Posts tagged prose
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WHAT A GORGEOUS MUSIC VIDEO (“100 YEARS”) REVEALS ABOUT MOVIE-MAKING
Back in some other lifetime I was employed as a professional film reviewer. I’ve searched for a way to share what I learned without giving a pedantic lecture or presenting a long series of film clips. As soon as I saw this lovely 2004 music video, I realized that I had everything I need. All the important elements of film are contained within.
This beautiful broad-brush piece of art is probably the best and most universal music video I have seen. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find it on any of the “Best Music Videos” compilations I checked. It should have received a lot more attention than it did.
The lyrics (below) form a sort internal dialog, describing the narrator’s thoughts and feelings at six different ages ranging from 15 to 99. But this is clearly a universal, not a personal, voyage.
The words describe a progression similar to Shakespeare’s seven stages of man: first love, marriage, parenting, a middle-age crisis, old age, and death (symbolized by the empty piano stool in the last shot).
The face, gender, and ethnicity of the characters change constantly. One person (narrator and singer-songwriter John Ondrasik) seems to be playing everyman, containing all the other characters within him.
You may notice that, although this film was shot in color, the palette is very muted and controlled. It’s composed mostly of soft blues and browns— “earth tones” or “natural” colors. When color is muted like this it takes a back seat, allowing other cinematic elements to assume center stage.
The setting here is pure earth, sun and sky. The video declares early on, by coloring everything similarly (including the characters) that it will have a universal message. All the world is a stage.
Even the sun plays its part in the background, appearing low in the sky (a morning sun) at the beginning, but nearly to its zenith at the film’s climax, which happens around 3:00 minutes in. It flashes obligingly over the narrator’s shoulder when he yearns for “just another moment.”
This video is packed full of triangular images, which form its main visual motif (theme). The setting includes mountains, the angles of the branches attached to the tree, and the framing of the players as seen through the piano. The triangle motif (along with the fact that one of the characters climbs the tree) make it clear that this is a song about progression and ascension.
The depiction of the middle-age crisis is sublime. As the narrator realizes he is no longer young, the character representing his younger self falls out of the tree with a silent crash, and the camera slowly trails over storm-broken branches littering the ground. According to the lyrics, wisdom and “moving on” follow soon after.
I find this video’s’s message particularly touching. We are not really separate, but share a collective human consciousness and life story. We inhabit this worldly stage together. And when we recall the highlights of our life or have a near-death experience, all of our lifetime is contracted to fit within a few moments. The time and space separating us is an illusion.
The earth-toned setting, progressive lighting, brief plot, dialog (song lyrics), images of climbing, and citizen-of-the world characters come together beautifully to deliver a universal message. Although our lifespans today are the longest humans have ever known, it still seems we have too little time to live and too much to experience and learn.
Footnote: Sometimes comparison is the best way to see the quality of a film. The story here is rendered largely in symbolic terms, giving it a universal message. Another professional video of this song has been produced, but the interpretation is literal rather than symbolic. You can see it here. Notice how a literal interpretation narrows the video to a particular place, time, and culture.
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Copyright 2013 by Ann Marcaida
100 Years lyrics:
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I miss you when we sat as royalty on top of the stonewalls that have taken a lifetime to build. You thought the bruises on my arms were beautiful orchid petals, but you asked a question to which I still know no answer, ‘How many orchids do you need to make a garden?’
I miss you when you counted how many times our house rattled in the wind while I read pages of a book I can’t remember.
I miss you when we walked the streets to color the souls of strangers. Ivory. Cyan. Copper. When I asked, ‘What color am I?’ You gave me the only satisfying reply there is: ‘Never color the soul of the people you know.’
I miss you when we sat with our legs crossed in the rain. You yelled over the cracking thunder, ‘they always run from what is good’ about the people hiding from the storm.
I miss you when you traced the truth about silence in my wrists. You taught me how to say nothing without being afraid.
I miss you when spring was the season we wrote in the cemetery for the nameless dead, when you asked with genuine fear for a fountain to refill your exhausted veins. ‘There’s no need for eloquence, they just can’t become poisonous serpents.’
I miss you when you were curled beneath a blanket and coughed away the dust I’ve left to accumulate in the room. ‘I’m living in the stardust’ was my apology. ‘No, beautiful, you’re living among rotting corpses.’
I miss you when you taught me to wander away from the sound of weeping centaurs and find the faeries working their magic on the pages of my life. ‘They’re never in the clockmaker’s shop, silly girl.’
