St. John of the Cross called times like this “the dark night of the soul.”  However the challenge manifests, there’s a sense that you’re at the end of your road.  Whatever spiritual practices worked in the past don’t work now.  Just when you need clear guidance, you’re more clueless than you may dare to admit.

That, as St. John wrote, is as it should be.  Sometimes, the only way to deal with pain is to stop trying to understand it, and simply experience it.  It’s as if we’ve taken all our spiritual wisdom to its edge, and the only way to find our next step is to go past all we think we know, into the darkness of unknowing.  Only then can we see the faint light in our own heart, guiding us to whatever wisdom we need next.

The Dark Night of the Soul Is Rich

Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, showed us how even in the midst of great suffering (for him, it was Auschwitz and the loss of most of his family to concentration camps), we can choose how we deal with circumstances.  By finding our own meaning, we become empowered and courageous.

Yet there is a limit to what we can individually do, no matter now courageous or inspired we are.  We don’t create all our own reality, and sometimes the most effective thing we can do is to stop trying to “reframe” what is, and simply be present to ultimate reality, to the eternal presence, to consciousness itself.

Such a stance requires humility, receptivity and letting go the ego’s focus on itself, including our particular dramas of the moment.  That’s not easy.

A Personal Experience of the Dark Night of the Soul

My life’s work coalesced in the early 1990′s, when my husband John was frequently out of work.  Just to pay the bills I took a legal secretarial job (which paid more than more interesting paralegal work) in a corporate law firm. Shortly after, the first of three relatives became mortally ill back east.  Our cat also became ill, requiring expensive veterinary care and frequent injections of fluids under his skin.

Often, I tried to give John a vision for how he could solve his vocational problems, so I wouldn’t have to do so much overtime to pay for all those trips back east. That our marriage survived is due to friends who could confront as well as support, to John’s basic goodness, and to the strength of the vows we had taken.

Finally, I began practicing what I had learned in graduate school under theologian Matthew Fox.  Matt often quoted Meister Elkhart’s statement that God is Isness.  That same statement has been used by Zen masters and others, recognizing God as ultimate reality, or constant presence.  Truly, in the vernacular, “it is what it is.”

Matt often defined the spiritual journey as a constant interplay of the wonder and joy of the Via Positiva and the need to let go and let be in the darkness, suffering and silence of the Via Negativa.  Out of this interplay of the positive and negative come the Via Creativa (self explanatory!) and the Via Transformativa, or compassion, interconnection, and justice-making.

Inspired by these and other teachings, I prayed to apply them in my job.  Over time I discovered that this huge law firm was filled with kindred spirits. I also discovered the soul of law, along with my call to serve that soul.  When John found a job as research director of a spirit and work resource guide, I was ready to see clearly my true place in life.

Much as We Try to Avoid It, We All Need to Go Through Many Dark Nights of the Soul

As a culture, we create a lot of pain by trying to avoid it.  Sometimes, painful things just have to be faced for what they are, not “reframed” into something seemingly more positive, or medicated away.  Instead of blaming ourselves or others because something we deem bad has happened, sometimes it’s more important to accept both how much and how little we can control things like the economy.

Here’s my dream:  instead of pressuring ourselves or our leaders to come up with a quick solution to problems, we support each other to be more prayerful and reflective. Instead of individually and collectively maintaining a desperation to know it all, we help each other through the humble frustration of knowing that right now, we’re not clear about the best path towards ending war, creating jobs, or anything else. Then into that field of unknowing, we plant our most powerful and true desire to see clearly what’s best.

Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a larger discussion.  I pray you join me in your own reflections about the dark night of the soul and how it applies to your life, work and financial dealings. Hopefully, we can then help each other go through those scary times when being clueless is absolutely the right way to be.  Only then can we come through to new vision.

As always, many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Over the past 14 years, it’s been my great pleasure to interview hundreds of people about how their work and their spirituality support each other. The great world religions scholar Huston Smith,  graciously granted an interview of some basic tenets in each faith. Individuals have added their own rich insights, providing a marvelous, ever-growing picture of the many ways to put spiritual values to work everyday.

