The ABCs: R is for (Radical) Reverence
Let It Take You to Your Knees
In many spiritual traditions, there is a practice in which a selected scriptural passage becomes the theme for the week. At Radical Spirituality, we do the same thing, but in a radical way.
Each Sunday, I offer The ABC’s of Radical Spirituality, a single, simple word distilled from the common principles of all the world’s faith and wisdom teachings that serves as the exploration for the week. They are the roots of Radical Spirituality. And because I am that person, the words are in alphabetical order. We start with A and go to Z.
It’s a simple practice to get to the roots of what matters on our spiritual path. The best part is that you will get out of it what you put into it. If you just keep the word on a sticky-note on your computer, it will still work it’s magic. But to dig deeper, delve in, dive in, and see what you find.
R is for (Radical) Reverence
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. – Albert Einstein
I dare you. Go outside. Watch a sunset. Stand in front of a tree. Look at a flower. Drop “thinking” about what it is you are looking at, dissecting it for information, naming it. Just look at it as if you’ve never seen it before. Really look at it. Allow yourself to wonder. To marvel. To be amazed and astonished. To realize the sheer, miraculous impossibility of the existence of whatever you are observing.
And then tell me you aren’t moved to Reverence.
The Latin root of Reverence is Revereri, which means “To stand in Awe.” Awe means respect, honor, fear. It’s the deepest root of all spirituality (and Science, too. Ask Einstein). In the Bible, when Moses first comes into contact with YHVH, it is through the blinding light of the Burning Bush. It’s so powerful – so awesome—that he must turn his eyes away. YHVH demands Moses remove his shoes and stand back. This is Holy Ground.
“Be awed,” it says. “Honor me. Respect me. For I am the source of all. Including YOU! I cannot be named, I cannot be contained, but I AM.”
We are always on Holy Ground. Always. Everywhere.
If we are to call ourselves spiritual in any way, we must cultivate that sense of awe for the I AM in all it’s forms. We must stand in what I call Radical Reverence, shoes off, filled with deep honor and respect for all of creation, and maybe a bit of trembling, recognizing our own place in relationship to that which is the Source of all.
You can call it God, Dao, Source, Ultimate Reality, Great Spirit, Mystery, or nothing at all. But if you can’t sense that impossible, awe-somenesss of the I AM in front of a tree, a sunset, a flower, or another being, you are missing the whole point of being alive…or on a spiritual path. As poet Mary Oliver, wrote: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
This week, we explore Reverence. What brings you to your knees in Reverence?
Deeper Roots
By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive. – Albert Schweitzer
True awe entails a degree of fear. It is fear mixed with respect. The word “awesome,” so often misapplied in today’s slang, carries a sense of something so powerful that it demands both our respect and our humility before it’s incomprehensible immensity. The unknown can be frightening, and it’s a little scary to see ourselves so small and vulnerable in relation to it.
That’s why the God of the Bible, The Qur’an, and most other traditions, has a fearsome quality, and the Hindu Goddess Kali, who represents creation and destruction is portrayed as a terrifying, multi-armed woman with a necklace of decapitated heads. Even the non-personified Dao has a mysterious power that requires humility. The power to create or destroy existence itself is no small thing. It demands Reverence. This understanding is at the root of worship. In Biblical Hebrew, Shachach, which means to be humbled, bowed down, or an attitude of reverential fear, is translated as “worship.”
While we don’t need to go to the angry, fearsome God that will send you to hell and damnation for messing up, it's not a bad idea to remember that existence isn’t in our hands, and whatever is responsible for it deserves our humility, our respect, our honor, our Reverence. After all, doesn’t whatever “birthed” the Universe deserve at least that?
Frankly, I still haven’t figured out why we aren’t all on our knees in Reverence all the time, except that it’s hard to function in the world that way.
But there’s an even better reason to cultivate Reverence.
Without that sense of radical awe, we live lives of what the great American Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, called “quiet desperation.” We get caught in our To-Do lists, chasing our desires, stuck in the endless loop of work, bills and emails. Just trying to stay on top of it all. We take Life for granted and lose sight of the inconceivable, improbable mystery of existence itself. We lose the connection to the sacred.
Without that connection to the sacred, to Reverence, we wantonly destroy. We wage wars, we oppress others, we desecrate — de-sacred — our environment and each other. We forget that life is a fragile gift. We stand arrogant, as if the power of mystery holds no sway.
Ecologist Wendell Berry said: “We must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.”
Awe doesn’t require anything as dramatic as a burning bush. We can cultivate that sense of awe before a single daffodil, a bird, a tree, or the face of another. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who coined the term “Radical Amazement,” said, “Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.”
The miracle of existence is present in everything, and awe is available to us in every moment…if we simply look for it. If we open ourselves up to it and allow ourselves to be moved to Reverence. Let it bring you to your knees.
Reflection Questions
What does Reverence mean to you?
Where or for what do you experience Reverence?
What prevents you from Reverence?
How can you cultivate more Reverence?
Suggested Practice
Take me up on my dare. For this week, take a few moments each day to stand in awe of something. A tree, a flower, children playing in the park, your own reflection in a pond. Consider it’s improbable existence. Be amazed. See if it takes you to Reverence.
The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. – Swami Vivekananda
Truly excellent article
It is only when I've been able to release my fear of death (by perceiving my existence as truly eternal) that that sense of awe overtakes me. Love the posts and questions for reflection!