Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night

by Barbara Brown Taylor

This function of religion does not sell well, Wilber says, because it does not locate the human problem in the spiritual shortfall of the world. It locates the problem in the spiritual grasping of the self, which is always looking for ways to improve its own position. In popular American usage, Wilber says, “soul” has come to mean little more than “the ego in drag,” and much of what passes for spiritual teaching in this country is about consoling the self, not losing it. Translation is being marketed as transformation, which is why those who try to live on the spiritual equivalent of fast food have to keep going back for more and more. There is no filling a hole that was never designed to be filled, but only to be entered into. Where real transformation is concerned, Wilber says, “the self is not made content; the self is made toast.”

If you’ve read my writings on religion & spirituality, you know I don’t think you can separate the two — at least in their true meanings. But Wilber brings up a real point here in the false projections of religion; particularly in the North American context. The importance for those with disabilities to be conscious & aware of this truth is to recognize a significance of holistic embodiment in our identity. We cannot treat religion as a “way” for self healing; particularly within the world definition. We must seek and see our physical and psychological embodiment, as a transformational journey to be lived through & not necessarily overcome through our own understanding.