All Faiths Promote Right Livelihood

The term comes from Buddha’s instructions to his disciples not to cause harm through one’s work and to work ethically. Over the past thirty years there have been numerous discussions and writings from people of many faiths on what this might mean. Just a few:

• Finding work that suits talents and to which one feels deeply called. The Christian concept of vocation and the parable of the talents Matthew 25:14-30 are particularly relevant.
• Working with the same integrity and other values in the workplace that you honor in your place of worship. The Muslim concept of being the same person in the marketplace as you are in the mosque is a marvelous model.
• Engaging fully with the task at hand without forcing your will or ego on it. The Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang and the Hindu concept of surrendering the outcome of your work to God are wise guides.
• Weaving time for reflection and rest into times of work. The Jewish Sabbath and Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (a time for everything in its season) are prime examples.
• Working in a way that respects the needs of others, including the earth and those not yet born. Prime examples are the environmental movements and the wisdom of native peoples, such as the Iroquois commandment to consider the impact of one’s actions to the seventh generation.

All Faiths Promote Paths to Wisdom

Whether you call it meditation, prayer, reflection or just a walk to clear your head, all faiths suggest that you get out of your ordinary mind, out of the limited view of your ego, and into a more timeless, universal way of seeing the world.

Because this blog often covers these topics, we won’t focus on them today. Except to say, whatever your faith, you already know some practices for slowing down, breathing, and opening up to guidance.

Indeed, one of the most spiritual persons I know is a lawyer who is an avowed atheist. He’s famously kind, compassionate, and ethical, but he doesn’t frame his thoughts about life and meaning in theological terms. He won’t use words like meditation or prayer, but obviously he gets into a state of deep reflection when he listens to country music and gets out of his over-worked left brain, into his heart.

I’d rather live in a world with one man who finds guidance without spiritual words than with than dozens who speak the spiritual words and don’t walk the spiritual walk — especially those who grow rich by promising spiritual “miracles” the easy way.

For More on the Wisdom of All Faiths for Work and Money, Come Back for Part II.

As a writer, long-time researcher and missionary for integrating spirituality, work and money, I could go on. And on. But I need to earn my living, and people don’t read much at one sitting any more. Therefore, we’ll take a break here.

Still to be explored in Part II (and maybe more parts as I really get going):

• All Faiths Promote Service
• All Faiths Promote Wise Use of Money
• All Faiths Promote Integrity
• All Faiths Promote Peace and Compassion

For a great collection of resources on right livelihood, see this article from Yes! Magazine.

How does the Wisdom of the World’s religions Enhance Your Relationship to Work and Money?

What do you already do to keep spirit alive at work? In your relationship to money?

What wisdom does your faith have for work and money?

What can you learn from other faiths?

As always, please share your thoughts and question.  Guest blogger ideas are welcome!

Many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

I really want that right now, not just around the ever-present health care financing issue, but around everything else that’s dominating the news today, like how hard it is for many of us to make a living right now. Like how many people we know are stuck in painful jobs they hate but don’t dare leave. Or for those of us who are entrepreneurs, where the next clients are coming from in a time when so many are still cutting back.

Healthcare financing and all our other money or work issues could benefit from some individual and collective deep breaths.

Won’t you breathe with me right now? Just take one breath, then another, and feel your energy rising. As you breathe, listen to the silence. Trust that you’ve got something worth saying, starting with yourself, so make that commitment to hear yourself.

Listen more than speak to yourself. Listen past your own assumptions and beliefs and pet projects into the stillness of your own heart. And when you are ready, share what’s true for you with another.

One thing I know for sure is that whenever two or more of us come together long enough to really see each other, to really listen to each other, we are wiser. Confusion becomes clarity. Enmity becomes dialogue, then collaboration. Money wasted, lives harmed turned into money used well for the best of human and earthly life.

It’s not easy to find money or work wisdom in a noisy, divisive world.

Even in my quiet office with candles burning, it’s hard to put aside all sorts of ideas and assumptions so I can be present to a deeper Presence. Even with years of practice in hearing what really matters most to others and myself around spirit, work and money, it’s hard to hear the one thing I need to hear right here, right now.

The wisdom I find in the silence calls me down from my high horse and holds a mirror to truths I’d rather evade. It calls me to say or do things I’d not otherwise dream or dare, things that risk ridicule or failure or even scarier, a hope and awe that make me tremble

And so, being human, I often run from the silence, and I bet you do, too.That’s why it always helps to have companions on the journey of dealing with what matters, whether on the mundane or spiritual level.

The world is filled with tips and resources for finding wisdom for money, work and other spiritual or mundane issues.

