Someone asked me to define my spirituality in 1,000 characters or less.

Not wanting to give the topic less room than it fully deserves, I punted with something like this:

"It’s a longer conversation, but …. basically:

The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. The Name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. the named is the mother of all things." "Luke: What’s in there? Yoda: Only what you take with you."

Then during a chant, I realized I could define my spirituality in 4 words: "chant the divine Name." Then in one word: "Love."

It has to do with devotion or what the Indian tradition calls bhakti yoga.  It’s in nearly every tradition. In Judaism, for example: the Baal Shem Tov was said to pray so fervently that nearby grains trembled in ecstasy.

Now I have a lot of head space around spirituality, having devoted several books to it and written part of one during a Fellowship at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School.  But most of that moves out of the foreground when the heart truly opens.

In today’s yoga class, Stevie Wonder’s song was playing in the background: "Love’s in need … of love today … don’t delay … send yours in right away."

I remember listening to this during childhood, growing up outside Detroit.  Never quite got it the way I got today.  But somehow the message filtered in.

Amen, Mr. Wonder.

 


Michael H CohenMichael H Cohen
Founder
The Los Angeles / San Francisco / Bay Area-based Michael H Cohen Law Group provides healthcare legal and FDA legal & regulatory counsel to health & wellness practices and ventures, including health technology companies (medical devices to wearable health and nanotech), healthcare facilities (from medical centers to medical spas), and healthcare service providers (from physicians to psychologists).Our legal team offers expertise in corporate & transactional, healthcare regulatory & compliance, and healthcare litigation and dispute resolution, in cutting-edge areas such as anti-aging and functional medicine, telemedicine and m-health, and concierge medicine.Our Founder, attorney Michael H. Cohen, is an author, speaker on healthcare law and FDA law, and internationally-recognized thought leader in the trillion-dollar health & wellness industry.