Originally Posted: January 13, 2025
For much of my life, spirituality and justice seemed like separate realms. Spirituality was inward — a deeply personal pursuit of meaning, connection, and peace. Justice, on the other hand, felt outward — a sophisticated engagement with the structures and struggles of the world, requiring an understanding of perennial philosophies and practical realities. One was contemplative — intimate, idiosyncratic, and reflective. The other was active — immersed in collective challenges and societal transformation. But over time, through reflection, artistic expression, and spiritual exploration, I awakened to a profound truth: justice marries spirituality to reality.
This realization redefined how I saw and lived both. Spirituality became more than an internal practice — it became a way of engaging with the world. Justice became more than a societal pursuit — it became an expression of the sacred. Together, they revealed a deeper understanding of reality itself: a unity where the inner life and the outer world are not only connected but inseparable.
This essay marks the beginning of a journey to explore how this sacred connection transforms not only how we see the world but how we live in it. It invites reflection on how justice grounds spirituality in reality, and how spirituality enriches our pursuit of justice with meaning and purpose.
Perceiving the World Differently: Vision as a Metaphor
I was born without sight in one eye. While this wasn’t a major limitation, it fundamentally shaped how I came to perceive the world — quite literally. What others described as three-dimensional forms moving through space appeared to me as relatively flat, two-dimensional shapes traversing a field of vision. My brain adapted by mapping the 3D world into a 2D rendering, forcing me to focus intently on “how lines create the illusion of forms.”
This experience became more than a physical adaptation — it shaped how I approach the world itself. I became preoccupied with how subjective perception defines reality. This awareness made me acutely attentive to the subtleties of life — the contours, shadows, and textures that many overlook. Over time, this attentiveness became central to my spiritual and artistic practice, as I began to realize that how we see the world shapes how we live within it.
My journey as an artist began with an insatiable curiosity, driven by the desire to visually comprehend the world in its fullness. This endeavor cultivated in me a profound patience — an intentional practice of attention — which became the cornerstone of my creative and personal growth.
Over time, this cultivated attention transcended its origins in art and found its way into another dimension of my life: managing chronic pain. Traditional methods had offered only limited relief, but I discovered that the attentiveness I had honed as an artist could be repurposed as a meditative practice. Through meditation, I utilized my “attention skills” to explore my pain not as an adversary to be fought, but as a phenomenon to be deeply observed.
As my meditative practice matured, it naturally evolved into something more sophisticated: a subroutine of contemplation. This intuitive development brought with it an unexpected gift — the most profound and sustained relief from chronic pain I had ever experienced. By attending to my pain with a contemplative mindset, I began to engage with it on a deeper, more transformative level.
This pairing of pain, attention, and contemplation, embedded within a broader spiritual practice, gradually drew me toward fundamental questions about the nature of suffering and how to address it in a practical, tangible way. My ongoing practice has become not just a tool for managing pain, but a lens through which I explore the human condition, connecting art, spirituality, and healing into a unified practice of intentional living.
This exploration of vision as both a physical and metaphorical process awakened me to the subjective nature of perception. It became clear that how we see the world is inextricably linked to how we engage with it — shaping not only our inner understanding but also our outward actions. The act of attentively observing, whether in art, meditation, or the simple moments of life, began to dissolve what I had previously perceived as a boundary between the inner and outer worlds.
This realization led me to question the nature of the divide itself. Was it possible that the separation between inner reflection and outer action — between the personal and the societal, the sacred and the practical — was nothing more than an illusion? It was this inquiry that brought me to a profound truth: the inner life and the outer world are not separate realms, but two aspects of a single, unified reality.
The Inner and Outer: A False Divide
It’s easy to live as though the inner life and the outer world are separate. Spirituality often feels like a retreat — a private, personal sanctuary disconnected from the messiness of everyday life. Justice, on the other hand, demands engagement with the struggles of the world: inequality, oppression, and suffering. This divide between contemplation and action, between the sacred and the practical, can feel natural—even necessary. But what if this separation is an illusion? What if the inner life and the outer world are not only connected but inseparable?
Theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, a central figure in liberation theology, speaks directly to this false divide. He argues that spirituality and social justice are not parallel tracks but a single path toward liberation.1 Gutiérrez’s vision is rooted in the preferential option for the poor — the belief that God’s love is especially present with those who are marginalized, suffering, and oppressed. Liberation theology insists that faith without action is incomplete. The call to justice is not separate from spirituality but an outgrowth of it. For me, Gutiérrez’s work illuminated the ways in which my own spiritual practices, rooted in reflection and attentiveness, could not be fully realized unless they also addressed the tangible realities of those who suffer.
