True Spirituality
Aperture, established in 1952, is considered by many to be the flagship magazine of modern photography. The organization publishes four issues each year, each issue promoting an overarching theme. The present issue focuses on spirituality, and was edited by Wolfgang Tillmans, a German photographer whose art installations featuring large-scale abstractions have been shown all over the world.
When asked to guest edit the issue, Tillmans “immediately knew” that the theme of the issue should be spirituality. He explains, “[B]ecause I strongly sense that the political shifts in Western society in the last ten years stem from a lack of meaning in the capitalistic world.” Not believing in anything beyond the here and now, Tillmans looks to the late Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti to define the term. Krisnamurti was known for his philosophy of “Truth is a pathless land.” Tillmans pulls from a couple of Krishamurti’s public talks to lay down the meaning.
What is spirituality?
I say it is harmonious living. . . . And a man who is not bound by authority, social or religious, surely he cannot live harmoniously, therefore spiritually, intellectually.
In India we have been told for centuries to be spiritual, and our daily life is an endless round of rituals and ceremonies. Is this spirituality? If not, then what is it to be spiritual?
[C]eremonies are not spiritual, nor are dogmas, nor beliefs, nor the practicing of a particular system of meditation; for all these things are the outcome of a mind which is seeking security. The state of spirituality can be experienced only by a mind that has no motive, a mind that is no longer seeking; for all search is based on motive. The mind that is capable of not asking, of not seeking, of being completely nothing—only such a mind can understand that which is timeless.
As you may have guessed, Tillmans’s and Krisnamurti’s ideas of spirituality are antithetical to the revelation of true spirituality in the Word. First of all, not being believers, they are numb [insensible] to the life of God and the Spirit of the Lord.
This therefore I say and testify in [the] Lord, no longer [are] you to walk [live] as also the Gentiles walk [live] in [the] futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance existing in them, because of the hardness of their hearts —Ephesians 4:17–19 (literal)
The revelation of the Word doesn’t depict true spirituality as an empty mind, but one that has been transformed to know and understand the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God [which is] your spiritual service and do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the [your] mind for you to prove what [is] the good and well-pleasing and mature [will] of God. —Romans 12:1–2 (literal)
The spiritual Christian isn’t one that incessantly retreats to a closet to empty his thoughts before the Father, but one that finds empowerment in prayer to actively work out the will of God in the earth, and this in the face of all opposition. We see this in Jesus’ own ministry. Facing the final act of the divine imperative, he didn’t unpack his mind of motive. He took every thought and pretension captive that set itself against the Father’s will.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. —Hebrews 5:7 (NRSV)
True spirituality isn’t becoming an empty vessel of nothingness. It is possessing the spirit of Christ not just in the inner man, but also in the soul and even the body as well, so you can walk out the will of the Father, the culture of heaven, here on the ground.
