A Spiritual Guide for Retirement

By George M. Brockway Ph.D.

This book is a "spiritual guide" and is not a self-help book but a self-discovery book. It's a book that helps you discover what you really believe about the spiritual. It uncovers and examines the beliefs underlying and supporting the two main views of the "spiritual" in our society, the secular humanist view, and the religious view. And in the process, it affords the reader a chance to reflect deeply on what they believe and on what it's all about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524613549

George M. Brockway Ph.D.

George M. Brockway, Ph.D. (Philosophy, Univ. of Wisconsin) Dr. Brockway spent many years in the classroom both here in the U.S. and in Switzerland, making Philosophy and other subjects come alive for his students. Initially trained as a Jesuit, he has read deeply in the classics and the Philosophy of Religion, especially, in recent years, in the area of Buddhist studies. Dr. Brockway also spent time in the private sector, first as an administrator of a medical clinic and then as a stock broker and investment consultant in the financial industry. He finished his professional career back in a university classroom teaching Comparative Religions, Logic and Philosophy. His broad experience and keen interest in teaching give his writing a very practical and down-to-earth bent.

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© 2016 George M. Brockway, Ph.D.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/23/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1355-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-1354-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016909471

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Front Cover Photo taken by Karin E. Ringheim

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Part I Context And Goal

Chapter 1 Now, You Do Have Time To Smell The Roses

1.1 enjoy, appreciate and relish the beautiful –

1.2 search for the truth –

1.3 do some good –

Chapter 2 On Becoming More Fully Human

Part II The Cosmology Of It

Chapter 3 Two Different Meanings Of ‘Spiritual’

Two basic meanings of ‘spiritual’:

the humanistic meaning, that which honors, nurtures and enjoys the distinctly human parts of us

and

the religious meaning, that which holds there is some transcendent reality, some non-physical reality, whether a soul or a God or an afterlife, or all three.

Chapter 4 The Secular Humanist ‘Spiritual’ And Its Assumptions Or Implications

The assumptions behind naturalism, both metaphysical and epistemological.

Chapter 5 The Religious Spiritual And Its Assumptions Or Implications

Using Buddhism as the referent (often, but not exclusively).

The assumptions behind the religious spiritual, both metaphysical and epistemological.

Part III From Cosmology To Compassion

Chapter 6 On Happiness

Isn’t the issue rather: are you happy? And how do you live and interact with others?

If either position on the ‘spiritual’ leads to the same actions or behaviors, does it make any difference which worldview one adopts?

And what is happiness?

That depends on what you think is valuable and good, what is worth having and worth seeking. In both

the non-moral realm … and

Chapter 7 The Moral Realm – How We Treat Others, How One Ought To Live.

How the religious spiritualist gets there (to how one ought to live).

Metaphysical grounds: all equally created by God and endowed …

Textual and obedience grounds: Love one another as …

How the secular humanist gets there (to how one ought to live).

Contractual and rational grounds. (Rawls & Dworkin)

But is this there the same?

At the initial level … . and at a subsequent level.

Chapter 8 Assumptions In The Realm Of Meaning And Value

But are these just wishful thinking on the part of the religious spiritual?

Chapter 9 The Complete Worldviews … And Their Assumptions

Each (the O/S H and the RS) holds a worldview, a theory or an explanatory framework, for understanding and comprehending what is the case, – for what is true about our lives and for how they fit or don’t into the universe.

And each explanatory framework has assumptions or axioms (now five such), which it takes as fundamental and given, not able or needing to be defended or proven. Which set do you find the most … … helpful? Any need to choose?

Chapter 10 Helping Other People And Spiritual Awakening

Through that more fully human life.

Chapter 11 Choosing Between Competing Worldviews

If reason and logic can’t settle the issue, then what?

Part IV Summary And Conclusions

Chapter 12 The Final Picture

INTRODUCTION

Retirement. What a great … and an unusual time. A time in our lives which most of the world’s population never reaches. (Think of that.) What a gift! And what I mean by retirement here is simply: being in a position where you no longer have to work in order to survive. You may choose to continue working, but not because you have to but because you want to, because that’s how you enjoy spending some or all of your time.

Consider how much of our lives we do have to work if we’re going to survive, i.e. have enough food, shelter, clothing, health care and formal education to lead a minimally decent human life, and certainly to have any chance of leading a more fully human life. We have to work for it. At least, the swamping majority of human beings on the planet must do so. But there may come a time, if you’ve been disciplined and lucky, when you no longer need to work to ensure your survival. A condition not that many, worldwide, ever enjoy. And the further back in history we go, the less that number becomes. A gift indeed.

