The Words of the Hendricks Family
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The Words of the Hendricks Family |
Richard
J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth,
20th Anniversary Edition (San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco,
1998)
Dr. Hendricks has been president of the Unification Theological Seminary for ten years. He teaches courses in worship, family and ministry and is the author of Family, Church, Community, Kingdom: Building a Witnessing church for Working Families.
Just as physical health requires exercise, and exercise requires discipline, so too spiritual health requires spiritual exercise, and spiritual exercise requires spiritual discipline. The chief resource for spiritual exercises and disciplines is the world's great religious traditions. The True Parents have brought these traditions to their fulfillment in the ideal of the true family.
When we hear the term, "spiritual disciplines," we might feel it is a depressing topic, such as the dictionary definition of discipline as "the practice or methods of ensuring that people obey rules by teaching them to do so and punishing them if they do not." This is like forcing people to exercise, which makes it work. But enforced exercise has little benefit for health. There was a study done of women who clean hotel rooms. At the beginning of the study, a doctor measured their health indicators and found that this was not an exceptionally healthy group. Then the women were educated about two things: one, the value of daily exercise to improve health and two, the fact that the cleaning they were doing actually constituted good exercise. A few months later a doctor found significant improvement in the health of the group. Lesson? When we feel forced to do something, we miss the benefits of doing it. When we realize that what we are doing has benefits, we tend to gain those benefits.
Enforcement of rules by the fear of punishment has nothing to do with the spiritual discipline that leads to spiritual health. Spiritual discipline that leads to spiritual health is freely entered upon based on knowledge and desire. Reverend Richard J. Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline, sets forth thirteen types of spiritual discipline. After reviewing them, I will present a medical doctor's findings that the spiritual discipline of love contributes not only to spiritual but to physical health; a conclusion on the value of the true family.
Foster begins his account with "the inward disciplines."
The world's scriptures record that the progenitors of faith spent time in meditation. Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening (Gen 24:63). David wrote, "My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate upon thy promise." (Psalm 119:148) Mary, the mother of Jesus, "pondered in her heart" the words she received from an angel. In the midst of ministry, Jesus withdrew to a lonely place apart. (Mt 14:13) For years before his visitation, the "night of power," Muhammad withdrew every year into a cave for prayer. Buddha spent years in meditation under the Bodhi tree. Moses went to the mountain by himself to meet God. Abraham went out to look at the stars. Our Founder spent days and nights in the mountains by himself. Meditation is a universal spiritual discipline.
Prayer can mean comforting God, as True Parents teach, which calls us to identify with God and see the world from His point of view. Once we do that, each of us can see who we are from God's point of view. Talk to God all you want and learn to listen to God talking back. True Father speak, of this in his autobiography, As A Peace-Loving Global Citizen, saying "For a person to polish his heart to the point that it becomes as clear as crystal, he absolutely must spend time in direct conversation with his heart in an environment where he is away from the world and alone with his heart."
Fasting is to put God first and everything else, even something as essential as food, second. We are sustained, as Jesus said, "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Jesus also said, "I have food to eat of which you do not know... My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." Fasting is a powerful spiritual discipline.
Reverend Foster writes, "Study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction." True Parents provide amazing guidance about studying God's word: "I would like to advise you who are studying the Divine Principle. I have shed so many tears in discovering the Principle, particularly with the historical figures....I not only understood the Principle, but lived it. When I came to the fall of Adam and Eve, I felt as if it were my own business. I felt the sorrow of God to see Adam's fall. I felt Adam's sorrow in himself. It was not Adam's story but mine. I felt the story of Cain and Abel as my own. Through their mistakes, God felt so much sorrow, and I felt the same. So with Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, [and] Jesus. In each event, I put myself in the position of those involved and felt with them, and with God. [In this way,] It is not someone else's history, but my own life."
Foster continues with what he calls "the outward disciplines."
The opposite of simplicity is not wealth. The opposite of simplicity is duplicity. "God made us simple; our complex problems are of our own devising." (Eccles. 7:30)
In Foster's explanation, simplicity means having but one purpose, the Kingdom of God, and letting everything else come into the right order after that. The 19th century Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, wrote that God "is one thing and is all! So may Thou give to the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing; to the heart, sincerity to receive this understanding; to the will, purity that wills only one thing. In prosperity may Thou grant perseverance to will one thing; amid distraction, collectedness to will one thing; in suffering, patience to will one thing."
Foster writes that solitude is not loneliness. Solitude is a state of mind and heart. There is a solitude of the heart that can be maintained at all times. Crowds, or the lack of them, have little to do with this inward attentiveness. It is possible, therefore, to be a desert hermit and never experience solitude, and to be in the middle of a city and experience it. True solitude, the solitude that does not succumb to loneliness, takes incredible spiritual discipline. True Parents teach deeply on this point when they teach that finding God "will be a time of intense loneliness, but the moment that we become close to our hearts is the time of prayer and meditation. It is a time when we can take ownership over our hearts. When we isolate ourselves from the noise around us and allow our thoughts to settle, we can see into the deepest parts of our hearts. It will take a lot of time and effort to go all the way down to where the heart has settled. It will not happen in a day."
