This step is bringing us into the final stretch on our
journey to living free. Spirituality, as I perceive it, is a very personal
thing. I was raised in a Baptist Church aligned with the American Baptist
Convention and in my early thirties, transferred to another Baptist Church
aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention. Through the years I have come to
define religion and spirituality as different things. Of course, while
religious beliefs encompass certain aspects of spirituality, religions are
typically an organized system of doctrines and beliefs embraced by a group (of
any size) of like-minded followers. Spirituality, on the other hand, doesn’t
require you conform to a specific doctrine or belief system that necessarily
involves any kind of organization or group of like-minded individuals.
Spirituality can be as individual as each person is and that’s what makes it
personal.
Now, before you, who may embrace any specific religion,
whether one of the many Christian Protestants denominations, any of the several
Catholic divisions of Christianity, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Hindus, Wickens or
other organized religions of the world, decide to challenge me, please don’t!
Living free isn’t about religion, though you may, and you certainly have the
natural, human right to, embrace your chosen religious beliefs as part of your
personal spirituality and definition of freedom. It is my firm belief that
every human embraces some kind of spirituality, though it may not be
consciously displayed or even acknowledged. I don’t include such belief systems
as Buddhism, Scientology and numerous other philosophical thought groups as
religions, though they have been characterized and even legally recognized by
various governments as religious organizations. In my way of thinking, these
belief systems are more realistically philosophical approaches to spirituality,
each with its basis in some original founding leader’s philosophy, while not
necessarily aligned with any form of deity of god-like spiritual embodiment.
Those who read this and practice any of these other belief systems are
certainly within their rights to believe they are religions if you so choose to
define them as such for yourself.
The reason I believe that spirituality is a natural step in the
progression of living free is because it is virtually impossible in our
civilized (and surely in less developed) societies to deny some kind of
connectedness between other humans such as family and friends. Additionally,
there is a connection and dependence on lower animals through the domestication
of pets and work animals. We also rely on many animals as a food source. Many
cultures worship various animals. Additionally, there is a connection between
humans and the Earth in the form of the flora that we enjoy in its natural
state, cultivate as a food source and also find creative outlet in the personal
beauty and pleasure derived from gardening and landscaping. Finally, there is a
connection with the universe. We, as humans have always been fascinated with
the stars and what’s “out there.” Are we the only living beings who think and
reason in the entire universe? We now know the universe is ever expanding since
the “Big Bang,” the theory believed by the scientific community to have
occurred some five billion years ago and commonly accepted as the author of the
universe.
Of course, there is also a certain internal spirituality. As
humans, we are the most remarkable living things on the Earth. We are split
between two basic schools of thought on how humans came to inhabit the Earth.
First are those people with religious beliefs defining the creation of human
existence as the work of a divine being/intelligence. The second are those who
believe that somehow all the right circumstances came together at a precise
moment in time to become the spark of life that evolved over millions of years
into homo erectus and ultimately homo sapiens and here we are. Of course,
science has proven that there were other forms of human like beings that
evolved, but didn’t survive. We know, scientifically that is true of other
animal forms as well.
There is also a third less widely held belief that may
provide a bridge between the other two explanations of human development. This
embraces the idea that there is human life in other parts of the universe and
some visitors from another world, far more advanced then we are, even today,
came here and left behind early humans to inhabit and colonize the Earth. This
is certainly a stretch, but is it any more or less believable then a deity
molding the world in six days from the raw materials of the universe and
creating humans in its own image or that a “Big Bang” occurred billions of
years ago and created the universe and set up the conditions over billions of
years for life to germinate and evolve on this rock floating in space?
So, how does spirituality become a step to embrace for
living free? I see this as a very simple concept. Whether you like it or not,
you are part of this planet and the universe. Sure, you’re one of over seven
billion other human beings (as of October 31st, 2011) co-existing on
this piece of space rock we call Earth, our home. There is so much about
yourself and nature that you have questions about. No, you probably don’t dwell
on them. Frankly, most of nature and everything about the nature of your
existence is way beyond both your ability to comprehend and your pay grade that
you have to find some way to narrow your focus to a much more intimate life
that you may be able to have a modicum of control over. All the rest of it is
what I define as spirituality.
If you have chosen to accept and practice some form of
organized religion, you are given certain doctrine and belief systems to use in
living a meaningful life. One of the concepts in most Jewish, Christian and
Muslim religious doctrine is that you must accept on faith what you cannot
humanly see or comprehend. You must choose to believe that what you are taught,
by the theology of the various religions, is true and has been communicated to
humans through those chosen as prophets and religious leaders, by God. This is,
of course, a simplification of the entire idea of a living God. This is
certainly a way to deal with the immensity of the question – what is the
meaning of life? And, if this works for you, then carry on and practice your
religious beliefs as deeply and seriously as you feel comfortable in doing.
