Eastern/Activistic
Pastor Noel Anderson, First Presbyterian Church of Upland
BE STILL
No spirituality is more intensely inward than Eastern spirituality, and none is so outwardly-focused as is Activistic spirituality. They contrast not only in focus—inward/outward—but also by the role of the ego. In Eastern spirituality, the ego is to be reduced—even eliminated—but Activistic spirituality requires passion, and therefore strong egos.
Eastern spirituality is introspective and ascetic, shunning the ways and things of the world. When Jesus says, “consider the lilies” and “do not worry about what you will eat or wear,” he points us toward a holy kind of detachment. Holy detachment is the practice of separating our hearts from the things of this world—material goods, worries, fears, anxieties, lusts, and envies—so that we would find our good in God alone.
The process for divesting oneself from this world is meditation—for the Christian, it is prayer.
“Be still, and know that I am God,” says the Psalm. Quiet yourself. Remove yourself from the noise and anxiety that makes up this world. Here we have some overlap with monasticism, for sure, but Eastern spirituality is distinguished by its ultimate aims, the cessation of desire, and the destruction of the ego.
THE PROBLEM OF EGO
Eastern spirituality sees the ego as a problem, and who can say it isn’t? Isn’t the ego the source of the majority of sin? Obviously yes. According to the leaders in Eastern spirituality—which can be found in the Greek philosophers every bit as much as in Buddha—the path is to eliminate desire, because desire makes the ego miserable. Meditation trains one in the cessation of desire. [Buddha quote]
Eliminate all the desires of your heart and you become free from suffering. Try this on your favorite teenager sometime. “You’re suffering because you can’t have the new iPhone 13? Well, eliminate that desire and think of how happy you’ll be!”
Christians can benefit from meditation—especially that kind of meditation that leads to holy abandonment. We should seek our soul’s satisfaction no place other than in Christ. It is right and good that we should prune off the attachments to possession and anxious desires that drive us so much of the time.
The ego wants what it wants. Christians should be able to think and act beyond the hungers and gratifications of the ego.
EGO ANNIHILATION
Eastern spirituality, in its most serious incarnations, goes further than that. It’s not enough to merely tame one’s ego, but the ego must be destroyed, annihilated.
The total cessation of desire leaves one empty, and that emptiness or nothingness is seen as a high good with which the enlightened soul must become one.
As one Maharishi puts it:
The more you prune a plant, the more it grows. So too, the more you seek to annihilate the ego, the more it will increase. You should seek the root of the ego and destroy it.
This is ego-cide—the destruction of the ego. We hear something similar in the New Testament about baptism, in which we die to the self and rise to Christ. Our text from Ephesians says it: we are to put aside the old self—being crucified with Christ, we put the self to death.
But Christianity does not end it there. We don’t believe in the destruction of the ego but rather the baptism of the ego. In Christianity, the ego dies to self-service so that it can rise to the service of Christ. The baptized ego is good and blessed, not a problem to be solved.
ACTIVISM
Whereas the Eastern spirituality focuses on the cessation of desire and minimization of the ego, activism is built on passion—strong egos boldly willing to take a stand for what matters.
The problem with Christians too-heavily steeped in eastern spirituality is that they don’t get much done. Now I’m thinking of pastors, here, but it’s a luxury to be able to sit and stare out of the window all day like a spayed cat, and it may make one centered and even enlightened, but where then is the mission?
The Apostle Paul is about as non-eastern and activistic as one can get. He was a head-strong workaholic. He knew what had to be done and didn’t easily compromise with other colleagues, including Peter and James—who were part of Jesus’ inner circle and who led the Jerusalem church.
Without some degree of ego strength, there is no passion. Without passion, things do not get done. Paul had bridges to build, congregations to plant, and clear plans to execute for the spread of the gospel. Paul only relaxed when imprisoned.
I can imagine one of Paul’s brothers saying to him, “Brother, take a break! Go on a retreat, have a sabbatical—spend time in quiet prayer and reflection—you need to this; we all do.” And I can imagine Paul’s reply: “Sure, I’ll meditate—next time I’m thrown into jail—in the meantime, and I say this with love, either help me get on with this mission or go meditate someplace by yourself.”
Activism, at its best, is positive and goal-oriented. At its worst, it is mob behavior. And the thing that turns activism from positive to negative is sin—usually pride or greed—or both.
At its best, activism is virtuous both in its goals and execution of its program. Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr were practitioners of passive resistance, which is peaceable non-compliance as a form of protest. It is nonviolent and noble.
In King’s case, passive resistance reveals its spirituality, for it is decidedly Christian in character. The path of the cross is to bear violence, not produce violence or encourage it. The cross was terribly violent, but Jesus absorbed the blows; he did not act in violence, nor did he allow his disciples to do so.