I miss you when you were all the good I had in my life.
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Ann Says: Wabi Sabi is a Japanese concept describing people or things that are beautiful in their brokenness.
Copyright 2013 by AutumnDragonfly
Image: Klein dagen
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I mow my third of an acre every weekend in concentric squares, growing smaller and smaller. Instead why not mow outward, expanding farther and farther? I imagine myself connected to the rest of the country by lawns.
My Briggs and Stratton powered walk behind mower would be my ship plying the nation’s rivers of grass. I could push on to the next door neighbors, down the street to the next, and along the main road.
I would follow road east, to the west lawn of our Nation’s Capitol—the people’s lawn. Feeling the vibration of the engine and the smell of the gas, I would mow it in a side to side pattern working my way up Capitol Hill.
To the northeast, I would mow both the tidy plots of Levittown to the Great Meadow of Central Park, to the blue lawns out of Gatsby’s Long Island estates. Sprawling fields that stood for the wealth of an age.
I could mow all the way to the tidy town greens of New England. Along the way, I’d stop by Emily Dickinson’s house to mow her yard because I think she would appreciate it though I don’t think her neighbor from a later time, Robert Frost, would allow it.
Down south, I would pay homage the to shrines of eighteen at Pinehurst and Augusta mowing their links to a fine and lustrous finish. My mowing would be only to the frog hair of their greens but no further.
I would take as much care mowing the thick blue grass pastures of Kentucky to keep them plush enough to please the pampered thoroughbreds.
The rivers of lawn would carry my mower to the sprawling campuses of the large, land grant universities of the midwest, around their limestone halls and aged oaks. Mowing onto the field of a great football coliseum, temples built to surround 100 yards of precisely marked and measured rectangles of lawn. Every one of the 100,000 seats directed at my mowing. Is it any wonder that artificial turf was soon abandoned and returned to grass and earth? Where are the dreams in artificial turf?
I would look forward to mowing the lawns of memory—the lawns of modest Ohio towns. The front yard boundaries neatly outlined but breaking free in backyards and escaping into cornfields and small clumps of forest.
I would mow my old front yard that was big enough for several seasons of neighborhood pick up football. The yard where that I left in the dusk of an autumn evening to come inside stained with grass and dirt. The grass that is mixed in my blood and my bones.
Mowing north, I’d stop at the cemetery in Lowell, Michigan and mow around the gravestones of my Grandmother and Grandfather, and the nearby granite statue the Civil War soldier for good measure.
The mowing would carry me through the north woods to world’s most perfect hill overlooking the western horizon of a great lake. The blades here are stronger, able to survive the longer, colder winters but replenish the hill each summer with a green carpet that has absorbed all the ages of my bare feet. A lawn that has given me a front row seat to watch approaching storms, sunsets, bonfires, northern lights and the Milky Way.
I’d follow the hearty lawns of the interstate medians west into Indiana and Illinois. Tributaries of grass mowed by men on tractors protected by roll bars and sun umbrellas inhaling humid summer air spiced with asphalt and diesel.
There would be many little league fields to mow on my way to the lawn of Wrigley Field with its lush alternating textures arrayed in a diagonal pattern.
How far could the rivers of grass carry my mower west before the prairie grass gives way to the dirt and desert of the Badlands?
Like the Lewis and Clark of westward mowing, I would have to ford my mover to find the next navigable stream of grass. Maybe there would be mowing again around the Little Big Horn where Custer and his men died on the lawn of Montana.
Possibly there could be some mowing done around the hoards of Bison and the winding banks of the Yellowstone River.
I don’t imagine much mowing needed in the Rockies or the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The mowing might pick up again around Sacramento and in other pockets of California taking me to the Pacific coast, over the cliffs and into the Ocean.
Alaska would be left to its pristine state but I’d like to see if my mower could could propel me over the Pacific to Hawaii and mow the green slopes of Mount Kilauea being careful to miss the pools of cooling lava.
I would be connected to the lawns of the great republic from sea to shining sea.
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Ann says: If you are interested in the true story of a man who rode his lawnmower cross-country, click here.
Copyright 2013 by John Kropf.
Image: Kari Stiansen at WordPress
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“Have you seen her perform before?” asked Ratigan. The rows were filling with vigorous men and well-fed women, each of them reviewing the postcards they’d purchased in the lobby. ”She was quite good in October at the Eureka Pier.”
