People of faith have traditionally used certain disciplines and practices to help keep them spiritually aware and help keep God a prime focus of their life. Disciplines cannot make a person holy. They can heighten one's awareness of God by removing awareness barriers. A spiritual discipline is, when practiced faithfully and regularly, a habit or regular pattern in life that repeatedly brings one back to an awareness of God.
No discipline gives us even the briefest moment of escape from our humanness. No discipline can make us more valuable as persons. Disciplines and practices are aids that allow us to explore our relationship with the Mystery.
The Spiritual Disciplines are a personal and spiritual reality, and the practitioner's attitude is far more crucial than the mechanics for experiencing the spiritual part of life.
Spiritual practices can be sound and helpful, but they can become the home of superstition and misuse, too. Devotional practices exist only to help one direct oneself toward God. They have no innate power themselves.
Some traditional forms of spiritual discipline include:
Solitude is the practice of being absent from other people and other things so that one can be aware of God. In solitude, we learn to "wait on the Lord." Solitude teaches us to "hear the voice of God", since we are cut off from the hundreds of other voices that call out to us from our usual company. Often, we avoid solitude because it reveals our inner turmoil. On the other hand, inner turmoil may enable us, or even push us to experience the Calmness.
Silence is the practice of quieting every voice, including our own inner and outer voices. Silence also means excusing ourselves from the voices of others. Our silence forces us to listen, to feel and to experience all of reality in a different way, with attention to the Spirit.
The primary purpose of this practice is for focusing on God. The pangs of hunger may serve as reminders to remain focused. We will be more aware of our own human condition. We will be more aware of the needs of others. One reason for practicing spiritual disciplines is to eliminate the things that keep us from experiencing Reality. Fasting may reveal physical things that control us. It may allow us a glimpse into the lives of the starving. It may reveal our utter dependence on our world and on others. All of this may lead to a deeper understanding of our relationship with the Cosmos.
The practice of frugality is about removing our desire for status, glamour, and luxury. It is primarily concerned with our attitudes toward money or goods or food. Practicing frugality means that we reject the notion that we need excessive material things to make our lives fulfilled. We practice frugality so that more of our resources may be devoted to our spiritual quest. Frugality is the painful path that reminds us of how selfish and materialistic we have become. We need to practice frugality because we live in a culture of waste. We need to practice frugality because we live in a world where a billion people survive on less than a dollar a day. Frugality is about investment of time, of money, of thought, and of energy. Frugality reminds us that we share our world with other beings who may also be seeking God.
When we exercise the discipline of secrecy, we may examine the motivations for our actions. We experience a spiritual relationship with the Eternal simply because we exist. The discipline of secrecy allows us to experience this truth. In practicing secrecy, we may discover that our value does not lie in the conditional admiration of people. We should not practice the discipline of secrecy for the sake of secrecy, but to free us from the need for human approval. Secrecy frees us to love others freely, not just so they love us back. We love out of the infinite reserve of love we receive from our Love.
We practice sacrifice to give up our self-security and find security in the Provider. Sacrifice is not the same as frugality. The practice of sacrifice is giving up the security of meeting our own needs with our own resources. This discipline makes it necessary for us to examine the source of our security and encourages us to find security somewhere other than our own resources and relationships.
The discipline of study is important because it is through study that we discover the truth. In study, we seek to understand the way things are so we can respond appropriately. Since study is being considered here as a spiritual discipline, the practitioner may favor spiritually oriented material. However, truth can be found in science, literature, the arts and other less traditionally spiritual fields. One should always begin and end a study session by remembering how the study ultimately relates to the Wise One.
We undertake prayer as a spiritual discipline, that is, to enable ourselves to attain the single-mindedness necessary to attend to the God-Who-is-Present. It is also vital for us to understand that prayer, just as every other discipline, is a learning process. In this discipline, we dedicate some regular time to express to the Listener our deepest concerns and greatest joys. We converse with Wisdom, listening for direction. It is the action before the action.
Bracketing is the act of setting oneself and one's opinions to the side, temporarily. Bracketing allows the practitioner to hear the comments of others in an unbiased form. It is especially useful in conjunction with study, and prayer. Use bracketing when dealing with an opinion that is contrary to your own.
Service is not merely a spiritual discipline, but also a way of orienting one's entire life. However, practicing service as a discipline will help in directing that orientation. The discipline of service may free us from resentment, from the need to be in control. We choose to make ourselves available, and in doing that we make ourselves vulnerable. We may be taken advantage of, but we do so willingly. The discipline of service may free us from arrogance.
Worship is the engagement of one's entire being with the greatness of the God Who Is. Worship involves listening, looking, tasting, feeling, and smelling. Worship is our response to who God is. As a spiritual discipline, we look for ways to make ourselves resonate with the Great Spirit.
The life of the Christian is a life of joy. We celebrate, even in our suffering, because we know that Joy is with us. Henri Nouwen writes, "Joy and laughter are the gifts of living in the presence of God and trusting that tomorrow is not worth worrying about." God is good and the life He gives us is good. There is beauty to celebrate. There is love to celebrate. There is a wonderful future to celebrate. Celebrations as an expression of our relationship with Peace are wonderful.
We can practice fellowship as a discipline by gathering a small group of fellow believers who can minister love, comfort, joy, encouragement, accountability, and reconciliation to each other. The life of faith is not an individual affair. Another way to practice this discipline is to include those who are unable to participate in community on their own.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Our brother has been given to help us. He hears the confession of our sins in Christ's stead and he forgives our sins in Christ's name. He keeps the secret of our confession as God keeps it. When I go to my brother to confess, I am going to God.". Through the discipline of confession we acknowledge the fact that we cannot hide our sin. We acknowledge that our sin is offensive to the Forgiver.
The discipline of a pilgrimage is to travel with the intent of deepening one's spiritual awareness. Often, a pilgrim will travel to a place of special spiritual significance. It offers the opportunity to separate from one's ordinary life and engage in an imaginary encounter with another life. Pilgrimages are not spiritual disciplines in the full sense because they are limited in time.
Retreats are also limited in time. Their intent is much the same as other spiritual disciplines. They provide a way for the participant to engage with the Spirit and others in a directed way. Usually retreats are held in an environment where the normal activities of life can be suspended for a moment and other realities can be experienced more fully.
Devotional singing, and other music making activities, when performed with the idea of expanding our bond with the Singer, provides a technique for experiencing the God of Beauty in a profound way. Group singing, such as in a choir, can provide a model for the Christian life. Treating participation in Choir as a spiritual discipline may open unexpected avenues to engage the Spirit.
The discipline of journaling consists of regular writing. The topics of journaling are unlimited. The goal is the same: to ponder the Mystery. Many who practice journaling keep their journal secret but secrecy is not necessary. Journaling forces the practitioner to organize their ideas before writing them. As always, the goal is to use this activity to ponder the Unponderable.