“To BE or not to BE": That is The Answer.

William Shakespeare, also known as 'The Bard' was born on 23rd April 1564, 460 years ago. He died on his birthday on 23 April 1616: Over four centuries ago. Perhaps his most famous line "To be or not to be: That is the question" could be restated as "To BE or not to BE: That is the answer." Why? Because he left us with as many questions as answers. Shakespeare did not write a memoir. However over the last two centuries scholars have debated over whether he was religious or a spiritual Master.

BEing is the essence of spirituality: BEing is the answer to all of your problems, it really is. I have tried everything else including philosophy, positive psychology, and learning from timeless Truths. Spirituality is the overlap in the Venn diagrams of these disciplines, the Ikigai, the sweet spot, in the middle where they all overlap, integrate, and fuse into Truth with a capital 'T'. The various disciplines are essentially describing the undescribable Truth, as Truth is a feeling, so they use metaphors.

When you meet with mental dis-ease and despair head on like an Existential 'punch-in-the-face' and live in our dysfunctional, broken, toxic, 'far-from-civilised' society, only a spiritual approach will bring you to peace, love, wisdom, Truth, joy, balance, serenity, well-being, balance, presence, possibility, personal power, and so much more. Shakespeare held all those core values dear. Shakespeare was a truly great spiritual man. This is illustrated in the many lines and themes found in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, which cannot be correctly understood without reference to the esoteric meaning contained in them. Shakespeare's works contain a common theme of spiritual purification, a kind of mysticism that dominated the minds of his contemporaries. They contain multiple levels of meaning as Dante described. The true function of art is not merely to educate but to give us a taste of wisdom, each to his own capacity. The purpose of great Art, which as it enchants us, also brings us closer to knowing the Divine. Just as Dante was a gift of Heaven to medieval Christianity, so Shakespeare is a gift of Heaven for all of Mankind, for every creed, in every age. For me Shakespeare was a genius polymath who was a spiritual Master with a tongue and a pen that spun pure gold of paradigm-shifting creativity.

Shakespeare wrote at an extraordinary pace, producing twenty-seven plays in the decade from 1592 to 1602. But what is most stunning is not only that level of output, but also the quality. To consider a period of a little more than a year in 1606-7, The mystery of Shakespeare is not the composition of three tragedies in sixty weeks but that the three comprised Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. That kind of creative abundance may not be possible without a spiritual influence.

After Jesus, Hamlet is the most cited figure in Western consciousness; no one prays to him, but no one evades him for long either. Each sonnet, for example, can be seen as having an overall scriptural theme.

The function of literature, like that of all art is not to preach, but to reveal. A play reveals spiritual wisdom by drawing us into it, “from cold objectivity to the warmth of subjectivity.” The audience is not being offered spiritual laws and principles, but individual characters - and so, by watching the play we are able to “participate naturally, and almost involuntarily, in the world of holiness.”

In 2 Corinthians 6:14 it states "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Let's dive in deeper and look at the evidence (well I am a scientist) for his masterful blend of spirituality...

“To be or not to be: That is the question.” William Shakespeare's most famous line from a soliloquy given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called "nunnery scene" of his play 'Hamlet' (Act 3, Scene 1), could well be the greatest evidence that we have that Shakespeare was an implicit spiritual Master, and therefore I have restated it as “To BE or not to BE:" That is The Answer

Shakespeare is one of the greatest gifts that we have received, regardless of our country of origin: Although the French would claim Molière out-wrote and out-witted him. As someone who is half French and half English, and totally bilingual, I would have to say that I have a soft spot for Shakespeare. He sits at, and continued to hold, the number one spot for me and pretty much everyone. Why is that? Was he more than 'The Bard'? How does Shakespeare continue to outshine and overshadow every other writer? How was he far, far, far, more? How has he kept the number one position in the literary world for over four centuries? Was he a spiritual Master: Someone who guides our daily way of ‘BEing’ from beyond the grave? Is it this subliminal spirituality, combined seamlessly with his creative genius as a transcendant 'Sacred Artist' that make him so unique? Did he write from perfect flow? Flow is alertness combined with the stillness of being totally present - like Roger Federer playing tennis, or with some musicians when their eyes are half shut and they are performing from a very deep place indeed. It was not until seven years after Shakespeare’s death that his plays were collected together and published in what is known as the 'First Folio'.

We think we know more about things scientifically now, but do we know more about ourselves spiritually? Shakespeare did. Do you? When you look into the mirror, who is it that looks back? Are you asleep or awakened? What is guiding your thoughts and actions? Who is it that is aware? Do you know - really know - who you are, and why you're here? Are you fulfilling - really fulfilling – your soul’s true purpose? Do you know what it is or even care? If you honestly say 'yes' then you're in an astoundingly small minority. 

So I say to The Bard as it states in the Bible in Psalm 31:16 "Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love."

Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and “The Bard of Avon” or simply "The Bard'

Shakespeare's surviving works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, where he died three years later of natural causes.

Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, his spirituality, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Shakespeare’s plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Why do we not know if Shakespeare was religious?

Despite being one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of English literature, much of Shakespeare’s life remains a mystery to us. William Shakespeare did not write any memoirs. We only have his works to analyse, yet what a set of works!

There was a battle raging between The Reformation and Papalism at the time of his life, and though outwardly a Christian, the neutrality in his works kept him safe. Witches were being burned or drowned.

Clearly, Shakespeare had risked his life to bring us the virtually unknown, dangerously forbidden, spiritual teaching of the ancient spiritual Masters: How, woven, as if with invisible golden thread, into the verse, names and plot-lines of his well-known tales, is a sublimely subliminal spiritual teaching.

Had this been spotted in his day, he may have suffered the direst consequences - and his works of genius burned - along with his screaming, ignited body, like the Cathars (who originated in the beautiful town of Albi in Southern France, where my French cousins live), and who were slaughtered after the brutal massacre in the first major battle in the Albigensian Crusade called by Pope Innocent III against them after a papal legate, the Abbot of Cîteaux, declared, "Slaughter them all!".

Still today we must always beware the ways that 'The Establishment' continuously undermines true progress towards Self-realisation and Enlightenment: The Establishment that never wants us to know, let alone follow, any version of truth but their own (truth with a small 't'). This is not Truth: It is 'false power without Truth'.

I wanted to write this article out of gratitude to Shakespeare and to sing his praises as a spiritual Master up there with Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha, Mohamed, Krishna, and Lao Tzu, and the other spiritual Masters. He has comforted me on my own four year full time immersive journey of spiritual awakening, and provided me with so many quotations, questions, and answers that are totally replete with wisdom and Truth, which I will dive into first. In the Bible in Ephesians 5:9 it states "For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and Truth." Then we will look at other supporting evidence.

The Psalm 119:130 may as well have been written to Shakespeare "The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple."

My favourite quotes by The Bard and their spiritual meaning

“To be, or not to be: That is the question.”

