Totems, Fortresses, and Awareness

I have been musing over the connection between the physical and spiritual realms of late. Part of my training at seminary was in the use of physical implements for spiritual formation and I was hoping to talk about three of these concepts in general: totems, physical fortresses, and awareness practices. All three, while sounding goofy or strange, have deep connections to Christianity and are quite helpful in the pursuit of growth.

In the movie "Inception", the characters each possess a personal object that is called a "totem", whether a chess piece, a spinning top, or a dice. The characters keep their totems on their person at all times because the story involves a world where the characters are sneaking into dreams for corporate gain. The totems only act the way they are supposed to when they are in the real world, as in the case of the top eventually falling instead of spinning forever. In the same way, totems in spirituality are devices that help us connect back with the reality of God and His love for us. Christians and Christian groups have come up with totems that enable them to return to the reality of God's love and lordship in the midst of a world that tries to deceive us with noise, business, and peer pressure. A totem can be a physical object, such as prayer beads, a promise necklace, or a painting, but can be a lot of other things as well. Totems can also be verbal, such as in the case of breath prayers and Taize songs. A breath prayer is a prayer that can be said in a single breath, such as "God help me" or "Where does my help come from?" A very ancient prayer is the Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner". These prayers are helpful in that they can be said throughout the day as a way of refocusing on God's presence. The more the prayers are said, the less the totem itself is important than the home that it represents. The totem becomes a meeting place where God and the self can meet, if only for a moment. God is always present, but it brings our attention to that reality. The Taize songs are developed by a monastic group in France and involve singing two lines of a song several times over, as in more than twenty or so times through. The words of the song become less important with each repetition than the actual experience of meeting God. Finally, physical and verbal totems can be used in sequence with one another. This is where the prayer beads come into play. A string of beads has several beads on one string; each bead represents one repetition of a prayer. Thus, one is able to remain focused while repeating a song or breath prayer multiple times. The physical touch of the bead helps the attention span as it tries to wander.

Fortresses are a second concept in physical spirituality that surrounds us more often than we realize. For instance, if one sees an article about roads and rivers segregating ethnicities in several cities (link on my Facebook page), one can see how spiritual realities become embodied in physical locals. This same concept applies to the way that we live and act in our neighborhoods as well as our places of work and worship. We have to be aware of how the walls and actual barriers as well as cultural barriers serve as messages of coldness and distance to the others who may be trying to come and connect with us. What can we do to clean up our work spaces of images and pictures that say "Please don't talk to me" or "you would never understand me"? In the same way, churches that insist upon one cultural style, as embodied in song styles, decorations, and lingo, are indirectly saying that they are not open to an encounter with those who are different. When we change our postures to being more open to new experiences, not only will we create a home for the new and different, but we will also discover that the new and different are already standing in our midst, maybe within our own shoes.

Lastly, awareness is a spiritual discipline that focuses on awareness of one's own body and God's presence in making and sustaining it. One can practice a simple awareness practice by sitting in place and focusing on one's breathing or by focusing on one body part at a time. By think about one body part at a time, I mean focusing on what it feels, from heat and air to texture and moisture, starting with one's fingertips and moving up the arm and elsewhere. Becoming more aware of one's body helps one appreciate what God has given us as well as make us more concerned about how Jesus' lordship also matters a lot when it comes to stewardship of our body. Not only so, but one gains contentment with one's possessions and situation in life when one realizes that one's essential person, who they are, will not change by owning or possessing more things. The saying "we all go naked into the grave and can take nothing with us" is truly appreciated when we focus in on our bodies.

There are more bridges between the physical and spiritual worlds, but I wanted to just muse on these few ideas today. Let me know if you would want to speak more on these topics.

Sincerely,
Simeon