General Spirituality | Spirituality for Seekers

Spirituality in Daily Life

For many people, there is a big difference between their spiritual lives and their daily lives. Such people might view practices such as meditating, visualising, journaling and worshipping at a church, temple, or in the privacy of their own hearts, as being ones which make up the spiritual side of life. To these people, daily life might mean any of the more mundane ‘non-spiritual’ activities that they do, such as working, shopping, taking care of the kids, walking the dog and getting the car fixed.

This apparent division between the spiritual and the routine is completely artificial, and whilst there are plenty of individuals who tend to compartmentalise their lives in this way, doing so is quite detrimental to their development as human beings.

If there is such a thing as spirit then it is all-encompassing, rather than something which can be contained within certain times or activities. As we discussed in The Unity Principle, there is no real separation between you and the rest of the universe, and it therefore follows that there is no real separation between one type of activity or another. If spirituality is real then it is something that you need to recognise as pervading the whole of your existence, and not just the areas that involve stereotypically spiritual activities.

Stand-up-comedians around the world love making fun of outspoken ‘spiritual types’ who proclaim to live in one way and then act in a completely different way, and it isn’t difficult to understand why. Consider the businessman who agrees with the principles of compassion and fairness in his time of prayer or meditation, but then chooses to approve company policies which are designed to short-change customers and put pressure on suppliers. Or think about someone who has the spiritual view that all people are equal, but lives as if some people are more equal than others.

I am not casting any stones here, but simply pointing this out because it is incredibly easy for such discrepancies to occur when we separate our spiritual lives from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. However, the good news is that, if we work on eliminating the artificial idea of separation, such discrepancies between what we believe and how we act will tend to disappear quickly afterwards.

One way to start eliminating the conceptual barrier between your spiritual and your daily life is to start viewing the latter as something which is contained in the former. In other words, instead of viewing spiritual and daily activities as being completely different things, consider the situation from a higher perspective and start viewing your daily activities as things that are part and parcel of your spiritual experience.

Pause for a few minutes and consider how you might go about your daily activities if you were to view every one of them as a chance for you to demonstrate your spiritual nature. How different would you be at home and at work? How might things change if you were to consciously bring your spiritual self to the classroom, boardroom or bedroom? What old habits would you seek to change? What new habits would you seek to adopt? What kind of changes would you want to make in the way you think, speak, and act in regular, everyday situations?

We’ve all heard of the phrase, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’, but you could just as easily ask yourself ‘What Would My Highest Self Do?’ no matter what spiritual tradition you identify with. Try to develop the habit of operating from the perspective of your true spiritual nature no matter what you are doing – be it meditating, marinating or making love – and you will soon find that every area of your life improves quite naturally as a consequence.

The Many Faces of God

by Ian Leave a Comment

Before John Smith died, everyone who knew him thought that they had a pretty good idea of what he was all about. But then the day of his funeral arrived, and as many of his friends and relatives took turns in sharing how they felt about their dearly departed companion and colleague, it soon became apparent that any singular notion of John Smith was nothing more than a fiction.

Mrs Smith, who had suddenly found herself widowed, shared memories of the young man she had fallen in love with twenty years earlier. John, she explained, was always a bit of a grump first thing in the morning, and conversation with him was best avoided before his first coffee of the day. But then she added that he was also a genuine romantic who would sometime say the sweetest things a girl could ever hear.

This latter observation came as a bit of a surprise to Bob, who was a close friend of John’s and had never heard him say anything remotely romantic in his entire life. To Bob, John was passionate about golf and cars, and little else. At least, that’s all that they had every seemed to talk about when playing a round or two each weekend.

John’s slightly younger sister, Mary, shared memories of her brother as being a rather mischievous type who would steal cookies from their mother’s pantry and then play the innocent when someone eventually discovered that the cookie jar was only half as full as they had expected it to be.

Julia, who had worked with John for ten years in a corporate setting, described him as a man who was very efficient. He was a master organiser, she said, and could always find time to get things done even if a request was made at short notice.