William Shakespeare's most famous line from a soliloquy given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called "nunnery scene" of his play Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1), could well be the greatest evidence that we have that he was an implicit spiritual Master, and therefore I have restated it as “To BE or not to BE:" That is The Answer: The title of this, my latest article, relates to our 'BEingness' and to our mortality. Not 'to be' implies death, or more precisely, suicide. BEingness relates to the moment-to-moment choice that we have of coming from our ego (our terrified 7-year-old self) or our true Self (our soul; our higher power). Coming from your higher power is always the answer, regardless of the question.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

This quote from Hamlet has also made it into everyday speech. Of all quotations from Hamlet, this one has been perhaps the most widely debated – and argued over – in terms of what its precise meaning is. We will dive into this quote more deeply that the others as it is so relevant to the discussions around Shakespeare and spirituality. Let’s start by considering where they are spoken in the play. Hamlet himself speaks them, while in conversation with his close friend, Horatio, a fellow student of his at Wittenberg. The words appear in Act 1 Scene 5 of the play, just after Hamlet has spoken with the Ghost, which purports to be Hamlet’s dead father, 'Old Hamlet'.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play about spirits. But how should this be read – theologically, aesthetically, psychoanalytically? This is a question that has preoccupied many philosophical thinkers from Kierkegaard and Lacan to Girard and Derrida. Sigmund Freud, as we know from his famous comment on the play in the Interpretation of Dreams, reads these paradoxes as symptomatic betrayals of Hamlet’s Oedipus Complex. Memory is playing tricks, he argues, because of Hamlet’s repressed desire to destroy his father and possess his mother. Jacques Lacan declares that Hamlet is, from first to last, a play about mourning and grief. And he relates this in turn to the fact that the play should be read, at an ontological level, as a ‘tragedy of desire’ – expressing the protagonist’s excessive sense of his ‘Lack of BEing’ (Manque-à-être).

Richard Kearney in the book 'Spiritual Shakespeares' states "Against the standard view that Hamlet marks the ‘majesty of melancholy’, I prefer to read the play accordingly as a metamorphosis of melancholy into a miracle of mourning. Shakespeare moves beyond a play of compulsive rivalry and revenge to one of deep spiritual Enlightenment by staging one of the finest dramas of narrative memory in Western literature."

The role of Hamlet is one of the most intellectually and emotionally demanding for an actor: as Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor mention in their detailed introduction to 'Hamlet: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series)', the Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis even withdrew from the role in 1989, mid-run, after he allegedly began ‘seeing’ the ghost of his father, the former Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, who had died in 1972.

Remember that scene in “Crime and Punishment” where the young prostitute, Sonia, says to Raskolnikov, the murderer, “Don’t take away my faith. It’s all I have.” And Raskolnikov replies to her: “Don’t take away my unfaith. It’s all I have.” “I won’t bore you,” writes Lionel C. Meeker of Temecula, “by hauling out the famous statement from Shakespeare about ‘There are more things in heaven and earth...‘“ The quote also relates to Shakespeare's Henry VI " You are deceived; my substance is not here. For what you see is but the smallest part. And least proportion of humanity. I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here, It is of such a spacious lofty pitch. Your roof were not sufficient to contain’t." What better description of wonder and awe at the Universe: To me, this is spirituality. As Gerard Winstanley said, "Why may not we have our heaven here?" I would add "Why may not we have heaven inside of us." Ewan Fernie, the editor of the book 'Spiritual Shakespeares' wrote "Shakespeare at least once conceived of his art as having the broadly ‘spiritual’ function of materialising another world. Theseus famously describes the ‘poet’s eye in a fine frenzy rolling’ between Heaven and earth as he (or she) brings forth ‘the forms of things unknown’ (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)... Poetry and spirituality are kin in that both traffic beyond the known world; they are alike, too, in their disputed relation to what is real. If both are sometimes thought to reach through the world of mere appearances into the heart of reality, they are equally often regarded as empty-headed distractions from what really is. It depends on whether ‘the forms of things unknown’ are revelations or illusions... Poetry and spirituality both promise no less than another world." And there is nothing wrong with that. It only makes them more sensationally interesting, especially when that 'other world' is inside and around us. He continues "Shakespeare deliberately mixes the promise and unlikelihood of poetry and spirituality into something rich and strange in the last scene of The Winter’s Tale. Even if Hermione’s revival is a simple trick, it is infused with the aura of resurrection... Hermione’s reanimation is also a ‘recognition scene’ for the process of incarnation whereby Shakespearean drama generally brings its characters to life: Everyone on stage watching the ‘miracle’ is witnessing the strange secret of their own creation as well, for they as much as Hermione have sprung into life by the magical grace of the playwright and the theatre company. And if humanity can be recreated on stage, perhaps it can be renovated off stage as well? Theseus and The Winter’s Tale encourage us to consider the plays as a real or fantasised advent of the beyond within reality. But it is clear from the speeches and experiences of Talbot, Clarence, Bottom, Cleopatra etc. that Shakespearean drama is also sufficiently ‘real’ to be haunted by spiritual alterity from within. Sometimes this fourth dimension seems only obscurely to inhabit quotidian character or action, but such ‘Sightless substances’ as Lady Macbeth speaks of can exert powerful spiritual pressure (Macbeth)." I love the sense of "The ironic power of spiritual Truth" hinted at by the editor. Once you start to see the world through spiritual eyes, you cannot unsee it, at least not without voluntarily swallowing a blue pill. The resistance is not that it is unbelievable, it is that there may sometimes be fear around the initial discomfort of the Hero's Journey of the spiritual path.

The editor continues "Nor is it any wonder that celestial harmonies are inaudible in ‘a naughty (chaotic, dysfunctional) world’ where a fraudulent peace and unity have been secured by a forced conversion... Shakespeare’s is the drama of the possibility of spirituality... The possibility that human beings may thrillingly surpass what we have taken for reality is aesthetically, intellectually and politically irresistible? As Leontes says in 'The Winters's Tale "No settled senses of the world can match the pleasures of that madness... Surely Shakespearean pluralism involves competition between possible absolutes, and resistance to the absolute as well. This leads us into territory as existentially and ethically treacherous and exciting as experience itself... For Derrida, spirituality is a structure of experience and possibility" Shakespeare is so exciting, and his plays leave you blissful and fizzing with possibility, which makes them even more compelling from a spiritual point of view: Re-experiencing their spiritual intensities may lead us back to dramatic intensity itself. The Bard is no less than a spiritual Master.

The editor provides a welcome definition "Spirituality is (or purports to be) the experience or knowledge of what is other and is ultimate, and the sense of identity and ‘mission’ that may arise from or be vested in that experience. The Bard was a genius on a mission. The editor continues "Nor is spirituality just the same as religion. Though it is religion’s heart and inspiration, spirituality precedes religion and may well take place outside it. Spirituality is an experience of Truth, and of living in accordance with Truth, but it is concerned with the truth not of this world but of a (Utopian) world that has not yet and perhaps never will come to be... Spirituality holds out the hope of a more positive leap into a revolutionary alternative... Even though each spiritual moment in Shakespeare involves a specific determination of the ultimate, Shakespearean spirituality should not be reified as any one thing. In this it accords with what Derrida calls ‘religion without religion’: An openness to spiritual possibility that stops short of exclusive dogma... In the context of contemporary critical thought, Spiritual Shakespeares proffers a striking spiritual materialism, where spirituality is not so much an escape from material reality as an immanent chance for something better... The philosopher Richard Kearney begins with the disarmingly simple recognition that ‘Hamlet is a play about spirits’."

