Nothing seems to dominate the culture wars these days like religion. Defining our spiritual beliefs or asserting our lack of them seems a national pastime. And we aren’t very understanding…or nice…about it.
Reading some internet comments recently it became obvious that those with firmly held beliefs often feel morally superior to those who don’t share those beliefs. And the “Non-Faithful” often feel intellectually superior to those who practice some religion.
Those feelings often translate into rudeness and out right hostility. If you take the words of the Bible as literal truth, you are an “Idiot” for rejecting science. If you question someone’s interpretation of the Bible with differing views you are spouting evil “mumbo jumbo”. If you cross the line of someone’s comfort zone or experience or knowledge…you are wrong. From the blindly faithful to the antagonistic agnostic and the proselytizing atheist, those who believe (in anything spiritual) and those who don’t believe (in anything spiritual) spend much time and emotion in belittling those who think differently than they.
While considering this sad state recently I was reminded of walking the Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco many years ago.
A Labyrinth is a large (often filling a whole room) outline of a maze cut into stone or woven into a rug, or simply painted on the floor. The Labyrinth has a single entry point and a single ending which is usually at the center of the maze. In between start and finish the trail or path winds and twists about as it is followed to the final destination.
I walked the Labyrinth late one night as the cathedral was lit by candles and the only sound was the echo of footsteps and the soft rustle of peoples clothing as they slowly walked.
One steps onto the path of the Labyrinth alone. The path is narrow and at first, in the silence and semi-darkness it can feel very isolating. Yet others who are also on the path are quickly encountered. Some who are faster than you may step around and pass you by. Or, you might come upon someone who is slower than you, or even stopped on the path unmoving. Then you go around them.
As you proceed on the path towards your end you will see other people. The maze’s path may place them directly alongside of you for a moment before carrying them away. Some walkers coming alongside may be moving directly opposite from your journey. Others will seem to be headed right at you or directly away from you. As the Labyrinth twists and turns it can seem to take you and your fellow pilgrims in a hundred different directions. How, you might wonder, can we ever reach the same end? But it happens.
Eventually the path reaches the center where a large space awaits. You can stand or kneel, pray, meditate, take a moment to think or just leave. Regardless of how you choose to end the Labyrinth experience it seems almost impossible not to take note of your fellow pilgrims…those already finished, those arriving behind you or those still on the path.
No longer isolated, the Labyrinth walker feels camaraderie with those about him. Whether faster, or slower; whether praying, or meditating; whether finding a spiritual strength or a the simple joy of a few minutes alone with one’s own thoughts; all of those who started out on this journey of life…that must end the same for all living things…come to realize that amidst the seeming chaos of all the different directions we all travel together.
In the end the journey round the Labyrinth makes our simple differences seem small and unimportant. What does become important is the fact we walked together. It is an experience I would wish for all those who question the purpose and direction of their fellow pilgrims.
“Leo! Leo! You are Leo, aren’t you? Do you not know me any more? We were League brothers together and should still be so. We were both travelers on the Journey to the East.” ~ Hermann Hesse