Hoban put down his opera glasses. His orange beard stopped at his pasty, drooping face just in time, just before melding with the fabric of his pale salmon shirt. His eyebrows, a shade of rotted tangerine, drooped with a lack of enthusiasm. “I don’t go to concerts in the autumn.”
“She’s played in various seasons,” observed Ratigan. He’d forgotten to pick up the program postcards, and had to look over the shoulder of the brisk brunette in front of him. She held a card at distance, squinting at caterpillars arranged in the shape of a spoon. ”She performed in the summer at the Magic Tunnel, I believe, doing the ‘Appliance Songs’ of Farragut.”
“Farragut.” Hoban frowned, his brown lips burrowing into his face with the alacrity of fat worms singed by live cigarette ash. ”He’s an Upholsterer, a Neo-Sequentialist. I thrashed one of his admirers with rubber tubing last year at the Vancouver Piano Thunk.”
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One day, my friends and I descended into the sewers underneath the metropolis and discovered the most unusual eel-like creatures lounging indolently on the concrete banks of the subterranean river.
There they were, lying close to the river’s edge, only deigning to bestir and dip their heads languidly into the passing current when a particularly choice morsel of human waste floated by.
Their appearance overpowered me in its repulsiveness. “How could Evolution ever come up with such a horrible abomination”, I remember wondering to myself, “How could Nature ever allow such a glaring insult against Itself to arise and flourish, such a travesty, such a betrayal and perversion of the natural order itself?”
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The lay of the land is so perfectly flat that we can see unencumbered all the way to the horizon. A strange sensation grips me that the sky is a giant snow globe surrounding and enveloping me in its grasp, which makes me feel slightly queasy and claustrophobic. I feel trapped by this impenetrable glass bowl sky and have the strong urge to smash its walls and break free from the eternal imprisonment that it has me and the whole world under.
As the day proceeds, the heavens rotate slowly around their axis and then towards mid-morning something very odd catches my eye on the eastern horizon. It is something that I never have seen in the sky before but there it is before me, slowly arising from beneath the edge of the earth. By some incomprehensible process, the whole of the continent of North America has somehow become attached to the celestial sphere and it is now being carried along by the turning of the heavens. We can clearly see its unmistakable shape and the features of the land, the whiteness of Alaska, the mighty rivers, the mountain chains, the major cities, the wheat fields, the forests.
If I felt claustrophobic before and hemmed in by the sky above me, now those sensations are so much worse given there’s a whole continent hanging right over our heads.
At first, while the continent is still at a shallow angle in the sky, the North American people seem to be enjoying their unique experience, smiling, laughing and some even waving to us down below.
But as the heavens continue their inexorable turning and the continent slowly approaches the celestial zenith, the fun and the mirth turns to panic.
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One day a new type of phone that you could use to call yourself appeared on the market. All one had to do was dial a certain number and one would be connected straight away with oneself. The quality of the reception was so good that the voice on the other end of the line sounded as if it was coming from the very same room.
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I.
She was born during that time when parents kept trying to outdo each other by picking a name for their child that no one else had. Whether it was one too many cigarettes made from the leaves of the pot plant growing in the basement, or a blood alcohol level twice the definition of drunk, Sarah and John Beck decided one night to name their first born, Empathy.
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Her coffin was made from water, crystal clear, wet to the touch, firm and rigid when placed in the ground. Pall bearers, hands colder than a polar winter, made handles of ice when they grabbed it, and all six of them, walking on legs with no feet, carried her slowly the fourteen miles to her grave. I watched from a distance that was measured in years and saw the end of my daughter not yet born.
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John F. Walter is the founder of an avant-garde art and literature movement known as pre-Simulation. His group explores the ever-thinning boundaries between reality and virtual reality.*
Whether he’s writing about an on-screen lover, envisioning pixels in Spain’s Alhambra palace, or compelling his character to read their life in a book, John’s work is always startlingly creative, thought-provoking, and often humorous.
I know of no other poet who writes like John. So, let us go tether to the simulant heather…
Virtual Thanatopsis
Let us go tether the simulant heather
Into latticed loveknots, my screen-saved lass!
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My friend and surreal digital artist A.W. Sprague created this unique piece to thank me for supporting his work. Although we’ve never met in person, he did an amazing job of crawling into my head! This is a lot more fun and just as revealing as occupying a psychiatrist’s couch.