In the excellent and exhaustively annotated Arden edition of the play, 'Hamlet: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series)', Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor print the line with ‘your philosophy’ rather than ‘our philosophy’, arguing in their note that ‘your’ here is probably being used colloquially in a general, rather than a personal, sense by Hamlet: he isn’t attacking Horatio’s own beliefs as limited but simply acknowledging the limitations of all human knowledge. Most critics and editors seem to favour the interpretation of Hamlet’s lines that sees him acknowledging the limits of rational thinking. If such things as ghosts do exist, they cannot be accounted for by reason alone. And Hamlet has just spoken to a ghost, even if he cannot be sure it is who it says it is. Why does this distinction matter? Perhaps it doesn’t, greatly. It’s sometimes argued that it does matter because Hamlet’s words are often analysed as representing a takedown of those with a limited rationalistic worldview, who are (Hamlet implies) wrong to disbelieve in the supernatural just because the existence of such things is not accounted for by reason or empirical study. Thus many people have been happy to co-opt Hamlet’s words, cloaked in the authority which any Shakespeare quotation is supposed to carry (even if, like Polonius’s ‘To thine own self be true’, the words are spoken by a pompous windbag), in order to criticise or chastise their fellow humans for being closed-minded over others’ religious, supernatural, or spiritual beliefs. This suggests that the sum total of all human knowledge (science plus philosophy (metaphysics)) is limited, and that only a connection with the Universal intelligence will inform your intuition. But if ‘your philosophy’ is simply being used synonymously with ‘the whole field of human study’, Hamlet may not be attacking Horatio for his closed-mindedness, but he is still advocating a belief in the spiritual. Rather than criticising the limits of Horatio’s worldview, he is calling out the limitations of the whole of rational philosophy.

As Lionel C. Meeker says: “The fact remains that in spite of ‘science’ and Carl Sagan (the American astronomer, science communicator, author, and public advocate of skeptical scientific inquiry) and the professional debunkers, there is more, far more in the Universe that we are totally in ignorance of. We are limited by our five senses. Once in a while we get a few fleeting insights on inexplicable phenomena, but that doesn’t mean the whole of the inexplicable should be rejected because ‘they cannot be duplicated in a laboratory.’ ”

In the 'Foreword' of the book 'Spiritual Shakespeares', John D. Caputo changes the quote to "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in secular materialism, theology, or contemporary theory. This, despite its precision, however, is not so poetic. In the 'Afterword' of the book Jonathan Dollimore writes "Readers will find here an engagement with both Shakespeare and spirituality which is intelligent, original, and challengingly optimistic, one which surely succeeds in its wish to ‘reinvigorate and strengthen politically progressive materialist criticism’." Accepting scientific dogma as 'gospel', to me, shouts loudly of ego. Almost every scientific theory ever made has been disproved or revised by science itself. Having a Master's Degree in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, from Trinity College, Cambridge (my final thesis was on 'Truth"I know that science can't prove any hypothesis, it can only reject (disprove) it.

'Spiritual Shakespeares' (published in 2005, then revised in 2017) is the first book to explore the scope for reading Shakespeare spiritually in the light of contemporary theory and current world events. Among its controversial and provocative arguments is the idea that a consideration of spirituality might point the way forward for materialist criticism.

Terence Hawkes, the General Editor of the book 'Spiritual Shakespeares' writes in the Preface that "In our time, the field of literary studies has rarely been a settled, tranquil place. Indeed, for over two decades, the clash of opposed theories, prejudices and points of view has made it more of a battlefield... And even the slightest awareness of the pressures of gender or of race, or the most cursory glance at the role played by that strange creature ‘Shakespeare’ in our cultural politics, will reinforce a similar turn towards questions that sometimes appear scandalously ‘non-literary’. The worrying truth is that nobody can just pick up Shakespeare’s plays and read them." I have to say that I disagree with this last sentence: I believe that The Bard was deeply spiritual and that he knew that he was creating transcendant 'Sacred Art' that should be appreciated through a reading of the text, as if a meditation. Peter Brook says, theatre is “Life in a more concentrated form, condensing a lifetime into a few hours on the stage.” John D Caputo writes in the book that "Literature does not illustrate pre-established philosophical principles but can instruct philosophy about matters too concrete and singular for philosophy’s purview." I have found this to be very true, and as a scientist, philosopher, and metaphysician I welcome the concept that literature may instruct philosophy - one only has to read '1984' and 'Brave New World' to see how literature can influence philosophical discourse on the concept of 'Utopia'. John D Caputo continues "Who better than Shakespeare can instruct philosophy about the meaning and texture of concrete experience? Who better than Hamlet, to take a famous example, can teach us about the dynamics of decisions made in the midst of life’s uncertainties?" Surely anyone alive in 2023 would welcome wisdom about the transcendence of the chaos of our current world? Our current world is what James Joyce called a “chaosmos.”

In philosophy, transcendence is the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages. It includes philosophies, systems, and approaches that describe the fundamental structures of being, not as an ontology (theory of being), but as the framework of emergence and validation of knowledge of being. These definitions are generally grounded in reason and empirical observation and seek to provide a framework for understanding the world that is not reliant on religious beliefs or supernatural forces. 

John D Caputo continues "The nineteenth-century prophets assure us God is dead. According to Marx and Feuerbach, the absolute has renounced its transcendent foothold in the sky and come down to earth... The positivists propose that mysteries that once were the province of myth and philosophy have found a demystified resting place in modern science... There are signs of advanced secularisation, like the decline in regular church attendance among the larger confessions or the virtual collapse of vocations to the Catholic priesthood in Western countries. But non-traditional forms of spirituality flourish... Secularism’s monopoly is as dead as God’s, allowing many flowers to bloom... Derrida’s discontent with realism arises not from anti-realist motives but from hyper-realist ones, from a love and a desire for the real beyond what today passes for real, which springs from a desire for a justice or a democracy to come!" If you do not go within, you will go without. Surely the Universe is more than the sum of what science understands plus what it is yet to understand: This leaves no space for miracles: As Albert Einstein wrote "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

The spirituality that Derrida derives from Shakespeare involves conversion from a narrow investment in the self (the small self, note the small ‘s’, the ego who is who we think we are) and what is, to an infinite openness (of our higher Self, our higher power, our soul). This is what his great forebear Emmanuel Levinas called “The spirituality of the soul.”

Žižek has now challenged Derrida in a series of books that has given spirituality a sharper political edge in an epoch of ‘terror’ (and chaos). Contra Derrida’s spirituality of deferral, these thinkers declare, after Jacques Lacan, that ‘the impossible happens’: that is, it really is possible to bring the beyond absolutely into the world now. Žižek writes “Every Truth-Event leads to a kind of ‘Resurrection’, through fidelity to it and a labour of Love on its behalf, one enters another dimension.” One is reborn. As who? As one’s own saviour.

It has become a cliché of modern criticism to interpret the happy endings of the comedies as bitterly ironic, but Derrida could help us to recognise that they also raise the hope of a ‘messianic’ ‘promesse de bonheur’. Which begs the question: is spirituality an unrealisable ‘divine comedy’ dialectically related to the tragedies of life? But they are far more than irony and wishful thinking. As Shakespeare himself wrote “Nothing is either good (a comedy) or bad (a tragedy), but thinking makes it so.” It just is.

Caputo writes "And yet the point here, let us recall, is not to fit Shakespeare into any pre-established theory but to shush the sceptics and make them listen to the play because the play’s the thing, in which the whole of life (and the Universe) has been concentrated. Skepticism is like trying to explain a joke: It kind of ruins it, and is unwelcome. He continues "Shakespeare knows that our lives are... uplifted by the voice of a “divinity” who “shapes our ends.... He knows that we are called to respond in the present even as we are solicited by the promise of things to come."

