a master of woo woo – there is an online Deepak quote generator that takes his tweets and puts them in random order to generate the “enigmatic wisdom”.
Deepak may be a novelty in the West, but characters like him are quite familiar in Eastern cultures. When I was working part time during my college days, I had a close encounter with just such a character. He was a consultant for the company I was working for in Beijing. He was always dressed in white, giving him a mysterious aura. He was well versed in ancient philosophy and literature. But he was very restrained in his use of words, always answering questions with questions, never providing any solutions, only more questions for the owner to ponder… as if a small business owner had enough time to do meditation and just let those answers come to him. That business died eventually… but the guru went on to become spiritual leaders for other businesses while selling his own arts.
Have you noticed that despite their enlightened minds, none of these gurus have risen above their material pursuit? They all cash in their wisdom via books, seminars, and retreats. Have you also noticed that the abundance of these gurus in India over the centuries has failed to save India from poverty and a barbaric caste system?
Religions, East or West, are fictional stories, told by humans, but elevated to supernatural status so that faith in them requires no evidence or proof. This is not to say we can only believe in what we can prove. Rather, science starts with an honest acknowledgement that there is a lot we don’t know. Where science differs from religion is that science makes no attempt to construct a fantasy and demand people to blindly believe in that fantasy. On the contrary, science tackles the unknown by making various hypotheses and testing them. That some super intelligent being resembling what we call “God” may exist is a mere hypothesis and it shall remain so with many other possibilities, which we hope we could gain clarity on some day with enough scientific knowledge. And only by doing that can we gradually peel the onions and enhance our understanding of us and the world we live in.
An example of this is acupuncture. The East has long figured out acupuncture can cure diseases and calm nerves. The problem is the effect is not reliable or consistent. It works for some people and only some time. It is hard to replicate. That is because the East never figured out in those cases that worked, why it worked and in those cases that did not work, why it did not work. So acupuncture remains in the category of a treatment for those that are believers. Recently, science has discovered Vegas nerve, which comes out at the earlobes and is responsible for much human pleasure. It seems to offer an explanation that acupuncture might have worked as it stimulates the Vegas nerves for some people. There is a lot more to be done to get to the precise answers, but this is the type of thing we need to start doing to begin the journey of understanding the human mind and ultimately satisfying it.
Let me clarify that I’m not against being mindful, although to me a more appropriate word would be aware. Most of us cruise through life not fully aware of our own emotions and behaviors and how they impact us and others. It would do us good to do a little self study. I recently did a small experiment on myself documenting every day with a rating from -2 being really negative to +2 being really positive, and a brief explanation why that day was negative or positive. It yielded tremendous insights for myself: 1) I am generally pretty happy these days (60% of my days are +1 or +2), which is remarkable considering I have been trapped at home during this global pandemic and I have a low tolerance for boredom. 2) Most of my neutral days (33% of my days have a rating of 0) usually start with something negative (e.g., frustration at work) but are later counterbalanced with a mildly positive event (e.g., making a delicious meal). 3) Doing something in nature (e.g., hiking) can reliably get me to a +1, but a +2 requires much more intellectual stimulation (e.g., a particularly energizing conversation with a friend or a great book). Simply by documenting my own behaviors and emotions, I can statistically analyze myself and observe patterns to help me get to a more positive state. To me, that is being mindful, or aware.
I’m not opposed to yoga either. I try to practice it as much as I can, but there is nothing spiritual about it. It’s just a stretch and breathing exercise that has cured my neck pain. I don’t do meditations, but I suspect it could be helpful to some people for relaxation. I’m even kosher with people turning to religion to seek relief from pain and suffering. What bothers me is this New Age spirituality movement, started by the Elites which has now grown into a full blown craze, is not going to get us any closer to finding the truth, or happiness or the meaning of life. Simple, practical, actionable advice works just as well, if not better.
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