An ORDER of SANCTUARIANS?

 

This is the twenty-fourth in a series concerning the nature,
reach and practicalities of Sanctuary.

 

As mentioned in other Sanctuary House Quarterly issues, I do take sanctuary to be a Divine quality -- as are peace, love and wisdom, just to name a few.  One can go into each of these treasuries and never find the limit to their wealth. And, continuing to repeat myself, sanctuary is, arguably, one of the most needed qualities of our times. So, one might expect this arena to grow in respect and even in popularity.

To make a point, I will ask a question that no one has asked me or I expect will ever ask me -- but to announce an extreme can be revealing: Therefore, "Will there be an Order of Sanctuarians in the near future?"

While I do pray that hundreds and thousands and millions of our fellow human beings will prize and even fall in love with sanctuary, such that someone may even be inspired to get souls involved in sanctuary together -- you know,  "organized" into some meta-community, I personally hope that such an Order will not come to pass.

I don't see sanctuary being about electing a president or having conventions, and certainly not about codifying whatever sanctuary means and how it would best look and be administered. Sanctuary is best left unadministered. For, whatever sanctuary is, it's closer to innocence and wonder than to one or more agendas that require some kind of goal-setting. Which testifies to its primarily relational nature.

And I certainly see sanctuary as a small-community phenomenon rather than an organization that could franchise itself or go corporate. Why? For precisely the reason that there are no in-groups and out-groups to sanctuary. Even the notion of levels of hierarchy feels foreign. While those who offer sanctuary do need to have different foci of expertise, there can be no sense that someone is more important than another, for those who offer sanctuary also need sanctuary. And, certainly, there has to be leadership, whether singular or by committee. But, even here, there is no need to think the leadership to be more important or "higher" than those who offer the vital functions of sanctuary.

Yes, I do not see sanctuary becoming a template, such that it could become a cookie-cutter phenomenon, though it will be imitated, to be sure. Sanctuary is more a vector than an arrow, less a compass point than a vague direction-an inner direction, at that. It is like poetry -- we can't really say what it is, but we recognize when we are in its presence.

The idea of order is not absent from our sanctuary here. Our small community has regular meetings, for example. We keep our retreat spaces clean and try to beautify the grounds. We offer our chants and meditations and our zikrs at certain times on certain days. And yet we also live in a sense of constant openness.

Indeed, we are barely finding out what sanctuary is all about. I suppose we would have to have two factors not yet present: One, a critical need for sanctuary in the general populace, which implies a situation of crisis; and two, the experience of those who offer sanctuary becoming sanctuary itself. Yes, these would constitute real parameters that would bring out the deeper essences and structures of sanctuary. As more souls require sanctuary, those offering such a gift will necessarily have to clarify and define their boundaries, their talents, their mission and their capacities.

And as sanctuary becomes a living part (I'll not use the = word institution) of this and other communities, then its real dynamism will be seen. Necessity being the mother of invention, the more nitty-gritty the need for sanctuary becomes, the more true grit the sanctuaries of our world will reveal.

I will say that, as sanctuaries are required to step up to the plate -- in a host of different styles -- there will be a tendency for the natural more creative, gentle and artistic impulses of their origins to re-balance themselves toward the requirements of taking charge and providing more concrete services. The more mature the community of "sanctuarians", the deeper and more balanced will be the energies of whatever forms of sanctuary will be required to take.  We learn to go by going, said the poet Theodore Roethke, rather than by some pre-conceived game plan. But we will also be required to keep an inner "game book", for sanctuary will have to develop more and more plays, both offensive and defensive, to stay the course and win the peace. +

 

~ by William Howell
Swami Vishnu Datta
Winter 2002-2003

 

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