The Beginning of the Spiritual Quest

"May you live in interesting times." Set in the context of one of the ancient Eastern spiritual paths, this benediction (which sounds like a blessing) is actually a curse. In other words, those whose lives are surrounded by external events and circumstances that command their attention, are less likely to engage in the kind of internal work that yields beneficient results.

I've heard it said that all spiritual quests begin with one word. HELP!

This was certainly true for me, as I'm sure it is for many others. Spirit, being noncoercive, must await supplication before engaging us in a conscious, more efficient, process. And most of us, being the egocentric beings that we are, simply will not ask for help when life is going well -- or at least what we evaluate as well.

But, when life events are not found to be satisfactory, when suffering and resistance are in our awareness, when nagging questions arise that need to be answered, when our paradigm does not adequately address our perceived reality, THEN.... we shout a cosmic HELP! to the Universe.

And the Universe responds....with Help.

What This Blog is About...

If there is one single defining feature of my life, it is my spiritual journey.

I don't throw around lightly that word, spirituality; I fervently believe that until a person consciously engages with a spiritual component, s/he is effectively "missing the point" of life.

Yet, I must admit, it's easy miss it; not because it's hard to find, but rather because it's so obvious. Spiritual is to humans as wet is to a fish -- everything is!

This blog is my attempt to encapsulate in words both my journey and my perspective into the only aspect of human life that TRULY matters.

Contrast

In our human experience, our lives are organized by comparison and contrast. This process of differentiation allows us to survive, and to navigate the apparent complexities of existence. In most cases, contrasts are more crucial to us than comparisons. That is, differences are more important than similarities.

For example, imagine two identical glasses of clear liquid sitting on a table. You are told one of them contains pure water, and you are thirsty. At this point, differences would be more important to you than similarities. The glasses are identical, same amount of liquid, same appearance of liquid, etc. But what makes one of them water and the other NOT water? Differences. And you'd begin to look for those differences. Different smell? Texture? Reactions? Chemical composition?

At the foundation of this thinking is our belief in identity. Why is it important to know which glass contains water? Because water is crucial for my body, but other substances could harm it. We believe we are in a body, or we believe we ARE a body.

We follow the same thinking dynamic in our human relationships. We can make an effort to see sameness, but it seems like wasted thinking. Our identities seem to be defined by differences, not similarities. In fact, every aspect of individuality could be expressed as, "I am _______, but you are NOT _______." I am male; you are not. I am 42 years old; you are not. I reside at this address; you do not. I work at this job; you do not. I have these hobbies; you do not. Our human identity is literally defined by a continual process of differentiation that seems to afford us an individual identity.

And this appears to conform to reality.

But is it? Is it real? Are we truly separate, unique, self-contained individuals? Or is this merely a belief that we have accepted as a truth?

The spiritual path asks us to begin to take note of our oneness. That which unites us, rather than that which divides us. "I am __________, and you are also _________." And, gradually, gently, the realization begins to dawn on us, that the features that unite us are more important than the ones that seem to separate us. As we divest value from our separate identities, we begin to open our mind to the possibility that identity does not have to be defined by individuation.

This possibility opens up myriad questions and other possibilities.