I received a comment on that NRSP post I wrote recently. That’s the one where I listed the joys of being a non-Religious Spiritual Person.
The comment basically said, that’s all and well, but how do you know you’re spiritual? What’s your definition of “being spiritual?”
Great question!
I responded like this…
Eduardo, that’s an excellent question! I didn’t really address that in the post, did I? Well, maybe it’s implied in the fact that I do experience a certain joy in being non-religious, which gives me the freedom to explore a deeper and fuller spirituality. I believe life is a continuous search for truth and once you latch on to a particular religion you stop searching, thinking, I believe erroneously, that you have found ultimate truth. I believe true spirituality is a mindset that never stops searching.
Yesterday I watched (for the second or third time) Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous. In it Maher pretty much makes all the major religions seem, well, a bit “religulous.”
But do I agree with him? In part yes and, in part, no.
You see, if Maher was to ask me about my religious persuasions, I would of course tell him that I’m an NRSP. He would then surely say, well, I guess that means you believe in an all-knowing man who lives in the sky and who directs the happenings of humanity, right?
The question accompanied with that trademark Maher snicker to divulge his derision.
No, wrong.
I like to call it the universal force. I know that sounds all new-agey, but, hey, when you’re an NRSP you get to make up your own terms and definitions about these things.
It’s just not enough for Maher to dis-prove, de-validate and devalue religion. It’s natural for humans to question our existence…to ask, “how and why we are here?”
We developed religion to answer those very questions.
And if Maher’s motive is simply to remove religion, it doesn’t remove those questions. It won’t remove the search…it won’t remove our inherent need for spirituality.
Spirituality is a search for answers. Religion proposes to have them all ready made for us, but I don’t believe that any religion has anything close to an answer.
Spirituality does not reside in the knowing, but in the quest.
There’s nothing wrong with the search, with admitting that you just don’t know…that to me is the essence of being spiritual.
I do believe that there is something wrong when we stop searching, thinking that we have found the answers via a particular religion.
So, has my search led me to any answers, you might ask?
Answers…no.
Opinions?
Yes, I do have one or two of those. But we all know that opinions are a lot like assholes…we all have them.
My opinion has a lot to do with the scientific fact of connection. On an unseen molecular level, all matter is connected. Despite all the disconnection that exists in our seen world, the fact of the matter is, we’re connected.
Oh for sure, we can act as if we’re disconnected. We are super efficient at doing that. And generally, that’s what causes so much strife and suffering in our world.
Actions that facilitate connection are consistent with universal truth.
I guess biology would try to explain such actions as simply products of a chemical reaction in the brain that gives rise to emotions that motivate such actions.
Emotions like empathy and compassion.
Yet I believe that something else is going on behind sacrificial acts of service…of impact.
My spiritual search has led me to the opinion that “god” or that universal force I referred to above, is in fact the point of connection.
This universal force, or god, is the reason behind our connection and we are designed to have the capacity to act in ways that facilitate this universal truth of connection.
I like to call such actions good.
And specific to this blog, impact.
Impact mindfulness is a spiritual concept because it is a mindset of connection.
Religion is the opposite. Religion, like other actions of disconnection, such as wars and even murder, is mankind’s ego-driven need to controvert connection.
The ego drives us to single ourselves out, either alone or as part of a group, as being above and beyond the collective.
It all sounds good…that we are individuals striving for self-actualization.
For sure there’s great comfort in acting as if disconnected. We can accumulate great wealth for ourselves in the process.
That is, the purpose for said striving should be to facilitate the good of the whole.
You see, that’s what I believe we are really here for. I believe it’s consistent and goes with the universal flow of how things really are.
When we don’t do that…when we are solely self-interested, or group-interested, it tends to upset the apple-cart.
We tend to see the emergence of groups like ISIS.
Or, serial killers like Ted Bundy.
Our capacity for actions geared toward the collective good, for impact, implies that we have the flip-side capacity to do the exact opposite.
And we do, all too often.
This blog seeks to be a spiritual encouragement for the realization and actualization of universal connection via impact.
I believe our very existence depends on it.
image credit: Terry Hancock www.downunderobservatory.com via Compfight cc
