UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUALITY

A common theme in many of my blogs is the importance and relevance of seeking a spiritual connection in life. I find that focusing on, connecting with, and nourishing our spiritual nature adds expansiveness and transcendence to the material world we live in. 

Awakening the human spiritual energies is the path to becoming Holy. The method is meditation, a technique that helps us to establish otherworldly awareness alongside worldly concerns. Mindful meditation puts a person in touch with an aspect of existence independent of the physical universe.

Our minds can focus and concentrate, the abilities used when meditating. Sensory inputs define and restrict our attention to the earthly domain.  Perceiving without using the senses opens a portal to the celestial realm.

The lives we live are defined by limitations. Everything we sense is described by its borders. Objects, countries, and movements are understood as finite. Every thought we have is a circumscribed concept.

Meditation does add to our earthly experience: From a health perspective, this technique has successfully controlled diseases like high blood pressure, anxiety, and pain syndromes.

Language is confining. Therefore, describing the worthiness of bridging to spirituality cannot be done. Words are inadequate. They are tools applicable only in the earthly creation. The reality of Heavenly perception is foreign to any logical explanation or characterization. 

Pursuing spirituality is connecting with God. This presupposes a belief in God. Spirituality implies awareness beyond the material world.

A friend of mine challenged the whole concept. “Why bother with something you cannot define, will not translate into action to make your life better, and just gives mental gratification?” He continued: “Maybe there is no meaning other than doing the best we can to make the world as good as possible for ourselves and our children and grandchildren. Maybe, the world is only what we perceive with our 5 senses.”

Maybe. Faith in oneself is necessary to be successful in life. Faith in God (Creator) is necessary to claim there is a purpose inherent in creation, and, therefore, in living.   

There is great value to experiencing what lies beyond the restrictions of a material world. It goes to the core of bringing another force to complement and complete our world.

My experience treating patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) helps to understand the value of spirituality. These people had suffered from this condition for months and years. They went to many doctors, specialists, and other health care providers. They had comprehensive testing. Clinical examinations and objective evaluations were all normal. A default diagnosis of CFS was often made. Many were given treatments that did not work, and often made them worse. 

By the time these patients consulted me, they had lost hope. Their experience with health care providers taught them their illness was something to be lived with. No relief of their symptoms was on the horizon. They had forgotten what it was like to think positively about the future. Without hope, they had no possibility to move forward.

I explained pathways to improvement that had never been considered. I have discussed many of these concepts in my book:  www.drjackzoldan.com (available for free download at this website) and on my blog www.soulbodydrz.com . Stretching, making the bedroom dust free, nutritional supplements, and novel uses of prescription medicines are strategies I recommended.

My new ideas opened a fresh pathway to recovery. This provided a new world of possibility; one that had not been considered. For the first time, these patients experienced hope. Suddenly, there was a light in their tunnel not previously known to exist. 

My description of sensible and innovative solutions to healing their suffering, hope is injected into their lives. It’s a glorious moment of clarity and faith. It is like an accidental scientific discovery that changes the world (for example: X-rays, penicillin, and cardiac pacemakers). Vistas never imagined become real. 

Unexpectedly newfound hope is life changing. When we chance upon a new perspective in life [whether by design, encouragement, or accident], we grow.

Experiencing a fresh and unfamiliar insight is like encountering the spiritual universe. Wonder, opportunity, and hope are born. This encounter presents the material world with a totally foreign and potentially game-changing paradigm. Discovering and nurturing our spiritual nature and heavenly powers has much in common with finding love or hope. They can all be life-defining. 

The spiritual universe is unique because it is outside of our entire physical normality. It doesn’t have the firm, logical, and manipulable attributes with which we are so familiar. It is sought and enhanced by mindfully focusing on suppressing sensory input and thought production. The process to bridge from the material earthly to the heavenly planes is meditation, clearing the mind to invite that which is beyond our senses.

Why bother expending time and energy meditating with the goal of adding spirituality to life? Most people can imagine and apply the benefits of finding love, hope, and optimism. Those who do not have these qualities still recognize their value. What is desirable about marrying the terrestrial and celestial?

Many will attest that love, hope, and optimism are false gods. They distract from real work and accomplishment. They might debate that such pursuits waste time and energy. These arguments can be hard to refute. Proof for one position or another is unlikely. It isn’t science. 

Of course, even what is called science is rarely proven; almost never fully settled.  Expert scientists of good faith disagree about the interpretation of agreed-upon facts. This is the nature of the discovery process. 

As we all know, science has produced wonders, conveniences, and knowledge. Many of these outcomes have improved our lives. Can the same be said of spirituality?

Conceiving a new idea is seeing beyond all that is known. Getting off the track of the past and moving into a novel future is extending the mind. The energy of the celestial influence feeds willpower and commitment along the path of discovery.

Connecting and working with our spiritual selves adds expansiveness. This wider view of one’s potential fortifies and invigorates one’s efforts. It reinforces imagining futures beyond the limitations of the senses.   

Countless individuals over time have had a vision of how to improve our world. The printing press, the airplane, the circular saw, and non-reflecting (invisible) glass are well-known examples. One man or woman had an insight that something was possible and applied themselves to developing it. In seeking a solution to the problems resolved by their discoveries, these and other individuals single-mindedly focused on a process to a breakthrough.

Their common method was to immerse themselves in the project. Each was successful by resisting distraction. Each envisioned something that did not yet exist. They were all meditating.  

History records many visionaries who cogitated potential futures. Their moments of mindful thought, focused on only the vision and an ultimate solution, are moments of connection with the spiritual world. You may have had such a moment. 

Bridging with our spiritual nature creates expansiveness. This leads to epiphanies. Connecting to Heavenly powers opens the mind to unthought of possibilities. Discovering these insights are very practical material applications powered by spiritual connections.

The spiritual world is accessed by meditating to remove thought and transcend sensory inputs. It may seem odd that this activity would inspire insights in the physical world. Yet, that is exactly what happens. Multitasking impairs quality and focus. Life is a meditative experience. “Going For Greatness” results from focused effort, resisting distraction.

We live in a material world, governed by the laws of physics as perceived by our senses. We know there are other worlds that are not determined by these rules. Hope is such a world with which most can claim familiarity. Spirituality is another. That does not prove the existence of God or a soul. 

For a person without love or hope or spirituality, attaining these qualities is a wonder. The experience of moving from the world of “without” to the world of “with” is life-enhancing. 

We can have all this and still define life as a bunch of chemicals and random events. We can reject any meaning or purpose to it. Either there is a Creator or there is not. The “what” and “why” of a Creator are forever debated.

Belief of and faith in God cannot be proven or disproven. I do believe in God, as explained in many of the “My Sinai” posts on my blog. I discuss my views of what God is about and why God is involved. Linking with the spiritual, as commanded by God (“You will be Holy, For I the Lord, your God, am Holy”), transports beyond material limitations, igniting new understanding. This is not a trivial accomplishment. It is the fuel for moving into the future and making the world a better place.

In our material world, belief in God (certainty of existence) and an afterlife is comforting to many. 

Belief in atheism (certainty of non-existence) also gives tranquility to many.

An agnostic inclination (certainty of uncertainty) calms the mind and the emotions.

Each of the above world views are a source of strength. Each makes life understandable in its own way. Great satisfaction and personal purpose flow to the individual. Validation comes from within, heightened by a community of like thinkers. Each is so powerful unto itself that it can allow the others to thrive. Each has a purpose that is fortified only by accepting the others.