Finding a personal path to God
Finding a personal path to God
All religions lead to the divine, reminds author Joan Borysenko. The path taken to get there is up to the individual.
4/8/2000
Eudaimonia, written by Rachel Dempsey (a.k.a. “Tressa”) is a column dedicated to spirituality and health.
God is everywhere — on bumper stickers, billboards, and book covers. For some clever marketers, God is a selling point. God is present, somehow, in tubes of shower gel gracing bathtubs: .Next to Godliness. is what one company has named its rather aromatic bath product..You may not believe in a brand called Jesus, but it.s hard to imagine the last two thousand years without him,. writes Will Novosedlik in the Autumn 1999 edition of Adbusters. God is pervasive, indeed. But how we imagine he, she, or it depends on our own individual vantage points and experiences.Noted author Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. suggests that pledging loyalty to a specific .brand. of religious dogma isn.t always the healthiest practice. She dispels the fear of going to hell for not devoting oneself to a specific religious practice . a concept many of us were raised to believe. In 7 Paths to God: The Ways of the Mystic, published by Hay House in 1997, she contends that God doesn.t mind if we .come by land or sea,. for all religions ultimately lead to the divine. Before anything, she recommends, we should determine our own very personal path, one that complements our strengths and satisfies our specific spiritual needs.A pioneer in mind-body health, Borysenko received her doctorate in anatomy and cellular biology from Harvard Medical School. She also co-founded and directed the Mind/Body Clinic. Other books she has written include Mending the Body Mending the Mind and The Power of the Mind to Heal. In an effort to assist women in particular, Borysenko recently authored A Woman.s Book of Life and, more recently, A Woman.s Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path. She has led numerous women.s retreats across the country.
According to Borysenko, the inspiration to pursue a spiritual path is often provoked by a moment of enlightenment. These moments reveal the .unity of all things. and the realization that .everything is sacred.. 7 Paths opens with such a moment of enlightenment, where the author retells a striking vision she had, where she, herself, was .simultaneously a pregnant mother giving birth and also the baby being born.. Suddenly, she becames the child only, emerging from a long, dark tunnel into a merciful light, which exuded unconditional love. Borysenko encountered this vision, we learn, at the moment of her mother.s death. Just as her mother brought her into the world, she delivered her mother.s soul in to the divine light.While Borysenko describes this moment as a turning point in her spiritual quest, she points out that these moments may not always be quite so dramatic. A moment can result from a kind look from a stranger in a crowded elevator. Regardless, in these moments, time seems to stop, and we recognize the interconnectedness of all things. Once we realize interconnectedness, we realize that all paths are sacred, and our own path becomes more evident.
Seven paths
The paths outlined by Borysenko serve as the chapters that frame her book. Path One is titled .Earth and Home: The Everyday Mystic,. and describes one who perceives divinity in everything and has an intimate connection with earth. Path Two relates to the ecreativity and abundance that can be achieved through a generosity of spirit; a Path Two mystic receives from God and gives to others through her own creative gifts. A Path Three mystic is constantly inquiring, .How can I help?. and .Whom do I serve? . Path Four is the way of the heart: bridging Earth and Heaven; with the strength of their love, Path Four mystics create a Heaven on Earth.A Path Five mystic is ruled by discipline, ethics, and will, and often struggles with moral dilemmas: .Thy will, not mine, be done.. Path Six corresponds to opening the wisdom eye through contemplation and transformation; this is the path of insight achieved through meditation and contemplation. Finally, a Path Seven mystic follows the way of faith and is aware of the paradox of grace: While positive events can actually impede our spiritual growth, negative events may provoke a higher spiritual awareness.Why seven paths? Sevens have a natural simplicity. There are seven colors of the rainbow, seven seas, seven days in the week, and seven notes to the musical scale. As Borysenko explains in the interview below, the number seven has spiritual significance in numerous religious traditions and in Eastern health and medicine. The author touches upon the seven directions of the Native American medicine wheel and the seven chakras. For example, Path One corresponds to the color red. In the medicine wheel it represents the Earth. Path One flows from the root chakra. This path describes this first path as earth and home-centered. Someone on this path is recommended to protect and connect with the Earth as much as possible, unclutter the home and workplace, and nurture pets and plants.These paths are spiritual rather than religious, however. No singular path is more evolved than another. Just as all colors in the rainbow combine to make up white light, all paths originate from a .universal energy. or .life force.. The seven paths to God .form a rainbow bridge.