More than a dozen people shared their memories of John at his funeral, but more than a few came away from the celebration of his life with more questions than they had answers. Which John Smith was the real one, they wondered? Was it the romantic lover, the golf fanatic, the mischievous joker, the efficiency expert or one of the other types that had been described?

The answer, of course, is that John Smith was all of these things, because every person who stood up to share their memories of him was describing just one or two aspects of his personality and character. Some of those aspects were well known to all, but a few were known only to a relative few, depending on their connection with him.

The same principle can also be said to apply to the Creative Principle, or God. Take a look at the many different spiritual and religious traditions in the world and you might be forgiven for thinking that they each describe a very different force or deity. Christianity talks about Jehovah, Islam talks about Allah and Hinduism talks about Brahma. Yet these are all names for the very same One that created and sustains the universe.

Some traditions also have plenty of other divine figures, saints and sages which can be viewed as embodying various different aspects of the One. Think here of Jesus, Krishna, Ganesh, Shiva, Shakti, Lakshmi, Kali and Durga.

Whilst different religions and spiritual paths focus on their own different perspectives and ideas, the Seeker who is forging his own path should feel free to be inspired by any deity that speaks to them on an intuitive level. Some Seekers do choose to broadly follow just one tradition, albeit with a few tweaks to suit their own journey, but many others benefit from the freedom to have statues of several deities on their altars to reflect their favourite aspects of the Creative Principle.

God is not a person, but that does not mean that we can’t relate to the Creative Principle in a personal way, and being aware of the many faces of God can help us to do that. Think about which deities resonate with you, and ask yourself what aspect of the divine they represent to you on an intuitive level. Then, if you feel so inclined, consider bringing statues or images of your chosen deities into your sacred space so that you can connect with those aspects of the Creative Principle on a daily basis.

A New Way to Look at Consciousness

by Ian Leave a Comment

The words consciousness and spirit are often interchangeable, especially when we discuss the question of whether or not there is some part of us which will exist after the death of our physical being. Like many other Seekers before me, I have thought long and hard about this particular question, and although I haven’t come up with any hard-and-fast answers (the fact is that we won’t know for sure until we get there), I have come up with a way of viewing my own consciousness or spirit which satisfies both my desire to be rational and my desire to pay attention to my intuition.

Those who view man as a purely physical machine tend to think of consciousness as something that is a by-product of the physical brain. With that model, the death of the physical brain naturally means the end of consciousness, and the oft-reported ‘light show’ of the near-death experience is regarded as little more than the brain being flooded with chemicals to make the dying process less painful or frightening.

Those who view man as a spiritual being tend to think of the consciousness as a continuous stream of awareness which passes from lifetime to lifetime, with perhaps some periods of limbo in between.

My own view is a little different, but I think that it meshes well with both perspectives.

Imagine that you want to build a simple AM transistor radio. To do that, you would need to obtain various electronic components, such as transistors, capacitors, resistors, a battery and the all-important ferrite rod. Lay all of those components down on a table and you would have everything you need for a potential radio, but you wouldn’t hear a thing.

If you were to assemble those components in a certain way then you would have an actual radio which can be switched on and tuned in. The radio would now make a sound because it is capable of receiving radio signals – which are ever-present in the environment – and play the resulting broadcast for all to hear.

Having built a functional radio, you could now disassemble it, either by removing the components one by one, or by smashing it with a hammer. This would change the configuration of the components so that they could no longer operate together as a radio, and your machine would immediately cease to make any sound. The broadcast would fall silent.

Now, where is the broadcast that you listened to earlier? You can’t hear it, but it hasn’t exactly ceased to exist, because it is still being transmitted, all around you. All that has happened is that the machine which you used to receive and play the broadcast is no longer functional.

I think of consciousness as being much the same as the radio broadcast, and of the physical body as being analogous to the radio itself. Consciousness, then, is not something which arises from the physical body, but rather, it is something which is expressed through the physical body.

