Soul Boom Quotes

“My dad, a wise spiritual teacher and public speaker, responded, “Well, in a lot of ways, it’s very similar. There will be great storms and lightning and thunder, and the skies will open up. Down from a hole in the clouds doesn’t come a city or Jesus or anything but rather a bunch of bags of cement. Some shovels and hammers. Bricks and mortar and nails and lumber. And finally, at the very end, a note floats down on the breeze and lands on top of all the supplies. It reads: ‘Kingdom of God on Earth: Build-It-Yourself Kit.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“15. Profound connection to the natural world. I’ve written a bit, mostly in general terms, about Indigenous spirituality and how, throughout the world, native cultures have a deep connection to the cycles, beauty, and mystery of nature. Think of the power and mystery in the last words of Chief Crowfoot, quoted in 1890: “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“13. Centrality of the divine feminine. To quote one of the world’s great philosophers, Ariana Grande, “When all is said and done / You’ll believe God is a woman.” The journey of many of the world’s oldest spiritual practices has been to move from a reverence for the matriarchal/feminine to a rejection of the mother/earth/womb mythology. Indeed, modern religion embraces the stricter, more controlling patriarchal father.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“Will you allow the unevolved cretins around you to affect your serenity and determine what course of action you take? Or will you deftly, metaphorically slip by them, seeking not contention but to “win not by fighting”? Will you wisely, placidly, draw on your deep well of inner wisdom and navigate these issues like a willow tree in the wind?”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“The red wheelbarrow of consciousness, glazed with rainwater, beside the white chickens of experience. It simply doesn’t compute that it all adds up to nothing.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“Spirituality and religion should make our lives better and show us a path toward personal peace and enlightenment. If it doesn’t do either of those two things, then we should all jettison it. The wisdom of faith either makes our lives better, increases serenity, and makes us better people, or there is really no reason to have it in our lives.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. —Mary Oliver”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“BOOKS THAT GREATLY INSPIRED ME AND THAT YOU SHOULD CONSIDER READING (in no particular order) Beyond the Culture of Contest by Michael Karlberg A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt The Family Virtues Guide by Linda Kavelin Popov, Dan Popov, and John Kavelin The Second Mountain by David Brooks High Conflict by Amanda Ripley The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh The Seven Mysteries of Life by Guy Murchie Viral Justice by Ruha Benjamin The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein The Story of Our Time by Robert Atkinson Global Unitive Healing by Dr. Elena Mustakova What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck How Should We Live? by Roman Krznaric The God Equation by Michio Kaku Einstein’s God by Krista Tippett What We Talk About When We Talk About God by Rob Bell Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur Plays Well with Others by Eric Barker Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Bashō The Soul’s Code by James Hillman The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss by David Bentley Hart The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller, PhD The Hidden Words by Baha’u’llah”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“Everyone is needed, and all are participants. No one is going to do it for you. This is not a top-down enterprise. We all have a role to play. We are all protagonists for social change, not passive followers waiting for some leader to initiate action. We need to build community at the grassroots. Start small. Gather your friends and neighbors; log on to Next Door, Facebook, or Meetup.org; and find a common issue in your area that needs addressing. Create a community with a common cause that might, perhaps, build toward a movement. A community that “calls in,” spreads joy, highlights service, and begins to launch a whole new story.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“These are the builders. The doers. The people who strive to unearth the deeper root causes of imbalances and create community movements to systematically address injustices. What is wrong with our society that these people aren’t household names but people who do unboxing videos or silly dances on social media are?!”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“In her book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, New York Times best-selling author and Wall Street Journal and Time journalist Amanda Ripley investigates a seemingly modern but most likely timeless and universal human issue: when conflict gradually morphs into something larger and more toxic than the original disagreement itself.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“A story of Darwinian “survival of the fittest” transformed into a tale of cooperation, connection, and mutual support. With mushrooms and root systems. Can we not apply that same vision to our rich history of human cooperation and interdependence? And can we not look forward while holding that vision as a goal?”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“In her nature masterpiece Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard disproves this theory and instead shows a kind of collective altruism from tree to tree.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“There is a school of contemporary writers called the “new optimists,” which includes Steven Pinker, Hans Rosling, Matt Ridley, and many others. This best-selling tribe of feted intellectuals, writers, and TED talkers has one central point to make: “The world has made spectacular progress in every single measure of human well-being and… almost no one knows about it,” says Pinker. “Every day we’re bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is… yet we’ve made more progress over the last one hundred years than in the first one hundred thousand,” says Gregg Easterbrook.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“BONUS #21. Potlucks! There will be no SoulBoom without potlucks. The bonds between the two are indissoluble. One of the greatest Native American contributions to world culture of all time.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“20. Humility. And last but certainly not least, the SoulBoom faith admits that it doesn’t know the best way to do anything. We don’t have any absolute answers. We’re in a humble posture of learning. We provide but a few markers, guideposts, and clues along the winding path of the spiritual game of life.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“19. Emphasis on music and arts. Every social revolution has the arts front and center. Often driven by the energy and idealism of youth and young adults. One simply cannot imagine the civil rights movement, or the Vietnam war protests, or Black Lives Matter without the arts and youth. Hand in hand.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“One of my favorites is from ‘Abdu’l-Baha. He said, “If a man has ten good qualities and one bad one, to look at the ten and forget the one; and if a man has ten bad qualities and one good one, to look at the one and forget the ten” (italics mine). This is the kind of spiritual life hack that resonates for me.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“18. Practical spiritual tools.