Similarly, Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, exemplified this integration of spirituality and justice. Day’s life was a radical testament to the belief that every act of love — no matter how small — is sacred. She once said, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”2 This radical idea that love for God is inseparable from love for our neighbors — especially those who are most in need—challenged me to reevaluate my own spirituality. Day’s example of living simply and serving others grounded my understanding of how justice could become a sacred expression of my inner life.
Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others.3
My journey toward understanding this unity also drew inspiration from the insights of Howard Thurman, the theologian and mystic whose work deeply influenced the civil rights movement. Thurman wrote extensively about the importance of grounding activism in the contemplative life. For Thurman, the inner spiritual journey was not a retreat from the world but a source of renewal, strength, and vision for engaging with it. He taught that the work of justice begins in the stillness of the soul.4 This resonated profoundly with my own experience: the same attentiveness I had cultivated through art and meditation became the foundation for my engagement with the world. For Howard Thurman, the inner spiritual journey was not a retreat from the complexities of the world but rather the wellspring from which renewal, strength, and vision for meaningful engagement flowed. He understood that the challenges of justice work — combating oppression, addressing inequality, and healing a fractured world — could not be sustained solely through external effort. Instead, Thurman taught that such work requires a deep inner reservoir of spiritual vitality. In this sense, he reframed the contemplative life not as a passive withdrawal but as an active preparation—a sacred practice of grounding oneself in stillness to meet the demands of the world with courage, clarity, and compassion.
Art as a Bridge: Seeing the Sacred in the World
Art has always been a way of seeking truth, and for me, it became the bridge between my spiritual life and my growing awareness of justice. Through the practice of creating, whether through painting, writing, music, or movement, I learned to see the world not just as a collection of objects or events but as a living, sacred reality. Each brushstroke, melody, phrase, or gesture became a way of connecting with the divine presence that flows through all things. Art, in its myriad forms, offered me a lens to perceive the interconnectedness of life and a pathway to express its depths.
Yet art is more than a medium for personal reflection; it has the power to stir us into action. When we engage with the world as artists, even in the simple act of observing, we begin to notice both the beauty and the brokenness around us. A carefully crafted poem can illuminate injustice, a haunting melody can awaken empathy, and a dance can embody the resilience of the human spirit. Art compels us to pay attention, and in that attentiveness, we cannot help but confront the suffering of others and the need for transformation.
But the concept of art extends beyond the canvas, the page, or the stage. It can become a discipline of living well.
The same attentiveness, care, and intentionality that an artist brings to their craft can be applied to the way we live our lives. In this sense, art is not confined to galleries or concert halls; it is present in how we nurture relationships, how we respond to challenges, and how we carry out the seemingly mundane tasks of everyday life. When approached with love and purpose, even the most ordinary acts — preparing a meal, listening deeply, or tending a garden — can become sacred expressions of creativity and connection.
This understanding of art as a discipline aligns closely with the pursuit of justice. Both require us to see clearly, love deeply, and respond with compassion. In living artfully, we create a world that reflects the sacred, embodying beauty, resilience, and hope in the face of life’s complexities. Art, then, becomes a bridge — not only between spirituality and justice but between who we are and who we are called to become.
Justice Marries Spirituality to Reality
The realization that spirituality and justice are not separate felt like a moment of awakening. Suddenly, spirituality was no longer confined to the inner life, and justice was no longer limited to outward engagement. Instead, the two revealed themselves as deeply interconnected aspects of the same truth. Justice marries spirituality to reality by grounding it in the lived experiences of others, and spirituality enriches justice with love, compassion, and vision.
Gustavo Gutiérrez reminds us that spirituality must actively engage with the structures that perpetuate poverty and oppression.
Dorothy Day shows us that every act of love is sacred and transformative.
Howard Thurman teaches that the inner life must fuel outward action.
Together, their insights illuminate a path forward where justice becomes the natural expression of a deeply rooted spirituality — a way of marrying the sacred to the practical.
A Sacred Invitation
The unity of spirituality and justice transforms both how we perceive the world and how we engage with it.
It is a call to recognize that the inner life and the outer world are inseparable, and that justice is not just a societal ideal but a sacred expression of love.
Through art, reflection, and spiritual practice, I have come to see that spirituality and justice are not abstractions but ways of living.
Justice grounds spirituality in the realities of life, while spirituality infuses justice with meaning and grace.
Together, they form a way of being that honors the sacred in all things.
As this journey unfolds, I will explore how we can bring the sacred into every part of life — how we can live with attentiveness, act with compassion, and work toward healing and transformation. Justice marries spirituality to reality, and in that union, we find the fullness of life.
Love. Be confident. Create. Grow.
@ CyberArtTime 2025
Footnotes
- Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Translated by Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson, Orbis Books, 1973. ↩︎
- Forest, Jim. All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day. Orbis Books, 2011. ↩︎
- Day, Dorothy. The Catholic Worker. The Catholic Worker Movement, 1950. ↩︎
- Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited. Beacon Press, 1996. ↩︎
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