Time to stop ignoring the obvious: race and poverty impact lives
BY HARV BISHOP
To believe that your thoughts and your consciousness are the only forces in play that create your reality is to ignore global economics and racial inequality, says Masando Hiraoka. Hiraoka is a Millennial ministerial student and like those of his generation, he is unafraid to question the standard answers embraced by some New Thought adherents.
“We have this ideology [in New Thought] that we’re creating our own lives, says Hiraoka. “There’s this rugged individualism that comes out of the time of Ernest Holmes (creator of the Science of Mind philosophy). It can be interpreted as saying ‘It’s all on us as individuals; we’re taking personal responsibility for our lives and all of the changes we make are on us as individuals.’
“As a result, if someone else’s life doesn’t look like we think it should, we think then that’s on them. We take a passive view of their difficulties and say ‘Well, that’s on you. You go fix it. These [bad circumstances] are in your consciousness.’”
Hiraoka challenges that view.
“We can’t have a theology that’s not based in reality. We can’t say that everybody’s set up in the world the same. Some people are born with more opportunities than others. To me, that’s just a fact of the world.
Softening the judgement
“Yes, we all have creative potential. Yes, we all have this spiritual nature. But just look at social and economic inequality and how that interacts with race. These are things that are true in the world. It’s not the truest truth, which is that we’re all One and that we’re all part of this thing we call God. We’re all equal in that way. It’s not the truest truth that we believe, but it’s a truth in the world. I think to realize that is so leads us to want to have an impact in the world so that the truest truth can be something that everybody realizes.”
Hiraoka says this realization can help soften the judgement of others that can happen in New Thought. “I don’t know if anybody can walk through this tradition and not have that judgment happen a couple times. We all have had that judgment at some point.”
Realizing progressive New Thought’s vision of creating a world that works for everyone will also help counter blame and judgment, he says.
Hiraoka’s own awakening to social justice came from his fiancé Rebecca. Her parents are Christian social justice activists in East Los Angeles, tutoring students and helping ex-gang members find jobs. He has also been inspired by the work of Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest who has long worked to give Los Angeles gang members new lives.
Evolving a New Thought social justice ministry
Hiraoka believes that Centers for Spiritual Living’s new social justice ministry, however it evolves, can help people experience the unity and equality of all people rather than talk about it. “It can help us see Oneness in places where we normally don’t see it. It’s easy to see Oneness in friends that you might be really comfortable with. It’s a lot harder to see Oneness in a culture you’re unfamiliar with. It’s a lot harder to see Oneness in a person experiencing homelessness or a person experiencing intense mental illness.
“But I think that’s where we get a deepening – going from an idea to an experience. Going from something that sounds really nice to getting into it to say: ‘If we really believe in Oneness, what does that mean? What are the implications of that?’
“I think all someone has to do to realize that ‘you create your own reality’ is a relative truth is to volunteer some time with one of the organizations in your city that’s working with people in need. Go spend some time with them. I think it would be a real gift. I think social justice has the capacity to deepen New Thought spirituality. We have a lot to learn from each other. Every human being has something to offer. And I think that’s learned most deeply when we’re in a culture or environment that may be uncomfortable to us.”
Next month our interview with Hiraoka will continue. New Thought won’t have a future without the Millennial generation, he says, and a strong social justice focus is the key to attracting M
illennials, a generation more driven by service and passion than money. Hirioka’s popular monthly column, The Art of Being Human, appears in Science of Mind: Guide for Spiritual Living magazine. You can see a sample on the magazine website He will also be part of a forthcoming Science of Mind magazine article with other leading New Thought voices asking how Centers for Spiritual Living’s mission statement- “creating a world that works for everyone”- can become a reality.
