Autism Awareness: A Spiritual Dimension

Today is World Autism Awareness Day.

My hope is that when the twin lights of research and compassion succeed in illuminating the nature of autism that a beautiful spiritual component of this diagnostic spectrum will be able to be seen.

In a world so very loud and distracting, the gift of having a sound-wall between self and everyday intense "noise" (a gift that every autistic person has to one degree or another) allows a quiet meditative space to exist and generates a beauty/awareness/gentleness that naturally unfolds under such circumstances.

I say that autism is far from being solely a medical diagnosis.   

We need to remember that so many of the "problem behaviors" associated with autism (especially when looking at it as a dis-ease) are man-made since our society specializes in demonizing that which doesn't fit in to the existing "norm." This has been true historically in every civil rights issue and for the difficult path to acceptance of all special-but-different abilities. 

And perhaps some concern is real since (I say with tongue-in-cheek) the gift of autism does indeed have a component of being subversive.

I mean, autism reveals the possibility of an alternative life-path to the always-present consumerism, war, pursuit of wealth, and many other worldly activities that contribute to the jangling noise level we all experience daily.

Have you ever wondered what would happen to our national and world economy if we cut down the amount of time we humans participate in the above activities?

Have you thought about what would change if we as individuals took significant time to sit in silence and feed ourselves cellular health rather than rush about and gag on the noisy toxicity that we breathe/generate daily?

I have. And I do. 

It has taken nearly seven decades for me to reach a place where the external quiet matches my lifelong hunger for inner quiet. And yes, it has meant finishing a career, completing a raising-kids focus, abandoning my search for external confirmation of my inner worth (and a whole bunch of other shedding-of-identities that drove my life-noise-generator bus). 

I love the simple access to quiet that naturally occurs with my consciousness of each in-breath and gratitude for each out-breath. 

So today I honor all my autistic brothers and sisters around the world and bow a deep namaste to everyone living on this planet on this chilly April 2nd morning here in Central NJ, USA.

Copyright 2013 Judy Shepps Battle