It’s often said that we are not human beings having spiritual experiences, but spiritual beings having human experiences. This is a life-changing idea; once we grasp it, nothing ever seems the same again.
Spirituality has little to organised religion, although followers of organised religion usually think it does. It is not about adopting a structured system of somebody else’s thoughts, but experiencing things for ourselves. We can all learn from the great teachers, but unyielding doctrine and fanciful fairy tales are barriers to realising our spiritual nature.
‘Spiritual’ simply means ‘non-physical’. Our spiritual self is therefore our non-physical self – our ideas, imagination, intelligence, intuition, creativity and so on.
We are all in essence non-physical beings. Our bodies are 99.999% nothingness. The atoms of which we are made are composed of subatomic particles held together by energy and shaped by information. The ‘seen’ is therefore dependent on the ‘unseen’ for its existence.
Theologians argue long and hard about what this ‘unseen’ something is and nations go to war over their conclusions – and yet 90% of religions’ teachings are the same. Imagine if Yeshua of Nazareth, Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanek, the Buddha, Lau Tsu, Moses and the Rishis who wrote the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita entered a discussion on the nature of reality, chaired by Albert Einstein. They would 90% agree!
There is only one Truth. Let’s put old dogmas to one side and search for it together. Let’s concentrate on what unites rather than divides us.
Today’s top physicists tell us that the universe is underpinned by a universal field of energy and information, the Zero Point Field. Could this be the ‘unseen’ Creative Intelligence that spiritual masters have referred to down the centuries? I believe that it is, because it shares many of the characteristics that religious people attribute to G_d: omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent – bountiful, the source of all.
However, unlike religious people, the Zero Point Field has no race or gender, does not discriminate and does not intervene directly in events except to lay down and give effect to universal law.
No practical spirituality can avoid an understanding of human psychology, especially the workings of the mind. And this is where we come in. Thought is creative power. We co-create our reality with this Creative Intelligence through our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, words, and actions. These shape our experience of the world. We are not passive reactors to a G_d-like force beyond our influence – we can learn how to create the best possible lives for ourselves.
We strengthen our connection to Creative Intelligence by prayer and meditation. All major spiritual traditions teach the benefits of silence, stillness and solitude. But prayer that pleads with some ‘higher power’ to intervene on our behalf is futile – truly spiritual people are not praying beggars, they appreciate that the prime purpose of prayer is to change the person who prays.
We are all inter-connected. There is not separation between us except in our minds, because we are all part of the same universal field. We share our very atoms. What affects one affects all; what affects all affects every one of us.
How do we express all this in our daily lives? Through experiencing and demonstrating love – but not the shallow, glossy ‘love’ flaunted in popular culture. Human love is a pale shadow of universal love, tainted as it is by vanity and emotion.
We must do more than learn about spirituality – we must live it!
©David Lawrence Preston, 15.4.2016
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter @David_L_Preston
