Soul Boom summary

The spiritual path runs in two directions – internally, toward our own peace and enlightenment, and externally, toward the greater good of humanity. The perfect way to illustrate these paths, at least for a wildly handsome actor who grew up in suburban Seattle in the 1970s, is with the television shows Kung Fu and Star Trek.

For the uninitiated, Kung Fu starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine (let’s call him KCC for short). KCC was the orphaned child of a Chinese woman and a white man, and he was raised in a Shaolin monastery. As an adult, he traveled alone in the American Old West, following his moral compass and the spiritual lessons he learned from his Shaolin teachers, Master Kan and Master Po. They also taught him to fight like a badass, which came in handy when some ignorant cowboys were causing trouble, and that was pretty much every episode.

The internal direction that KCC represents is the way most of us travel along the spiritual path. We seek serenity and wisdom to help make our own lives better. That’s a worthy pursuit, but most of us never travel in the opposite direction. Heck, a lot of us don’t even look that way, even though most major religions emphasize the need to serve others, especially those who need it most.

There are many stories of the Buddha feeding and educating the less fortunate, and he sent his original troop of monks into the world with these instructions: “Wander forth for the good of many, for the welfare of many, in compassion for the world.” This actually sounds a lot like pages from the Torah that say, “Give justice to the weak and fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” It also sounds like these words of Jesus: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay for his deed.” And how about these words from Mohammed: “The best of you is he who is most beneficial to others.”

You might be a bit wary of religious teachings. And you might have very good reasons for it. If it makes you more comfortable, you can follow the advice of a space traveler from the future – Captain James T. Kirk. He can show us the way along the external spiritual path and how to help the greater good. That’s exactly what Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise were doing on Star Trek. The original version of the show is set in the 23rd century, a time when the people of Earth have become intellectually and spiritually enlightened. They want to spread that enlightenment to the far reaches of the galaxy, no matter how strange the planet or alien.

While William Shatner has enjoyed a long acting career, not enough of us have emulated the character that made him famous, Captain Kirk. Yes, it’s tough to pull off the form-fitting space uniform look, but that’s not what we’re talking about. Humanity needs more Captain Kirks peering into the dark places and offering a helping hand. 

Why? Because we are surrounded by an angry mob of pandemics.