This page is about sharing spirituality. Though I am firmly based as a Christian religious in that Tradition, my mind is – I hope – open to the reasoning of all spiritual beings on the planet.
Spirituality is a much abused word. Serenity is the quality of the relationship we hold with ourselves. Significance, the quality of the relationships we hold with others.
I’ve noticed that in life people tend to search for one of two things at various points in their life. Significance – however they define it… or a peace of mind – Serenity. Of those I have observed who have sought significance I have witnessed only a few obtain it. Many sought significance, as they defined it, but in the end found a hollow shell and continued seeking elsewhere. Of those who obtained it, and the peace that accompanies it, they all found significance in service.
A dear friend of mine was once asked how he was going to change the world. “One person at a time,” he would say, “it all starts inside.”
The end goal of the development of self is the development of others for no sooner do we begin to walk down that path than we realize that it is a constant process that will never end. Upon realizing this the immense joy we felt initially can begin to fade as routine-ness sets in. It is still there within us, but dulled in a sense from repetition (perhaps I am wrong in this regard). A new joy can replace or add to it – greater than the first… The joy of watching the eyes of another light up as something sparks within them and they change the course of their future. The joy of helping someone because it was deepest sense of what was right. The joy of serving another who cannot repay you, someone who can only pass it on. Anyone who has experienced a life changing moment and who has helped another to experience the same relives their own. It is that feeling, that experience, that moment that touches us so deeply that we can never forget it. That is where Significance is born. It is born in the service of others.
The words of Daniel Freeman
Social justice is the creation of a society which treats all human beings as embodiments of the sacred, supports them to realize their fullest human potential, and promotes and rewards people to the extent that they are loving and caring, kind and generous, open-hearted and playful, ethically and ecologically sensitive, who respond to the universe with awe, wonder and a radical amazement at the grandeur of creation.
The words of Rabbi Michael Lerner, co-founder of Tikkun
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