It’s interesting to note that prior to the invention of the printing press, visual symbolism in art was widely understood. But these days, visual symbolism is a language most of us must re-learn.
To that end, A.W. and I have provided a detailed analysis of his symbolism. (My interpretations in regular font, A.W.’s comment in italics).
Please savor this delightful art. Two detailed close-ups are given so the viewer can “read” the fine print.
ENJOY!
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James Ciriaco: Zen Master
I discovered James Ciriaco’s work while he was on an internet hiatus. For the better part of a year I romped through this English professor’s writing, amazed by its quality. For work that is profound and multi-layered, his writing is amazingly reader-friendly.
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Unitarian minister Peter Tufts Richardson, in his book Four Spiritualities, contends that it is important to pay attention to the works of religious, spiritual, and philosophical teachers in traditions that are different from our native one (See Part I and Part II).
But how can we identify which teachers might be helpful to us? Richardson believes that our inherent personality type (see links at the bottom of the article) helps to determine which teachings are attractive, meaningful, and useful to us.
The following descriptions of four personality-based spiritual paths and their mentors are condensed from Peter Tufts Richardson’s book Four Spiritualities, with some of my own research intermingled. If you have figured out your personality type, please let me know if, and how, any of these differing paths resonate with your own spiritual journey!
Sensing Feelers (SF): The Journey of Devotion (Mentors: St. Francis, Mohammed, St. Mark (apostle))
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) was born into a wealthy Italian family. As a young man, he was injured in war. On the way home, exhausted and in pain, he spied a leper and was overwhelmed by compassion. St. Francis writes that he ”saw the face of the suffering Christ” on the leper. He dismounted, embraced the man, and gave him all of his money.
Later, St. Francis had a vision of his life’s work. He writes that a crucifix came alive, saying ”Go, Francis, and repair my falling house.” Francis took the words literally, and spent years repairing ruined churches. Later, he saw his revelation as a directive to repair the “spiritual house” of Christianity.
St. Francis founded an order of monks (The Franciscans), and in his later years he composed Canticle of Brother Sun, an ode to mother earth and her inhabitants. He is often pictured holding birds, a reference to a tale of him rescuing two doves on their way to slaughter.
The life of St. Francis reveals a Sensing Feeler’s passion for his God, a dedication to serving others in direct and tangible ways, and a gift for finding inspiration in the lives and works of ancestors.
The SF Spiritual Path: Sensing Feelers value personal experience and action through direct service to others. They often feel that God is present here and now, in our bodies and in our lives. Sensing Feelers are inspired by pilgrimages, heroes, and stories.
In their practical approach to spirituality and their appreciation of religious myth, Sensing Feelers bring continuity, integrity, and pragmatism to religious traditions, giving them staying power through generations.
Sensing Thinkers (ST): The Journey of Works (Mentors: Confucius, Moses, St. Thomas (apostle)). (Also my best guest for HH the 14th Dalai Lama).
Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.) never achieved his goal of becoming a governmental administrator. As a teacher and scholar, however, he made a lasting impact on philosophy and government.
Confucius reworked the oldest documents of Chinese culture (now known as the Confucian Odes) into a coherent system for the conduct of life that is remarkably practical and democratic. Confucius believed that the well-being and consent of the common people constitute the legitimacy of a government, and societal reform works from the bottom up. His teachings guided Chinese society for nearly 2500 years.
In the words of Confucian translator Arthur Waley:
“In the West, we tend to instill ethical principals into young children until they are internalized: This is right, that is wrong. In traditional China…a young child is taught a number of considerations, none of which is absolute. You have to reason out what is appropriate, operable, and right in any specific situation.”
Confucian principals help us decide what action is practical, skillful, and humane in any given situation, not what is “right” or “wrong.”
The life of Confucius gives clear evidence of a Sensing Thinker’s love for law and order and attention to careful thought, planning, and stewardship.
The ST Spiritual Path: Sensing Thinkers are realistic, practical, and sometimes righteous. They strive to keep to religious organizations running smoothly based on a foundation of law and order. They feel responsible for personal, social, and natural resources.
Sensing Thinkers believe that a clear-cut personal identity is essential for a fulfilling spiritual life. They see work as life’s aim and fulfillment, spiritually as well as practically.
Intuitive Feelers (NF): The Journey of Harmony (Mentors: Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Jesus, Lao-Tzu, St. Luke (apostle), Thich Nhat Hahn, Buddhist Master).
