=kit031.txt

KIT 31 - Spirituality in Real Life

What do we mean by spirituality in real life? "The discovery of
any individual on the planet is the discovery of the whole
humanity." (Pir-o-Murshid) There is no doubt that, using the word
spirituality, we are referring to a whole other dimension than to
the usual commonplace dimension. But are we really talking about
something other than a way of thinking? If so, it must be
substantiated by a level of experience beyond the ordinary and be
verifiable and repeatable, according to the scientist. Certainly,
the verifiability is in whether it makes a person luminous,
joyous, alert and noble. If something is real, it must have
tangible effects. Its repeatability is observed in the fact that
most of the authentic mystics in the know of our human heritage
refer to identical experiences. If real, spirituality must have
its implications in our way of handling problems. It must govern
our whole value system, determine our priorities: what we strive
for, what we shun.

Those caught up in the "here and now" get easily burnt out,
disenchanted, even sardonic, or alternatively if under a lucky
star, selfish, arrogant, bumptious. Those hankering after the
"everywhere and always beyond the beyond" tend to get out of touch
with the nitty gritty, shun responsibility, and alienate
themselves through fantasy.

We are in search of a healthy and invigorating spirituality at the
dimension of the realization that humanity as a whole has attained
in our day and age. This spirituality is at the leading edge that
pioneering thinkers are feeling out.

A number of those who were deeply imbued in spirituality have been
put off by the abuses of some gurus. Others find that they have
less leisure or interest for such flights of fantasy owing to
their family and job commitments and feel that any connection with
spirituality alienates them from their co-workers, even puts their
credibility in jeopardy. Yet if spirituality has far-reaching
implications in our understanding and our determination of our
objectives and achievements, then by neglecting spirituality, one
would be missing out on dealing with prevailing concerns that
eventually affect the personality, the family, and the job.

Suppose by inference that a being only capable of interpolating
two dimensions should occasionally have uncanny hunches of being
part of a three dimensional world. He/she would strive awkwardly
to infer what a three dimensional world would be like from the way
the two dimensional world looks. This example shows why our
inferences about the higher spheres or the nature of the soul are
full of conjectures so disconcerting for the practical man or
woman. On the other hand, if our two dimensional being followed up
his/her hunches about other dimensions of being, he/she would
hoist him/herself into an incommensurably different level of
realization and achievement.

How would this simile apply to the mundane need of dealing with
human problems? It would mean dealing with the implications of the
problem rather than the symptoms. Here we are not talking about a
further dimension of space/time, but of understanding. Grasping
what are the factors that caused the events is a first further
dimension of understanding that is not limited by a linear time-
sequence, admittedly more difficult to cull. What are the
qualities in me or in the persons involved in the problem that are
at stake? How does my decision or way of handling things affect
the higher counterparts of my being which must, by resonance,
affect the higher counterparts of those in contact with me? These
higher counterparts must eventually sprout through in my
personality and of necessity, affect others by osmosis. What does
our reciprocal interaction involve in the larger scheme of things?

The challenge may prove insuperable. For example: reconciling
strength with kindness; the need for personal fulfillment and that
of service, reconciling: freedom with involvement, joy with
solidarity for suffering, the divine with the human; giving to
Caesar what belongs to Caesar; not paying your soul for the
goodies of the world. What is your real motivation? The more all
encompassing one's perspective, the more socially altruistic and
less personal will be the objective, a reconciliation of the way
of the master with the way of the saint. The new perspective is a
matter of bringing the divine desire into the human will, the
"everywhere and always" in the here and now.

This is where spirituality, awakening to the higher dimensions of
one's being, does affect the nitty gritty of our lives. Failing to
give it the attention it deserves spells a failure to become "what
we could be if we would be what we might be."
    
==================================================================
