Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Strategic Monk

Home
Contemplative
Spiritual Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Spiritual Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Last updated on: July 12, 2017 at 7:48 am by Greg Richardson

Spiritual Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness 2017-07-12T07:48:18-08:00 Greg Richardson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

14672885656_fd00a0a065_z

Spiritual Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

This weekend we celebrate the birth of our nation. The founding fathers wrote it is self-evident that all of us are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights. Among our rights, they wrote, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I have heard these words my entire life, for longer than I can remember. We do not know what motivated those men in Philadelphia when they agreed to those words 241 years ago. They each had their own hopes and expectations, fears and anxieties. Like any group project, the result they agreed on is a reflection of their diverse ideas.

It would be fascinating to understand more about the perspectives of each member of that congress. More important for me, though, is discerning what their words mean to us today.

Is it self-evident to us we have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What do each of those rights mean to you today? How do the rights we have help shape our experiences of spiritual life?

Our Right to Spiritual Life

My understanding of spiritual life depends on my belief it is a gift we receive.

I do not believe there is anything we can do to earn more spiritual life, nor anything we can do to lose it.

There are people, though, who apparently do not believe we have a right to spiritual life. Spiritual life could have been taken from them, or they might treat it like it does not exist.

Some of us become convinced spiritual life is a distraction, a series of fairly tales or comforting fiction. They may have set aside what they were taught as children, or ideas they have never really explored. It becomes easy for them to disregard the ways spiritual life seeks to draw them into itself.

Other people struggle with even the idea of spiritual life. They may have the experience of being treated unfairly or having someone poison spiritual life for them. The concepts of spiritual life and Sacred truth have become sources of pain and confusion.

An unhealthy understanding of what spiritual life is may be creating feelings of fear or anger for them. They could see spiritual life as a burdensome set of rules they are required to follow or ideas to be analyzed.

People may need help from someone else to assert their right to spiritual life.

Like the other legal rights we have, it may be a challenge for us to exercise our right to spiritual life. In the same way, it can take us years of effort to come into our full rights.

The essential fact to remember is we have the right to spiritual life which no one can take away from us.

Our Right to Spiritual Liberty

We have a right to spiritual liberty. Spiritual liberty is not the same as religious liberty.

We live in a world when governments make laws and policies which treat members of certain religions differently. Religious institutions assert their authority to decide what forms of spiritual practice they endorse and which they do not.

It is important for us to protect our religious liberties and to exercise our spiritual liberty.

Each of us has the liberty to understand and experience spiritual life in our own unique ways. Neither governments nor other institutions can force us to conform to their standards.

No one has a monopoly on understanding spiritual life. Spiritual life fills the world around us, and the world within us. Our hearts overflow with spiritual life as we share it with the people around us.

Each of us has our own intimate, personal relationship to Sacred truth. We have significant liberty to relate to and express spiritual life in a multitude of ways.

As with any liberty, our spiritual liberty comes with responsibilities. Our first responsibility is to explore and discover how we will relate to spiritual life.

We may want to ignore spiritual life or run away from it, hoping it will leave us alone. Our first impulse may be to try to master it or control it, to understand spiritual life. Some of us may want to sort out the right answers and give them to other people.

Like any strong relationship, we need to make decisions for ourselves. Spiritual life will not force us into anything. It will not force itself on us. Our liberty is essential to building a healthy relationship.

We need to learn the benefits and costs of how we exercise our spiritual liberty.

Our Right to Pursue Spiritual Happiness

I used to think the pursuit of happiness sounds like the weakest, least significant of these three rights.

Life and liberty sound important, while happiness seems a little shallow.

Now I think our right to pursue spiritual happiness is more essential than it may sound. We tend to take spiritual happiness for granted.

Some of us assume spiritual life will make us happy. Other people believe we need to connect to spiritual life whether it makes us happy or not. I know people who seem to believe we should be happy all the time, whether it makes sense or not. Some people think being happy is almost the opposite of spiritual life.

I appreciate the way it is described as the right to pursue happiness. Happiness, including spiritual happiness, is not automatic. Sometimes we need to go out of our way to find it and sustain it.

The first step in pursuing spiritual happiness is understanding what makes us happy. If we do not know ourselves well enough to appreciate that, we do not know where to pursue happiness.

Part of pursuing spiritual happiness is recognizing it may surprise us. There have been times when I found happiness in places I had worked hard to avoid.

We have the right to pursue spiritual happiness.

Questions

How will you exercise your rights to spiritual life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness this week?

Where will you explore your relationship to spiritual life today?

[Image by Jdmoar]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is [email protected].

Blog

Spiritual Practices

Previous Post

June 29, 2017

Leading Like a Monk: Setting Our Internal Clocks

Next Post

July 5, 2017 Practices From the Inside Out: The Dance of Spiritual Life

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Blog Book Reviews Everything Else Guest Posts Leadership Monastic Strategies Neighborhood Pilgrimages Sacred Stillness Spiritual Direction Spiritual Practices Work

Select a Month May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am twelve stones taken from a riverbed and set up as a memorial to a miraculous crossing. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The memorial stones Altar stones The Stones of remembrance Bethel