As a kid, I loved watching my mother and her best friend share everything from recipes to laughs to prayers to tips on sewing and how to handle us kids. As a business plan writer and teacher, I love sharing resources and ideas for how to turn a dream into thriving reality. As a writer and speaker in the field of spirit and work, I’m passionate about sharing tips and resources from all the world’s faiths for all types of work.

Here are some favorites you may try:

Go to the place where you feel most attuned to your wisdom source. For most people that’s the bathroom (no.1 according to a survey of business executives, especially the shower), a place of worship (not necessarily your own religion) or nature. If you can’t actually go to your wisdom place, go there virtually. (www.workwithmeaningandjoy.com/ww_-_retreat.pdf)

If you are under time pressure or are uncomfortable with meditation, run or do whatever else that helps you get your body, mind and spirit into a non-competitive zone. Many lawyers I know find that answers that eluded them during hard thinking come easily on the run.

Work off your anger or frustration safely, like our grandparents did while chopping wood or beating rugs over the clothesline. Some friends and I one had a great time working off some political fury by smashing yard-sale chipped pottery against a concrete wall. By the time we had carefully swept up the shards, we had a lot more energy that we could focus positively.

Tomorrow, by request, some tips from writers and speakers about how to get your most meaningful points across in a noisy, crowded world.

As always, many blessings. And come back again real soon,
Pat McHenry Sullivan

Congratulations! You’ve just taken the first step to a spiritual makeover of any problem. By admitting the problem, your attention, at least for a few seconds, is diverted from any 24-hour stress/worry/whatever negative programming that is polluting your right mind, and you’re open for at least a few nanoseconds to the thought, “maybe things don’t have to be this way. Maybe they can be better.”

Hold that thought. Take a deep breath and inspirit yourself with new energy. As you let go that breath, imagine letting go any tension. Take another breath and consider how the word “spirit” comes from the Latin word for “breath.” Another time, you might want to research the connections between breath and spirit in all the world’s religions, but right now just focus on your breath and spirit. Test the possibility that with guidance from spirit, things really can be better.

Spirit: The Makeover Tool You Can Apply to Any Work or Money Issue, Any Time, Anywhere

Spirit is always with you, even when you ignore it or try to repress it. Spirit is much stronger and way more resourceful than any challenge we ever can face. With spirit we can see more clearly what’s essential and what’s not. We gain courage and allies to help us tackle whatever we can and want to change; we find grace to accept what we can’t change and the wisdom to grow from it.

Sometimes, a simple spiritual insight can lead to huge benefits. Compared to the material world’s beauty makeovers, this is the equivalent of washing and trimming dirty, ragged hair into a flattering cut or trading faded, ill-suited clothing for a fresh outfit in colors and design that enhance the wearer.

The results of a spiritual makeover, however, are deeper, broader, and longer lasting. Example: Sally used to wake up each morning exhausted. Reluctant to start another day at a job whose mission she loved but whose challenges she didn’t, she’d put off getting up. Then she’d grit her teeth and rush off to work. Every evening she’d come home exhausted, and she rarely slept well.

Sally’s dramatic spiritual make-over for her job began with setting her alarm five minutes earlier. That gave her time to re-orient herself from the world of sleep to the world of action. For a moment, she stretched luxuriously. Slowly and consciously, she moved to a sitting position. Then, she meditated just a bit on, “In the morning I set my good purpose.” Next, she took a moment to listen to the birds outside and to enjoy her garden.

Sally soon learned that taking time for herself in the morning made her more efficient. Affirming a purpose that included service to self and others helped her center herself in spirit rather than be fragmented by stress. The more she took time to re-connect to spirit throughout the day, the better she could deal with workplace hassles, including a nitpicking and demanding boss. After work, she had a richer and more relaxed life, including better sleep.

Any Job Can Be More Meaningful and Less Stressful, Even if You Now Dislike the Job

Don’t fall for the common myth that the only satisfying jobs are the ones that pay you well for doing tasks you love, among people who appreciate your skills, etc. How you approach any job (paid or unpaid) profoundly impacts your satisfaction and stress or energy level. With spirit, you always have the power to re-frame how you see the job from your equivalent of “I hate this and I dread doing it,” to your equivalent of “I gratefully accept the wisdom of spirit to help me do the best for myself and others right here, right now.”

The results of prayer can at first seem mystifying. Many years ago, I had to type a labor official’s letters on a typewriter that had no correcting function. Since he didn’t want me to correct what I — an English major graduate from one of the best colleges in the country, thank you! — knew were grammar errors, this required a lot of careful attention on my part.