Foster writes that the obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society. In the discipline of submission we are released to drop the matter, to forget it. Almost all church fights and splits occur because people do not have the freedom to give in to each other. Submission, as a spiritual discipline, is "an inner attitude of mutual subordination."
We need to realize and own the understanding that "Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want," writes Foster. For example, "If a husband loves his wife, he will live in consideration of her needs. He will be willing to give in to her. He will be free to regard her as more important than his own needs. He will be able to regard his children as more important than his own needs." Submission is a spiritual discipline, leading to spiritual health.
Foster distinguishes self-righteous service from true service. Self-righteous service is serving for the sake of a reward, or to please public expectations, or out of servility. True service is rooted in love and humility. Foster writes, "Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. [The flesh] strains and pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify our pride and arrogance."
Finally, we have the "corporate disciplines."
Foster cites St. Augustine "The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works," and gives his own testimony. Foster spent three evenings writing down, without analysis or evaluation, "anything from his childhood that needed forgiveness, or healing, or both," and then from his adolescence and then from his adulthood. He took these to a mentor, who knew beforehand what was coming, and read it all to him, adding only those comments necessary to make the sin clear.
"When I had finished, I began to return the paper to my briefcase. Wisely, my counselor / confessor gently stopped my hand and took the sheet of paper. Without a word he took a wastebasket, and, as I watched, he tore the paper into hundreds of tiny pieces and dropped them into it. That powerful, nonverbal expression of forgiveness was followed by a simple absolution. My sins, I knew, were as far away as the east is from the west. Next, my friend, with the laying on of hands, prayed a prayer of healing for all the sorrows and hurts of the past. The power of that prayer lives with me today."
I want to point out, lest the reader fail to note it, the laying on of hands. Laying on of hands is a powerful spiritual healing. I was awakened to God by a brush of fingers on my forehead. In Acts 8:14-17, people who had accepted Jesus and been baptized still had not received the healing of the Holy Spirit. It is recorded that the disciples laid hands on these new believers to bring the healing of the Holy Spirit.
To worship, writes Foster, is to break into the immediate Presence of God, or to allow the Presence of God to break into my life. It is initiated by God and is our response to the overtures of love from His heart. We are the bride and God is the bridegroom. The usual actions are singing, shouting, dancing, kneeling, bowing, lifting the hands, lifting the face, bowing the head, and more. And it takes place together as a gathered community.
In Unificationism, the worship of God goes beyond the chapel and gathered community into the deepest realms of love in the family. It is through our familial relations of heart that we give our ultimate worship to God. Rev. In Jin Moon, leader of Lovin' Life Ministries, explained one aspect of family-based worship in her message on Parents Day of 2010:
"As someone who has five children of my own, I realize that I did not truly understand what true love is all about and how much God our Heavenly Parent loves all of us until that very moment when I held my eldest son in my arms. In a sense, the world vanished, and the only thing left was this child and me in an unbreakable bond that exists between a parent and a child: the very bond that we have with God, our eternal Heavenly Parent.
"In that moment when the world disappeared and I gazed into those beautiful eyes of my eldest son, I realized for the first time: 'So this is how much our God, our Heavenly Parent, loves us.'. This must have been the very feeling that he felt when he created Adam and Eve. And this must have been the kind of moment that he so enjoyed -- the kind of feelings of love and anticipation that come to mind when you look upon something so beautiful. These must have been the very feelings that God had when he gazed into each of our eyes.
"At that moment I came to know for the first time in my life what an incredible blessing it is to become a parent. I realized that by becoming a parent I could finally begin to understand what God's love for us is all about."
Foster describes the spiritual discipline of guidance as "instructing the individual through the group experience." This is not private guidance, but a gathering of individuals who are going in the same direction, in fellowship under the rule of God's spirit.
As an example, our True Parents once gave me personal guidance that they adjusted the following day in favor of corporate guidance. The change came in light of how my individual talents would best contribute to the public value. The spiritual discipline of guidance has to do with submitting one's personal needs, wants and interests for the sake of the public good in the view of God. It is the corporate discipline to be able to unite the body of believers in one direction, and to move each person's heart and life in concert with that.
Jesus began his ministry with a declaration of liberation, a jubilee. Our True Parents recently have called us to do the same. In the Hebrew Bible, the year of Jubilee was the year of canceling all debts, releasing slaves, planting no crops, returning property to the original owner, a celebration of the gracious provision of God. The Jubilee year signifies that God can be trusted to provide what is needed. Freedom from anxiety and care is the basis for celebration. The Jubilee year is for a community, a nation, and the entire world to rely entirely on God.
While each spiritual discipline nurtures a unique aspect of our spirit we are awakened to our full humanity and reunited with God through the power of true love. This is why St. Paul emphasized the importance of love in Corinthians and cautioned the early church not to just focus on deeds or disciplines.
Larry Dossey, MD, is a physician who integrates both conventional and alternative medicine. He explains that both scientific evidence and his clinical experience point to a significant role for love in healing. In an interview he states that "an abundance of scientific data now show that love is associated with changes in physiology." In a study of 10,000 Israeli men with heart disease, those who felt loving support from their spouse had 50 percent fewer symptoms of angina than men who did not have a loving, close relationship.