Christian activism will always bear the marks of Christ: peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and love. Similarly, demonic activism can be known by its fruits as well.
PRIDE RUINS EVERYTHING
The problem, of course, is sin. In time, most good movements get ruined by it. In the beginning, every movement believes its own application of justice is the correct one. “We have the solution” is the common core of its followers. It is also the beginning of the end.
With confidence and conviction, a movement develops a kind of collective egotism. Pride and identity become central, even to the point that the original goals are forgotten, and the movement becomes nothing more than a celebration of itself. It begins with pride and pridefulness and then goes on to greed (which, in the eyes of the activists, is justified), and from there, it becomes willing to wage war. The arguments are oversimplified, the opposition is demonized, and dialogue becomes impossible. This is the shadow side of activism, and Christians need to be salt and light within any movement so that these things do not take over.
As Yoda says in Star Wars, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.”Yoda brings wisdom from eastern spirituality to the heroic activist Luke Skywalker in another clip. [Clip]
Luke: “But how am I to know the good side from the bad?”
Yoda: “You will know when you are calm, at peace—passive.”
Calm? At peace? Passive? Aren’t these opposite to activism? Is this how we train soldiers? No, but they do point us to activism of the right kind. Faithful activism is not necessarily social justice, but it is biblical justice, and there are times when these do overlap.
BIBLICAL JUSTICE
Biblical justice speaks for the voiceless, as we read in Proverbs 31. In Scripture, the common idiom for the poor and the oppressed is “the widow and the orphan.” Widows and orphans in ancient Palestine were those with no visible means of support.
Their only hope is in the supply God has given to others. The Bible is clear: God expects us to bless and care for the poor. If I have two meals and you have none, God expects me to share one with you. If you have two meals and I have none, God will not justify your keeping both to yourself, nor will he justify my forcibly taking one away from you.
Biblical justice grows from peace—God’s shalom—and where there is no peace, there will be no justice.
EASTERN/ACTIVIST TABLE
Finally, as we approach the table of Christ, we acknowledge that in Jesus we see the best of all spiritualities. In Christ they come together into a single heart.
Andrew Harvey is a Buddhist Brit living in Chicago who writes about what he calls, “Sacred Activism.” Specifically, “Sacred Activism is the fusion of the mystic’s passion for God with the activist’s passion for justice, creating a third fire, which is the burning sacred heart that longs to help, preserve, and nurture every living thing.”
As we come to the table we practice Eastern spirituality through holy abandonment. We detach ourselves from every other table that would feed us, and from all the noise of the world which would try to tell us who we are what we are worth. We come to the table remembering that in baptism we have died to the self to be made one with Christ.
This table is activism as well, for in taking the bread and cup we identify ourselves with the Jesus movement—a most radical and even violent revolution in which Jesus took the hatred of the world upon himself. He took on all the fear, phobia, violence, and injustice into his own flesh. As we eat and drink, we stand up as activists in that same ongoing revolution. We are fed for our participation in biblical justice and the irrepressible proclamation of the good news of God’s love in the person of Jesus Christ. †
Following Up:
- Western culture is steeped in noise and chattering distractions. TRY THIS: Set aside 30-40 minutes each day for a period of time—a week or a month—and commit yourself to silence. That means no reading, no headphones, no journaling—just silent meditation. It’s impossible not to pray.
- Eastern Spirituality removes us from the noise and distractions, which we need to do so that we don’t confuse ourselves with the noise. “Centering prayer” is a kind of meditation whereby we detach ourselves from the stuff, the things, the obligations, and the anxieties that make up any day. It is here we find peace, gentleness, and the calm responses that are superior to our natural reactions. Such prayer enables us to live deliberately and with self-control.
- Christian Activism issues from peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faith, hope, and love. Re-imagine every kind of activism we see in the world re-framed by these qualities.
- How is ego a curse? For what is it necessary? How is a Christian to regard the ego?
- The sin of sloth is the refusal to participate—being a spectator when you should be an active helper. Can you think of times you have hesitated to act or neglected opportunities to make a difference in helping others?
- Activism is a response to God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Can you articulate that connection from Christ to acts of biblical justice?
- Where does Biblical Justice intersect with popular, “social justice”? Where and how does it differ and depart?
- How can pride ruin any decent movement toward justice?
- When we’re not sure whether or not we’re doing the right thing, what resources can direct our hearts and minds?
- Confidence and conviction can be expressed through either peace or aggression. How does a calm and peaceable confidence look different from an aggressive one. Which emotions dominate in each case?
- Many activists have come to justify violence in support of their movement. History is chock-full of leaders doing so. Are there conceivable times when Christians should legitimize violent action?
- The cross of Christ was a bloody and violent revolution that changed the world. How does Christ’s “violence” differ from that of most revolutionaries?
- How ought Christians to adapt Christ’s path and pattern in their activism?