What is Spirituality? (And how does it relate to thinking?)

Executive summary, for  those short on time:

Spirtuality is: 
1. A word, created by a thought 
2. A transient, powerful and intangible beauty
3. Connection to the open intelligence of being
.
Since we compulsively over think we create a world of problems and suffering. By connecting to your being will put you in touch with inspiration, instead of external validation, but only when you are ready - when you really want it and are prepared to let go of the things you think you need. You can’t force it, so for now just enjoy where you're are and relax in the knowing that you can either indulge thinking or begin at once to re-balance your mental state towards being - either way you’ll be ok, in a spiritual sense.

Spirit of Detroit trying to balance

The full article.

I ask myself regularly ‘who am I?’ ‘What am I doing? And then I realise I am seeking the answers to these questions with my thinking mind, which goes outward, searching for external validation, through my work, or my social networks, through art or through sensual delights. Inspiration is what I’m looking for and the clue is in the word: IN-SPIRATION. It’s about going inwards towards spirit. But what is Spirituality? Here is my long-winded definition, in the hope that it reminds us why it is useful to revisit, from time to time. 

SPIRITUALITY IS...

1. A WORD, CREATED BY A THOUGHT. 
First we must have awareness that this is simply a word - a human mental concept and creation. It is NOT reality, it is a map of reality, a representation using the English language. The term spirit comes from definitions like "animating or vital principle in man and animals". It is derived from the Old French espirit, which comes from the Latin word spiritus (soul, courage, vigor, breath) and is related to spirare (to breathe). But Reality is more than words, it is vibrating matter,  felt through experience. Any concept like 'spirit' is only an idea. All ideas stem from an ideology -with inherent beliefs. Each person sees the idea with their own set of background beliefs and understandings, so the word is interpreted slightly differently each time. Thus reading this article will only give you a mental understanding of spirit. To really understand you must experience it. Nonetheless I will attempt more words to express how I see spirituality. 

LA RIVER

2. A TRANSIENT, POWERFUL AND INTANGIBLE NATURAL BEAUTY
An ever-moving beauty that, if captured, squeezed or forced to act differently, either destroys vanishes (although It is still there, but it is no longer tangible or visible by your mind or senses). If one wishes to experience the beauty one must let it flow and arise in its own time. I love the idea “You cannot capture a river, for it is always moving.” Once you contain and control it you change it - it is no longer a river, it is now, a lake of still water, with less life force. A wild phenomenon or animal has spirit, partly because it is in the wild, it is untamed. You can watch and appreciate the beauty, get even closer and you can be touched by this river, but get too fixated by its beauty and you will be overwhelmed.

NATURAL BEAUTY
The main beauty of that river is only experienced when it is in its natural setting, flowing and interconnected with the wildlife and landscape - if you try and stop it or change its course too harshly you will destroy its transient beauty (as shown in the LA river). You may also want to appreciate the wildlife within the river, watching the life of nature. An example of this art form is ‘fish tickling’; which requires an openness, a stillness, a letting go of 'grabby' need and a moving towards play and trust - one hopes a fish will come along and one knows that the most skillful thing to do is remain still and open and to enjoy the waiting, in the knowing that even if a fish doesn't tickle me today there is always tomorrow and the old adage “there are plenty more fish in the sea.” This is an attitude of gratitude and abundance, which will create patience and joy. Whereas If one is agitated and forces oneself to wait it is likely this will manifest tremors in the hand, and the fish will see this as a trap, they will feel the expectant mind and they will swim away. Same with the river - we can trust that it will change in flow, over time, but that it will continue to flow, finding the path of least resistance, and in that is beauty. 

POWER IN SPIRIT
If one wants to harness the power of this life force then one must first study it closely, consciously (The word ‘con-science’ means 'with study' in its original Latin). It is essential to know the history of the river by studying its banks and changing flows. The river can be fished with these observations and with skills learned by spending time with the river. Its raw power can be be directed and influenced to help us in life, but not without care and understanding. Any natural phenomenon like this is in a complex interdependent relationship with life and so one must proceed slowly if one wants to respect these organic relationships. If we lose touch with the nature of this wild force, or if we forget about its inherent beauty then we will eventually destroy the life that makes it beautiful and valuable or it will destroy us with its suppressed natural power. Either way we suffer if we force the spirit to comply to our will.