Another example of the effect of love on physical health is bereavement, what happens when the object of our love is suddenly taken away. During the first year of bereavement, the death rate in the surviving spouse is up to 12 times higher than that of married people the same age who did not lose a spouse.
How does love work as a healing agent? According to Dossey, we know that love and affection are associated with neurological and hormonal changes. Studies show that when litters of baby mice, as well as newborn infants, are touched and held, this promotes a cascade of biochemical changes associated with immune function, the sense of well-being and pain perception. It is becoming clear that love and affection are associated with a host of changes that extend beyond the brain to influence probably every organ system in the body. This corroborates the point about healing touch that was previously mentioned.
In relation to the spiritual discipline of service, Dossey writes of "the well-known phenomenon of the 'helper's high' That's the feeling of well-being associated with charitable, empathic, hands-on service for others. Many volunteers say they have never felt physically better or healthier in their lives. Research shows this 'high' is accompanied by an increase of 'feel-good' hormones known as endorphins."
Dossey states that "In the 1980s, I began to look at all the studies I could find that had to do with intention in healing -- that is, the deliberate attempt of physicians and healers to use their wishes and desires to help a patient get better. This often takes the form of prayer. As I explored this area, it became clear to me that the bottom line of intention and prayer was love and caring. According to the studies I was reviewing, it didn't seem to matter what religion people belonged to. What was important in effecting healing through prayer was the love and compassion the healer felt for the person being healed."
Dossey also relates, "Hundreds of studies conducted over the past two decades show that people who follow a religious or spiritual path have a lower incidence of all major diseases than people who do not. They also live an average of seven years longer. Being part of a religious or spiritual community sometimes includes helping people get over illness, taking care of the kids, bringing food, taking someone to the doctor. These are the physical manifestations of love that go beyond just saying, 'I care about you'"
St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 taught that there are many spiritual gifts and spiritual disciplines, but the most important is love. In fact, spiritual disciplines mean little or nothing without love. As St. Benedict wrote in his Rule for Monasteries, motivated not by the fear of hell but by "the love of Christ, good habit and delight in the virtues which the Lord will [consent] to show forth by the Holy Spirit in His servant [are] now cleansed from vice and sin."
Spiritual disciplines lead to spiritual -- and physical -- health if, and only if, they liberate us to love. Mr. Ryuichi Fujita, a Unification pastor in Los Angeles, teaches wisely about spiritual guidance for parents and pastors: "Sometimes a [church] member who doesn't have such a clear relationship with you might ask to do some kind of spiritual condition... At that time you can say that your condition is to come to [you] for 21 days or 40 days.
Everyday for one hour we have to sit together and talk." The reason is that if there is no foundation of love and trust, then "even if the member does cold shower or fasting conditions, s/he becomes more selfish."
He is echoing the wisdom of the ages, set forth by our International President, Rev. Moon Hyung-jin, speaking about our attitude in spiritual practice. "Offering Jeong Seong is not done to inflate our egos. Some people use certain ascetic practices to inflate their self-image. They think that because they know more, they are growing. If we work in that way, we are immediately on the path to the devil. This attitude in offering Jeong Seong can lead to self-deception....If this happens, Jeong Seong becomes something evil.... Through the path of Jeong Seong, we are making the self smaller, and as we grow smaller, God and True Parents within our hearts grow bigger....It is very difficult to completely rid ourselves of our ego in offering a bow, and to become completely one with True Parents until 'I' disappears completely."
Spiritual health, finally, is a matter of "love and trust!' Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Valley Community Church teaches that great churches are built on relationships, not rules. In this respect, spiritual health comes through an environment in which one experiences love and trust in all its dimensions -- as a child from its parents, as a sibling with a sibling, a friend with a friend, a spouse with a spouse, and as a parent or grandparent to a child. This happens in one place: the family. It is so sad that some important spiritual leaders are still not aware that the family, liberated to fulfill
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, As A Peace-Loving Global Citizen (Washington, DC: The Washington Times Foundation, 2009). The citation is on p. 232 in the first English edition.
Ryuichi Fujita, How To Talk With Guests: The Principle of Creation to the Second Advent (unpublished MSS).
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, 20th Anniversary Edition (San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 1998)
Smith, James Bryan with Lynda Graybeal, A Spiritual Formation Workbook: Small-Group Resources for Nurturing Christian Growth (San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 1991)
From the perennial Christian tradition
St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Translated by Antony Mottola (New York: Image Books-Doubleday, 1989)
St. Benedict, St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, Translated by Leonard J. Doyle (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1948). The citation is on page 29.
From the secular viewpoint
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality (New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2009)
Dr. Larry Dossey is the executive editor of the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and the author of nine books on health and healing, including Healing Words (Harper San Francisco) and his most recent, Healing Beyond the Body: Medicine and the Infinite Reach of the Mind (Shambhala). The information in this article is gleaned from an article published by TheMarriageLibrary.com, distributed by FreeTeens USA, August 6, 2010, "Science Now Proving That Love Can Heal."