Insight and wisdom come from your soul's connection with the intelligence and creative force of Universe as oneness. Also, if you learn the Natural immutable laws of the Universe in this way, it will allow you to manifest in both form and the formless. There is nothing, then, that you cannot BE, do, or have.

"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

This quote relates to the fact that we have forgotten who we truly are. Spiritual awakening is a great remembering of who we truly are: Infinite limitless BEings who have the potential of Christ in each of us. Similarly, Shakespeare wrote "We know what we are, but know not what we may be." You can hear the same concepts resonating. Marianne Williamson, the American Presidential Candidate, who so beautifully and insightfully summarised the positive psychology and spirituality contained in 'A Course in Miracles' (ACIM), famously wrote “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

In the Bible in Matthew 5:15-16 Jesus says "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

It is in humility that we find our real personal power. In Philippians 2 is written “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of other men. Let the same mind be in you that was even in Christ Jesus, Who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God: But he made himself of no reputation (“emptied himself”), and took on him the form of a servant, and was made like unto men, and was found in shape as a man. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto the death, even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a Name above every name.”

"Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

Here, The Bard relates spiritually to challenges and obstacles that are sent to us in life, often in disguise, that although appearing unsightly and unseemly at first, are lessons sent to us from the part of us that loves us the most to redirect and guide our growth, increase our presence, expand our consciousness, and make us who we were truly meant to BE.

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."

Our possibility is to BE infinitely abundant, and limitless, minus our limiting beliefs (doubts and fears). Fear is a liar (a traitor) which holds us back from our leap of Faith, by telling us in a loud brash voice that screams in our ear, that this way lies death, when in fact it is quite the opposite. Inaction holds you back and worsens your fear. Leap and the net (and your wings) will appear. All is well. Trust the process. Trust the Universe: It has your back.

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."

Listening is always way more powerful than speaking, and this is especially the case in spiritual awakening and also in service to others. The ego uses its voice: The soul uses its ears. I hear you. I salute the divine in you. This is the meaning of ‘Namaste’, said at the end of every yoga session throughout the world, one of the accepted best practices (along with Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and deep Transformative Life Coaching (TLC)) for a dysregulated nervous system.

In Luke 12:3 it says "What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." As a Transformative Life Coach (TLC) I will see and hear the highest version of you, until you hear it your Self: From that place of BEing, all your doing and having will flow like a river. Just relax into it and flow. You will see the miracle of surrender. Fighting the river (the Universe) never worked and never will. 'Go all in' to the river.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown."

As human beings, we love to love, then hate, then love again. This is the nature of the ‘tall poppy syndrome’, where as a society we decapitate those visionary souls who put their heads above the parapet. Then we later posthumously give them knighthoods. Alan Turing springs to mind, who cracked the Enigma Code, saving thousands of lives, and significantly shortening the Second World War, but committed suicide as he was vilified and sentenced for being gay. Jesus also springs to mind of course, who was whipped, flogged, given a ‘crown of thorns’, mocked, then crucified. The psychological metaphor is that Jesus was 'resurrected': The ultimate 'come-back King.' The paradox is that he chose to be crucified in service of us.

"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

The spiritual teaching here is that Nature knows what it is doing, so give her the time to do it without getting in her, or your, own way. You cannot fight and win against or control the Universe. Instead, respond, in ‘God’s time’, and never react. The ego reacts to egoic calls from others to conflict. The soul responds. Often responding may be to provide clarity, or to not do anything. The soul knows what is right and speaks through the soft, quiet voice of intuition during meditation and mindfulness.

Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st. So long as man can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Eternal summer and eternal Life are spiritual attributes of the Spirit. For those who live according to the highest spiritual precepts, the beauty of the Spirit, found in the soul of man, is everlasting and outshines the seasons of life.

"Methinks in thee some blessèd spirit doth speak, His powerful sound within an organ weak;

And what impossibility would slay

In common sense, sense saves another way."

These lines are from 'All's Well That Ends Well.' Here, the King wonders whether Helen is ‘possessed’ by a higher power. Things that common sense would dismiss as impossible may be perfectly plausible in another sense, which owes nothing to realism or rationality. So flagrantly do such phenomena break the laws of likelihood that they bespeak the intervention in our world of spiritual forces beyond human understanding. Humility is being comfortable with not knowing. This is an important element of spiritual practise, as we increasingly detach and disidentify from the ego’s need to control everything out of fear and a sense of lack. This merely compounds the same.

“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to Heaven. The fated sky Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull, Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull. What power is it which mounts my love so high, That makes me see and cannot feed mine eye? The mightiest space in fortune nature brings, To join like likes and kiss like native things. Impossible be strange attempts to those, That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose What hath been cannot be.”

Impalpable powers are repeatedly invoked in 'All's Well That Ends Well' to accomplish or account for the incredible. The first striking instance occurs in the speech with which Helen, determined to bridge the chasm of class that divides her from her beloved Bertram, concludes the opening scene of the play.

Helen begins by refusing to shift the responsibility for our destiny to divine providence or astrological influence. But her assertion of autonomy is swiftly eclipsed by her sense that she is nonetheless in the grip of a power she cannot name or comprehend. This thought prompts the reflection that Nature finds ways of dissolving huge disparities of wealth and rank. And that reflection triggers the contention, echoed in the next act by the King, that extraordinary endeavours (‘strange attempts’) seem futile only to those who try them in the court of common sense and judge them to be not worth the ‘pains’ they would cost.

“There’s something in’t More than my father’s skill, which was the great’st

Of his profession, that his good receipt Shall for my legacy be sanctified

By th’ luckiest stars in Heaven.”

The strange fecundity of despair and 'the gifts of desperation': Its power to summon salvation from the void into which it stares, is borne out at once by Helen’s revelation that her father has bequeathed her "A remedy, approved, set down,/To cure the desperate languishings whereof/The King is rendered lost". The means to cure the King, which will provide in turn the means to win Bertram’s hand, does not derive its potency, however, from its deviser’s genius or its medicinal properties alone, as Helen explains to the Countess.

“I have seen a medicine (spirituality)

That’s able to breathe life into a stone,

Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary

With sprightly fire and motion;

Whose simple touch Is powerful to araise King Pépin, nay,

To give great Charlemagne a pen in’s hand,

And write to her a love-line.”

What that something more is, and whether the celestial realm that sanctifies the ‘receipt’ is Christian or pagan, Shakespeare declines to divulge. Of its startling supernatural virtues, however, Lafeu stands in no doubt when he sets about cajoling the King into trying the elixir on himself as spiritual 'medicine'.

