In our last post 'Relational Spirituality (Part 1) we explored the fundamental importance of relationships in our lives and the ways in which these relationships rest at the core of what it is to be human, to grow, change and to evolve. This importantly was not a reference to collectivism but rather an understanding that a raidient, healthy and unique individuality always exists within a relational field and the quality and nature of this relational field influences not only the development of the individual but also the development of the whole.

Additionally We also highlighted that the common state of pathological individualism, competition and social isolation that is perpetuated by our present western culture is profoundly at odds to the esssential and natural attunment to the relational field that we hold as human beings, and that this seperation from the true self and the other is responsible for much social, emotional and psychological disturbance.

So what does this have to do with spirituality? Well the question can be asked 'in what ways has the nature and form of a pervasive individualistic culture infulenced modern spirituality'?, and where is the relational in modern concepts of spiritual development. In His articles 'Paradise Unbound', and 'The Belief in Others as a Hindrance to Enlightenment' (2010), Dr Greg Lahood writes about the ways in which modern perenialism, non-duality and the new age which have evolved within the culture outlined above, have developed a focus primarily on individual states of consciousness and transendence of the self, and that from this have developed into a sprituality that has become in many ways narssasistic, intolerant; often seeing others as an obstical to development, and evasive of the opportunities that exist for spiritual development in the I - thou, relational field. These concepts of a developmental and hierarchical spirituality while valuable can often appear to be a path that focuses on the transcendent experience of the individual to the exclusion of mutuality and sharing.

While it can be understood that a deep enough exploration of individual trancedence can lead to an opening to the relational field through compassion and a softening of the ridged boundaries of the 'false self' we also risk in this process a common spiritual road block that of hubris, and arrogance i.e. the idea that you have found the truth and that through internal self development you some how can change the plight of the world. While there may be some truth in this it also risks a passive spirituality which accepts others pain as their karmic burdens and percieves peoples experience of social oppression as some how due to their lack of evolution, or so we would accept if we are to believe what we are told in Newage candy spirituality such as 'the secret'.

As an alternative or parallel approach it has been proposed that we could see our relationships as a primary mode of spiritual development and, as is stated below by Hartelius & Harrahy 2011:

'emphasize the dynamics of embodied interconnectedness more than those of singular

transcendence. From this perspective spirituality is also a relational development, one that transcends ego not by going up into higher states but outward into the self-

forgetful engagement of compassion, altruism, service, and the practice and promotion of justice.'

To see growth and deepening in our relationships with others as not only a by product of spiritual development but as a parallel mode of transformation in and of itself, opens up new possibilities for transformation and social change, it highlights the value of what Andrew Harvey has called 'spiritual activism' and a recognition of spirituality being something that is not only practiced on a mountain top, but something that is practiced in our day to day efforts to relate, to value and to be in the relational field immediatly around us, and the communities that we are charged to serve. In the words of Martin Buber in his book 'I & Thou' (1937):

"When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them."

References

Buber, M(2010)., I & Thou, Simon & Schuster Publishing, New York.

Hartelius, G & Harrahy, M; (2010)International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 29

(1), 2010, pp. 17-19.

Harvey, A(2009), The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism; Hay House Publishing, New York City.

Lahood, G. (2007). The participatory turn and the transpersonal movement: A brief introduction.

ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transforma­tion,29 (3), 2–6.

Lahood, G. (2008). Paradise bound: A perennial philosophy or an unseen process of cosmological

hybridization. Anthropology of Consciousness,19 (2),

1- 57.