You can imagine how easy it was to write a mental dissertation on the unfairness of a world where brilliant me had to work for an idiot like him. You may also appreciate how easy it was to heap on other feelings and assumptions, like how doomed and unappreciated I was, and how I couldn’t possibly ever develop the typing skills to do what he demanded, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Then I heard that clear, quiet inner voice that has always told me the truth. “Thy will be done applies here, too, Pat.”

Of course I fought the voice. Big time and in ways that could make a long, amusing story. The sound bite version is that when I finally heeded this voice, I realized that even I didn’t like myself when I focused on thinking how much better I was than my boss. I saw that, even with poor grammar, he was doing a great job of communicating with his union constituency.

Instead of feeling doomed or frustrated, I felt grateful and hopeful. I rediscovered how much I wanted a job that better suited my talents and dreams, and I found a bit more clarity about my calling and more courage to go for it. Instead of turning off potential employers with arrogance or low self esteem, I became more attractive to them.

Even today, that job reminds me about the joy of service. As a writer, I’m still aware that when my typing skills go awry, it’s a good idea to re-pray, “Thy will be done applies here, too, Pat.” Usually, “Thy will” begins with a message to come off whatever high horse or delusion I’m riding at the moment and to meet current reality with humility, hope and the willingness to do the best I can with what I have.

What’s your story?

How can you make more time and receptivity to reconnect with spirit, as Sally did?

What’s your inner truth’s equivalent of “Thy will be done applies here, too?”

What happens when you hear your inner truth and heed its message?

As always, many blessings and please add your comments by clicking on the teeny word “comments” below. And come back real soon!

Pat McHenry Sullivan

The older I get, the more grateful I am for people whose individual choices have led to widespread movements of hope and creativity today.

Much spiritual wisdom today comes from how people dealt with war, racism and other pain decades ago.

In July 1942 when I was born, the world was at war. Now many who went through the worst of that war are guiding us to a more peaceful and meaningful humanity, like Auschwitz survivor and Nobel peace prize winner Elie Weisel and Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor and peace activist Takashi Tanemori.

In 1950, I was just discovering the ugliness of racism. Then in 1952, photos of Albert Schweitzer getting a Nobel peace prize for his “Reverence for Life” philosophy and free service as a doctor in Africa provided many pictures of the humanity and dignity of black people. In 1955, Emmett Till’s mama had the courage to expose the wrong done to her murdered son, whose only crime was allegedly daring to whistle at a white woman. Rosa Parks’ memory of Emmett Till’s death helped her gain the courage not to move to the back of the bus later that year, which launched the Birmingham, Alabama bus boycott that helped Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders move forward.

Racism may not be gone in the South or anywhere else, but today I can smile freely at a black man without causing him trouble. Today the playing field for jobs, housing and even the White House is becoming more level every day.

In the 50′s, the public was obsessed with technology and big cars, fueled by cheap gas. Rachel Carson’s publication in 1962 of Silent Spring, dedicated only to Albert Schweitzer, sparked the environmental movement.

Today there is a growing recognition of our interdependence not just with other humans but also with animals, plants, the water, and the air.

In 1964, when I graduated from college, spirituality was rarely discussed in the context of work. Today, “work” increasingly includes ways to integrate spirituality and creativity into all work — paid or unpaid. Money itself recently has come openly to the spirit and work table, bringing with it a call to create an economy that works well for all of us — in body, mind and soul.

These are just a few of the sweeping movements that began with one or more committed people who chose to meet a challenge with love and courage, then work with others until gradually ideas that once seemed radical have become the norm.

If I had to pick one person whose spiritually-based work is most relevant to our crises today, it’s Viktor Frankl.

He turned his concentration camp experiences in World War II into a psychological laboratory on the nature and power of meaning in human lives. Here are just a few of his tips: 

• Whatever our situation, we always can choose how we meet the situation.
• Despair is suffering without meaning. The moment you see meaning in your suffering, you can see how to turn tragedies into personal triumph
• You can’t find happiness by making it a target. Happiness in the form of love, laughter, even orgasm, installs itself by itself when you are engaged in life.

Frankl quotes Jesus’ contemporary Rabbi Hillel (30 BS-9 AD), who is often reported to have said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?” Frankl notes that we all have a task or mission, to be done just by us and no one else. “If I am not doing it, who will do it?” If we were immortal, we could postpone this mission. But since we are mortals who are designed to care about more than just discharging tension or satisfying our egos, then our fundamental reality is, “If I am not doing it right now, when shall I do it? If I am doing it only for my own sake, what am I?”

