I love the Cathedral and although I'm not a Christian, whenever I'm in the area I try and find time to visit, and I usually find some internal shift occurs during my visit, however short and I leave feeling different, reconnected to something healthy-dare-I-say spiritual even. Its a wonderful inspiring sanctuary in a busy part of town.
Recently I was visiting the cathedral with friends, we'd been talking about someone who'd recently been diagnosed with cancer and this led to shared reflections on death and impermanence as we wandered from chapel to chapel and tomb to tomb soaking up the atmosphere, admiring the stained glass, pausing to light votive candles.
The Cathedral began life as an Augustinian Priory, it has had two major fires and at one point in the 19th Century had no roof. Its a survivor, surviving neglect, fire, the coming of the railway, the blitz. It used to be called St Saviours and became a cathedral in 1905. I like the name St Saviours, it seems somehow apt as this is a church I associate with good causes and a modern progressive outlook. It has an area dedicated to people with HIV, once hosted a service for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, has strong links with the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe and includes monuments to Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Unlike more famous churches like St Pauls or Westminster Abbey is seems to have fewer associations with the ruling elite. It doesn't feel pompous, it feels welcoming and inclusive. It is in its own way a bit alternative and rather 'Bankside', befitting somehow for this riverside area which for centuries was famous for its theatres, boozers and brothels and now seems to have found a new lease of life with the mixed attractions of art and modernity at Tate Modern, organic posh foods at Borough market and the macabre appeal of the Clink and the London Dungeon.
As we talked about death and illness -how we never know what's around the corner, you may think our mood might have turned a little glum. Far from it, we seemed energised and uplifted by our discussion. We talked about the Buddha's teachings on change -The Five Remembrances. There are many differently worded versions though in essence they say the same thing.
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| Decaying Buddha rupa |
1. I am of the nature to grow old.
There is no way to escape growing old.
2. I am of the nature to have ill health.
There is no way to escape ill health.
3. I am of the nature to die.
There is no way to escape death.
4. All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change.
There is no way to escape being separated from them.
5. My actions are my only true belongings.
I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.
Reminding ourselves of these existential givens ('the wisdom of no escape') we challenge our egoic attachment to ideas about how life should be, including the seductive notion of the sorted out perfected life, and we reconnect to that which is, the universal, that which is shared by all humanity. This lifts us out of pity. Instead of bemoaning our misfortune and railing 'Why me?' we realise we might just as well ask 'Why not me?' Not that we should be indifferent to our fate and take a spiritual bypass. We do matter. The Remembrances give us a sense of perspective, and enable us to consider what really matters in this world of constantly changing phenomena. They challenge our cultural collusive memory loss about death, they invite us to embrace the facts of life including illness, separation and death. When we look back on our life, will we feel satisfied with our actions, will we feel we did we did our bit to make the world a better place?
I think psychotherapists of all modalities , not just psychospiritual ones like Core Process Psychotherapists would do well to reflect on the Remembrances in their work as it lends balance to the enquiry. So often in psychotherapy we obsess about the past, and whilst it can be important to understand how the conditions of our early life shaped the pattern of our character, and how we respond to people and situations in the present, it's also important to consider what we are doing now, and how today's actions will shape the person we are when we wake up tomorrow, and the person we are when we die. This is a call for responsible living. It isn't pessimistic to recall that everything changes, far from it, this realisation wakes us up. We don't have to remain fixed or stuck, we are process, we're tiny droplets in the great river. When we remember this we struggle less, we stop fighting and defending, we can relax...go with the flow!
