LEADER SPOTLIGHT - STEVEN CHANANIE

What Are We Being Called to Do?

Why is the Society for Earth Law (“SOEL”) so important to me and why did I agree to act as its Deputy Executive Director as a volunteer, in addition to my law practice and my weekly work as an interfaith hospital chaplain?  Each of us who are now committed to the mission and values of SOEL have their own reasons for their commitment.  I have been a lawyer for many years, and – yes – I feel we are called to fight for legal and political and economic reform and for a Renaissance of Values that holds the hope of creating a workable foundation for a truly transformative paradigm change.  But for me, in the end, the call to action is a deeply spiritual one. 

At the heart of my personal motivations is a profound heartbreak on seeing the cruelty and callous disregard we exhibit and the suffering we are inflicting on other living creatures (and on our fellow human beings) and on the forests and the trees, the rivers and oceans, and on so many ecosystems.   The suffering is real and pervasive.  If I step aside from our legal, academic and intellectual analyses – which are so vital and important – and open my heart even a little, my heart breaks.  I feel anger and my own profound sorrow and sadness.  But, as Joanne Macy said (to paraphrase), it is when our hearts break that the universe can enter into us.

So, what are we called to do, and how is that a “spiritual” matter for me personally?   For me, the divine presence surrounds us and flows through all life, human and non-human, tying us together with unbreakable cords of light and love, whispering to our souls, and calling to us with overwhelming power and love.  It is a matter of “faith” more me in the end, but not faith in some “idea” of a Supreme Being off in a distant heaven, but rather faith in an unbounded and infinite present reality – a divine presence, if you want to call it that – that is somehow with us, here and now, in ways that are far realer than we can comprehend and that is far greater than any limited name we might have for God.  And, it is also a matter of faith for me in ourselves and in the light of our own humanity, no matter how obscured, ignored or lost in the darkness that light might be. 

We are not saints or Bodhisattvas, but I nevertheless feel that we are being urged to engage in an intentional practice of looking and seeing with an open heart the precious miracle and worth of each and every life.  When I engage in such a practice, I feel sorrow and pain in the face of all the suffering and devastation, but I also see the divine light shining in all life.  And, in so seeing, I don’t know how I (or anyone) can then turn a blind eye to the reality of the suffering, to our righteous indignation in the face of the violence and injustice, and to the disbelief at the depth of the callous disregard of so many humans.  Indeed, in so seeing, I believe deeply that our hearts cannot help but be filled with love, and indeed reverence, for the lives of all living creatures and for the beauty of this planet and its ecosystems – and for each other.  

We can and must advocate for new laws and a new jurisprudence of reverence, for a politics of compassion, and for new modes of corporate and economic governance as well.  But while all of that is absolutely necessary (and is a necessary pathway to meaningful change), I don’t believe we will see real and lasting change until we respond to the inner calling (however felt or defined) to see life through the eyes of compassion, love and reverence.  Indeed, in looking through those eyes, we cannot help but experience a revolution of values that puts the inherent value and wonder of all life on this planet (and the value of our own lives) far above our glorification of “things,” above our desperate grasping for more material growth, and above our insistence that we are here to serve greedily only our own narrow self-interests.  

In short, seeing through those eyes of compassion and reverence and love (and sorrow), is for me deeply spiritual, and leaves me – and SOEL – no choice but to act in ways that seek to honor and protect the miracle and wonder of all life.  For me personally, this is what SOEL is about.