For more than 30 years, I have been witnessing the rise of a new spiritual tradition. When I wrote my first book,
The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure, its original title in hardcover was
The New American Spirituality: A Seeker's Guide. I called it that because I believe that American democracy and diversity have changed the way people search for answers to the big spiritual questions: Where did I come from? Who am I? How do I live a meaningful, happy, and generous life? What happens when I die? Two hundred years of democracy have convinced Americans that each person has the God-given right to choose one's own path to discover answers to these questions. And the diverse options that we now have available ? the world's religions from East and West; native traditions; philosophy and psychotherapy; newer hybrid forms of worship ? have expanded the possibilities for self-realization, peace of mind, and a living connection to God, spirit, the creator, or ___________ (you fill in the blank).
When the book went to paperback, I decided to change the title to The Seeker's Guide. I did this because I became aware that the same trend ? the infusion of democracy and diversity into spiritual seeking ? was quickly becoming a global phenomenon.
I've watched this democratization of the spiritual search from a catbird seat at the conference and retreat center I cofounded in 1977: the Omega Institute. During the 30 years that I've been part of Omega, I have met hundreds of spiritual teachers and speakers, and tens of thousands of seekers. They have come from all over the world and from very different walks of life, all searching for something similar ? a new kind of spiritual tradition, one that is open-minded, deeply felt, and relevant to daily life. A tradition that actually teaches us how to awaken our spiritual intelligence and to use it to make our life, and the lives of others, more peaceful, generous, and meaningful.
I like the phrase "spiritual intelligence" because it demonstrates that to be intelligent we also must be wise, and to be spiritual we also must be intelligent. It used to be that when we said someone was intelligent, we meant they were good at retaining and using logical information. Certainly that is a form of intelligence, but brain and social scientists now speak of up to 10 forms of intelligence. Here are five of them:
- Logical-mathematical intelligence.
- Bodily kinesthetic intelligence ? accessing the wisdom and information stored in the body. (Athletes have that...)
- Natural intelligence, which involves understanding patterns and systems found in nature. (Our cave ancestors...)
- Emotional Intelligence, also called inter-personal intelligence, which involves knowing what other people are feeling, empathy, and communication.
- Intra-personal intelligence, which I call Spiritual Intelligence, that is the ability to be introspective, to explore inner landscapes, and to experience a sense of self that is free from ego, which, if you ask me, is the greatest intelligence there is.
It's time that we put our effort into dignifying and elevating in society the full range of human intelligence, especially two that are most needed in today's world ? Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual Intelligence.
Let's talk about Emotional Intelligence. Most human societies discredit the value of the emotions, believing they are best kept in check, that emotions are enemies of rational thinking, that they would lead to anarchy, weakness, or life in some extended chick flick. That's crazy. Every child should be taught and every adult should know how to communicate well with others, how to handle conflict without resorting to violence, how to feel what another is feeling, how to grieve when things are sad, how to cultivate happiness, how to give and get love, how to parent well so that children know they are loved, and that they belong here in the human family. Clearly, these topics are more important than driver's education, or woodshop, or even reading, writing, and arithmetic.
And what about Spiritual Intelligence? What exactly is that? Spiritual Intelligence might also be called wisdom, and wisdom is a perspective free from the clouds of one's personal ego. What is the ego? The part of us that is fearful, clutching, and uptight. It's our inner problem-child. We all have one. It has gotten humanity into the fix we're in. The ego is so blind to any story other than the story of me and mine that humanity is much more like a room of cranky kindergartners than the wise and expansive beings that we really are. Freeing ourselves from the prison of ego is what it means to walk a spiritual path, and it's the most effective way of contributing to a better world.
I am heartened by a rising interest in Spiritual Intelligence. I see it in the continuing popularity of places like Omega Institute and in the interest in spiritual books. When Oprah Winfrey chose Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth for her book club in 2008, it quickly climbed to the bestseller list and remained there for several months. To give her viewers a chance to more deeply explore the book with its author, Oprah decided to host a 10-week live webcast with Eckhart Tolle. I helped Oprah create the companion online workbook for the webcast, so I had a ringside seat for the event. Every Monday night for 10 weeks two million people came together online as Oprah and Eckhart Tolle discussed a chapter of A New Earth. The degree of both intelligence and spiritual depth of these webcasts, and the genuineness of the people who called and Skyped from around the world, gave me hope that the world is indeed coming together and honoring the many ways in which humans can search for and express the spiritual impulse.
There has never been a time in history when Spiritual Intelligence has been more necessary. We have some big choices to make as a species ? choices that may determine the future of human life on this planet. In my second book, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow, I write about how the answers to the most difficult challenges are actually embedded in the problems themselves. That's a hopeful message, since we are faced with some pretty big problems ? environmental, economic, religious, racial, tribal, global... In the book, I use stories of real people, myself included, who have faced hard times and used them to grow; to become more courageous, wise, and loving; and to learn how to enjoy every day and to make life more enjoyable for others. So, here's to the awakening of our spiritual intelligence in our personal lives, and in our shared lives as a human family on our beautiful planet.