"Sir, what do you most enjoy about providing spiritual teaching to men and women?" "Well," said the Sage, "I'm not sure how to put that into words. But one thing most enjoyable is I disappear and, so, am no longer there." The man, looking confused, asked, "Where do you disappear to?" The Sage said, "Nowhere."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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Today, I went to the jail, as I do weekly on Sundays, to facilitate a sacred, safe space for inmates to share. I call the group "Spirituality for Daily Living." Rather than teach doctrine, we mainly discuss stories that embody wisdom to guide us on the Way. Stories can come from any tradition, and we have shared from, for example, Sufism, Buddhism, and the Christian Gospels. We approach Jesus, for instance, as a wisdom teacher, avoiding any theological claims that might be discussed or argued in another setting.
Having in the past felt the demands of conformity in the Christian church religion - which I contrast with Christian spirituality - I have enjoyed, as a chaplain, providing a space for everyone. It feels loving to share in a nonjudgmental gathering where no one is there to defend, argue about, or convert others to their beliefs - which, after all, are ideas, thoughts, opinions - the opposite does not feel loving to me, for it is not loving.
Today, in the group, no one was closely associated with a religion. After almost three months, it seems the word is getting around the jail that this group is not a Jesus-only or church group.
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There are three ways to approach my work at the jail - and other venues - as an "interspiritual chaplain," and these apply to our daily lives. So, in reading these different ways, I ask you to think of how each relates to you.
1) Brian is an interspiritual chaplain - you can find that on our chaplain website at Spiritual Care Services of Maine.
So, that is who Brian is. Brian is an interspiritual chaplain when facilitating a spirituality group, raking leaves, eating lunch, or in deep, dreamless sleep. He is other identities, too: male, caucasian, writer, son, brother... This is how most people live - identifying with roles or features. In this way, consciousness gets locked in through this identity clinging and spreads among diverse identities, so undergoing dilution.
These identities can create conflict among themselves or with others' identities. The social ramifications for chaos are clear; all we have to do is look into religion and politics.
2) Brian goes to the jail, and there is an interspiritual chaplain - and by extension, in any setting where he acts the role.
Hence, Brian is no longer an interspiritual chaplain when he leaves the jail. When Brian provides spiritual guidance over the phone, he is an interspiritual chaplain; after the phone call, he is no more an interspiritual chaplain. He becomes the role next time of providing spiritual care. This idea is foreign to most cultures and closer to the truth.
The closer we get to the truth in matters, the fewer persons who are conscious of that truth, and it requires a transformation of consciousness to live in ever-more-true ways. And, since almost everyone walks around thinking they are any number of identities, we may not get encouragement to live otherwise from anyone. These identities, however, are only thoughts, and we can try to fit ourselves in these thoughts - odd, but we are socialized to see that as normal, as the only way to live.
3) Brian goes to the jail and participates in interspiritual chaplaining with others.
Thus, Brian is a participant with others. He shares with others in creating a space for something to happen - interspiritual chaplaining. "Interspritual chaplain," a substantive, is a moniker to assist him in doing his part. "Interspiritual chaplaining" is what happens. We could say that an interspiritual chaplain is not an identity but a doing. Everything is a doing: the wind is winding, a tree trees, birds bird... Spirit happens.
And interspiritual chaplaining is collective, for it only can occur with others and as a community experience. A small percentage of the human race knows this consciousness in work is possible.
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We can apply this to community. There is no such thing as a community. No one can point me to a thing community. Community is what happens through the presence and action of persons. Two persons can community, while two hundred can get together, claim to be a community, and community not be present at all.
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There are practical and social benefits to this consciousness of identity - better, non-identity - as happening and personal and collective suffering in merging identity with action or role. When we fuse identity with identity as a thing, we trap the liveliness of non-identity, of pure action.
This last subtle consciousness is humble, more open to welcome diversity, and a lighter way to live. And it is most true to that we are, for we are not a this or that, and we are not essentially a separate person, or individual, either. We are first, formless presence, or spirit, appearing in diverse forms, not first, forms appearing with formless presence, or spirit.
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Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with my saying to someone who asks me, "Yes, I'm an interspiritual chaplain." What I write of is attachment to identity. In spiritual awareness, we awaken to the truth identities are not who or what we are, and they are present only to assist us in this human realm. Outside the human realm, such identies may not be needed at all. When the body drops, will I not be "naked" again? So, I can work now on disidentifying with identities in preparation for that disrobing of mortal flesh.
I can still wear identities like the clothes I wash, dry, and wear. But I do not wake up and put on clothes thinking I am putting on myself. I am I, clothes are clothes. What has remained throughout the over sixty years, amid all the change in my appearance - the sense "I."
Looking in the mirror, I am not looking at myself, I am looking from myself... but myself is not just myself.
Have you ever considered the word being as be-ing? That we are called human be-ings? What might be implied in ing?
I invite you to consider the potential ramifications, for yourself and the collective, of releasing attachment to being a this-or-that and seeing others as a this-or-that.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photographs.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
