The essence of spirituality – Part 1

Awareness. That is the essence of spirituality. End of report.

There are many levels of awareness according to our consciousness. There is a time when we separate things through awareness: There is “I,” and “You,” together with all the other pronouns and then “Me” and the rest of the world. Then, the well known “inside” and “outside.” However, there is a level when we could become aware of the togetherness of all.

Consciousness cannot be ‘improved’ through ‘practice.’ However, there has to be a willingness beyond anything else in life, to know “thyself.” Knowing thyself means to know Life as well. It is not one and then the other but knowing one, you know the other. We are one.

Consciousness changes as we experience the different facets of Life. We are never the same. It is the awareness of those changes while they are happening, which brings further sharpness in that quality of awareness.

We could interchangeably use the term “observation” with awareness at one level, but they are not the same at a different ‘higher’ level of consciousness.

Together with willingness to go through this seldom walked path, there has to be utmost honesty to be able to perceive where we ARE in consciousness. When that honesty is not there, we could accept many beliefs as ‘true,’ when in fact, we have never experienced them. While living in that self lie, there is no way to go further. Something may be ‘true’ but if it is not in our experience, we are only lying to ourselves. That is dishonesty.

In spirituality, we are not concerned in “getting the right answer” as it is in society. We are concerned in BEING true to ourselves. What good is it to know that we are “eternal souls” when we do not have that experience and we do not act as if knowing that? How could that knowledge help us in our quest for self knowledge? If we have the “right” answer as the thing to find, then we could never accept other turns which Life may bring us. If there is something that I have learned and that I would like to convey to all readers, it is that “every path is different for every individual. Although these paths have the same destination, although at different times.”

In society we have learned “not to reinvent the wheel” and some religions believe that all we need to DO is to follow what someone else like a “saint” or religious leader has done. However, my experience is that in spirituality the “wheel has to be reinvented” for every path, every experience, every perception is different in Life. Thus, all we can do is share our own experience and never a ‘method’ or a ‘system’ that will allow us to ‘get there.’

A person who is just a “baby” in spirituality and listening about the different perceptions of consciousness will say: “ So one perception must be the right one. Who is right ?” He just wants an answer. Something intellectual to give him the idea that “he knows.” This type of person usually will be living life just to enjoy his senses. He will eat anything at any time as long as it tastes “good” (based on conditioning or even imitation), or she could believe that a mirror is her best judge. She will not become aware of how her judgment about her physical observation came to be. The majority of the people on Earth are still at this level. The more conditioned they are through the media and the marketing machinery of society, the less capacity for judgment of their learned values, they will have. These individuals will tend to live life just like their parents did, perpetuating all the unhealed issues which came from living in a ‘modern’ society.

As this ‘modern’ society seems to endlessly migrate from Nature into walls of concrete and roads of asphalt, (where entertainment means to distract the mind from BEING himself) then this individual will lose his capacity to appreciate his connection with mother Earth and therefore, his ability to FEEL. In turn, this person will be worshiping the mind and living a world of “virtual reality,” where the mind takes over his life.

The end result is a person who THINKS all the time: “I think I love you.” They will say. “I think we should DO this.” “I think the solution is that.”

These individuals are unaware that reasoning has a limited scope. Thought usually perceives the surface of matters while supporting separation. These individuals are unaware that thought is from the past, as it comes from our conditioning and previous experiences. Thought cannot bring enjoyment, happiness and peace which at the same time, is what they want.

The gist of thinking is to compare, to analyze, to dissect things in parts, to extrapolate based on fixed premises and to bring the past to our mind to be articulated by our language, which has been catered to polarize meanings: It is black OR white. There is no awareness that there could be something in between. Those analytical capacities are very useful in the “office world” and to operate in “Life in the head” through philosophies and all sorts of beliefs and even scientific discoveries, but those ways have no chance to understand our emotional subjective reality or yet another human or a different species which is unable to ‘speak.’

That type of individual has been trained to exploit, subdue and compete with another. That type of individual will kill to obtain what he wants and will rationalize all sorts of separations made through his morality, to conquer anything he wants. That type of person is not sensitive enough to ‘see’ beyond his mind. But yet, those “qualities” are admired and watered down to be “politically correct” and taught to others as values to pursue to “succeed in life.”

When a person is able to perceive his feelings, emotions and thoughts without identifying with them and able to live life while self observing his every movement, thought and feeling; then that individual is in the process of transitioning to a different way of living: FEELING. Perhaps then, she will realize how absurd it is to say “I think I love you.” Moreover, that person will be able to observe one of the greatest lies of all time since the time of Descartes ( I think therefore, I am) , which is that human beings are not truly rational beings but rather emotional beings. – I FEEL therefore, I AM.

Since that type of person is unable to FEEL Love, beauty, peace and joy, all they have left is the “idea” dictated by their beliefs of what those ‘things’ are.

Thus, they will “practice” those ideas. As a consequence, the FEELING beyond thought is never known; but merely an idea mixed with emotionality which they carry as a response of defense against the environment (the outside) which they want to subdue. That perception of what “I want” and what the “outside brings,” creates a conflict (ego) which is usually solved by conquering the other through some form of violence.

How is it possible for this person to experience Love, beauty, peace and happiness then? It is not possible, but paradoxically these individuals “talk” all the time about these FEELINGS as the “right solutions” to the problems in humanity.

That is their extent of disconnection with their reality and the limitation of their awareness.

(Will continue)