AlienZoo: Can you describe how you came to understand each of these seven paths and their significance? What led you to choose the number seven?
Joan Borysenko: I came across the number seven through physiological literature. We had a post-doctoral fellow, an endocrinologist, who came from India. When I went to do a particular experiment, seeing whether meditation and yoga might help people with diabetes, to lower blood sugar levels, she said I must include certain yoga postures. She explained that when you stimulate different chakras, you get a different physiological result. In Hinduism there are a number of different branches of yoga, which also have to do with the chakras. I thought it would be a wonderful idea to look at the number seven because it is sacred to virtually all traditions. You have the seven-branched candelabra in Judaism, the seven sacraments in Christianity, and the fact that Buddha walked around the Bodhi tree seven times before he sat down and arose enlightened.I.ve been interested in spirituality all my life . ever since I was a young child and started to explore. I was raised in Judaism, but by the time I was 10 or 11 years old I was also exploring Christianity and the Unitarian church. I wanted to know: Who was Jesus? What is Christianity, and where are its roots in Judaism? I became fascinated later on with Eastern religious traditions primarily because I had a number of mystic experiences, where I actually became one with the divine light and felt the unity of all things. And I thought, Gee, no one ever told me about that in Hebrew School! [Laughs] My husband is part Native American, so I became interested particularly in Lakota spirituality.
AlienZoo: What influenced you to be so inclusive and respectful of several different approaches?
Borysenko: I grew up knowing that somehow there must be some truth in every religious tradition. Like blind men describing an elephant. It.s all one elephant. There was never a time before I thought that.
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A woman’s journey
Borysenko.s A Woman.s Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path maintains that in addition to seven distinctive paths, the spiritual journey is modified by gender. Men and women approach religion completely differently. Just as Western medicine extrapolates from male to explain female, the majority of religious writings and rituals have are defined by men expected to satisfy women.s needs. Women are fed up with atoning for Eve.s alleged crimes, as well as the image of God .as a jealous, punitive white Anglo-Saxon male with a long beard and a longer arm.Women are born with an innate spirituality, Borysenko believes, and this spirituality is further developed through nurturing and relating. Intuition and compassion naturally connect women with the divine. Achieved effortlessly, this connection is often overlooked by women. Unfortunately, this can result in confusion and frustration, especially in light of traditional practices, which may be insensitive to a woman.s needs.
Borysenko highlights the distinction between male and female paths with the image of Jacob.s ladder. Climbing a ladder is a measured process taken step by step with one logical destination. Such a linear course mirrors the male approach to spirituality and to life. Typically, men measure their success by the goals they set and achieve. Alternatively, .Sarah.s Circle. better describes a woman.s spiritual path. Sarah, the matriarch of Judaism, bore a son in her postmenopausal state as a result of divine intervention. This event is characteristic of a circular process: unexpected, unintentional, and illogical. A circular path is relational and provides for a change in direction at any time. The entire path of the circle is measured equally from the central point representing the heart, or intuition. By contrast, a ladder has no central location; each rung is nearer or further from the top. Of course there are times when women climb the ladder, and men walk the circle. Borysenko points out that these are merely models and that neither one is superior to the other. With love, respect, and support these models can intersect and overlap.
AlienZoo: 7 Paths to God is not gender specific in its message. Why did you focus on women in A Woman.s Journey?
Borysenko: Part of why I focused on woman comes from doing 12 years of women.s retreats. There are women who conform to all of the seven paths. I have friends who are really contemplative; they are Path Six mystics, and they really enjoy that particular path. I think the way they practice it is different from the way that a male practices it. My meditative women friends are much less likely to say, .Is my meditation getting me from one step to another?. or .Let me look at the hierarchy of practices.. They are much more likely to settle in with something . for example, centering prayer, or whatever type of meditation . and simply doing it becomes a part of their life. I recognize that probably the way men and women do each of the seven paths is going to look different. I haven.t gotten specific enough to say what is the difference in the path between genders. That interests me.
AlienZoo: How can women get in touch with God’s feminine energy, that of the Goddess?