There is no doubt a spiritual dimension of 'All’s Well That Ends Well', which redefines its role in the comedy as revolutionary rather than religious, as a means to the end of a play obsessed with means and ends. By framing the play’s religious discourse as figurative rather than factual, Shakespeare declutches it from institutionalised religious dogma, releasing its resources to serve the secular agenda that religion secretes. The dream of salvation, of the Self and the world redeemed, doubles as a metaphor for forms of emancipation that as yet can find expression in no other way. The Christian’s hope for Grace and resurrection houses the indomitable human hope for freedom from misery, injustice and oppression – a hope anchored in realism rather than revelation, a hope that thrives on disappointment and defeat. And the play fosters Faith in miracles, not as the props of revealed religion, but as testaments to the poverty of rationality and realism, as mockeries of the empirical mind that sustains the status quo and kills transformation in the cradle. The cynical materialism of those who claim ‘miracles are past’ is doomed to remain in thrall to the past, from which it draws its conclusions about the limits of possibility. Whereas the spiritual idealism of those who believe that ‘what impossibility would slay/In common sense, sense saves another way’ is incorrigibly prospective, propelled toward the transcendence of the present by the radical difference of the future it foresees with the revolutionary spirit of Utopian hope that governs 'All’s Well That Ends Well.'

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

Be the light. Or as Jesus said in Psalm 119:105 in the Bible “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path." Again in John 1:5 "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" and in John 8:12 "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Our increasingly uncivilised society is dysfunctional, our world is broken, but we are not. You are a beacon, which shines in your authenticity. Your value is who you are. Who you are is your value. Your transformation is who you are. Your Hero's Journey is your transformation.

In Genesis 1:3 it states "And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light." In Ephesians 5:8 it states "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light." Most powerfully, in John 14:6 it states "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

"Though she be but little, she is fierce."

Spiritually this reminds me of the phrase ‘Why do you act so big (your ego), when you are not so small (your higher power)?”

"O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!"

I love this reference to spiritual Utopia.

Paulina: It is requir'd. You do awake your Faith. Then, all stand still...

Leon: Proceed. No foot shall stir.

In stillness and Faith all happens. This is the moment of reunion and revelation.

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."

The only way to be spiritually is to be open, honest, and vulnerable. Self-centred fear is like building a tower with no foundations and leads to all forms of conflict. Your richness and abundance lies in how much you can become who you truly are (also one of the genius philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s favourite messages).

"This above all; to thine own self be true." Also, "If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone." Also, "Men should be what they seem." Also "God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."

There is so much to unpack in these short lines of pure genius. I have written a whole article about this. This is the foundation of wisdom, Truth, authenticity, and how to BE. It also relates to the inscription at the Temple of Apollo in Delhi as to the spiritual secret to life: “Know Thyself.”

"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."

Spiritually this means to drop your resentments and forgiving those that wish you harm, as they are spiritually sick, even if it is only for your own sake. If you hate, you may as well dig two graves. Letting go of resentment sets you free from those who want to destroy you, because in fact they love you but can’t have you, which is a basic psychological reality as my psychologist explained to me.

"One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin."

We are one: This is a foundation of a spiritual approach to life. Nature constantly reminds us of this oneness. You have to be able to see the signs. Not everyone is able to have present-moment awareness. Sadly, for those ego-engulfed people, there is no hope of waking up in this life.

"What is past is prologue."

A prologue is a separate introductory section of a literary or dramatic work. As Byron Katie says "The best thing about the past is that it is over." It's necessary to bring you to “Be here now” as Ram Dass wrote (the Harvard Psychologist turned spiritual Master), or, as the spiritual Master Eckhart Tolle says to be “Present in the moment”; which is also called the ‘Holy Instant’ in 'A Course in Miracles' (ACIM). Don’t regret your past, but let go of it and keep only the lessons. As the Stoics say “Amor Fati”, which means to ‘Love your fate.’ Forgive your Self. Love your Self. Don't be so hard on your Self: It was simply the asleep inner child in you running the show, that represented the terrified 7-year-old you. Stop judging your Self. We all do it until we awaken to our higher power, if we so choose. Remember it is a choice "To BE or not to BE."

"'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after."

Serve, serve, then serve again.

"Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds."

This is a huge thing for a writer to say! But Shakespeare was clearly more interested in deep spiritual Truth than ego. Only action leads to Grace. As Mahatma Gandhi, the spiritual Master who exemplified humility, wrote “All good thoughts and ideas mean nothing without action”: Create! Write. BE love, and be loving.

"In time we hate that which we often fear."

This is such deep, yet simple spiritual wisdom. Fear drives all our subconscious actions. Unless we awaken to love, fear leads us to hate. As you have probably gathered I am not a fan of hate: It has no place in this world.

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

Laughter is a huge sign of spiritual awakening. Jesus didn’t tell anyone to get botox!

"'Twas I, but 'tis not I. I do not shame. To tell you what I was, since my conversion, so sweetly tastes, being the thing I am. It was me, but it's not me now. I'm not ashamed to tell you what I once was, since my conversion to my new Self seems so sweet."

This quote from 'As You Like It' is deeply spiritual and speaks of the process of realisation. His old self is completely alien to him. He has been reborn.

"Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast."

Spiritually this means to respond rather than to react to any challenge or invitation to conflict. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare! Never get up from the seat of your soul. Running fast means that we are in survival mode. Our brains never work well when they are full of adrenaline, even if you are running from a real tiger. Almost invariably FEAR is an acronym for 'false evidence appearing real."

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts."

People and relationships are sent as lessons to us. It’s up to us if we learn the lesson: If we don’t it keeps on coming back until we do. That is spiritual Truth. Our BEing is a combination of our higher Self, our inner child, and the integration of our shadow into wholeness and authenticity. It's who we truly are. In this way we learn to reparent our Selves and love our Selves, whilst becoming fully conscious and awake, and cocreating with the Universal intelligence that runs the show.

"All that glisters is not gold."

Today we would say "All that glitters is not gold". Imitation love is ‘fools gold’ and comes in many guises: Power, money, sex, etc. Real, unconditional love, is the most powerful force in the Universe, and it is the greatest gift that one can give or receive: It is real gold.

"The fault...is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

The only thing that you can do is to work on your Self and keep your side of the street clean. Anything else is denial and projection.

"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."

Nature is a key to spiritual awakening. Healing is a private and intimate tailored relationship with the Universe and your higher power. Remember how you last felt when you last observed a panorama such as a sunset, a sea-scape, a mountain-scape, or walked amongst the trees? Did you sense peace and bliss? I hope so as this means that you are able to awaken.

"Expectation is the root of all heartache."

Life is not transactional. Agreement, not expectation, is the root of all concordance. Acceptance is the basis of real unconditional love.

"She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day. To the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools. The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

I love this, uttered by Macbeth after he hears of his wife, Lady Macbeth’s, death, in Act 5, scene 5, lines 16–27. Need I say more about life and unawakened, unconscious, asleep people?

"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up o-er wrought heart and bids it break."

Emotions that are not expressed are buried alive and always resurface when you least expect them, sometimes decades later.

"It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul."

This beautiful and short line in Othello hints at the importance of purpose in one's life and how it is our soul's purpose. As Robert Holden delineates in his unmissable book "Higher Purpose", there is a 'golden thread' throughout our that binds our soul to fulfilling our cause.

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it."

Appearances are deceiving. Toxic ego-driven people will pretend to be anyone but themselves, yet no-one loves a mask: This is their folly, a crisis of inauthenticity, and ultimately will be their downfall.

"Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me."

This brings to mind my article about external validation, and on the fight between the survival needs of attachment and authenticity, as has been described in depth by Dr Gabor Maté. Childhood trauma results from our parents, guardians, and our current ‘civilisation’ making us feel that to be loved we have to be other than who we truly are. Be fully your Self: It is the only way to have a life full of joy. As Friedrich Nietzsche said "Run your own race." This is a great summary of spirituality.

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."