Mother Theresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) ministered to the world’s poor, sick and dying for over 40 years. In 1997 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When asked what the average person can do to promote world peace, she simply said “Go home and love your family.”
As a young woman, Theresa felt a strong call to help the poor while living among them. ”To fail would have been to break the faith” she writes of her spiritual imperative.
Theresa founded an order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity, in 1940. At first her order was so poor that the sisters had to beg for food and supplies. But Mother Theresa, with her Intuitor’s grasp of the big picture, was a good administrator. At the time of her death in 1997, she had founded 610 missions in 123 countries to care for the poor, sick, and dying. Her order includes over 4,000 sisters and 100,000 lay volunteers.
Mother Theresa honored the religious beliefs of others. In her homes for the dying, ministrations are offered in several religious traditions: Muslims are read the Quran, Hindus receive water from the Ganges, and Catholics are given the last rites.
Mother Theresa continued her spiritual journey throughout her life, aided by her “spiritual advisor,” a priest to whom she was close. Her diaries, published after her death, reveal that for much of her life she struggled with strong doubts about the existence of God.
Mother Theresa’s story reveals an Intuitive Feeler’s quest for self-hood, focus on process as part of a religious path, tolerance of differing spiritual traditions, and love of harmony.
The NF Spiritual Path: Intuitive Feelers are social idealists. Their spiritual journey includes a quest for self-hood and a mystical pursuit of harmony. They project an attitude of expectancy and an openness to their unconscious selves, including their dreams, as a way towards spiritual healing.
Intuitive Feelers focus on process in relationships, whether to family, friends or society. They often enjoy exploring different spiritual traditions, and may combine several in their belief system. They avoid conflict, and are peacemakers and “carriers of the banner of tolerance” among traditions. They are our social visionaries.
Intuitive Thinkers (NT): The Journey of Unity (Mentors: Thomas Merton, The Buddha, Thomas Aquinas, Carl Jung)
Thomas Merton (1915-1968), an important 20th century religious writer, hated church as a child. During college, however, he became interested in Catholicism. After graduating, became a Cistercian monk, maintaining a vow of silence for two years.
In 1948 Merton published his spiritual classic The Seven Storey Mountain, an account of his quest for God. Though eloquent and passionate, this book reveals Merton as narrow-minded (or at least unworldly) and judgmental, dismissing pagan traditions as “evil old religions.”
In the decades that followed, however, Merton matured, and his world view widened. He became a political activist and peacemaker. His interest in other religions, particularly Eastern ones, grew. Merton dialoged with the worlds’ leading Buddhists— the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, and D.T. Suzuki. He died in an electrocution accident in 1968, at the age of 51.
Merton’s life story reveals an Intuitive Thinker’s love of scholarship, search for universal truth and justice, and desire for the spiritual enlightenment of all. In the words of the Buddhist scholar Shantideva:
“May I be a guard for those who are protectorless
A guide for those who journey on the road
For those who wish to go across the water
May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge…
When all these actions I have performed
And their virtue I have thus amassed
May the pain of every living being
Be thereby scattered and destroyed.”
The NT Spiritual Path: Intuitive Thinkers seek organizing principals throughout life and nature. They want universal justice and truths that are global, honest, and clear. Their milestone of spiritual progress is deep and lucid thinking.
A goal of Intuitive Thinkers is social justice, achieved through education. Intuitive Thinkers may be spiritual writers and often attempt interfaith peacemaking. They may practice intellectual mysticism, often in quiet places or in silence.
To determine your personality type, take one of these online tests. You will receive an answer with four letters, but for the purposes of this article we are interested in only the two middle letters:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/ (Take “Jung Typology Test”)
www.similarminds.com (Click on “16-Type Jung Personality Tests”, then take “Jung Tests IESNFTJP”.)
http://www.personalitypathways.com/ (Abbreviated version)
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Images: 1. St. Francis of Assisi, courtesy of 1.bp.blogspot.com 2. Confucius, artist unknown 3. Painting of Mother Theresa, courtesy of divinesoul.jp 4. Thomas Merton by Joseph Malham
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“In every sizeable community, one finds atheists who think there is not God, polytheists who acknowledge many gods, monotheists who believe there is a single God, and mystics who say there is only God.” (Huston Smith)
The Unitarian minister we met in Part I, Peter Tufts Richardson, feels that it’s important to pay attention to the works of religious, spiritual, and philosophical teachers in traditions other than own. Among other things, this may enlarge our world view and make us more tolerant of differing faiths. But how can we identify which teachers in other faiths might be helpful to us?
