Guardian’s Thoughts

I chat to a lot of people about spirituality.  It’s part of my job.  I also browse the net a lot and I find a lot of advice and discussion about spirituality.  Most of it is total rubbish.  The spirit is something very important in life, but it is not what so many people want you to think it is.  So here are some of my thoughts about what spirituality is and isn’t…

Spirituality is:

• …another dimension to living things.  Everything that lives, is spiritual.  Just as you can feel the flow and warmth of your spirit within you, so can you feel it in everything that lives.  It is not something unique to you or to humans.  When a person is in balance, and is aware, they know that they move in a spiritually diverse world.  Your spirit meets equals when you encounter humans, trees, grass, animals, insects.  It is everywhere and in everything.
• …equal with the physical and the mental.  A person who neglects their spirit, is unbalanced and will not reach their potential.  But this is equally true with the body and the mind.  All three must be in balance for a person to be healthy, happy, and to lead a good life.
• …a means of communication.  If we all share this same spark, this same dimension, then it is another way to communicate.  Reach out to those around you, to all living things, and listen.
• …a source of education.  By listening to our own spirit and those of everything around us, we learn things that we wouldn’t otherwise.

Spirituality is not:

• …something that elevates you above others.  “Spiritual snobbery” is pretty common.  Spiritual people often see themselves as better than people who don’t have anything to do with spirituality.  This tends to be because they are afraid that they might fail at physical or mental endeavours, where they can be measured and compared.  To quote Anthony de Mello, “My experience is that it’s precisely the ones who don’t know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another life.”  They find something safer, and from this cosy position they look down on others.  Being spiritual isn’t any more or less special than being able to breathe.
• …the thing that sets you apart from the rest of creation.  Emanating from a Judeo-Christian background, and possibly a few others before that, there is the idea that only humans were made in the image of God.  So humans are better than the rest of creation, and only we can hope to understand God.  Funnily enough, I look at people and I look at other mammals, and I see them as much closer to God than we have become.
• …your pass card to heaven.  If there is some kind of judgement after death, it will be your actions and your compassion that is weighed, not the dreams that you never did anything about.
• …something that is sectioned off from the rest of life.  If you want to work on connecting with your spirit, and expanding that connection, then fine.  But don’t let this time be the extent of your spiritual experience.  Spirit is present in every moment.  Let it, and your awareness of it, saturate everything you do.
• …a force that will miraculously bring you money or possessions.  “The Law of Attraction” etc.  The idea that you can manifest things into being.  Perhaps you can.  But this has nothing to do with spirituality.  At best, it is magic.  At worst, it is greed and agressive manipulation.
• …a form of entertainment.  Well, it can be.  But don’t kid yourself into thinking that you’re chasing after enlightenment while you entertain yourself with spiritual baubles.  I’m thinking of crystal collectors, teen witches, those who need elaborate possessions and surroundings to explore their spiritual side.
• …a way of life.  There is no “spiritual path”.  There is your path, and part of that involves exploring the spiritual.  People who devote themselves too much to one side of their health neglect another.  Your body or your mind will atrophe.
• …something that dissolves your responsibilities.  You do not get to lock yourself away to explore your inner self, and let the rest of the world die.  Spiritual people are active, compassionate, loving people.

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