"The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It's to lose yourself." Thus spake Rabbi David Brooks in the closing lines of his buzzy New York Times column Tuesday.
In this season of college graduations and first time job-hunters, Brooks attempted to share some ancient wisdom with the class of 2011. Here's how the columnist assessed the challenges facing this year's crop of college graduates and the "baby-boomer theology" that they are woefully inheriting.
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"Most of them," Brooks wrote, "will not quickly get married, buy a home and have kids, as previous generations did." Those who do not settle down now will likely "spend a decade wandering from job to job and clique to clique, searching for a role."
They will do so, in part, because of the advice of previous generations. Brooks noted that from the many of the commencement addresses "being broadcast on C-Span these days," advise grads to "Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself."
Brooks judged this poor advice. He noted that "Most successful young people don't look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life."
You'll want to read it all, not least of all because of the abundance of religious leaders and thinkers pointing their Twitter followers and RSS subscribers to the piece today.
The notion of a reality beyond the self is familiar not just to readers of Brooks' biweekly columns. This insight of a truth beyond one's own existence has long belonged to realm of religion. But who will speak it to Millenials if they increasingly turn away from religion, or have no spiritual tradition from which to draw?
Buddhist actor Richard Gere, in an interview with Sally Quinn for the religion interview series that I produce at On Faith, referred to this ancient concept, which is known within Buddhism known as the illusion of the self.
"We have all been programmed that there's a me, and I'm in my capsule, and there's an 'out there,' in its capsule.... That's a lie. ... From a Buddhist point of view, that's the root of all the problems, right there."
The Sufi Muslim poet Rumi put it this way:
Knock, And He'll open the door Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens Become nothing, And He'll turn you into everything.
Christians call it dying to self. "He must increase; I must decrease," John the Baptist said of Jesus and the spirit in which he came.
To be sure, the idea of service beyond the self extends far beyond religion. But, for many, it takes the conviction and structure of a religious tradition to dedicate one's life to a notion as paradoxical as finding truth by way of losing yourself.
So back to this year's college grads. Where will they find sacred inspiration? In an era where religion is more often a punch line than a source of common culture on many campuses, does religion stand a chance at informing these new graduates' life choices?
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's 2010 study on beliefs and behavior among Millenials confirmed what many religious leaders lament: kids these days report being less religious than their parents and grandparents were at the same age.
"Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation -- so called because they were born after 1980 and began to come of age around the year 2000 -- are unaffiliated with any particular faith," reported Pew.
On the other hand, the study also found that "when asked generally about morality and religion, young adults are just as convinced as older people that there are absolute standards of right and wrong that apply to everyone."
Among a cohort that embraces the mantra of being spiritual without being religious, faith leaders may take note: Millenials hunger for ancient insights into absolute truth, too.
Elizabeth Tenety is editor of On Faith, the Washington Post's forum for news and opinion on religion, politics and culture.
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