Being great, then, is effectively a verb.

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."

This is the shortest and most accurate description of the concepts of denial and projection, which were attributed to Carl Jung, centuries later.

"The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?"

It takes two to tango: We are all innocent children of the Universe: We are all victims of victims of victims and so on. The world is filled with traumatised people traumatising other traumatised people. No one wins in the blame game: Which is the very manifestation of denial and projection.

"He jests at scars that never felt a wound."

This reminds me of my article about the ‘Karpman Drama Triangle’, where toxic people manipulate others by pretending to be victims when in fact they are not victims at all: They are persecuting Machiavellian villains who never come from the heart and are unable to feel emotions or to love unconditionally.

"Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting."

Self-love is not Narcissism, which is very different. Self-love is essential to mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. Self-neglect and self-sabotage are ubiquitous in our society as we fail to prioritise well-being. This is why we are almost all mentally ill in some way and don't even know it.

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite."

According to the Natural Laws of Karma it is only in giving that we will receive. This is echoed throughout the Bible. Abundance, possibility, and love are all infinite.

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

Words to truly live by.

"Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love."

Kindness and compassion are what makes a person beautiful. One cannot be beautiful if one has an ugly heart and soul.

"Don't waste your love on somebody who doesn't value it."

I'm very sure that we all know people like this. Some people are unable to feel, to love or be loved. So they do the only thing they can do: Hate and try to destroy. But they are invariably only destroying themselves. It's just a matter of time.

"Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know."

Your heart, not your mind, knows all the answers and has the wisdom of your soul.

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

The healing power of love is unquestionable.

"I dote on his very absence."

For that is all that some people may have of you. Are you someone's 'qualifier' or are they yours? It's worth googling it if you don't know what that means! It's a sign of your codependency, not something that someone else has 'done to you'.

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

I assume this is why so many people hide behind the facade of social media, inauthenticity, and masks: They have already died to the real world, so they try again to live again in dream worlds, but this is in vain as it is not the world that is the problem: It is them. If you are spiritually awakened you will always be in peace and joy, regardless of circumstance. If you are not, you will never be.

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

This is pure Socratic wisdom.

"I am not bound to please thee with my answer."

People may be undeserving of an answer, and our answers need not please. People-pleasing comes from a place of trauma: Let go of that bullsh*t: It doesn't serve anyone.

All of these above quotes relate to spirituality, capturing the essence of wisdom and Truth.

The Buddha and the Bard

The question “Who’s there?” is the ultimate inquiry that every spiritual tradition seeks to answer. It’s certainly the fundamental question Buddhist and Hindu philosophies pose. The great Hindu sage Sri Ramana Maharshi taught the question Nan Yar? (“Who am I?”) as the gateway to the true understanding of the Self. “Who’s there?” is also the opening line of Hamlet! And while the question receives much more attention in spiritual life than it does in critical investigations of one of Shakespeare’s greatest masterpieces, it’s a fertile meeting place for the most celebrated writer of all time and a 2500-year-old Buddhist practice of mindful attention.

The Dharma of Shakespeare

Dharma means purpose: Conformity to one's Nature - spiritual alignment with your soul, according to the eternal cosmic Natural Law about how to live in according with sacred values such as wisdom, love, and compassion. This is the basis of flow states, and is clearly the state that Shakespeare wrote from. Dharma is a concept which features prominently within Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. Was The Bard writing sacred texts by connecting with Universal intelligence and creativity?

Shakespeare’s having been an actor (a “player”) before he was a dramatist endowed him with a mind vast as space, one that made room for all forms of experience. That in the practice of emptying-himself-of-himself, night after night, surely Shakespeare began to perceive what Buddhism understands as the root of our suffering (dukkha): that we are persons and personas (temporary individuals and transient players) who earnestly believe we’re permanent selves.

Theatre has been used as a metaphor for human incarnation and spiritual practice: As when American spiritual teacher Ram Dass describes spiritual work as coming to “Understand that you are a soul passing through a life in which the entire drama is a script for your awakening and that you are more than just the drama.”

One could place Shakespeare and the Buddha side-by-side and say: The Bard had the capacity to represent inwardness and suffering better than any writer of his time; The Buddha discerned how to liberate us from that suffering.

Attention is radically transformative; it’s a form of love. One can observe a shift when reading The Bard from “What is Shakespeare doing with language here?” to “What might Shakespeare be proposing about the ways we are, as human ‘players,’ here?”

What does Shakespeare have to teach us about mindfulness? What Eastern spiritual views about death, love, and presence are reflected in the writings of The Bard? The book 'The Buddha and the Bard: Where Shakespeare's Stage Meets Buddhist Scriptures', by author Lauren Shufran, reveals the surprising connections between the 2,500-year-old spiritual leader, the Buddha, and the most compelling writer of all time: The Bard.

Shakespeare understood and represented the human condition better than any writer of his time. As for the Buddha, he saw how to liberate us from that condition. The author explores the fascinating interplay of Western drama and Eastern philosophy by pairing quotes from Shakespeare with the tenets of an Eastern spiritual practice, sparking a compelling dialogue between the two. There's a remarkable interchange of echoes between Shakespeare's conception of "the inward man" and Buddhist approaches to recognising, honouring, and working with our humanness as we play out our roles on the "stage" of our lives. 'The Buddha and the Bard' synthesises literature and scripture, embodied drama and transcendent practice, to shape a multifaceted lyric, a process of pure creativity, as a 'Sacred Art' that we can apply as mindful practice in our own lives. Shufran's compelling juxtapositions encourage the reader to ask the deepest questions of themselves while delighting in the play of resonances across a cultural and historical divide.

Among the book's reflections is how Hamlet echoes one of the Buddha’s Three Marks of phenomenal existence, dukkha, or suffering: "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a God - the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?" (Hamlet, act 2, scene 2).

The irony of dukkha is that it’s a profound sense of the unsatisfactoriness of existence whose root cause is unawakened existence. This is the gorgeous tension Hamlet points to in these lines. Man’s “reason” and “faculty,” “form” and “apprehension” are nothing short of miraculous. But - like clouds that obstruct the stars - it’s precisely these elements of humanness that can obscure us from ourselves, that can lead us to believe we’re nothing but faculty or form if we let them. Reason and faculty, form and apprehension will ultimately dissatisfy us if we think they’re all there is. Just as Hamlet can’t see the stars for the “vapours” of dishonest humanity and conditioned existence, the metaphor in Buddhism is one of light interrupted. Buddhists don’t believe in an incorruptible “quintessence.” But Buddhism does contain a core teaching that resembles a definition of quintessence given above: The most perfect part latent in all things. Mahāyāna traditions call this principle 'Buddha Nature'. Theravādin traditions call it 'Luminous Mind'. Its central idea is that the fundamental nature of our mind is wisdom and compassion, and its origin can be traced back to the Buddha’s words as recorded in the Pabhassara Sutta: “Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is defiled by incoming defilements. The uninstructed… person doesn’t discern that… (it) is present.” In other words, Luminous Mind is right here, whether or not we’re aware of it. Buddha Nature and Luminous Mind are the sun obscured by clouds of attachment, delusion, defilements - though they’re always shining brilliantly just behind them. To uncover the sky - to glimpse the heavens beyond our dust - we simply stay still and awake to whatever is here, whether that’s in seated meditation practice or the “moving meditations” of our day-to-day lives. 

