Introduction to A Chorus of Wisdom

By Sorah Dubitsky, Ph.D.

 

            When I was 26 years old, I wound up hospitalized with a stomach ulcer.  Naively, I viewed my ulcer as a minor interruption, an irritation, something to be ignored and forgotten in my otherwise perfect life.  And I really believed my life was perfect, for I had everything that my mother, father, and society had taught me to want and attain:  perfect husband, perfect house, perfect job, and perfect income.  It wasn’t until years later when I realized that 26 years olds, who have a perfect life, don’t have stomach ulcers. I realized that the ulcer was symptomatic of an underlining emptiness that had been eating away at me for years.  The emptiness surfaced from time to time in occasional introspective tirades of “who am I, where am I going, what am I doing?”  But, I swallowed these thoughts and kept on going. Again, it wasn’t until years later that I learned that the emptiness I was experiencing was really a lack of spiritual nourishment.

            Many of the essays in A Chorus of Wisdom: Notes on Spiritual Living appeared as interviews in the magazine Miracle Journeys, which I published for seven years. The collective wisdom found in this book is written by people who, in one form or another, have been teachers, way showers or guides to me. Their words have helped me navigate life’s stormy waters more smoothly. In the process, I’m becoming the person I’m meant to be. And, miraculously, I’m no longer empty.              

To me, spiritual living is living with the awareness that I’m part of something far greater. It is called by many names in different many disciplines.  Some call it God, intelligence, universal energy, nonlocal mind, Spirit, consciousness or pure awareness.  The Kabbalah says it’s no-thing, and so can’t be called anything at all.  Quantum physics calls it the field out of which the entire universe is created.  Eastern mysticism calls it chi or prana.  It can also be called Life Force.  It’s the core essence we hear in the silence of our own hearts.

Spiritual living is like being on a roller coaster, knowing that you are strapped safely into your seat.  Or it’s like canoeing on an unknown river.   The river goes fast, slow, turns into rapids and waterfalls, and sometimes it seems like you’re barely hanging on, but it will carry you to where you’re supposed to be going if you just lie back and let it.  When you start to live with the awareness that your reality is spirit, you become happier, lighter, and less stressed out.  The great psychologist, Abraham Maslow, called the experience of connecting to spirit as a peak experience.  People who have had peak experiences are self-actualized.  A definition of self-actualization is “having no needs.”  Having no needs doesn’t mean you stop making money or eating or sleeping.  It means that you have a basic trust that life will bring you what you need.  People who are self-actualized are innovators and pioneers.  They are living their lives on their own terms because they realize there is nothing to be afraid of.  They realize that to live in accordance with their highest calling is what spiritual living is about.

            There’s a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. As I mentioned earlier, the contributors to this book have all been teachers to me.  They have reminded me, in one way or another, to remain focused on the still small voice of the spirit within me.   The contributors are seekers in their own right.   The themes they talk about are based on their experiences.  And so they are more than “experts or authorities.”  They are also people just like you and me who have opened up to spirit and are living their lives with more certainty, peace and fulfillment.  

            The essays are arranged in seven sections, which reflect different aspects of spiritual living. In the first section, Personal Journey, Gloria Estefan, Arlo Guthrie, Nathan Katz, Judith Light, Toby Thompkins and Dan Wakefield share their journeys and ideas about what it means to be spiritual. The next section, Manifesting Your Dreams, offers essential advice from Marc Allen, Jack Canfield, Rev. Edwene Gaines, and John Perkins, on creating the life you want. The section on Spiritual Relationships and Sexuality, with essays by Diane Cirincione and Gerald G. Jampolsky, Ondrea and Stephen Levine, and Armand DiMele, goes to the core of how to create unconditionally loving relationships. There’s also an essay by Hans Christian King who assures us that a loving God does not punish anyone for his or her sexuality. Spiritual Awareness, the section featuring Wally “Famous” Amos, Steve Bhaerman, Barbara De Angelis, Larry Dubitsky and Debbie Ford, describes insights and tools for living with more awareness. In the section on Healing, Larry Dossey and Caroline Myss talk about the changing spectrum of health care, while Rabbi Chaim Richter talks about healthy aging. The Section titled Changing the World, contains essays from Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, Alan Cohen, Jean Houston, Stephen Simon and two essays from Neale Donald Walsch, that remind us we don’t live in a vacuum: we can make a difference. The last section, Living with Mortality, with essays by Gerald G. Jampolsky, Bernie Siegel, and James Van Praagh addresses the fears associated with knowing one’s time here is finite. And yet, although we are physically finite, spiritually we’re infinite.

At the end of each essay, there is a Reflection, a meditation or self-awareness exercise for integrating the main point of each essay into your every day life.  Spiritual living is developed through step by step daily practice. It is a lifelong process. It is a journey of self-healing.

Take time with this book.  Think about it. Use the Reflection tools.  Allow this book to inspire you to spend more time cultivating a spiritual life.  

May the collective wisdom in A Chorus of Wisdom enlighten your path, as it has mine.