What Does it Mean to You to be Spiritual?

a reply to: sekerofknowlege

Worldly people are either concerned with the tree for its fruits or the fruits for its tree, spiritual people are concerned with the seed through which the tree and its fruits have being.

Perhaps a distinction might better define spirituality or goodness. Both are stand-alone. Spirituality, just briefly 'usually' consists of A deity or object of reverence. Spirituality has opposites and every position in between, ie. good, lukewarm, mediocre and bad. God , Satan and the Angles and man.

Goodness can be independent of Spirituality, and both can travel together as a goal or achievement in the human condition, spiritual condition.

Evil can likewise be a forceful medium. A certain amount of discretion might be labeled deceit..... there is a necessity for both good and evil. It's knowing who your master is that makes the difference. And for atheists, it's completely moot.

But to also answer the question what does it mean to me ? A way of behaving, a recognition of behavior, a belief in God, Christ and the Holy spirit, as the only God I will have anything to do with. This point is not up for debate.

All it means to me is having an ever-expanding, conscious awareness of that which is beyond the physical and my inter-activeness with it.

I've found the best way to understand God/Enlightenment/Spirituality/Time, whatever you want to call it, is through maths. It's universally understood, there are no semantics, its not subjective and it requires a little thought to understand the meaning, which is no bad thing, but when you've got it, it's with you for life.

The two curves are the same equation. The first runs from low x/high y to high x/low y. (You don't need to know this but it's plotted in cartesian coordinates.) The second starts at zero and splits into either a spiral or a diagonal line. (It's plotted in polar coordinates.) The numbers represent age in tens of years on the x axis and degrees of enlightenment on the y axis.

When we're born our imaginations are fueled. We are free to expand our minds. That stops around age ten. Then social and peer pressure sets in, Santa isn't real anymore and we start to regress. If we were left as individuals we would join the spiral advancing forward, taking steps back. Some are lucky enough to be encouraged to follow the natural path. Most just enter into negative territory when they leave home and start careers and families.

Your 'spirituality' induced by suffering is taking you off the path and onto the spiral. You don't need suffering to achieve it, just a knowledge of the spiral. Buddha managed to stay on the spiral through isolation from society and then joined the path of enlightenment, which, to be honest is a bit of a let down after the spiral. Progress is shallow and doesn't achieve half of one's potential. That is achieved through transcendence which is in the completely opposite direction to life. It requires intellect and understanding to unlearn everything you know without losing your valuable life experience. This is why babies can't transcend. They need to have lived to 'un-live'.

Older people who regress back into childhood find the path to transcendence easier, as do those with autism. Hermits and the socially excluded also have a tendency to find the path easier. You can't think in just x, y, z and linear time, you need to add an angle component to time to take you into five planes or dimensions. This is how the universe is constructed after all. This is how God created it.

Nobody said it would be easy. But hopefully this visual aid will put you on a better path without masochism.

a reply to: PraeterLambo

The dreaded spiral!

PraeterLambo, I say that in jest because I know someone who promotes being on the spiral of Creation -- they believe it is a good thing and all there is in the movement "upward" -- yet I see it as being a program. Your perspective is interesting!

For me being "spiritual" means learning to deal with spirits, my own and others, living and dead, every hour of every day, 24/7.

I feel that spirituality is very personal and, for some, cannot be adequately put into words, or explained.

To say many people "throw the word around" but "few know what it means" is rather harsh, and self righteous, in a way.

What is spiritual to one may be different to another. That doesn't make them ignorant of spirituality or their view the wrong one, so to speak.

a reply to: sekerofknowlege

To be spiritual is to follow the path that leads to the true self alone.

originally posted by: cryptic0void
a reply to: sekerofknowlege

To be spiritual is to follow the path that leads to the true self alone.

Interesting you say that. I don't believe the path to the true self to be spiritual, I believe experiencing the true self is spirituality. Being the light in this dark world.

a reply to: Ladybug201

If you are not fully manifesting the true self your would then be on the path to full experience.
Spirituality is how you live in the world, as the spirit is what is manifesting here.
When spirit and transcendental experience are the same there is just the word and no need of names.

a reply to: PraeterLambo

The best way is through direct experience of God, would you not suppose?