The Wonder of Structure and Discipline in the Spiritual Life

Engaging in discipline and spiritual practice is one of the most important parts of life, for it neutralizes the depressingly passive corporate-consumer mindset promoted by our culture and puts us in touch with the nobility of our own life-force and sense of agency. For me, hiking is one such practice, providing opportunities for physical exercise, mindfulness, and a melting of oneself into the larger Whole.

Several days ago, during coffee with my youngest daughter - Holly Hatch - she shared with me how important structure and routine are in her life. In her case, engaging in a routine - organizing the receipts and bills of the business that she and her partner run, ordering supplies, cleaning, etc. - has a very healing affect on her psyche. It occurred to me during our conversation that it is not so much the CONTENT of the routine that matters, at least in her case, but the ACT ITSELF of bringing organization and structure to daily life. I'm reminded here of the advice of my spiritual mentor, Thomas Keating, who compared regular spiritual practice and discipline to the banks of a river, which enable the water to flow with increased vigor and stamina.

For me - being naturally a philosophical, "meaning" oriented person - the content of the structure is indeed quite important. I don't have the discipline to stick with a practice unless it yields a deeper and more cosmic sense of purpose. But I have been quite impressed since our conversation with the realization that the structure itself is part of the meaning. After all, the sky-like expanse of the Divine Presence is most impressive when we see it in the context of the particular phenomena of life that - like stars, meteors, rocky promontories and the horizon - help give it definition. DIscipline, organization, routine and practice, however nondescript (like a rocky silhouette on the horizon) they might seem, are a large part of the reason WHY we are able to perceive the expansiveness that lies beyond them. They serve as a sort of "diving board" - flexible yet boundaried - that allows us to leap off into the wide-open ocean of Divine awareness!

Photos: (Top) Animal tracks in the snow beneath Nokhu Crags, Never Summer Range, CO, December 12, 2014; (Middle) Ice patterns on Lake Agnes, Never Summer Range, CO, December 12, 2014; (Bottom) Canada Geese on Watson Lake, with Greyrock in the background, Bellvue, CO, December 9, 2014