Richardson believes that our inherent personality type (see links at bottom) helps to determine which parts of any faith or religion are attractive, meaningful, and/or helpful to us. (For more information, click here to read Part I).
Psychologists believe it’s possible to determine the personality profiles of people who are long dead, provided that we have reliable records of their words and deeds. This has been done for all of the world’s major religious founders. Because we now know the personality profiles of many famous people, it’s a simple matter to figure out which spiritual teachers have personalities similar to our own (more in Part III). And although the writings of like-minded teachers will probably resonate with you, Richardson also advocates reading the works of teachers whose personalities are opposite to yours.
For example, anyone with a strongly intuitive personality like me may be attracted to mystical teachers. I’ve found that the writings of the mystical teachers from different traditions tend to converge, and they all seem to say much the same thing.
Here are quotes from three mystical teachers in different religious traditions. Can you match the quote to the author’s religion? One is Muslim, one is Buddhist, and one is Christian. (Answers at the end of article*)
“I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged…I feel fire and music under my feet.
“In a boat down a fast-running creek, it feels like trees on the bank are rushing by. What seems to be changing around us is rather the speed of our craft leaving this world.”
“Like a dream, whatever I enjoy will become a memory; the past is not revisited.”
Richardson believes that each of the four personality types (see Part I) has a different spiritual journey. Chances are, depending on your personality, your spiritual quest will be different from your neighbor’s, and also different from that of the person who sits next to you at church.
Based on his long years as a minister, Richardson has described the spiritual journey of each of the four personality types (click here for type descriptions). Richardson has also identified a number of ”mentors”— religious teachers and leaders, past and present, of matching personality type— for each journey. Interestingly, each of the four journeys has at least one major religious founder with a matching personality (more in Part III). That’s good news for all of us.
Sadly, Richardson doesn’t fit atheists and agnostics into his scheme, although he clearly feels that some Eastern traditions support these mindsets. Personally, I suspect that most atheists and agnostics are people with a very strong “thinker” bias.
Richardson does not contend that anyone should or must convert to a religion in which the founder’s personality type matches their own. The spirituality in which we were raised is deeply imbedded in our psyche, and it’s better to integrate it into our adult belief system rather than exorcise it.
However, Richardson makes it clear that we should:
1) Pay attention to the teachings of mentors matching our personality type, no matter what their religious affiliation.
2) Use this knowledge as a guide in deciding which parts of any spiritual tradition are useful to us.
As religious scholar and mythologist Joseph Campbell has pointed out, all religions are true. All constitute a valid roadmap, providing that we interpret them metaphorically, using the full abilities of our heart and our mind. The tricky part is finding the path (or lack thereof) that works for you.
*First quote from Thomas Merton (Christian/Catholic), second quote from Rumi (Muslim), third quote from Shantideva (Buddhist).
To determine your personality type, take one of these online tests. You will receive an answer with four letters, but for the purposes of this article we are interested in only thetwo middle letters:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/ (Take “Jung Typology Test”)
www.similarminds.com (Click on “16-Type Jung Personality Tests”, then take “Jung Tests IESNFTJP”.)
http://www.personalitypathways.com/ (Abbreviated version)
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Images: 1. Detail, God Giving Life to Adam by Michelangelo 2. Courtesy of cornishevangelist at wordpress 3. Stock image from Google 4. What’s The Matter by Nora Sumberg 5. Courtesy of topez.net
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“On the right hand stand the lovers, on the left are those who seek. And we will dance in conversation until our tongues can no longer speak.” (Bruce Roper)
Although I was born into a Catholic family, I never “got” Catholicism. The Catholic Mass is still surreal to me, with its mumbled incantations and dolorous organ music. As a child, I never understood why I couldn’t participate. Later, the budding scientist in me wondered whether the laws of physics were really different when Jesus was alive (a seeming prerequisite for miracles).
As an adult, I avoided religion. However, after encountering Buddhist writings, I realized that I was a Buddhist. I retain some of my Catholic roots, but, nevertheless, I have always been a Buddhist.
The Buddha’s teachings resonate with me because he thought the way I think, and believed what I believe. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Shouldn’t I have become a Buddhist first, then started thinking like one?