So what are you going to do with this gift? Finally take some time to smell the roses? Sounds good, but is it enough? I’m going to argue that it’s not enough or, more accurately, that smelling the roses fully understood actually encompasses much more than simply kicking back on some Caribbean beach with an umbrella drink and watching the sun cross the sky.

It can be a time to take the measure of your life so far. What have you done? What do you still want to do? Where are you going in and with the rest of your life? What do you want it to represent?

In the Hindu culture, e.g., one’s life is thought of as divided into various stages. There is the student stage where your ‘job’ is to play, then go to school and learn what you need to know in order to take your place in and contribute to the greater society and your family. Then there is the stage of the householder where you’re now having your family, raising your children, working at your job and taking part in civil life. Working at having an effect on the larger society around you and in which you live and move and have your being. But eventually (and hopefully), you get beyond those needs and responsibilities (or someone else is carrying them for you!). Then you can enter into what is called the stage of the forest dweller. Here, the theory is, you can leave behind all those tasks and responsibilities that occupied you during the householder stage and go off into the forest to meditate on what it’s all meant and whether or not the claims of the Hindu religion which you grew up with are really true. Is it the case, e.g., that you already are, at your deepest core, just one with Brahman (Tat Tvam Asi) and that your basic purpose is to come to realize that oneness? Is that what life really is and is all about? Finally, and assuming you come to the conclusion that that is true, you return to society in the fourth stage, that of the sannyasin, one who neither loves nor hates anything, one who can be in the world without being overcome or swayed by its blandishments and temptations, one who can continue to nurture within him or herself that vision of oneness with Brahman.

These last two stages don’t translate very easily or well into our culture. (And not least because traditionally they were meant only for men.) But in one respect we may be able to take a page from their playbook. The respect in which we too, when we enter into retirement, typically have more time on our hands to spend on whatever we want to spend it on. And, we’re presuming here, the means to do so. In that vein, this book is for those who would like to spend at least some of that extra time looking into what it’s all about?

And thus, admittedly, this book is intended mainly for a western audience or, more accurately, an audience of those living in a situation where they can enjoy a retirement. But what about the spiritual in the title?

May this meditation be for the spiritual awakening of all sentient beings.

This dedicatory prayer is often uttered at the end of Buddhist meditation sessions. It is meant to both remind the meditator of his or her desire (ideally) to achieve enlightenment in order to benefit others, and to activate something like grace or an energy, which actually works to achieve the desired effect.

But this book is not a treatise on Buddhism. Rather, I reference that practice only in order to focus on the notion of spiritual awakening. What could that mean? And is there any support for the notion that such a thing (a spiritual awakening) actually exists? Which depends, of course, on what you think ‘spiritual’ means. And that does bring us to the subject of this book: A Spiritual Guide for Retirement. For here also, we need to determine what ‘spiritual’ means if we are going to say anything intelligent and practical.

And that, what ‘spiritual’ means, turns out to be a wonderfully and perhaps surprisingly complex question. Not initially, I admit. Initially, there seem to be only a couple of main claimants for what the term means. But as we delve into these differing views, we’ll come upon some intriguing, provocative and very rich other claims that are either presumed or implied by whichever meaning of ‘spiritual’ one adopts. And that can be very exciting and perhaps challenging, even daunting and maybe a bit fearsome. But hey, … you’re retired now, you’ve got the time, have some ‘fun’!

What we’ll find as we get into the different meanings of ‘spiritual’ is an interesting debate or dialogue between two main views. One rooted firmly and unapologetically in the western, scientific and empirical camp and the other rooted just as firmly in a more universal, religious and experiential camp. And as we get into this dialogue or debate between these two views, we’ll discover that each one relies on certain basic, fundamental assumptions to support their view of things. Assumptions that are so basic and fundamental they function as axioms or foundational beliefs in their respective belief systems. And these differing sets of assumptions ultimately cannot be reconciled.

Though most of the time these differing assumptions do not cause conflict in how we live our lives or view the world, there does come a time when a choice must be made. This book attempts to provide some grounds for making that choice. Grounds that take those foundational beliefs into account but do not depend on a resolution of their respective truth values, at least not in any typically logical or philosophical manner.

This then will be a journey of discovery. And, like most such journeys, it can be worrisome and exciting and a challenge. You’re likely to come across beliefs that you never focused on before and now find that you have to hold them (believe them true) IF you’re going to hold still other beliefs which you do indeed hold as true. And you may not be so sure you want to subscribe to those new beliefs. Or you may experience a kind of epiphany, a feeling that: ‘a haa, I see it now, how it can all