Borysenko: Some women like the image of God the Father. Some women really need the image of God the Mother, or Goddess. And there are others who really don.t need a personified image at all, who are happy with mystery.Women must ask themselves: What feels holy? What is it that when you contemplate this image of God you feel more connected to yourself and to life? If we should discover that it is the feminine face of God, we are living in fortunate times, because there are so many books about different aspects of the Goddess and about the Goddesses of different cultures.Brought up in Judaism, I didn.t know anything about a feminine face of God. However, there is, in the Jewish tradition, something called the Shekhina, the Divine feminine. Now many women from the Jewish tradition are celebrating the Shekhina and they have changed the traditional prayers to include Goddess as well as God. For example, there.s a celebration in Judaism called Rosh Hodesh (new moon) and that is often given the flavor of drawing down the feminine, beginning another month, just as we have our menses every month.As I.ve gone around the country, what I.ve seen is whether people belong to a Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish religion, women are in fact re-writing prayers, liturgy, and services to be inclusive . and they are developing appropriate rituals. Find a group of other women with whom you can celebrate in this way.
AlienZoo: In A Woman.s Journey you make the statement, .Women are intrinsically mystical.. How do men react to this statement?
Borysenko: I haven.t spoken to enough men about this. I.ve presented in many settings, for example, as part of a conference on pastoral care. The pastors who came, although they came from traditional approaches, were used to caring for dying, and used to the ecumenical approach to all religions, so they were just fine with it.I think that what you.ll find is that if we were to pull men, some would say, .Isn.t that great! They have a path of their own and through understanding that, I understand better what the male path is!. I.m sure that some men from traditional religions would be very upset by it. Especially when they read the love scene between Jesus and Mary Magdalene . I.ll sure get burned at the stake for that one! [Laughs.]
AlienZoo: How could you describe a typical woman.s retreat. And what would you hope a participant would walk away with?
Borysenko: At a typical retreat you might have 100 women and they will come from a variety of different religions. The larger part of them will be Christian, a small minority Jewish. Occasionally we will have a couple of Buddhist women, a couple of Muslim women. A good 50% of the women are religious dropouts. A number of them have never gotten over being angry at the religion they dropped out of.Something that characterizes these retreats is the longing women have to connect with the God of their heart. Anger takes up so much psychic space, they need to heal in order to make room for a spiritual connection. Women in general are furious at the patriarchy. Religious loyalists who have managed to find nurture in their religion still don.t like the way women have been treated. Part of what happens, very gently, is some forgiveness: a lot of singing, crying, hugging, storytelling and bonding (which women do naturally). We create ritual because women are so hungry for this.We always begin with a Sabbath celebration; every religion has a Sabbath. I believe that women in our culture are so overworked and busy that we do violence to ourselves. We start with the idea that the weekend is a gift we.ve given to ourselves, the whole weekend is a Sabbath. That night, women meditate for a little while and try to identify in their hearts the longing that brought them to the retreat. Why did they come? Why now? What is it that they are searching for? What is their intention for the weekend? Then they light a candle with that intention to honor that longing and it is a kind of prayer for them. There may also be seasonal rituals depending on the time of year. Some retreats are devoted to silent contemplative prayer while others focus on The Woman.s Book of Life where we look at the life cycles and focus on emotional healing. They all have the components of ritual, prayer, song, dance, storytelling, of bonding.
AlienZoo: You have written books that reflect your medical background: books about health. Is there common thread or bridge between your books about spirituality and your books about health?
Borysenko: Absolutely, because I actually believe healing and spirituality are exactly the same thing. I am going to borrow the words of a very dear friend of mine, Janet Quinn, a nurse Ph.D. who studied healing and therapeutic touch for many years. Janet always defines healing as the .emergence of right relationship.. It.s coming into that sense of harmony with ourselves at every level of life, realizing our ability to have an intimate connection with other people and our ability to maintain boundaries . coming into harmony with the Earth, with the creator, with the food we eat, with our exercise, with every level. When we come into a right relationship, what we feel is that sense of inner peace and connection and gratitude. It strikes me that that is exactly what spirituality is.
AlienZoo: Joan, I want thank you so much for everything you have shared with us today. In conclusion, one final question: If someone were to write a history on wellness and spirituality in the future and you were mentioned in a chapter, who would you like to be mentioned with and why? Which contemporaries do you most admire?
Borysenko: I imagine having come out of the health field I would be connected with Herbert Benson, Andrew Weil, and Bernie Siegel. I would be honored to be associated with my friend Janet Quinn, who also came out of a medical background and has the interest in spirituality.