Spiritual Lawyer is an oxymoron for many, but for me its a burning vision, sometimes its even a reality. Thanks primarily to my parents, I have always seen my life in a spiritual context. As a teenager in college at Vanderbilt University I came to see my life as a Path towards full awakening of human potential. This Path led me to Vienna, Austria in 1971. There I met my wife, Molly, who was a student from New York University on a similar Path, and Arnold Keyserling, the Professor of Spiritual Philosophy at the University of Vienna who was to become my primary teacher and mentor. With their help my understanding deepened, and my dedication to wisdom and a Path of spiritual fulfillment intensified. Seven years later my Path led to a strange place where most wisdom seekers fear to tread - law school.
Law school seemed the right thing to do at the time, even though I had no idea how my spiritual pursuits would, or could, blend with the law or the legal profession. Molly, by then my wife of five years, agreed, even though we had no idea how my inner quest would, or could, blend with the Law or the legal profession. But we had trust in my inner voice, and somehow we had the courage to take the next step, even though we could not see where it would take us. The years passed, I graduated from law school, got a job in a small but prestigious law firm. We raised a family, and I became a successful attorney, partner in the firm, experienced litigator and computer law specialist, and eventually the managing partner.
It has been a difficult journey, fraught with many adventures, dangers, pitfalls and temptations, but somehow my pre-lawyer goals have remained. Molly and I still see our life as a spiritual Path, and now, after years of hard work to try and integrate my public life as a lawyer with my inner depths, we have begun to see the meaning of my way. A vision of unity has begun to appear, a positive vision of the Law and a new kind of lawyer - a holistic lawyer!
The Law has been a large part of my life. So for me the Law, and the craft of the lawyer, goes easily with a spiritual quest. But I know this is quite stretch for many. How can the Law and lawyers have anything to do with spirituality and human potential? How can lawyers be holistic? It goes against the grain of a host of popular stereotypes. All too often people equate lawyers with greed, materialism, insensitivity, unscrupulous actions and devious thinking. The average person has limited personal exposure to the Law and lawyers. They know only the divorce lawyer who took their last dime, the lawyers on commercials chasing ambulances, or the media portrayals of lawyers such as the Mafia "The Firm" or "LA Law." As a result there is an in built prejudice and stereotype against the Law and lawyers which, based on my experience as a lawyer, is way out of proportion to the reality.
The Law is simply too important to be left to lawyers, it is too profound to be ignored and stereotyped. We live in a world based on Law on all levels. On the level of society history shows that rule by Law, even with all its imperfections, is still to be preferred to rule by men and women, or anarchy. Lawyer bashing may be fun, but in today's world we cannot afford this as a serious prejudice, any more than we can afford racial discrimination. We should instead start to imagine a positive role for lawyers as guardians of the Law, protectors of truth and justice, and everyone should work together, lawyers and non-lawyers alike, to make this vision a reality. When you cruise around the web of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers, try to put aside the popular pre-conceptions and prejudices, and open yourself to a positive vision of Law and holisitic lawyers.
Obviously not all lawyers are spiritual or holistic, and the profession suffers from numerous pitfalls. Still, the legal profession can, on occasions at least, provide an honest forum for the search for truth and justice. Admittedly this is the side of the Law and the legal profession which is unseen to most, and only rarely portrayed by the media. From my experience, although there is no real life "Perry Mason" out there who wins every case, there are plenty of lawyers who are as honest, dedicated and excellent thinkers. There are even some who are developing their full potential as a human being in the context of the Law. They are using thinking to go beyond thinking and the ego, into their feelings, sensitivities, intuition and higher Self. Spiritual-lawyer is not always an oxymoron. It depends on the individual and the type of Law.
I have found that the legal perspective and craft of law, the skills and techniques of a lawyer, can create a thinking bridge between science and religion. On this bridge the natural laws of the cosmos and human development - the Laws of Wisdom - can be put to practical use. The common laws of psychology, religion and philosophy can be applied to unlock full human potential.
For me, independent, holistic thinking has been the key. This means thinking for yourself, in a holistic way, that creates synthesis. Holistic thinking finds the common denominators underlying the apparent differences in the Laws of Wisdom. Thinking is not just "rational," disciplined, stiff and linear. On the contrary, thinking as I have come to know it as a lawyer requires creativity, flexibility, and strong analogic and intuitive abilities. Ideally to "think like a lawyer" means to think holistically, skeptically, objectively, independently, clearly and concisely.
Lawyers are trained to base their thinking on evidence and proven precedent. Perhaps most important of all, after a few years of practice in professional thinking, every good lawyer comes to understand quite well the inherent limitations of thinking. A lawyer knows better than anyone what the law and rationality cannot do. From countless human dramas and legal contests, the lawyer comes to understand the limitations of thinking and reason. They see the significance in life of chance and stray choices. Lawyers, especially the ones called upon to serve as judges, know from hard experience that on some occasions justice and fairness demand that the rules and reason be bent. Thinking is a reliable guide, but it does not always lead to justice. When it does not, good lawyers are trained to go beyond the law, to create new law, so as to serve equity and fairness.
Contrary to popular belief, I have found that a highly developed thinking ability supports our higher sensitivities and capacities. Thinking is the natural birthright of all humanity, it should not be denied or left uncultivated. Unfortunately, I have found that most people are indoctrinated into various forms of pseudo-thinking as a child. In order to fit into the particular culture in which they happen to be born, they accept the beliefs and thinking of that culture. As a result they become stunted, warped and entranced. As an adult they never really learn how to think independently or creatively. They never know themselves, nor realize their full potential.
The non-holistic dependent thinking inculcated by a culture is essentially designed to perpetuate the culture. It is usually very limited, compartmentalized, repetitive, rigid and dependent. On the rare occasions when thinking is taught, only the analytic and logical aspects of thinking are considered. The analogic and holistic sides are ignored. The western tradition and culture of the Law is unique in encouraging creative, well rounded and fully developed thinking. Law schools, unlike other graduate schools, focus on learning methods of thinking, rather than learning a body of knowledge. For that reason only law schools utilize the Socratic method of teaching, where questioning of students is emphasized, rather than lecturing. Yet anyone, not just law students, can wake up from their consensus trance and rid themselves of pseudo- thinking. Our natural thinking abilities may be stunted by cultural indoctrination, but they are not killed. We can wake up from our consensus trance and rid ourselves of pseudo-thinking. My path now as a holistic lawyer is to help people do that, to think for themselves to make sense of life and its many astonishing coincidences.
Toward that end for the past three years my wife, Molly, and I have opened our home once a week to all other spiritual seekers. Our Wednesday night class has become an open friendship group of many different types of people more interested in the great questions of life, than the canned answers. Our group is local, but we think universal and act global, and are affiliated with similar groups under the common name of the School of Wisdom. We all try and think for ourselves to puzzle out the meaning of life and avoid dogma of all kinds. This is one way that a holistic lawyer can try and reach out, and help their community. There are many others ways - each person finds their own by following their heart.
So open your senses and think for yourself. Follow the vision of your heart. Have the courage to take the next step into the unknown. You never know to what strange and wonderful place it may take you.
