JOSEPH GELFER

You may remember last month I posted some eschatological graffiti. One of the things I like about graffiti is it can provide an element of serendipity which I find is on the decline the less I browse print publications, consuming instead information online. In the 2012 worldview, such serendipitous discoveries are considered synchronicities, the bleeding through of the psychic and physical realms that indicate the imminent Consciousness Shift.

So how about this. Last week I had a particularly vivid dream in which I was walking across a bridge that spanned the Maribyrnong River. Passing under the bridge on a barge and splattered in blue paint was Kurt from Glee. Go figure.

Here’s where the stars start to align. While I had never before walked across a bridge that spanned the Maribyrnong River, this morning I found myself doing exactly that. And as I disembarked the bridge and walked under it, what did I see stencilled on its supporting pillars? Not Kurt from Glee, but Kurt Cobain:

This is sufficiently synchronistic to be a clear message from the universe that I am to play a significant role in the unfolding 2012 narrative.

And it gets spookier still. Just as I went to Kurt-from-Glee’s Wikipedia page to source a link, I discover that in the image used of him there he is wearing clothing that appears to be splattered with blue paint:

OMG: let the Messianic Turn begin! I should start giving darshan immediately, and will begin with renaming my house Temple of the Western Light. With the Dalai Lama now becoming a judge on MasterChef (seriously!) there is a clear need for sincere spiritual leadership, not just in Melbourne’s western suburbs, but beyond.

The Dalai Lama is giving public teachings in Melbourne.

His Holiness says “You and I may hold different beliefs – about the universe, about reality, about religion. And even within a belief, within a faith tradition, for instance, there are all sorts of differences between people. But such differences in belief, just like differences in experience, are minor compared to our common humanity.”

I can’t help but articulate my differences in experience when I read that, “within an intimate environment created at the Melbourne Convention Centre the Teachings are accessible to all.” Here’s the “intimate environment”:

And here are the early bird prices that make it “accessible to all”:

• Platinum  $721
• A Reserve  $408
• B Reserve  $289
• C Reserve  $192

The organisers claim the tiered pricing “will assist all to attend”: differences in experience, minor compared to our common humanity…

It wasn’t that many years ago that I was quite happy with the word “spirituality”: I even put it in the title of the journal I founded, Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality. But every month that goes past makes me less and less comfortable with it; with every month that goes past its meaning shifts, its value haemorrhaging.

When spirituality is taught in the university, its current manifestation is described as the “subjective turn” where folks turn away from external sources of authority and values towards themselves. This is not necessarily a bad thing if those subjective and individual values are more useful than the external and cultural values left behind. However, more often than not, what defines contemporary spirituality is not the “subjective turn” but the “corporate turn,” where spirituality is reduced to a range of products and services sold to an unwitting audience who believe their purchases enable their spiritual development. I have written about this in the article Lohas and the Indigo Dollar: Growing the Spiritual Economy, and would also recommend reading Jeremy Carrette and Richard King’s book Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion for further discussion on this topic.

One excellent example of this trend comes in the recent edition of the Watkins Review and their 100 Spiritual Power List, the top ten of which comprises:

1. Eckhart Tolle
2. Dalai Lama
3. Wayne W. Dyer
4. Thich Nhat Hanh
5. Deepak Chopra
6. Louise L. Hay
7. Paulo Coelho
8. Oprah Winfrey
9. Ken Wilber
10. Rhonda Byrne

The striking commonality across the 100 on the list is their ability to shift product. If these people really are significant in the spiritual development of sentient life on Earth we are in woeful trouble. There are a number of people on the list I have written about in the past who are problematic, to say the least. There are also those I have witnessed at work in the flesh, and even one or two I know in person: it is not an encouraging list.

Of course, people will say “ah, but this about those people recognised in the public domain, not necessarily those who are most representative of ‘genuine’ spirituality.” But this only consolidates the bankrupt nature of the common understanding of the word: equating air time and sales with spiritual significance, influence and “power” (which itself is a troubling word in the context of the spiritual).

As is often the case, I end up sounding a bit Richard Dawkins, as if there is something inherently corrupt and deceitful about the spiritual, which is not (should not) be the case. I am firmly supportive of spiritual worldviews, but no longer of the word “spirituality.”

The time has come for anyone interested in meaningful conversations about what is loosely described as “spirituality” to abandon the term and seek a new vocabulary that is not tainted by the seemingly inescapable co-opting power of sales and marketing. This may sound like an impossible task, but remember it wasn’t that long ago (20 years?) that people referred more to the word “mysticism,” and this was largely supplanted by “spirituality.”

If we want to rescue “spirituality” we need to evolve our language and meaning faster than the co-opting habits of financially-minded and “power” individuals: these grubby people tend to be surprisingly limited in imagination, so I suspect it may not be as difficult as it sounds.

Recently, the Dalai Lama keeps making an appearance in my thoughts. Just before Christmas I saw him at the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Last week I was listening to some macho James Ray talk about injectable DMT and guzzling large jugs of ayahuasca, when he referred to the Dalai Lama as the “Big DL”, which made me chuckle given its double entendre. And today we read of the DL meeting Obama. Way before I got in to writing seriously, in those days when I used to do things just for fun rather than something to write about and critique, I saw the DL in his hometown of Dharamsala. Here are the notes from 1998:

After we had been in Dharamsala for a couple of weeks, we discovered we were lucky enough to be in town when the Dalai Lama was due to give a week of public lectures. When the security office opened to release passes there was a mad rush of queues and people trying to get photos taken for their pass. In a moment of pure spiritual tourism one Chilean – I saw his passport – took out his Osho community membership card and cut out the photo for his security pass to see the Dalai Lama. Osho had been pipped at the post.

Everyone was most excited when the day of the first lecture came around. People began queuing early at the gates of the Tsuglagkhang, the Dalai Lama’s temple, hoping for a good spot to place their cushions. Just before the main man was due to make an appearance, a ripple of excitement passed through the third of the outdoor temple reserved for Westerners. At first I thought the show might be beginning early but, as I turned around to see what was happening, I did not see the famous little man I was expecting, but another. There, dressed all in black with Indiana Jones-style glasses and a nap-sack was Richard Gere.

Gere had with him a painfully thin and beautiful assistant who was also dressed in black. In that moment, were the Dalai Lama to have come out, I am not sure who out of the two would have received the most adoration from the Western women present. Gere weaved his way to the front of the temple, for he had a comfy cushion securing his spot in advance, and took his position with open notebook. During that week Gere turned up each day looking progressively more rugged and pious as his grey beard began to grow. What a saint.

That was in a simpler world, when film stars and the DL in India seemed innocently amusing, rather than yet another tired example of glossy magazine-style spirituality. It was also pre-Web 2.0. If I was there in my early 20s now, I’d probably tweet it on the spot:

OMG in India at the DL’s monastery: Richard Gere here looking holy LOL!