We watch the defilements (greed, anger, hate, arrogance, complacency) arise and take shape as temporary phenomena (thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, opinions). And then we watch them go, as they will, without interfering or identifying with them, like a passing wave. In time, what’s at first only glimpsed as flashes of space between dust-and-vapour thoughts is perceived as exceeding spaciousness. The gaps between mental phenomena become more expansive as we stop believing or relying on them when they arise - because experience tells us their essential nature is to release. That gap, that spaciousness, is the awareness of our Buddha Nature.

Hamlet’s world is indeed clouded over with the fog of saṅkhāra dukkha - the feeling that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” though no one can quite put their finger on it. Buddhism might suggest it’s a “vapour” that prevents the prince from seeing that humankind is even more boundless and wondrous than he expresses here, and that the suffering of conditioned existence can be worked with. (Rot, after all, is part of a natural cycle of decay and regeneration, life created from death. And Buddhism, after all - far from being a pessimistic doctrine - claims that suffering can be eradicated, wholly and happily, from our lives.)  As the great thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Tibetan master Rangjung Dorjé, the Third Karmapa, wrote in his “Treatise on Buddha Nature”: “All beings are Buddhas, but obscured by incidental stains. When those have been removed, there is Buddhahood.”

In simple terms, Shakespeare was a 'stain remover' of clouds - like Vanish on a fine blue sky rug.

Lauren Shufran says that she wrote 'The Buddha and the Bard' because she was enchanted by the possibilities awakened at the threshold between the dramatic representation of a predicament and liberation from it. She found the tenets of Buddhism’s Eightfold Path in speeches by Juliet, Polonius, and Nick Bottom. She overheard resonances between Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and the wisdoms of Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, and The Taming of the Shrew. 

So, we so far have parallels between The Bard's writing, the Bible and the practices of the Buddha. This is evidence in support of Shakespeare being a spiritual Master - one who could see the meat of the human condition and its solution, without the 'trimmings' of religious dogma. The Bard took the man-made bits out of institutionalised religion, keeping only pure timeless spiritual Truth.

How The Bard relates to the Bible

It has become clear to me upon reading Shakespeare’s works and reading the Bible (which contains so many metaphors for the journey into BEing, the human psyche, and positive psychology) that there are so many similarities between his plays and the definitive religious text that is the Bible:

·  Genesis: Richard II, Othello, Macbeth

·  Gospel: Merchant of Venice, Henries IV and V

·  Revelation: Hamlet and The Tempest

The patterns I shall now relate occur multiple times in every play I looked at. There is a perfect consistency and congruity of this teaching running through the entire œuvre. You can ignore it, deny it, sneer at it, mock me, but in all honesty, this case is as close as you could get to 'proof'.

His use of the Bible as a source for many of his works does not make him religious in and of itself as the Bible itself is a psychological metaphor according to Neville Goddard. I, myself am not religious, as I do not adhere to a named ‘God’ figure. God is unknowable. Man made God in the image of his own likeness and to me that is a manifestation of ego. The Bible is s source of spiritual Truths and does help us to understand what is timeless. For me spirituality is the inwards journey to find Self, that is found in all the religious doctrines, that connects one with the awe and wonder of Nature, the intelligence and creative power of the Universe. In essence, what remains after the different God heads are removed, is spirituality. Spirituality is the ultimate power of love and compassion. It is a journey of creation, by choosing love in every moment. Spirituality means awakening to our higher power and that “All is well”. It means letting go of identification with the small you who is trying to ‘play God’ and control the Universe and leaning back into the beautiful fearless flow that is life.

In a nutshell, there are at least two intertwined elements hidden in the plays. When looking at the complete works holistically, the 37 individual plays become 37 retellings of one primary spiritual allegory. By using external historical and fictional characters as proxies, he is telling the allegory of how our internal consciousness has evolved. How the true soul of man (Adam) was deposed and banished by Satan (Night). The warring tyrants Cain and Abel set up as 'false selves' to rule our inner kingdom as pretenders. And, after some time, a spiritual warrior came to vanquish the tyrant and restore our soul once again to rule our own inner consciousness.

This allegory has the ring of 'Christianity' to it - but it is ironically far closer to the pure Hindu teachings of the Sikhs and Sant Mat! It is, in fact, a teaching that enables all of us to reclaim our true spiritual heritage and fulfil our ultimate destiny. Each play is a profound spiritual discourse of exquisite value.

In every play, depending what aspect of the allegory he is emphasising, you'll find:

1.     Three pairs of core archetypes - expressed as key characters

2.     Christ motifs

Three pairs of core archetypes

Very briefly, the archetypes of our inner kingdom - fully elucidated in the book - are referred to by Shakespeare as God-Satan (Day-Night/Shadow); Adam-Eve (Male-female polarities of the soul); and Cain-Abel (Good-Evil aspects of our mortal mind).

The three archetypes are represented in Othello by 'divine Desdemona' as the Soul/ true self, Iago as the Cain false self and Othello as the Abel false self. The play mirrors the biblical story of how Cain murders his brother Abel who he sees as more worthy than he of God's love

In our play, Iago (From the name Jacob meaning 'supplanter') 'supplants' Othello's will (inner kingdom) and lures him into the murder of his beloved, innocent Desdemona - who seems to 'resurrect' momentarily - long enough to forgive Othello for his sin.

One important cryptic clue to Shakespeare's deeper intention is hidden in this line of verse given at the moment Iago engenders his evil plan:

"I ha' it. It is engendered. Hell and Night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light."

What if this is Shakespeare's genius dramatising the very instant 'Satan' hatched his plan to supplant the soul of mankind and rule our inner world in God's place?

Christ motifs

What I have (arbitrarily) called 'Christ Motifs' are hundreds of subtle inferences to the way Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies in order to liberate the soul from 'Satan's' law. When you attune to these, it's exquisite how they pop up everywhere in every play. You really do need to read the entire book to get the full impact. But as a taster let's unwrap a small piece of, say, Othello.

Apart from the death, 'resurrection', and forgiveness given by the divine Desdemona, an earlier scene where she is discussing the temptation of infidelity with her servant Emilia is another cryptic Christ Motif. This passage from Act 4, Scene 3, is a pastiche of Christ's temptation in the wilderness when Satan offers him 'all the world' if he would worship him.

Desdemona asks Emilia (as did the devil ask Christ) if she would be unfaithful even if the reward were 'all the world'. Emelia says, yes, she would, and tries to tempt Desdemona into betraying her word, her integrity. But Desdemona (even for all the world) would not.

"Beshrew me, if I should do such a wrong for all the world."

Shakespeare's writings as a 'Sacred Art'

The Bard had an edge over everyone else: His writing was a transcendant 'Sacred Art', which reached past the limits of ordinary experience into the extraordinary. As a result of this one leaves a Shakespeare performance with a sense of bliss.

Shakespeare and 'A Course in Miracles'

David Hoffmeister says that “To BE or not to BE’ from The Bard is the briefest summary of 'A Course in Miracles' (ACIM) that has ever been made.

The author of ACIM Helen Cohn Schucman, Professor of Clinical and Academic Psychology, a 'disciple' of Sigmund Freud, scribed much of the course in Shakespearean verse (Iambic pentameter - where there is a musical rhythmic pattern of ten syllables with stress on every other syllable) and prose through ‘channeling’ in a flow state, similarly to, I assume, The Bard, when he was writing so prolifically. 