Different Spiritual Types
Later, I married into a fundamental Christian family. My teenage nephews, Mathew and Mark, want to be preachers. To them, a Buddhist is an Object of Interest, something to be examined, turned upside-down and shaken, debated with and, possibly, soul-saved.
Debating my nephews is fun, but our endless arguments boil down to the same thing: Mathew and Mark feel the presence of God in their lives. I don’t feel the presence of God, and I think I must divest myself of all pre-ordained ideas about God. Mathew and Mark make spiritual decisions with their hearts; I make spiritual decisions with my head. (I am not implying that either way is better— see below)
I’ve noticed the same thing in my debates with other theist friends. Although this is a broad generalization, it seems that those who lead with their hearts (the believers) tend to end up on one side, and those who lead with their minds (the doubters) tend to be on the other.
Are We Destined for a Certain Spiritual Path?
A number of brilliant thinkers throughout history have said yes.
Plato classified four inborn personality types (Artisans, Guardians, Idealists, and Rationals). Psychologist Carl Jung adopted Plato’s terminology, and agreed that personality types are inherent (mostly genetic).
Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs later created a test (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI) to identify personality type and tell test-takers which occupations suit their personality. This test has been widely and successfully used in the business world, in a manner more broad than was originally intended. If you know how your co-workers view and interact with the world, you can work more effectively with them.
Unitarian minister Peter Tufts Richardson takes this argument one step further in his book Four Spiritualities. Richardson re-defines the four personality types in spiritual terms, and makes a case that our inborn personality has a profound effect on our religious or spiritual path.
Although he does not advocate conversion, Richardson strongly encourages us to read the work of like-minded teachers in other religious traditions. I suspect that if we did this, there would be a lot less bickering (and eventually less warring) over religious and spiritual paths.
The Four Temperaments: Which Are You?
If you can answer two questions, you can probably deduce your spiritual personality type (not the full MBTI profile, but enough for the purposes of this article). The two crucial questions are:
1. Are you a Sensor (S) or an INtuitor (N)? Are you part of the 75% of us who are practical and grounded in the details of the physical world (S)? Or are you among the 25% who are dreamers, sometimes impractical, but always looking for the “big picture” (N)?
2. Are you a Feeler (F) or a Thinker (T)? When you make a decision, do you prefer to follow your heart or your head? (About half of us are Feelers, the other half are Thinkers).
If you aren’t sure, you can click here to read the type descriptions and decide in which category you best fit. Or, use one of the links at the bottom of the article to take the MBTI test.
I don’t mean to imply that “Feelers” aren’t smart or “Thinkers” are heartless. One personality trait isn’t better than another; they are just different ways of relating to the world, different ways of processing information. A healthy society needs all types. But most people, by default, rely on one process more than the other when they make decisions. (A few people don’t have inherent preferences, and this article may not be useful to them).
Readers: Let’s Test Peter Richardson’s Theory!
Psychologists have deduced the personality types of the world’s major religious founders (including Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, and the Buddha) by analyzing records of their words and actions. Part II and Part III of this series will focus on this.
In the meantime, where do you stand? How has your personality type affected your spiritual path?
I hope you will participate in this group experiment:
1. Figure out your personality type. Your answer will consist of two letters: either SF, ST, NF, or NT. Read the descriptions here and decide into which category you best fit. Or take the MBTI test (see links below. Estimated time is 5 minutes for the abbreviated version, 20 minutes for the full version).
2. Then, answer the following questions (please cut and paste the questions into your comment box along with your answers):
a. What is your personality type? (If you take the online MBTI test, you will end up with four letters, but we are only interested in the two middle letters)
b. What is your spiritual/religious affiliation in real life?
c. Are you affiliated with this religion or spirituality solely because you were born into it? Or did you find and accept it on your own? Or are both of the above true?
d. Is your spirituality or religion a helpful “road map” for you? (Give a few details if you want).
e. Are you interested in the teachings of spiritual masters from religions other than your own?
http://www.humanmetrics.com/ (Take “Jung Typology Test”)
www.similarminds.com (Click on “16-Type Jung Personality Tests”, then take “Jung Tests IESNFTJP”.)
http://www.personalitypathways.com/ (Abbreviated version; click on “What is my Myers-Briggs personality type?”)
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Image Credits: 1. holyname.co.uk 2. Photo by Barry Easton 3. Photo by David Sanger 4. Mask of Agamemnon from Wikipedia Commons 4. Cover of Peter Tufts Richardson’s book Four Spiritualities.
