Does Spirituality Affect Behavior?

Last Tuesday I attended an interesting lecture on Hinduism and Catholicism at Loyola Marymount University. The lecture was given by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher who is a Professor of Old Testament and Director of Peace Studies at Loyola, and also by Graham Schweig who earned his doctorate in Comparative Religion from Harvard University and is currently Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.

The lecture focused on exploring themes of war and peace found in the Old Testament and also in the Bhagavad Gita, the ancient religious texts used in Christianity and Hinduism.

Professor Smith spoke first, and he immediately stated that in the interest of "full disclosure", he told the audience how he was born a Quaker and was raised a Quaker, and that he emphatically believes that killing is wrong. To a peace activist like myself, this was music to my ears. I looked around and saw many nodding their heads in agreement. Clearly, this was a friendly audience made up of what looked to me like priests, Hindus, peace activists, and yogis. Professor Smith discussed a few stories from the Old Testament, and he made the point that the Old Testament was not intended for ethical instruction or military strategy, but is largely allegorical and symbolic. He also touched upon the "just war" theory, and pointed out that this theory was based more on Roman politics and not on scripture.

Next Professor Schweig spoke about the Bhagavad Gita and how it is a 700 verse subtext of the larger text the Mahabharata, but that the Bhagavad Gita is often read as an independent text. He describesd how in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is the main speaker while Sanjaya is the narrarator. Professor Schweig, who recently published his own translation of the Bhagavad Gita, interpreted many of the individual verses. He explained that one of the main themes found in the Bhagavad Gita surrounds the idea of conflict and how there will always be conflict in the world. He stated that the question is not how do we get rid of conflict but how do we process it? Do we process conflict towards violence or peace? Professor Schweig expressed the idea that conflict is part of humanity learning how to love, and that conflict can lead to either dissolution or resolution.

After both professors spoke, there was time for questions from the audience. The first question came from a man asking the professors to explain the Hindu idea of reincarnation versus the Christian idea of the soul. Professor Schweig said that one difference is that in the reincarnation belief system, we get more than one chance to get it right in that we are not doomed to hell based on one immoral life but get to have another chance in multiple lives. This was contrasted with the Christian idea of having one chance to live a moral life which will determine whether one spends eternity in heaven or hell.

This prompted a couple of women from the audience to raise the idea that there are words in the Bible that hint at the idea of reincarnation, and that because the Bible has been frequently altered and edited by various popes and leaders of the Church over time, that it is difficult to truly rule out the idea of reincarnation in the Christian faith. Professor Smith strongly responded that this is an uphill argument in the Christian fatih.

Another concept that arose during the questions and answers was the sanskrit term ahimsa, which translates to "Harm none" or nonviolence and is a tenet of yogic philosophy. Members in the audience and also both professors clarified that there are different levels of violence and ahimsa asks us to reject all levels of violence. Professor Schweig reminded the audience how we are called to practice ahimsa even at the level of conversation, and that we should strive to speak with others in a nonharmful peaceful way.

This led me to reflect on my own life and the way in which I converse with others including my family, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and yes, even in the blogosphere. Am I able to practice ahimsa when conversing with someone I disagree with? Can I clearly voice my views but in a nonviolent way? How about when I am tired and low on patience or angry, do I still practice ahimsa? Truly practicing ahimsa at every level is indeed challenging.

In psychology class we learned that psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. Attending this lecture has caused me to reflect on the way in which one's spirituality affects one's behavior. In my case, my spiritual beliefs affect every aspect of my life including relationships, career, diet, political beliefs as well as every purchase I make.

My question is: do you believe that one's spiritual beliefs affect one's behavior and if so,in what ways does spirituality affect behavior? Feel free to speak from your own spiritual beliefs and experiences if you like.