Does my claim against spirituality offend you?
Does it drive you away from reading any further because you sense a negative rant coming your way?
We are flawed in several ways – our mind and body constantly requires nurturing to be healthy. It demands challenges, relaxation, entertainment, adventure and most of all peace. In spite of all the flaws, we survive and prosper inexplicably to reach new highs. Our imperfections often lead us to questioning our purpose and we seek to find the answers through spirituality.
A popular notion developed in the spiritual world is to relinquish one’s identity or sense of self. While the idea is to enhance our mind to perceive beyond ourselves, it has often been misconstrued as a suggestion to obstruct our thoughts completely.
Are you still with me?
Rather than debate our beliefs on the theory of evolution, let’s keep it simple and agree that humans have come a long way to be where we are today. What separates us humans from animals? Some of the first reactions might be the ability to walk upright, the power to communicate with speech due to the possession of an enhanced vocal system and the unique potential to observe various things and learn from them. However, the most important difference between man and beast is the power to self-reflect. Humans can experience things beyond their own perspective, we can imagine beyond our self and can consciously realize the feeling of being alive! Simply put, we have the ability to THINK!
Play catch with your dog and he will be uncomplainingly happy for the rest of his life, but a human mind will be tired soon and figure out a way to improve this way of living and build a ball launcher machine. Our minds are inherently never satisfied with our current state of being and we keep seeking for improvements and adjustments to somehow attain that magical state. We look forward to new experiences, new ideas and new people to stimulate our minds. Unlike animals, a mundane daily routine often starts to creep into our minds, nudging constantly to break free from the repetitive chain and we attempt to augment our existence, by gaining either material possessions or spiritual experiences.
It is this cognizance that has allowed us to revolutionize our entire existence from being hunters to farmers to pave the way for industrial and technological revolutions. This power has enabled us to extend our lifetime with innovations to prevent and cure the human body. We live in the age of globalization where access to information is a few clicks away and our mind still continues to bridge this gap with continuous improvements. With each passing day, our ability to think has enhanced our existence, that we often take for granted and ignore to acknowledge the power we possess.
However, in recent times where spirituality is our solution to imperfections and suffering, we are faced with contradicting notions about the power of our mind. I am a spiritual person and often spend a lot of time wondering and questioning various aspects of existence to reflect upon myself. While I have nothing against the new age leaders, it is the misinterpretation that needs clarification.
The fallacy lies in the idea of spirituality, where this unique ability to think is sometimes portrayed as an enemy. Suggestions from leaders that encourage you to stop thinking or to avoid the constant chatter of your mind have created a notion that your mind and its manifestations are flawed leading to your state of unhappiness. It is misleading and abstract when you are told to simply shut the mind which thereby nullifies the entire principle of being a human. We are humans because we think, and if we do not, what are we?
You will often hear suggestions from friends and family when you are going through a crisis in life “Just don’t think about it, it will be fine.” The more you hear it, the more you think about it! What drives you away from thinking about your crisis? We tend to revert to activities that help divert our attention from the thoughts that destroy us. However, the ability to select and perform that activity stems from another thought! If you simply stopped thinking, you will be stuck at your last thought forever. New thoughts bring the necessary change required to conquer your past, just like new relations often erase the memory of past painful experiences.
Spirituality isn’t about blocking away your thoughts, but it is about embracing new thoughts while taking control over old ones. Being aware of your minds chatter and channelizing it appropriately in the best possible productive manner, is the simplest summation of all of spirituality. It may not require you to travel to mountain tops, or to chant hymns or even sit aimlessly trying to stop your mind from thinking. Forcing your mind to do so is a thought itself, and believing this flawed notion can leave you devoid of achieving greater things.
To be alive and to live in the present moment, our mind requires awareness and acceptance of all forms of thoughts about the past or the future, but the strength to reject its interference with our reality NOW!
Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts ~Buddha
Carpe Diem!
Superb….loved the way u have explained spirituality
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Thank you 😊
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I love your texts. Especially about spirituality in an intelligent way.
“If you simply stopped thinking, you will be stuck at your last thought forever.”
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Thank you for your appreciation 😊
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Reddit brought me here. The title hooked me, and the explanation speaks to me.
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I’m glad you liked it. Appreciate your feedback 😊
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No problem man! I just remembered something about spirituality. A little too much of it is dangerous don’t you think? Like extremism.
I just pondered faith and spirituality after watching Castlevania on Netflix.
Believe you me, its story is a prime example of man misunderstanding religion, but with dire consequences.
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I totally agree. Anything in excess is bad.
I’ll watch Castlevania now that you have recommended. Thanks for sharing!
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I must say, you have explained it very well. However according to me spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. Different thoughts I guess. 🙂
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I live in the present and do my best to appreciate EVERYTHING surrounding me- despite what that might be. We only get one life to live, to we must embrace everything we encounter!
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I agree totally that spirituality is the way forward. We need to open our minds eye to what is around us.
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Your words are so powerful. Some people won’t finish the post because of where they think it is going to go.
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Thanks for reading..I hope you were able to resonate with the idea
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I have to say that the last sentence hit me hard.
“To be alive and to live in the present moment, our mind requires awareness and acceptance of all forms of thoughts about the past or the future, but the strength to reject its interference”
It is so hard to accept things that you regret doing but you are so right in saying that we need the strength the reject it if it haunts our present. I just wish I can develop this strength over time.
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Thank you so much for reading 😊 I wish all the strength to fight all your thoughts and truly cherish the Present Moment 😊🙏
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Really like the way you explain spirituality! Slowly getting into this myself 🙂
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Thank you so much 😊🙏
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This gave me a lot to think about, thank you! I’m definitely curious about different perspectives of spirituality. x
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Thank you for reading Megan 😊🙏
I’m glad the purpose of this post has been met
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I think humans have come a long way and I think that we are so lucky to be where we are today. It’s amazing to see what we’ve accomplished considered the planet has existed since 2 billion years ago.
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Wow. I love how you write, this was gripping from the start, Having the strength to rejects what affects us is something I need to work on.
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Thank you for reading Zoe😊 appreciate your feedback
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I love the way it shifted my way of thinking for the day. It’s always good to reflect spiritually.
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Very powerful! Our thoughts actually do create our beliefs.
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Excellent points! While I personally don’t believe in evolution, I agree with you that humans have greatly evolved.
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I absolutely love reading your thoughts on things! You’re so very insightful, and have such a way with words. One can’t help but want to read it all.
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Thank you so much Emily. Your appreciation means a lot. Happy to have this encouragement from you 😊🙏
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This is such a great article and really love reading this. I agree that human thought really helps us to believe in those things that we wanted to believe in.
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Thank you Catherine 😊
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A very enlightening and deep perspective. So true, that our ability to “think” differentiates us.
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This has given me a better insight into spirituality. Thank you
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Wow, you’ve explained things about spirituality very well and I agree that your thoughts creates your beliefs that also influence your actions.
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Thank you Geraline😊
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What an interesting and insightful post! I really enjoyed your perspective and look forward to reading more from you in the future!
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My anxiety sometimes leaves me to think the same thought over and over in cycles. This is a really important topic for me. I will remember to control my thoughts instead of stopping them. Stopping them has been useless over the years anyway. Trying to stop the thoughts gives me more anxiety actually. It took me a long time to figure out that distracting and forcing my thoughts to be in the moment is the only relief when I get bad “thought anxiety”. This is great advice. Thank you.
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Thank you for reading Teri😊 appreciate your feedback
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