VJ comments on Anthony's essay:

I felt that your essay was "classic" INFJ, which is why I thought it worth including.  For me (which I think seemed implicit in your essay), INFJ is a particular way of BEING spiritual.  It's simply part of our DNA, our molecular structure.  (As Jung famously said, "I don't believe there is a God.  I KNOW.") 

Catalysts in general are very concerned with spirituality, so it's something we're inclined to talk about overtly.  (And naturally I make the distinction between organized religion and spirituality;  that's classic Sensation vs. iNtuition material, or classic Catalyst material anyway.)

Now that I've been around the INFJ "block" a few times, what I notice is that the perspective you share in your article champions the Ni kind of spirituality and decries the Si kind of spirituality.  For instance, I think it's typical for INFJs to resent being pushed into groupthink religion at the cost of their own spiritual viewpoint.  INFJs are intellectually independent!  So it's easy for me to notice some "tension of the opposites" between Ni Heroic and Si Demonic.  Let us praise one and abolish the other.  That's a classic INFJ complex.

With my coaching hat on, I notice it's a perspective.  What I wonder as a coach is how much a perspective runs a person.  How much is it seen as the "truth"?  For instance, my ISTJ sister is very into organized religion.  Sometimes I attend church with her and her family.  And I think it's great!  I'd rather they were all going to church together than watching TV, or some equally useless pastime.  At least it keeps the *topic* alive, and they're forced to think about it from time to time.  I'm not invested in making them "wrong" for attending church, and I don't allow them to make me "wrong" for NOT attending church regularly or belonging to a particular denomination.  I don't force my personal perspectives about spirituality onto my sister, and she doesn't force hers on me.  We live and let live.  Yay!

At the same time, I kinda consider it my duty to inject *true* spirituality into the equation from time to time with my sister and her family.  For instance, I am buying "The Secret" on DVD so that we can all sit around and watch it together.  And I have some suggestions for how they can put that kind of thinking into practice, which I'm willing to instigate and support.  For me, this is a form of practical spirituality, even though I deliberately avoid naming it thus.

From my oh-so-mature years (~gag!~), what I've come to realize is that there's a way for me to be "right" about what's right for me personally without making others "wrong."  And that's a big "AHA" for me.  My tertiary introverted Thinking can get awfully rigid about How Things Ought To Be, so releasing some of this energy has been very freeing.  It has given me the gift of letting others do things their own way, and noticing openings for me to step in and contribute MY magic when it's needed (true Diplomatic intelligence).  So I steer away from making others wrong about their spiritual choices, as long as they don't make me wrong about mine.

I daresay, in my eyes, to maintain integrity between Ni and Se, there's benefit to be gained from attending church regularly, if only as a concrete reminder that I AM a spiritual being (even while I could care less about whether we all sing in harmony or pray in unison).  Just being there creates time to consciously celebrate my spirituality on a regular basis and to connect with others who are honoring spirituality.  It might be viewed as a concrete way of honoring the Divine, and I do connect with God simply through experiencing other people. 

The word Namaste translates as "The divine spirit in me acknowledges the divine spirit in you." When we greet one another with this kind of awareness, we can't help but be more conscious that we are deeply connected to one another, and to everyone, because the divine spirit resides in all of us.

Say, were you ever taught that simple handplay?  I can't find a website that describes it, so I'll try to re-create it here.

You clasp your hands together upside down.  First clasp them together as if you were praying.  Then pull them apart and put them back together the same way, only put the fingers below instead of above, so you see only knuckles and no fingers.  Then you say, "Here is the church."  Now you take your two index fingers and bring them up to a point over the knuckles.  And you say, "Here is the steeple."  Now swing the two thumbs outward, toward you, and say, "Open the doors."  Now, rotate your hands away from you, flipping them upside down so you can see all the fingers.  Wiggle the fingers as you say, "See all the people."

My point is that a Church is not about the structure, the rituals, the program, the dogma -- it's about the people.  Connecting with other people is how we express our spirituality.  And there's some very powerful Feeling to be expressed via this connection.  (I believe that's something you honored very well in your essay.) 

Basically, I don't really get hung up in any of the dogma debates around organized religion vs. spirituality.  That's simply not a source of spiritual energy for me.  (Having said that, I will share that I have enjoyed services at Science of Mind churches, which I notice a lot of Life Coaches and Catalysts seem to be members of.  I don't know much about its religious perspective, but its metaphysical perspective is very affirming.)

For me, the vital coaching question seems to be, "How are you living in integrity with YOUR spirituality?  How is it serving you; or rather, how are you serving IT?"

That's the most powerful inquiry for me around spirituality.

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