Helen Cohn Schucman's favourite work of Shakespeare was Hamlet.

Shakespeare often referenced dreams and said "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" and "Our little life is rounded with a sleep." Both Sigmund Freud and Jesus often also talked about dreams.

When the Globe Theatre burned down after a lighting accident, Shakespeare's professional life was almost complete. This event fits in with spirituality - accepting all that happens and turning to prayer.

ACIM relates to forgiving the broken world and transcending the ego, with a change in perception from fear to love, which truly creates miracles.

Shakespeare and the divine

There is heaven in a wild flower: Plato, Nicholas of Cusa, William Shakespeare, and William Blake. What golden thread might link these writers across the centuries? Why might each matter now?

Taking a lead from Valentin Gerlier’s book, 'William Shakespeare and the Grace of Words', the following video explores how the finite and infinite meet in dialogue, analogy, play and contrary, arguing that Plato, Nicholas of Cusa, Shakespeare and William Blake directly address our times of crisis and separation.

Valentin Gerlier says "Writing is a work of art that is unfolding... I am really interested in the unfinishedness... It takes us somewhere where perhaps at the beginning we weren't sure it was going to take us... Portraying something of the infinite." This is the basis of spirituality: Trusting the process moment by moment.

Heaven in a Wild Flower. Plato, Cusa, Shakespeare & Blake. Valentin Gerlier & Mark Vernon

Writing and Enlightenment

Can one find Enlightenment in Western literature, and more specifically in the works of The Bard? According to Dean Sluyter, a New York Times best-selling meditation teacher, there’s a lot we can learn from several beloved classics. We can read Hemingway as haiku, learn mindfulness from Virginia Woolf, see Dickinson and Whitman as Buddhas of poetry, and Huck Finn and Gatsby as seekers of the infinite. He suggests that Shakespeare can teach us about Enlightenment. His book 'The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics', which won the Nautilus Prize, is featured in the following video:

Dean Sluyter on meditation and 'The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics'

Nirvana means 'blown away' like a candle. What is left after this? The spiritual Masters report on this: What is left when everything that you worry about it taken away, by clearing the 'monkey mind' (as described by Buddhism) is that "All is well". Sluyter describes Nirvana as 'infinite okness': It's what we are all searching for all the time. It's always still and silent in this place, no matter how noisy it is on the surface. This feeling is unconditional and unattached to any people, places, events, or things. It's like a candle flame in a windless place, and it's within you. It's reality before we overlay it with all our fears and anxieties. Reading Shakespeare can take you to this place.

Reading The Bard is like allowing gravity to take place (like 'falling asleep' or 'falling in love') and take us to the stillness at the bottom of the ocean where we are just BEing. Hence "To BE or not to BE": That is the answer. This is the beautiful feeling of bliss: The 'ahhh'. This is effortless. Sluyter describes the experience of men in prison: They are ready to go inwards as there is no way for them to get outside satisfaction. He converts and compares their experience of solitary confinement to silent meditation.

He states that what makes Shakespeare a literary giant, and makes his work endure, is that it speaks to this fundamental gravitational pull to, and yearning for 'infinite okness.' The great writers show what happens they fulfil that drive: When it's fulfilled its a comedy - when it's not fulfilled it's a tragedy. How is this possible when The Bard would likely never have heard about Buddhist teaching? This is because it's a discovery of timeless Universal Truths. Gravity is not British just because this Natural Law was discovered by Isaac Newton - apples fall from trees all over the world.

For example William Blake wrote about Truth in a way that encapsulates the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, without having read them.

Eternity by William Blake:

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy

He who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity’s sunrise.

This involves finding serenity through non-attachment as you kiss something as you surrender it and 'let it go'. This is why we do not make any effort during meditation. Sluyter says "Any effort to create a non-agitated state of mind is itself a form of agitation." The agitation is like the waves on the surface of the sea. You can't play Whac-A-Mole with the waves of agitation of the mind. You don't have to still the mind. The mind is unimportant. Awareness is the BEingness which underlies the peace that passes all understanding, and that is available all the time. We simply stop following the mind out of our seat of our soul - our place of peace. You don't have to quieten the inner or outer environment, you just have to remain seated at the quiet place inside you. As Ram Dass says "Just rest in awareness:

Ram Dass and a guided meditation 'Awareness' with Boreta and Superposition.

The side effect of meditation, rather than the method, is that the mind tends to remain quieter when one is not meditating. There is no method to meditation as it doesn't require effort. As Sluyter says "Forget all the effort part and let the sinking (back into your seat of ease) take over."

Hamlet, Act III, Scene I [To be, or not to be] by William Shakespeare:

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.—Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd."

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Conclusions

Shakespeare’s plays are indeed 'Sacred (though non-liturgical) Art', but also they are concerned with the esoteric theme of the purification of the human soul, and the restoration of our primordial state of beatific union with God. If a play is about the soul’s journey toward perfection, which it reaches at the end, and if the play draws us into it - then watching the play becomes a spiritual experience for the us, the audience.

What, then, accounts for this taste of bliss that we find, surprisingly, even in the tragedies of Shakespeare? What is present in this world into which Shakespeare draws his audience? It is “The harmony of the Universe.” We are being drawn through the tapestry - from our usual vision of its reverse side, in which the threads seemed tangled and chaotic, to the front of the tapestry where the harmony of the design, and each golden thread’s contribution to it, is apparent. We are drawn in, and then drawn through. This is all the more so when we have ourselves been dwelling in this spiritual harmony, but is also calls us into that serenity.

The religious and spiritual views of William Shakespeare, who died just over four centuries ago are the subject of an ongoing scholarly debate dating back almost 200 years. The general assumption about William Shakespeare's religious affiliation is that he was a conforming member of the established Church of England. However, many scholars have speculated about his personal religious beliefs, based on analysis of the historical record and of his published work, with claims that Shakespeare's family may have had Catholic sympathies and that he himself was a secret Catholic. What appears to be the case, following a review of the above evidence (mainly his œvre) is that he was deeply spiritual - which I describe as the common elements of all the religions without the man-made dogmatic 'trimmings'. In other words, religion straight from the Universe.

Virtually all his rival playwrights found themselves on the straight road to starvation; Shakespeare by contrast, made enough money to buy one of the best houses in his hometown to which he retired in his early fifties, a self-made man.

The spiritual journey is complex terrain, so many twists and turns, so many mountains and valleys, so many unknowns and thrills. The wise person seeks a guide. Traveling alone is dangerous, potentially lethal. So whom shall we turn to for guidance in our journey from self to God? Franciscans turn to St. Francis and St. Clare. Carmelites read the works of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. But what about individuals not called to a specific form of spirituality? Are there spiritual directors for the "common man or woman" immersed in our busy world? That person is William Shakespeare. The Bard of Avon has some profound insights into central realities in the spiritual life: prayer, forgiveness, compassion or love. 

As the literary critic Harold Bloom once claimed, that "Shakespeare remains so steadfastly at the centre of the literary canon because he read us better than we’ll ever read him. And while this might be true, I’m also quite certain that reading Shakespeare has helped me better read myself." And that, is the essence of spirituality. When you stop trying, you sink into the safe, still, quiet place within. Surrender: All is well.

I have been where you are. I know the way. Love your Self, have Self-compassion; then pass it on. My gift is to be your guide.

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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.