Why did you decide to write Spiritual Rx?
It gradually came to us that there are many ways in which we can use our
contemporary world and our everyday life as the food for our spiritual
practice. We just said, lets not talk about the idea of compassion, but
rather: How do you do compassion? Who would be a good teacher that
you could read? What videos could you watch that would show you examples
of compassion mentors? What could you write about in your journal to get
to a deeper sense of your own compassion? There are 18 different parts in
each chapter, and they're all ways in which to actually do a practice.
What is a spiritual practice? How does it enhance ones regular religious
or spiritual activities, such as going to church?
We define a spiritual practice as an activity that you do in order to get
in touch with your true self -- which is part of all the spirituality
movements. A practice is also something that you might do to draw closer to
God or to sense God's presence in your life. The third thing is that it
enhances our feelings of connection with all other beings and with the
Earth itself. I think that what spiritual practice does is it reinforces
your own feelings of connection and your feelings of both the depth and
breadth of your life. Depth is the inner resonance that you have. The
breadth of your life is seeing how you are intimately connected in one big
web with all of creation. Most spiritual practices do that. A spiritual
practice such as kindness will enable you to reinforce your connections
with other beings. A spiritual practice like imagination is very useful in
terms of understanding the depths of your own being and your soul. We also
say there is a path of practice, which is your entire way of life. And when
you're on a path of practice, absolutely everything you do has a practice
dimension to it. You can wash the dishes with mindfulness. You can take
care of your cat as an act of reverence for other beings and also as an act
of kindness. So it enhances all aspects of your life.
Who is Spiritual Rx written for?
I think we're looking for the person -- maybe who is a little bit like me
-- who has been drawn to the religious or the spiritual life, and would
like to have it more a part of their daily life. So that the way they do
what they do at work, the way they relate to their families, the way they
take care of themselves, this all has intention of bringing them deeper
into themselves. The person who is seeking to integrate practice more into
their daily life, and recognizing that there are many ways to practice. The
concrete thing we've tried to do is to make it a resource that families
could use. So we did include household projects in every chapter, and
suggested ways you might be involved in your community -- things that you
might do in the home to have a deeper sense of reverence, for example. How
you might practice hospitality at your local church or in your home by just
having extra people over for dinner often. One of my favorite things is
sending thank you notes to people who have given you hope. And it could be
a national figure or the dry cleaner down the street. We live in the middle
of New York City, but we occasionally feel the need for silence and we
can't get away to go off to a monastery. We'll sometimes not turn on the
television, radio, computers, don't answer the phone, and just simply have
a day of quiet in the city. It's a way of honoring the importance of
silence in life. The idea is that everything you do can become a practice,
and so we tried to make this book extremely down to earth and concrete.
There are prayers and mantras to say and there are also a lot of
explanations of spiritual practices that are tried and true from the
world's religions -- like Sabbath keeping.
How is it helpful to draw from many faiths, instead o one faith, when
designing and cultivating a spiritual practice?
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Gratitude is a good practice if you find that you have a tendency to
feel dissatisfied all the time -- that you're always looking for more.
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I think it depends upon where you are in your own spiritual growth.
Sometimes, and for some people, it's very useful to just stick with their
own tradition. And they feel very fulfilled by that and certainly that will
be fine for them. Other people may find that they can explore practices --
that they can bring the practices of other traditions into their spiritual
lives and that that will enhance it. What we're suggesting is that you
choose depending on what's happening in your life. A certain practice will
balance or counter a certain tendency or symptom. We didn't want to get
into "either/ors," and the concept that the practice is the good thing and
the symptom is the bad thing - it's more complicated than that. We also
recognize that doing certain practices enhance certain qualities or
symptoms in your life. For instance, if you take gratitude: Gratitude is a
good practice if you find that you have a tendency to feel dissatisfied all
the time -- that you're always looking for more, better and different -- or
if you have a grandiose sense of entitlement. To balance that tendency, you
can practice gratitude for what you have in your life. What that would
enhance is your sense of satisfaction with what you have in life.
Sometimes they're not either/or. You can take something like peace as a
practice. That would enhance a feeling of serenity, or feeling of
equanimity, and it would counter your worry and your anger and maybe any
tendencies toward violence. But sometimes you need righteous anger, and
righteous anger would lead to a desire for peace. So you see, everything is
interrelated which is the whole point of a spiritual life. So I think
rather than saying 'Do you dip into the other traditions in order to design
your own religion?' I think it may be more likely that you may want to look
at the various practices. I would say, start with where you are and then
find the practices that work.
What do you think movies have to offer the culture in terms of wisdom or
lessons about spirit?
A lot. Movies show us models of behavior, and sometimes they are
reflections of real life, sometimes they're exaggerations. But you can
look at a movie with a purpose. This is an important distinction because
we find that if you go to a movie and you're looking for meaning and
significance, you tend to notice it more. So one of the things we do in
Spiritual Rx is recommend movies that you can look at to understand
more deeply what these spiritual practices are all about. We'll take a
movie like The Mission, which has an incredible scene of forgiveness
in it -- it's not a long scene, but that scene alone is worth seeing the
movie for.
I noticed that you named American Beauty one of the 10 most spiritually
literate films of 1999. Why is that?
You have a character in Lester who, at the beginning of the movie, is
basically dead to the world around him. His job is a mess, his relationship
with his family is a mess, he's depressed. Gradually over the course of the
movie he meets people who awaken his sense of beauty. One is a little
teenage cheerleader. But then it moves on to different levels. The next
door neighbor, Ricky, introduces him to various kinds of beauty. By the end
of the film he's discovered beauty in unexpected places. That's a case of
somebody waking up by a conscious attention to beauty.
Why do you think it was such a popular film in mainstream America?
The movie starts out and you think it's going to be a cynical comedy. It
turns out to be about meaning, and purpose, and why live. I think as a
culture, there's a tremendous yearning in our world today to get beyond the
surface life of materialism and the cynical "I don't really care, nothing
is really important," that whole kind of existence. There's a yearning to
have more, to have something deeper than that. I talked to people who were
depressed by the movie, particularly by the end of the movie. But I didn't
have that response. I had a real feeling of exhilaration by the end
because, I thought, he's getting it. In a sense that was true of a number
of the films this year that were up for awards. The Cider House
Rules had the theme of a young man finding where he belonged in life,
finding his meaning and purpose. The Green Mile was about finding
miracles in dark places where you wouldn't expect, like death row. Over and
over again you have different themes showing up saying were ready to take
this life a little more seriously and joyously.
Related Links
Reading into Things: An Interview with Mary Ann Brussat
Mary Ann Brussat discusses the spirituality of one's
encounters with the everyday world.
PrayeRx
Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Reinventing Medicine, helps us discover
the next movement in medicine.
Dynamic Duo
The founders of Common Boundary magazine reveal their secrets about
the place where mind and soul connect.
Amy Durgan is the Travel Editor at Beliefnet.com, and a freelance writer living in San Francisco.
