Tuesday, February 08, 2011

What does "being spiritual" really mean?

peace symbol
Many people are turned off from spirituality and/or religion because they have come across too many who choose to sermonize their beliefs, or simply because they see no place for it in the "real" world. This is a shame.

The Tibetan Buddhist, TD Lakha Lama, said that spirituality means "spirit-in-reality", and he was right! Whether we see it as the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love, or the spirit of the universe, it's how we use that quality to heal and transform our day to day realities that really counts.

It's how we use our inner qualities, such as love, tolerance, wisdom, non-judgment, forgiveness and compassion, to deal with difficult situations that truly matters. It's easy to love when others are being loving, but the challenge is to be loving when others are not.

It's when the chips are down, that we are invited to dig deep and find that intangible, invisible energy that glues life together again, that heals all wounds and dissolves all sense of hatred and division. This is what spirituality is about. It's not about labelling and judging others, deciding whether they are "spiritual enough" to live up to our values, which is about as far away from real spirituality as you can get.

Being spiritual is not about being a pushover by any means. You may have to stand firm and peacefully challenge someone else's behaviour, especially if they are being abusive or intrusive.
If you choose to take a breath (symbolically taking in the breath of Spirit), you may just give yourself some much needed space for something better to manifest in your life. So many of us hold on to things that we don't need - both literally and metaphorically.

To express our sense of spirituality, we need to let something from inside ourselves shine through. Some call it Light. Some call it Love. Some call it God.

And so it is.