Prompted by the time of year and some recent conversations, I thought I might try to address the somewhat contentious issue of spirituality. What exactly do we mean when we say something is “Spiritual?” Is it paranormal, sacred, occult, or exclusively religious? Or is there another way to approach the subject?

Several years ago, I found a quote in one of Ken Wilber’s works that referred to spirituality as “one’s ultimate concern.” I responded almost instantly with affirmation when I read this, as it seemed to encompass the elements I also advocated. To my surprise, Wilber went on to introduce three complementary aspects of “ultimate concern”: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. These are not terms of his own; they are borrowed from the Greek philosopher Plato. Wilber does, however, give them a very interesting interpretation.

We respond to the Beautiful with awe and wonder. Scenes of natural splendour and artistic masterpieces suspend our thought, and cause us to pause, entranced. The Beautiful is not only our inner sense of what is aesthetically compelling, but also of what constitutes moral rectitude. Beauty of spirit, then, on a personal level, is a balanced, integrated and harmonious whole; an individual whose words and deeds reflect the distillation of wisdom, reverence, and compassion.

The True is our outer domain, and to me is best represented by science in its essential form. Mathematical and physical principles that help us make sense of our external environment are also part of the True nature of spirituality. Hence, at the deepest level, there is no schism between “art’ and “science”, or religion for that matter. These are simply different lenses through which we are able to look. I read recently of a math teacher who put Pythagoras’ theorem on his blackboard, then underneath it wrote the famous quote from John Keats’ poem “ Ode on a Grecian Urn:”
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"---that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
What a brilliant summation of the two perspectives! This teacher saw that the Truth of science and the Beauty of art are two aspects of the same thing, approached either from the outside or the inside.

As we are individual, so are we collective. No one denies that we are the results of the societies and environments that determine us, and conversely we can influence those collectives by words and deeds. The Good is who we are viewed from the collective. Everything from the tenets of social intercourse, to the systems we develop to ensure justice, to our engagement in social comity, to our economic and political systems all contribute to our sense of the collective Good. The extents to which our societies are inclusive, just, and peaceful are the measure of the degree to which they incorporate the elements of the Good.

Our practice at the Tai Chi and Meditation Centre is to pursue and refine these aspects of ourselves. The triumvirate of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful correspond to the Chinese “Three Treasures,” and address the summation of ourselves as individuals and as a collective. Martial arts develop our outer, corporal element- the True. Meditation and Qi Gong turn the focus more inward- the Beautiful. Finally, we commit ourselves to our practice in the company of other like-minded folk in order to establish a harmonious community- the Good. The historical Buddha proposed a very similar three-part discipline with his canon of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Spirit is both immanent and transcendent. Of the transcendent we will say little here. Of the immanent, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are its manifestations. All admit of the possibility of a scale of values. All admit an endless progression of refinement toward the sublime. All are part of an attempt at a truly integrated view of spirituality.

Jeff Willis