The connective power of Spirit -- and the mysterious, constantly changing nature of that connective power -- is something that intrigues all of us. After all, that's a core part of our mission at the Center for Spirituality in American Life and in Spirit Scholars magazine.
AND SO: Over the past 48 hours, we've received various Emails, a few phone calls and even a couple of in-person reactions to the two appearances by Buddhist writer Geri Larkin in Ann Arbor on Wednesday. (Click here if you'd like to start by reading our preview of Geri's appearance, earlier this week.)
Now that Wednesday's events are receding into Memory -- and also into the editing process of the Divine Light Pictures crew who spent nearly an hour and a half filming Geri on Wednesday afternoon -- a few reflections are in order.
Here's why we find this so INTERESTING: Although this was the same Person, visiting us on the same Basic Mission (a book tour sponsored by Harper Collins on behalf of her new title, "The Chocolate Cake Sutra"), sharing at least a few of the same Stories in both venues -- the 2 events on Wednesday were quite different in character!
At 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Geri arrived at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor. She settled into a big, comfortable chair in front of the fireplace in Wesley Lounge. The Divine Light Pictures crew hooked up a microphone, lighting equipment and their two digital cameras -- and proceeded into a fascinating conversation with Geri.
Here's an important Word of Background: Divine Light Pictures is an innovative, two-year-old project involving about 20 high-school students from the First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor who have worked closely with Detroit Free Press Religion Writer David Crumm in learning interviewing techniques. They've also worked with an array of other professionals who've helped them immensely. And, in some cases, this crew has simply figured things out for themselves -- especially in learning how to shoot nearly professional quality video footage. In early 2006, these young people produced their first, 72-minute-long documentary film, called simply "Divine Light Pictures." That film raised basic questions about faith -- questions like "What do you think God looks like?" -- in Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities across metro Detroit.
The young people who are part of the documentary film crew are living proof of how deeply and effectively ordinary people can explore the rich diversity of faith in people's everyday lives -- if they only approach the subject with great respect and boundless curiosity.
The crew has matured from their fledgling status in 2005, when interviewers with the film crew would ask questions, prompted partly by typed-up "sample question lists" that we developed for the sake of consistency in the dozens of interviews the crew did that year. NOW, as the crew completed its filming for its second feature-length documentary on Wednesday -- the crew's status as sophisticated, seasoned interviewers was obvious.
For the most part, the five teen-agers sitting around Geri for the interview had read her new book, in advance of the interview with her, and several of them came to the interview with yellow sticky notes and folded-down pages, eager to ask her questions.
It was that CONNECTION that occurred in Wesley Lounge -- between respectful yet boundlessly curious young people -- and this wise spiritual sage -- that made the conversation crackle with electricity.
Only a talented crew of interviewers in a setting of safety and respect like that fireside circle could have asked Geri questions like: "So what do you believe about God?"
And it was a question like that -- a very specific, pointed question that is rarely asked of Buddhist sages -- that moved the conversation to the point of stressing that, in Buddhism, what matters most is not merely what we may say we "believe" -- but what we truly know and trust in the nitty gritty of our daily lives.
Again and again, the conversation seemed to crackle. The young people asked about Koans, the virtually unanswerable Buddhist puzzle-questions that jump-start a person's intuitive, non-intellectual responses. So, Geri fired one back at a young interviewer: "What was your face before your mother was born?"
And -- bang! -- the Koan worked. The young man didn't know how to respond properly.
"Nope, that's not it," Geri said before he could say much. "I can see it in the way your eyes are moving. You're thinking too hard. That's not it."
Beyond the value of explaining the Buddhist approach to such issues -- the application of such ideas to the young interviewers' Christian faith was powerful. Christian preachers repeatedly try to explain to people the necessity of moving beyond mere "belief" to a full commitment of trust in one's daily spiritual path -- and Geri's Buddhist affirmation of this often difficult-to-grasp principle was as direct and powerful as the way she loudly slapped her hand on her thigh to stress the point.
