The Crisis of Spirit
Participants: Martine Batchelor, Coordinator, Buddhist College, England; Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic Studies; Sam Keen, Philosopher, Author; Rustum Roy, Director, Materials Research Lab, Penn State

"What is a sacred thing?  Go to Minneapolis...we're looking for that which is in the forefront of modern history - we find it is in the mall."
--Sam Keen.

As Keen's statement last night suggests, we have entered a mercantile, technological age.  And it has become our God.  We have pursued it - fervently.  Now after a hundred years or so, we have found it spiritually bankrupt.

Professor Rustum Roy, a geochemical and social scientist, began by saying that he was originally from India, but has been living in the United States for 50 years.  Over that time, he has watched young people lose their  understanding of culture. "I have 300 students that I lecture to every Monday...They have no idea what 'to be or not to be' means," he said.  They don't understand where it comes from.  What it refers to.  Cultural meaning has disappeared at Penn State.

His comment isn't surprising.  We don't get rewarded for studying literature or philosophy or history.  Everyone wants to know, "What are you going to DO with that?"  And what are we to answer?  "I'm going to recover America's soul?"  Not only does that sound shamelessly arrogant, mom and dad STILL aren't going to pay for it.  If Generation Xers seem vapid, it is because we are rewarded for it.

Professor Roy is on to something, though.  There is much talk at this conference about stressing the interconnectedness of all things.  We see how the destruction of the environment affects poverty and social justice. How economics fits into the whole.  Problems which seem to be about religions and race turn out to be rooted in economics and government structure, which in turn have a basis in spirituality.  How can we hope to understand the mechanisms that tie all these factors together, if we don't even understand all the factors?

And, thus, solutions, also, are made up of gnarled, tightly interlocked factors.  Solutions, too, require an integrative approach. 

Evelyn Fox Keller's biography of geneticist Barbara McClintock describes how McClintock came to understand that cells transfer genetic information to each other by "feeling it."  She had trouble explaining this in scientific language.  McClintock understood her science so intimately,  she experienced it in a spiritual way.  Because McClintock drew her conclusions 50 years before they could be proven in a more conventional way, she was dismissed as crazy.  Yet it turns out she was right.

In school, we go to class and learn about one thing for a few hours.  Then we go to another class and learn about something else.  We are left by ourselves to connect the intellectual dots, which is arguably the most difficult part of learning.  And worse, we are chastised for trying.  "Pick one thing you are interested in - something you have an aptitude for, something that is easy for you - and go for it.  You can't be successful if you are too scattered," we are told.  It would seem then, that the crisis of spirituality is a crisis of education. 

--Michelle Ling
26 year old Graduate Student, UC Berkeley
mling@rosebud.berkeley.edu

COMMENTS FROM THE WEB

I agree whole-heartedly with Ms. Ling. It is a tradegy that we are made to specialize. It leads to a misunderstanding of culture and therefore a misunderstanding of ourselves. Making people too specialized simply adds to the problems of race relations, politics and economics.

The liberal arts that formed the Renaissance tradition are seen as "unneccesary" for a person to live, work, and be a part of society. We still teach these subjects, but their importance has been lost. James Burke said it best.  "To know where you're going you have to know where you've been."  I don't think anyone realizes this anymore and as a result we are losing our spirit and traditions.
--David J. Dannenberg
17 years old
Slinger, Wisconsin, USA