Your Soul's Compass: What is Spiritual Guidance?
An interview with Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. and Gordon Dveirin, Ed.D.

Q. How does your view of spirituality differ from others?

Many of today’s “spiritual” books are concerned with self-centeredness—how to get what you want. Spiritual guidance, though, is about tuning into a greater intelligence and willing the good rather than the goods. Rather than focusing your intention on what you want, it’s a matter of tuning into what Life wants. There you find inspiration and peace, and help create the best possibilities for others. When you get out of “I, me, and mine” it’s remarkable how a greater wisdom shows up to guide you.

Q. What prompted you to write about spiritual guidance?

We live in dangerously polarized times—science versus religion; one religion against another; politicians and terrorists who believe they are divinely guided. The credibility of authorities, from corporations to nations to religious leaders is at a low ebb, leaving many people disoriented and disheartened. How then, do we as individuals and groups find our bearings?

Q. What is the soul’s compass?

The soul’s compass is magnetically attracted to the heart's loving intelligence, which is connected to the Source of all being. When we’re in touch with that Source, the soul's compass becomes a moral, economic and social compass, an overall guide to an intelligent, illuminated life. Every one of us has had the experience of everything coming together in a way that felt right, harmonious and whole. That’s spirituality in action, and it arises moment by moment from our connection to a greater reality.

Q. How do you tell the difference between spiritual guidance and your own ego?

Every religion has practices that help people orient to the good. St. Paul enumerated nine fruits of the Spirit, including qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness, which are a wonderful help to discernment: Where’s the love in this choice? Where's the peace? So, if you're trying to discern whether it’s God or ego urging you to blow yourself up and take out a busload of tourists with you, your decision would fail the test of love and kindness. If what you think is guidance, is marked by anger, fear, hurry, or worry, that's a message to seriously reconsider things. Haste, we learned, is poisonous to guidance whereas patience courts it. As the Quakers say, there’s an inner light within each one of us, but there’s a lot of other stuff, too. Practicing discernment little by little, you get to know the voice of your ego or false self, and your true Self, your connection to Source.

Q. How do you compare religion to spirituality?

Spirituality and religion are related, but different. Religion, defined as a bridge to spirituality, sometimes succeeds and sometimes fails. But the spiritual lies beyond religion. If you ask a spiritual person—whether they are religious or not—to share their lived experience of Ultimate Reality or God, they meet on common ground. Religions are like islands that, when seen from the surface, appear separate. But when we descend to the depths, it's clear that they all arise from that same Source. The late Brother Wayne Teasdale, who was both a Catholic and Hindu monk, called these depths interspirituality.

Q. Trusting the unknown is a recurring theme in Your Soul’s Compass. Since most of us are frightened by the unknown and go to great lengths to avoid it, why should we court it?

Fundamentally, because what we think we know is often the cause of our ignorance. The veil of the past, of memory, often obscures the fresh, new, and surprising revelations of the present. When that happens we mistake the map for the territory. The spiritual journey begins when a crack appears in the wall of your supposed knowing. It might be an illness that radically shifts priorities, a financial reversal that forces you to reorganize your life, or falling in love. It lets in new light, unknown possibilities. Life wasn’t created as a done deal: It changes moment by moment even when we're hanging onto the status quo by our fingernails. Surrendering to the mystery of the unknown, to the continuous evolution of Spirit, encourages curious, open engagement with life. Rather than skimming the surface like sleep walkers, we wake up to the depths.

Q. If we’re continuously evolving, what are we evolving into?

We would certainly be kinder, creative, and a lot less self-involved. We’d know that external and internal freedoms are equally as important. After all, you can be hiking in a forest but still be a prisoner of the stories you tell yourself. As Reverend Cynthia Bourgeault said, changing one letter transforms the closed box of “my story” into the open field of “mystery.” This transformation brings us into the present moment—not the one just past or the one yet to come, not the one that happened 20, 30, 40 or 2000 years ago. We may not be able to see very far down the road of our own evolution, but we can see the next step as it reveals itself.

Q. What practical tools do you offer for following spiritual guidance?

Be present by cultivating a quiet mind. Our world is so noisy, filled with distractions and bright lights—both inside ourselves and the outside world of chatter, busyness and information overload. Learning how to dim those lights connects us to the Mystery that can guide us. Meditation, yoga, chi gong, and walking in nature are all portals to the present that cultivate a quiet mind. Paying attention to the body is also key. Check in with yourself. When you’re tense and contracted, you're more available to a noisy ego than the still, small voice. On the other hand, when your body feels relaxed and peaceful, there's more receptivity to wisdom. Just monitoring your body several times a day and stretching if you're tense, or taking a walk helps quiet the mind and creates more openness to guidance.

Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D., is an internationally known speaker and consultant in women’s health and spirituality, integrative medicine, and the mind/body connection. She’s the author of numerous books and audios; her latest is Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? 2007 Hay House. www.hayhouse.com.