How cool is spirit?
Being Spiritual is defined by Wikipedia as
- relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
- relating to religion or religious belief.
Two different aspects of our being, the first being related to religious beliefs we grow up with or adapt to and the other related to another peel down under where your real spirit resides. You can be religious and be ritualistic and do guilt-driven practices and draw satisfaction for yourself from it. I was one of them, as conditioning would have it. I would be guilt-ridden if I hadn’t lit a lamp at dawn and dusk. Slowly veered towards not doing such practices, like you are only ok if you visit a temple or only if you tie a black thread on your wrist you are warded off the evil eye or even only if you leave the most loved food item then only one of the wishes would be granted.
Then there came a phase where I didn’t know what should be done to get my wishes granted. Total disconnection to that source which had been giving me all. Fully guilt-ridden to have left all the practices that I had done growing up. Now what?
Where would I go to get my wishes granted? This is a major problem! In which pole is my Santa Claus??? Whom can I punish and find excuses or even find fault with when something goes wrong?
My major requirement with that source was a conversation, so even if am wishing for a joint there is no judgment there. So a nonjudgmental space to express and feel heard, idol sure does hear and I am very sure of judgments here too. So by popular belief, it need not be in front of an idol, that too by closing eyes in front of it. Where is this directed to, I wonder, once those eyes get shut?
Of course, I am not denying the aspect of the temples being made in a particular way(vaastu), to bring you there and be centered, contrary to what is happening now of getting shoved and pushed to get a glimpse of the idol.
Other aspects of ritual were devised to make you think of the possibility of it being better as per you as a thread on your hand or a practice to be followed once or twice a day.
Now relating to the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. What does this involve? Not having that silver dangling that flashed on my insta feed or not having that puff, what all would it be!
For sure it involves honoring all that flashes in me, as a comparison or as a judgment or a joy or a complaint or an expectation from a loved one, or an irritation as MINE. It is tough though, how can it be so? How can this thought come at all, we are not that way, all the time it should be a string of great thoughts that should dance through my mind and it should be a place of great ideas and only that. If anything other than that comes in, let’s just fester on it and thus become very uncool too. So it’s a journey to understand the coolness of the spirit.
