The Container

Our physical bodies. Systems. Institutions...like religion or government...
All contain a particular purpose. Means to an end, so to speak. To cultivate. To comfort. To convert. To control. To condemn.
In Spencer Burke's latest collection of heresies, he addresses the religious container as something that held certain aspects of spirituality, fulfilling certain needs and creating an image for other-worldliness. This image is marketable...this leads us to all the similarites between religion and any other man-made system.
So the container for other-worldliness has become very worldly (what Burke calls brand-spirituality). I'm still not swallowing that it was ever really about spirituality, but you can take or leave that.

As the spiritual needs of humanity change (corresponding appropriately to our global/individual environment), Burke explains, the container must shift and today it seems there is a lessening need for any container. To some, this phenomenon exudes universalism-no boundaries, no absolutes-and it scares the shit out of folks who prefer a container for the above reasons. But to the serious journeyer (who ain't in it for the 'brand' status), containerless spirituality isn't about shredding and segmenting Truth, it's about personalization.

I think it's interesting how people refer to their ailments. Folks with asthma often refer to their diagnosis as "my" asthma as if to unconsciously differentiate their experiences from others'. Or maybe it's just how people say it. Either way, people want to own their spirituality just as they seem to own their asthma.

The relational nature of spirituality fulfills this desire. Truth is a relational being and you can live day in and day out interacting with it. What's so scary about that?
Oh, yes-Lest we forget our primary fear: Uncertainty. Because a world without walls is a dangerous one where people actually must process (think, feel, understand) for themselves who Truth is and such a journey takes time and, often, many paths.

But in Truth, which conveniently is also Love, there exists no fear-or walls. There's no such thing. Whah-fear? Huh? There is freedom to journey, to walk, to explore, and to consider as the Spirit leads. When exploration becomes a mere trend to follow, Truth/Love just becomes part of more options on the Menu of Means; it's here the negative connotation of containerless spirituality stakes its prosecution. Trend-jumping for status and identity (incense and meditation one day and red bracelets the next) obviously isn't an authentic personalization of spirituality, it's feasting buffet-style on spiritual methods. But sampling is no doubt a taste on palettes of many (like go-go boots and leggings) so there's really no use in anyone getting their undies in a wad over it. After all, we can only journey for ourselves.

What was I talking about? Containers...so yeah, religion is a spiritual packaging that society is tired of...a mold that people are outgrowing...and may I say that I won't hate the days when it's ineffectiveness at providing spiritual living is acknowledged by more than heretics.