This is a terrific dialogue — there’s no question about: a fresh wind is blowing through New Thought. People who love mind-metaphysics are also doing the important work of also helping it grow into a more mature and sustainable movement. Ironically, this reformation represents a return to the movement’s first principles. So many New Thought pioneers were deeply bound up in the politics and reforms of the Progressive Era, including Wallace D. Wattles (a socialist); Elizabeth Towne (suffragist and social reformer); Marcus Garvey (pioneering black nationalist and New Thoughter); Emma Curtis Hopkins (feminist); Helen Wilmans (feminist and labor activist); Ralph Waldo Trine (socialist); Elbert Hubbard (reformist journalist) — the list goes on and on. So in bringing about the reforms that Masando rightly calls for, we are also honoring our roots.
Hey Mitch,
Yes! Thanks for calling out that historical aspect of New Thought. I think a lot of that history is often lost, and to me it is the perfect gateway to re-introducing social action back into New Thought spirituality. My fiance’s only context of New Thought when I met her was from the movie, “Little Women” and Louisa May Alcott, who I think falls into the group that you mention above. Reclaiming that aspect of New Thought history not only feels good, but also I think allows New thought to be more relevant to life in 2015 and grounded in universal principles. Grateful for your comments, and looking forward to future geeking out on this subject.
So pleased to read this interview with Masando Hiraoka, I am a slightly older ministerial student, and welcome our younger generation, which has so much to offer. My favorite regional class was “Social Justice,”, and I see myself working in this area. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed Maureen. These are important discussions to have (so keep checking back) and an exciting time to see New Thought reclaiming it’s roots in “creating a world that works for everyone” as Masando and Mitch have said. Godspeed in your social justice work!
Thank you Masando!!! This conversation is the next phase of awakening/evolution for the movement. There is a FANTASTIC On Being podcast with John Powell that speaks to this. American Theologian and Philosopher Josiah Royce birthed the concept of The Beloved Community challenging the ideology of individualism. Looking forward to more conversations on the topic!!!
I am so happy to see that you Masado are questioning some of our New Thought tradition in terms of Social Justice and are in ministerial school. I am a Latino Transman that decided to leave New Thought and my training as a Practitioner because of my deep concerns in Social Justice. I learned so much and had tremendous personal healing and growth in SOM/Religious Science. Perhaps when I get my MDiv. I will re-evaluate. Best wishes and blessing to you Masado.
I read an article this morning that links to the ideas here.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/09/world-in-context-mindware-tools-for-sharp-thinking
Essentially, bringing a social justice perspective to New Thought is about recognizing that everyone lives and takes actions in ways that are influenced by our particular contexts (including race and economic status) — and that New Thought is a means to understand and deal with all that.
Fascinating article Chris. And great connection to social justice and New Thought. Michael Beckwith stresses that one of the gifts New Thought can bring to the social justice arena is this emphasis on questioning beliefs and that can ultimately be extended to questioning the lager context of systems and structures of oppression. In terms of the initial example about Bill Gates, we attribute his success to genius, true to the emphasis in the US on the individual and ignore the context, the environments he found himself in as a teen. I once had student exemplify an extreme version of this thinking by saying a poor person should retrieve a computer from the trash, take it apart, reverse engineer it, make a better one and then they would be a successful person instead of a lazy complainer. This also seems highly relevant to the latest posts with Mitch dealing with accidents and multiple influences on our lives. Context matters to manifestation (a point also brought strongly home by David Spangler).
We want to be clear that context is always important but context is never some iron law of destiny, just as we’re not seeing LOA as the iron law that some believe. The application of the best in New Thought is a means that an individual can use to recognize her/his context and decide on whatever changes makes sense to build the kind of life they really want, as so many individual examples show us.
Well said!
I’m excited and inspired to see more emerging ministerial leaders, like Masando, tackling the challenge of bringing the tenets of the Science of Mind/New Thought to bear upon the pressing issues, like social and economic justice. Privately, I have been struggling with topics like these on my own. It’s nice to see others doing the same.
Also, I see it as a sign of health for the New Thought movement when we can gather together online (or otherwise) to discuss whether or not we, as students of New Thought, are responding well to the needs of the world around us.
And through discussions like these, I believe we will find or create more effective ways of acting in the world, both physically and metaphysically.
(P.S. Thank you, Harv, for creating and sustaining this forum.)