We tend to think of ourselves as having very different levels of consciousness or spiritual development because we all behave in very different ways, but that could simply be due to the fact that we are all unique physical machines. Listen to a particular radio broadcast on a cheap transistor radio and the quality won’t be anything like as good as it would be on an high-end system. The broadcast itself, however, would be the same.

My notion, then, is that there is just one signal being broadcast throughout the whole universe, meaning that there is just one consciousness. You are that one consciousness, which is currently being animated through your physical being. When your physical body dies, the broadcast being expressed through it will seem – to others – to fall silent, but it will continue forever, and will express itself in many other ways, through many other physical bodies.

To put all of this into a more ‘spiritual’ context, you are not really an individual spirit, but rather, you are an individual expression of the one Spirit, or what many traditions call God or Infinite Intelligence, and so is everyone else.

Look at your neighbours, your spouse, your parents, your children, you co-workers, your pets and any other living being, and you will see yourself – the one Spirit – being expressed in many different ways. This is why so many teachers have said that ‘we are all one’ and that we should love our neighbours as we love ourselves, and be careful to treat others as we would like to be treated.

Every single living thing on the planet is an expression of the one Spirit. Those individual expressions may come and go, but you – the Spirit itself – will continue for eternity.

Developing Spiritual Discernment

by Ian Leave a Comment

In my previous post I wrote about the importance of viewing your intuition as the only spiritual authority that you will ever need. Not too many people have a problem with that idea, but a few will sometimes express concern that their intuition might potentially give them bad advice, or mislead them in some way. What if their intuition tells them to eat a dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts every day for breakfast, for example? Or to kick the cat? Or even to take a leap from a very tall building?

These are legitimate concerns, but only because the questioners do not yet understand that their intuition would never guide them to do anything which would be harmful to themselves or others. Not all of our inner urges are intuitive, and therefore not every inclination that we have should be viewed as such.

We have said that human beings are spiritual beings in flesh-and-blood bodies. As such, you have both a spiritual nature and a physical nature. Intuition is the voice of your spiritual nature, but you also have plenty of inner urges which arise from your physical nature. It is therefore important that you develop spiritual discernment so that you can learn to tell the difference between the two.

Urges which arise from the physical nature tend to be concerned with obtaining some form of emotional or physical satisfaction. The desire to vent your anger or disappointment, to be impatient, to shout, to scream, to take revenge for some perceived wrong that has been done to you, to question your self-worth, or to feel sorry for yourself, are all good examples.

The voice of the spiritual nature, or intuition, on the other hand, tends to be concerned with your development as a spiritual being. This is the inner voice of reason, which gives you wise counsel which often runs contrary to your physical urges. For example, your intuition may suggest that you should resist giving in to your anger or disappointment, that you should strive to be more patient, that you should remain calm and trust the universe, that you should forgive those who have done you wrong, that you should be more mindful of your spiritual identity and that you should be grateful for all the good that you have in your life.

Another difference between the voice of intuition and urges arising from the physical nature is that the former will tend to advocate attitudes, responses and actions which promote the spiritual wellbeing and long-term happiness of both yourself and others in equal measure, whilst the latter will only tend to promote short-term pleasure, and usually for yourself.

Being aware of these differences between your intuition and the urges of your physical nature will help you to discern between the two in daily life.

For example, if you suddenly feel the urge to spend some time in prayer or meditation, or to speak words of genuine encouragement and kindness to someone, it should be quite clear that these are the promptings of your intuition. However, if you feel a compelling urge to give someone a ‘piece of your mind’ or cope with a feeling of sadness by seeking solace in a bottle of vodka, then it should be equally clear that these are the promptings from your physical nature.

It should be obvious that not all physical urges are to be ignored. The urge to eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, sleep when tired, and so on, are things which serve to keep you alive and healthy. What you should do is examine the urges of your physical nature as they arise and then choose consciously whether or not you should act upon them, and if so, how to act upon them in a healthy and balanced manner.