3. CONNECTION TO THE OPEN INTELLIGENCE OF BEING.
With practice we develop mastery. If you practice appreciation of transient and intangible beauty through feeling and enjoying (rather than controlling, or just talking about it and thinking) then you master the art of inspiration - the ability to more easily connect with the spirit inside yourself. Spirituality is often thought of as connection to something greater than ourselves, but what if that 'greater thing' was insider you?

---

To see a World in a Grain of Sand 
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour​...
...We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye ​
- William Blake

This poem hints at where we can connect to truth, power, beauty and understanding - in the felt experience of the moment, inside. This is where intelligent life flows from - somewhere at the centre of your being. Not a place but a connected movement. The intelligence that constantly emerges from the synergy - the collection of multiple interconnected parts that work in harmony, with no master. It is more than the sum of its parts. 

This kind of intelligence is less about mental knowledge and more about wisdom (experiential knowing). Any attempt to represent or record it will be inferior  to the direct experience of it. It can only be known in brief moments. In those moments a skillful way of being emerges; a power to trust, to have compassion, presence, vitality and love. This cannot be documented or proven, only experienced. Isolating variables to create models of happiness always fall short because they lose touch with the artful nature of spirit. But with practice we can dip in and out of this knowing with growing ease. Much like a skilled naturalist we are more able to connect with spirit when we understand it - and it will then be more available to us, because of awareness, practice, appreciation and trust. 

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THINKING 
When we encounter difficulty we are conditioned to turn to the rational mind to make a decision. Where spirituality is concerned the 21st century mind will often choose from one or the other (a binary);  to move towards more either thought (analysis, ideas, judgements and quantifiable evidence) or towards spirit  (which has no evidence, because it is transient. It doesn't take any credit for creation).

BALANCE
Developing balance is something that requires experiencing each side of something. It is only through the contrast that we find the right balance for oneself. Which is why each individual explores thought - goes round in circles of analysis, philosophy, moralising and trying to be right. Eventually one will come to the conclusion that thought is useful for creating external things (like cars or houses) but that it cannot connect is to the reasons to live, it cannot provide the deep inspiration to live a beautiful life, with wisdom. Similarly, relying only on a deep inner connection to spirit, without practical knowledge will be unbalanced with the nature of social and physical reality and lead to physical problems.

BEING GOOD VS BEING YOURSELF
Once one finds a balance that feels good one does not need to ‘try’ and be good or compassionate one can just let it flow naturally from connection to spirit. Written down that may appear incredibly naive and perhaps dangerous. Again, one can only experience it. 

THE COLLECTIVE BALANCING
Modern life has been dominated by thinking, recently. That dominance (unbalance) has fixated us on the creation of external stimuli with the belief that ‘technology and mental intelligence will be our salvation’ and continue the 'race'. This belief fuels all the systems of living we now experience. We use rigid rules and words based on quantifiable things. We consume or create things to feel good. We do things, rather than simply be in our selves. Thinking is generally being over used and compulsive.  Eventually this creates distrust, problems, fear and more rigid beliefs. The mind becomes sick with compulsive negative thinking and we drive ourselves gradually towards self destruction. Or towards a re-balancing...

OPTIMISTIC OR OPTIMISING
Perhaps though our nature will in out and we will reach a threshold where we naturally choose to rebalance the spirit/thinking equation (one way or another). This is an individual journey that then feeds into a collective (general) state. Because life is all about balance - homoeostasis. Is this optimistic or just a recognition of the optimising nature of life? What goes up must come down. We are finding the balance in this dance and so when we are ready we come back into being and connect with spirit once again. This will happen for as long as feels right and then we will get lost into  thinking once again, then spirit, then thinking... in, out, in, out... until, death. 

THE CONCLUSION
Death will happen and it will either return the spirit to the ether, ready to be reformed again into transient beauty (f that's what one chooses to believe) or it will just the end of life, in which case, no worries. The eternal sleep will be nothing to experience so cannot be good or bad. In the meantime, during your life experience and balancing, if spirit is something you are curious about then come and play with a spiritual practice like mindfulness - drop me an email. If you are enjoying your thinking mind then great - learn and create some awesome words, art or things in the world. Either way it's all good and life will find the balance for you, so you can simply enjoy it. ​​