Right now, many of us are hurting spiritually, physically and economically. Many of us hurt from not knowing our work or seeing the means to do it. Fortunately, we’ve got lots of role models who can show us that in healing ourselves, we can help heal others, and vice versa.

What work calls you now, spiritually, economically or otherwise? What can you learn from these role models to take at least one step along your own best path?

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Right now, people I know are really hurting financially. Here are some examples, all with changed names.

After two years, Joan and David finally sold their house in the town where they used to live, so they could pay expenses in a new location that works better for the family, but they lost a lot on the transaction. To qualify for a mortgage again, they will need to create a bigger down payment and larger reserve fund than they ever imagined.

Jake’s carefully planned retirement is falling apart. His new part-time employer went into bankruptcy. The value of his 401k has dropped drastically.  A widower with grown children, Jake can’t sell the big house he doesn’t need and buy something smaller, more affordable and nearer the grandchildren.

Louisa hasn’t found a job in spite of a great track record and a year of almost full-time, creative job-hunting. Like many late-life job-hunters, Louisa also faces the challenge of having most of her experience in a dying industry.

Tom’s successful business is in danger of failing in spite of cost-cutting and voluntary cutbacks of hours and benefits by all staff. If Tom fails, there go the jobs of 22 people, all of whom Tom knows and respects, and none of who can afford to be without a job.

Of all these people, only Joan and David have health insurance at a rate they can afford.

Both assessing current reality and visioning a richer one require a lot of faith, self-respect and other gifts that can easily become battered by financial and other challenges. Plus, the world is filled with a lot of temptations to give up, hang out with pessimists, deny pain, and/or base your plan of action on such theories as “someone needs to rescue me.”

The process of focusing and building visions for life and work has been so fascinating to me that I made it the focus of a master’s degree in 1998. Only over the past few years, however, have I really appreciated the concept of current reality, though I had learned it in a workshop in the mid-1980s designed by Robert Fritz, author of The Path of Least Resistance, Creating, Your Life as Art, and other great books.

Current reality affirms that while certain things never change, like all of us are born and all of us die, reality is always changing. E.g., once I had decades to build a secure retirement, now my retirement-income building window is narrowing fast. Once my vision for what is possible was limited by fear or lack of experience; now it is sharper and richer, based in fewer illusions and increased experience.

Changing reality brings new opportunities as well as new challenges. Creativity loves the fertile ground of challenge. People coming together in common need and caring can be enormously resourceful. Out of new needs and new inventions come new jobs and new markets.

So here’s the big challenge for all of us: to dare to dream, individually and as a whole, long before we have any idea how to manifest the dream. Here are a few capsules of current reality in contrast to a vision. Note that each vision has some nice, juicy details to give your creative mind something to play and work with.

Right now, I am out of work. I’m running out of money, and it’s hard to find the energy to look for a job when sometimes, all I want to do is crawl into bed with the covers up over my head. I envision the day when I say thank you to all the people who have helped me find satisfying new work. I imagine the joy of working in a new job where I am treated with respect as I do tasks that stretch my skills and use my experience purposefully.

Right now, I am bankrupt or near bankruptcy. The only assets I recognize are my skills, my compassion, my track record of resiliency, and the willingness to do whatever I can do to improve my situation. As I recognize more and more gifts in myself, I also discover more internal gifts and worldly allies. I envision myself on my feet again financially. I see my heart more open, my creativity more courageous.

Right now, I earn sufficient income, but at the expense of my personal and family life and sometimes in opposition to my values. Sometimes I am so exhausted at the end of the day that I don’t sleep well and I almost never have a full day off. I envision earning sufficient income with deep integrity. I see myself having time and energy for personal and family life. I envision helping my children develop better values about money. I envision having time and energy to mentor at-risk youth.

Hopefully this helps you to continue to enrich and hone your vision for a better financial future. Keep playing with it, and feel free to share what you are discovering here or elsewhere.

Again, a blessing to edit if you wish: May I see more clearly current reality: warts, gifts, faults, challenges and all. May I be again like a child, awestruck by the wonder of the universe, including my own imagination and other visionary potentials.

Come back real soon with your own insights and inspiration, Pat McHenry Sullivan