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“17. A life of service. We’ve already talked about service to the poor as one of the ten fundamentals. But we want SoulBoom to take the underlying concept of service and expand and apply it to every space of our lives. Is it possible to build a faith where every believer wants their life, family, and career to be centered around doing good for others? Being “other-centered” instead of “self-centered”? How do we inspire people to ask themselves every day in their marriage, in their friendships, in their workplace, How can I be of service today? And even harder: How can we find ways to show kindness and service toward people we dislike or have little in common with?”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“16. Centrality of justice. Today, the phrase “social justice” has become, oddly enough, controversial. Same with “environmentalism” and “women’s rights.” The manipulative forces of political and corporate interests have framed the pursuit of justice and equity as something with a partisan agenda attached to it. And yet in Isaiah 1:17, it says, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“14. Cooperation between science and faith. If there’s one thing that differentiates SoulBoom from the majority of mystical faiths of the past, it is a core belief in the essential harmony between science and religion. Our universe is not singular; it is unified. A unified field of physical and spiritual forces that shape and determine our lives. Science is often seen as logical and objective and spirituality as “airy-fairy” and subjective. However, it’s time to rectify once and for all this false dichotomy. As Louis Pasteur said, “A little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him.” Both are methods of examining and interacting with the same reality. We understand the physical world, its laws, operations, and mysteries through the lens of science. Science is both a database of knowledge and a system of learning about natural laws by using repeatable experiments that reveal factual truth about those systems. We at SoulBoom would argue the same is true of the spiritual world. Spiritual guidance from the world’s great faith traditions and from Indigenous belief systems allow us to understand the “why” that exists beyond the “how” of science. If science leads us to create an atomic bomb, religion shows us that peace is the ultimate goal. If technology helped create tremendous advances in transportation, energy, and construction, a wise, moral imperative tells us that the resulting CO2 in the atmosphere will be devastating to our species and thousands of others and must be limited for the good of our descendents.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“12. Diversity plus harmony. Goes without saying (though we already kind of said it in describing the SoulBoom community) that this is a faith open to all. All are embraced, included, and welcomed with loving, open arms and a spirit of light.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“11. No clerics. What would you think about a religion with no clergy? We here at SoulBoom are all for it. One of the miracles of the Twelve-Step Recovery Program at AA is the lack of leadership roles. The inmates are running the asylum! Elected servant-leaders run the meetings for limited terms while following the adage “principles above personalities.” As expertly quoted in the Twelve Traditions of the AA Big Book, “For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.” What if modern religion was like that? (Or politics, for that matter!) Leaders as trusted servants. We no longer need people with funny hats (whose only historical “expertise” was knowing how to read when most of the population didn’t) to interpret the holy writings for us. What if no member of this faith had more power or authority than any other member? What if, like at an AA meeting, there were regular, democratic elections, where a rotating staff of elected folks helped to serve the needs of the community… and nothing else?”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“10. Strong Sense of Purpose. Like most faith traditions, SoulBoom will offer both personal meaning and a larger collective purpose for this here life. Both the Kung Fu–esque individual answers we seek and the Star Trek–like big-picture stuff. Our purpose will be inspired by the words of Albert Einstein: “The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“9. Service to the Poor. Here at SoulBoom, we don’t like the word “charity.” It implies the worst kind of service to the needy—pity for “those poor, poor people” who don’t have stuff, so we patronizingly hand out sandwiches and juice boxes and knapsacks to the “have-nots” and do nothing to change the imbalanced, unjust systems that led to this poverty mess in the first place. Nothing against soup kitchens, but foundationally, the solutions to poverty must go beyond a meal and temporary housing. Therefore, our new faith will ask all its followers to work in substantive ways to prioritize and empower the disenfranchised—providing mental health services, access to addiction services, community centers, job skills, education, and opportunity. And yes, juice boxes and sandwiches when appropriate.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“8. Increased Compassion. In the original Star Trek, Dr. McCoy says, “Compassion: that’s the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it’s the one thing that keeps men ahead of them.” A profound focus on compassion, the energy source that keeps us on the right track, will be at the core of SoulBoom because it is the essence of our humanity. Without the ability to empathize and deeply feel for others, especially those most unlike ourselves, we will never be able to harness the power of spiritual tools in pursuit of a healthier, more harmonious world.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“7. The Force of Love. We at SoulBoom headquarters are all about the biggest possible L-O-V-E. (Warning: this is going to get all sorts of corny.) Everything boils down to love. We mean everything. Light is love. Friends are love. Trees and birds and the ocean are love. Language is love. Time is love. Laughter is love. The type of love that is a beautiful and hilarious series of high fives with the universe. We believe in love as a universal law like gravity and that our love for everyone should radiate out like sunlight. Rumi said it best: “Love is the bridge between you and everything.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“A Moral Compass. Like it or not, we at SoulBoom are all in favor of figuring out what’s right and wrong. We would love to have a belief system that allowed followers to simply “do what feels right.” But a core moral code that doesn’t bend with the ups and downs of social trends is crucial. Here’s how ours will differ, though. We will establish a SoulBoom council of wise folks who peruse the divinely inspired universal moral codes that have been passed down for eons from both the Eastern (karmic) and Western (Abrahamic) faith traditions to decide, through long, loving, and frank consultation, the collective moral parameters for SoulBoomers. Your personal relationship with this new SoulBoom moral code will ultimately be between you, your conscience, and the Creative Cosmic Force (a.k.a. G.O.D.). That is, you won’t get kicked out for failing to follow the guidelines.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

“5. Community. At SoulBoom, our diverse community will embrace inclusion at every level—more on that in a little bit. Most importantly, however, our community will have a singular focus on empowering, training, and investing in children and youth. Our goal here is social revolution via spiritual transformation. Century after century, it has been youth who sparked the greatest revolutions in the world: the Arab Spring, the Velvet Revolution, the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins, the Tiananmen Square protests. All the way up to Black Lives Matter and the young women and students leading an uprising against oppression in Iran.”
― Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution