It’s common in groups that I lead for people to raise the question about whether it’s OK to be doing spiritual reflection when there’s so much pain in the world. Is it responsible to be tending to the spirit these days, or is that just another form of oppressive privilege?
The tremendous privilege that most of us enjoy can feel really uncomfortable, when we see so many people broken by oppressive realities and systems. It can be tempting to suppress the uncomfortable feelings of advantage, and most people do.
The folks in my groups who are naming the discomfort are rightly onto the fact that it’s important to be aware of and learn from these uneasy feelings. How we hold them, and what we do with these feelings, is the key.
Much of the time, the feeling underneath these privilege ponderings is guilt. We feel guilty that we have so much, when so many have been given so little, or have been the victims of great injustices.
This guilt invites us into reflection about the unconscious ways we may perpetuate inequalities - this is really important reflection. And, if we have privilege that is the result of ill-gotten gain, then guilt is appropriate!
What isn’t helpful for ourselves or others is to allow guilt to disengage us from healthy spirituality, because we feel it is irresponsible. So what actually is helpful?
Along with the learnings that emerge as we process our guilt, there are two other “G” words that are important companions with our privilege: gratitude and generosity.
Gratitude enables us to hold our privilege as a platform for generosity. Gratitude is way that we honor the gifts that we have been given, and from that higher energy, we are able then to use our privilege for good.
In fact, as people of privilege and spiritual awareness, generosity is our responsibility. We are response-able to serve light and love in the world, in the way that our souls are called to do.
So, rather than having these uncomfortable stirrings leads us away from spiritual reflection, learning, and gathering, I believe they should lead us into these sacred spaces. And from there, we can be guided by Spirit to wisely use our privilege to better address the world’s pain.