Perhaps organized religion is not the answer for you,
whether you have experienced some degree of religious education and experience
or not. This doesn’t necessarily define you as an atheist or a non-believer in
some kind of divine or superior intelligence with a plan for the universe. It
simply says that you don’t find personal comfort, solace, intellectual or
spiritual fulfillment in the organized religions that you have any experience
with or knowledge of. This may be a point where you might look into such
eastern philosophies as Buddhism. Since Buddhism appears to be more of a
philosophy then an organized religious institution, there is no way of knowing
how many practicing or even fringe Buddhists there are in the world. A low
estimate is in the range of 350 to 500 million people, which, while not as
large as the body of Christian or Islamic believers, is certainly not a trifle,
either.
Personally, I still characterize myself as a Christian
because my moral and ethical world-view was largely formed through my religious
learning as a child and teenager. While there are those who would consider me a
non-practicing Christian, I still embrace and live by much of that early
learning. Through my six plus decades of living experience my personal
world-view has expanded and changed in many ways, thus, I view my life, my
spirituality and the world differently then I did as a child and teenager. You
may be in a similar place and that’s as it should be.
Other interesting aspects of spirituality include meditation
and prayer. Both of these are practiced by billions of people on this planet
and it is a very personal experience for each person. While most commonly
identified with organized religions, prayer has been studied and researched on
a secular level as well. In studies conducted by Harvard, Duke and other
universities from a secular perspective and often involving health and medical
matters, including life and death issues, there have been conclusive, published
findings that people who have been the target of prayer in specific,
controlled, test groups have recovered and or survived at a much higher rate
compared to those who were not the focus of prayers from around the world. The
medical professionals have not been able to explain this scientifically. And,
to make the matter more interesting, the prayers emanated from diverse groups
of people practicing (or in some cases not practicing) different forms of
religion. I am not suggesting that you believe me or accept this as fact in
your own belief system. I’m simply reporting substantiated facts that have been
published by scholarly sources. Even the American Medical Association has made
some concessions in their consideration of prayer, this from a group that is
typically very scientifically biased.
So, we are all connected. As you read these 12 Steps for
Living Free, you are connected with me in some manner. It doesn’t matter
whether you live in the U.S., Russia, Japan, China, Brazil, Morocco, Australia,
New Zealand, Germany, the U.K. or any of the other dozens of countries where
the analytics indicate that readers of this 12 Step program are located. There
is something that connects us. My choice of the two words “living” and “free”
as a phrase is most likely the spiritual bond between us. As humans, no matter
what country or culture or society we reside in, by nature (there’s that word
again) we want to “live free.” And, to reiterate what I stated at the outset of
this treatise, I do not mean living free as without cost or paying for things
we need and want. I mean living free of as many limitations, restrictions,
laws, rules, regulations and other encumbrances.
As long as we live on this planet we have to live within the
rules of nature. And as long as we live in any kind of organized group of other
people whether it’s a family unit, a tribe, a village, a neighborhood or
community, a city or town, a state or province or a country, there will be laws,
rules, regulations, codes and so on that we much abide by. However, in choosing
to live free you will seek out ways to free yourself from being limited or
restricted as much as possible. There are many considerations you’ll have to
make in order to implement this kind of living free lifestyle, as you define
it, possible. And, of course, the other part of living free is to find joy and
be happy, which are state-of-mind choices.
How you choose to experience and express your spirituality
is, like everything else in these 12 Steps, entirely up to you. The reality is
that your spirituality is a continually evolving process. What you believed as
a child, a teenager, a young adult, a middle-age adult and a senior adult will,
most likely, be different. Each phase of your spiritual growth will, of course,
use everything you believed previously as the foundation and steps to the next
phase. In the end, you may go full-circle and return to where you began. But,
then again, you may end up with a completely different set of beliefs and
philosophies. So far as I can figure, whatever path you choose to follow is the
right one for you.
There will be those who will do their best to convince you
that their way is the truth and the only way. They certainly have every right
to believe that. But, they don’t have the right to condemn nor make you feel
that your spiritual belief system is any less then theirs. Your spiritual
belief system will bring you comfort and help you understand why you are on
this Earth for the short time you’ll be here. Though each of us is a mere speck
of space dust in the universe, each of us will, in some manner, leave behind an
imprint of some kind, whether we believe it or not.
2 comments:
Dennis Banks with blood of innocents on his hands?
http://jpwade.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/the-aftermath-of-aim-40-years-later/
An astute observation that Buddhism, as rewarding and worthy as it is, remains a philosophy rather than a religion. Buddhism is a great “religion” without God – meaning lacking a personal divine being with whom you can relate. Ultimately religion must entail a relationship with a divine being. You cannot relate to an energy field or nature or a chemical formula. Only a person, one with personality, can be loved.
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