Sparks of the Divine: Finding Inspiration in Our Everyday World by Drew Leder

Religion
BOOK REVIEW Scholar offers tips to finding sacred in life
BY ROBERT NERALICH SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
759 words
27 November 2004
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette
50
English
Copyright (c) 2004 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.

In the opinion of Drew Leder, professor of Western and Eastern philosophy at Loyola College in Maryland, human beings fail to see the world's sacred dimension because "The sheer ordinariness of things is our cataract. We view our world through a glaze of familiar tasks and objects."

Therefore, his ambition in Sparks of the Divine: Finding Inspiration in Our Everyday World is to help readers rediscover this sacredness by looking at common objects in uncommon ways.

The book's title derives from Kabbalah, a mystical branch of Judaism, according to which, "Every particle in our physical universe, every structure and every being is a shell that contains sparks of holiness." To assist his readers in locating these sparks, Leder has written his book in the form of "one hundred brief reflections," in which he borrows spiritual insights from many religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and American Indian traditions.

He also includes "15 guided meditations" that he calls "shapeshifts," designed to "further the book's use as a transformative tool" by allowing readers to shift "into the heart of another being," or, as he expresses it in his epilogue: "It is good to consult with creature-teachers; it can be better to turn into them and absorb their wisdom from within."

In essence, Sparks of the Divine is an extended invitation to investigate the claim of 19th-century Hasidic teacher Menahem Mendel, cited by Leder, that "One who does not see the Omnipresent in every place will not see Him in any place."

It is therefore appropriate that Leder discovers the sacred dimension in a variety of decidedly humble objects not generally associated with spiritual pursuits, such as frogs, ducks, belly buttons, fire hydrants, pencils, windshield wipers and bubble gum. His analogies in these discussions are always interesting, and the questions they generate are sometimes as startling as they are thought-provoking, as when, after stating that many people hold opinions on what God looks and sounds like, he asks, "What does God smell like?"

A few examples will serve to demonstrate the textures of Leder's considerable intelligence and imagination. He suggests that driving an automobile provides motorists with numerous opportunities for spiritual practice, since he believes that there is "no better way to exorcise your demons of impatience, pride and selfishness."

He cleverly compares the way in which magnets affect iron with the manner in which a saint can influence his students: "The disorganized impulses of the disciple - generous at one moment, selfish the next - begin to unify like electrons spinning in the same direction."

He also argues in a reflection called "Sudden Death Playoffs" that viewing sports can be a form of yoga, by suggesting that individuals should "try watching the game prayerfully, or as a form of meditation, and working with the intensity of the desires and emotions that arise."

Sometimes Leder provides readers with cosmic perspectives on their everyday world, as in a notably fine piece on footprints in mud, in which he suggests that "everything is footprints. Not just the mark in the mud, but the mud itself: It's a memory of all the ground-up rock, the pulverized leaves, the falling rain, now congealed together ... The present is but the past preserved."

Finally, Leder affirms humanity's connectedness with all of creation in a lovely meditation on the stars, in which he observes that "The stars, so distant, so other-worldly in their shining, are the authors of our solid flesh ... From dust we have come, and unto dust we shall return - yes, but it is stardust."

Leder concludes Sparks of the Divine with a series of "Tips for Spark-Hunters," in which he offers readers guidance and encouragement. This closure is, however, merely a brief summary of what he has argued persuasively throughout the book: By the simple expedient of mindful attention to the everyday world, people can rediscover the depthless mystery that is the context of their lives and thereby reinvest their world with wonder. Socrates claimed that wonder is the beginning of wisdom, and Leder's book is therefore decidedly wise in calling attention to a wonder-filled world.

Robert Neralich has a doctorate in English and teaches Asian studies at Fayetteville High School. Write to him c/o Northwest Religion Editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 5105, Springdale, Ark. 72765, or e-mail: rneralich@aol.com