By taking this approach, listening to your intuition will not mean going along with every whim and fancy which arises, but evaluating your inner guidance to sort the wheat of genuine intuition from the chaff of sometimes irrational physical urges. Then, as you continue developing spiritual discernment, you will find that the voice of your intuition becomes ever clearer, and before long it will be quite easy for you to know which ideas are intuitive and which are not.

Spirituality Without the Woo Woo

by Ian Leave a Comment

Spirituality is very often misunderstood, and unfortunately these days there are many people who equate being ‘spiritually minded’ with being open-minded to the point of irrationality. Whilst it is of course important to be fairly open-minded so that one can properly explore and consider various possibilities, completely checking one’s intellect at the door and assuming that every ‘spiritual’ idea one encounters has equal credence is never a good idea.

The general population use the word Woo-Woo to refer to any concept which is demonstrably at odds with the real world. The term also refers to people who choose to embrace Woo-Woo ideas without question. It is a mildly derogatory term, to be sure, but whilst many view the word Woo-Woo and spirituality as being synonymous, they really aren’t.

My aim here at Spirituality for Seekers is to encourage you to explore spirituality without the Woo-Woo. This means being willing to look at various concepts and ideas and evaluate for yourself whether or not they make sense in light of both your personal experience and demonstrable reality.

It is not always necessary for a spiritual concept to be proven by science in order for it to be useful, but if a concept actually contradicts scientific knowledge then it should be discarded without further thought. After all, your aim as a Seeker is not to become a master or mistress of self-delusion, and live out your days in your own personal fantasy world, but rather to find principles and ideas which help you to live a better life in the real world.

If we are correct in thinking that there is a spiritual side to life, then that spiritual side should be operating in accordance and agreement with the other, more mundane laws of the universe. If we encounter an idea or notion which goes against established fact, then we must make a choice between established fact and believing something which science has proven to be otherwise, and the intelligent Seeker will always choose the former.

‘If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.’ – Dalai Lama XIV

The danger of completely setting aside the intellect when exploring spiritual ideas and concepts is that it can make some people vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. The world is full of individuals and organisations who make quite ridiculous claims and promises, only to take advantage of those who are gullible enough to believe them. Consciously pursuing spirituality without giving credence to the blatantly Woo-Woo is a simple way of avoiding that risk.

Remember, you don’t automatically have to accept an idea just because it cannot be disproven. Many people believe in angels and demons. Many others believe in the power of pendulums and voodoo dolls. Those ideas don’t exactly contradict science, because science hasn’t explored them in any great depth, but that doesn’t mean that ideas about angels, demons, pendulums and voodoo dolls are automatically valid, or that you should believe that they are based on the personal experience of anyone but yourself.

Whilst on this topic, it is also worth mentioning that science itself is sometimes used to try and give weight to Woo-Woo claims which do not really warrant it. It is possible for any fact to be misrepresented, or deliberately twisted to support a completely unrelated idea, so when exploring spiritual concepts, do not be afraid to follow up scientific-sounding statements with proper research of your own. The simple phrase, ‘Quantum physics tells us that…’ should not be enough for the Seeker to accept whatever follows without question.

Exploring spirituality without the Woo-Woo means being willing to question everything. Not because you want to disprove every concept which runs counter to your existing assumptions, but simply because you are a Seeker of truth. Your truth may not turn out to be the same as my truth as far as our subjective understanding of various concepts are concerned, but if we are both being honest with ourselves and genuine in our quest, neither of us will knowingly adhere to ideas which blatantly contradict the facts of reality.

I would encourage all Seekers to ask themselves three questions whenever they encounter any new idea, and those are as follows:

Does the idea contradict objective reality, such as the proven laws of science?

Does the idea contradict your subjective experience of reality?

Does the idea contradict your intuition?

If the answer to any of these three questions is yes, then set the idea aside. If the answer to all three questions is no, then feel free to explore the idea further, but don’t accept it without question. Faith can be useful, but blind faith is simply blind.

‘If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.’ – Matthew 15:14