What truly drove home this principle of the need to cultivate a direct and fully mindful focus on our daily spiritual path was Geri's hilarious story about an obnoxious neighbor who hung around near her Detroit Buddhist monastery a couple of years ago and actually would try to rattle the monks by, in her words, "coming up on our porch and body slamming himself against our window!" In spite of his antics, which he knew were over-the-top and annoying to the monks, Geri and her monks managed eventually to overcome his provocations. By the time she was finished relating this tale, the young people were half amazed and half aching from laughing at the way she had described the scenes.
THEN -- in the evening -- Geri returned to First Church to deliver a more typical "book tour" talk that ran about 40 minutes -- with a few autobiographical remarks, a few anecdotes from her book and a couple of excerpts that she read aloud from "Chocolate Cake Sutra."
There was less electricity in that room. Or, really, it was a different kind of energy. As it turns out, based on a whole range of reactions we've heard from people sitting in that crowd on Wednesday night, there was a great deal of affection in the room. But it was more like the warm embrace of a homecoming than the spontaneous and provocative dialog of the afternoon. Many people who counted themselves as old friends came to hear their home-town hero return to celebrate her latest book. There were more hugs in the sanctuary of the church on Wednesday night than anyone could count.
Finally, the crowd moved back to Wesley Lounge again, this time for people to spend one-on-one time with Geri as she signed their books (sold via a mini-bookstore set up in one corner of the room by Shaman Drum Books). A couple of us stayed in the Lounge until the very end -- and that was quite a long time. This was truly a family reunion for many that night -- and, in that way, it was a valuable and memorable event.
By the end, exhausted by what finally totaled more than 3 hours (counting the Divine Light interview, the talk and the one-on-one conversations), Geri left the church with "deep bows" of gratitude.
That's an overview of the day -- but what can we learn from it? Well, first of all -- please, YOU should feel free to tell us more about what you think. We'd love to hear more from you -- either post a Comment below or Click Here to send us an email.
One Thing we're definitely pondering, though, is that -- ideally -- the mysteries and the life-giving value of spiritual disciplines are best explored in lively relationships. In Christianity, that may be why we recall Jesus' parables better than we can rattle off his Beatitudes. The Beatitudes were powerful preaching -- but the parables were relational stories, both in the plots of the timeless tales -- and in the way they were presented to Jesus' followers (and sometimes to Jesus' detractors), often while Jesus was on the move.
And we also are impressed by the mysterious power of community, especially when -- as we saw it unfold on Wednesday night -- various communities co-exist within a single town and occasionally they converge. We are intrigued by having hosted -- in the best parts of Wednesday evening -- a community reunion of another kind within the spiritual home of a local Methodist community. Somehow, we suspect, this is tapping into the real nature of what it means to carve out "sacred space" in a diverse community.
Perhaps these seem like poorly focused reflections. Perhaps we're trying to tease too much significance out of simple encounters among people. But, really, these kinds of experiences -- and the enduring meaning of them -- are what we're all about at Spirit Scholars -- and at the Center for Spirituality. SO -- tell us what YOU think.
(And a special THANK YOU to photographer John Hile for his images of Geri's visit. REMEMBER: You can click on nearly all the images in Spirit Scholars to see them pop up more clearly.)
DATELINE: FROM the FRONT LINES OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT -- Spirit Scholars is launching another ongoing feature, which we're calling the Ernie Pyle Report in honor of the remarkable war correspondent who gave his life in World War II to capture snapshots of human life in the face of horrific violence.
Spirit Scholars isn't interested in picking fights. We try not to be partisan. Our goal is clarity in sorting out the religious influences -- good, bad and sometimes bizarre -- in the rapidly changing culture that's swirling all around us.
This weekend, we "studied up" on the current crop of Oscar nominees, getting ready for the Rev. Rod Quainton's innovative "Jesus @ The Oscars" series at First United Methodist Church of Birmingham. (Check out our new calendar for Rod's dates and times, including an opportunity to hear from Spirit Scholars Editor David Crumm at the Feb. 15 program in the series.)
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