Spirituality and reality: a culturally blended view

ِِAs an Egyptian Muslim with a semi-western education, and who has practiced Asian martial arts and meditation in different and converging forms for a number of years, I tend to look at “Spirituality” from a relatively colorful paradigm.

On one hand, I have my Egyptian heritage of a 7-thousand-year-old relationship with religion, a multitude of loose definitions of Deity and a metaphysical world of beliefs.

On the other, I’m a Muslim with clear engagement in spiritual practices, beliefs and personal view of relationship with God, where the practices are in place to grow the belief and “spiritual” relationship with said God.

And finally, through the practice of martial arts and the glimpse I’ve had into Buddhist meditation techniques combined with all of the above, I’ve had to go back and re-examine what “spirituality” means based on each of the cultural residues and religious belief systems, and eventually figure out, what their combination actually means to me.

Obviously, the term “Spiritual” and all of its derivatives haven’t been immune to clichés, where their mentioning naturally brings up an image of a Buddhist minimalist monk wearing a wine-red robe and smiling uncontrollably; or a bald Hindu guru posing a la Gandhi while wearing his bed sheets and speaking in vague Indian accented rhymes — both sharing the attribute of having reached enlightenment and are at some form of inner peace, which automatically means that they cannot be aggravated, cannot get riled up, do not care about earthly pleasures whatsoever and/or possess a maximum level of infinite wisdom obtained through all of the above and perhaps some juju.

Sometimes, when I engage in a discussion involving the spiritual aspect of my culture, values and component as a human being — which happens more often than you think for Muslims encountering westerners — I tend to find myself speaking in ways that can unintentionally convey a similar vibe of said clichés.

And just because one has some form of spiritual component in their character, listeners assume, that you are at inner peace, do not engage in earthly activities and go home to a Tibetan monastery or a cave in the mountains. And since this is a childish simplification of the case, your humanly activities like getting excited, craving some chocolate or losing your temper when “the situation calls for it” comes at a decent degree of shock to spectators of such scenes.

“How can you be spiritual and get riled up about XYZ massacre?” becomes their immediate adverbial attitude.

This is what had me reflect on what spirituality is to me after mixing and converging all of the above, including the cliche, which — I sadly have to acknowledge — does in fact have a grain of truth in it.

From a Muslim perspective, the human is made of earthly clay and heavenly spirit. Both parts are in constant struggle, each trying to pull the entire organism their way.

From a Buddhist view, light and energy pass through your body to elevate you. The more you seek the energy through meditation and breathing, the more it passes through you, the more it cleanses and elevates you from your full dependence and addiction to your earthly needs. However, managed correctly, satisfying your earthly needs become a catalyst for being more in harmony with the energy and hence more elevation and so on.

As an Egyptian, belonging to a cultural inheritance that has embraced a large number of ancient, medieval and “modern” religions, you are always in a bilateral relationship with a higher Deity, that humbles you in your achievement knowing that said Deity has a major influence on it, and alleviates your pain, knowing that said Deity envelops you in its mercy and will lead you to your best fate regardless what it is. This relationship — like it or not, convinced of it or not, believe it or not — in many cases puts a burden or at least some pressure on you to follow its teachings or else; and its teachings and rulings are usually directed to elevate you above your animalistic nature to become a better human.

And here is where the conundrum begins to unfold.

Being spiritual is not a solid state, it is dynamic struggle between your animal nature and your spiritual self, continuously trying to elevate yourself beyond your earthly caprices towards being a better being. While very few people can reach a high level of enlightenment, let alone full enlightenment, the question becomes “What about Bob? and Tom, Dick and Jane?”

It is not a digital scale, where you are either spiritual and hence are at full enlightenment or an asshole posing as Yoda. It is a vast spectrum and a dynamic struggle with your own demons — each of us vs their very own. And as the nature of any struggle, you win some and you lose some; and while winning doesn’t necessarily make you full enlightened, losing definitely doesn’t grow you horns and a pointy tail.

So, what is my definition of spirituality at the end of all that mumbo jombo?

Your spirituality is your reference in form of higher being or set of uncompromising values, whom you seek to review your actions and correct your course whenever you fall short of your expectation of yourself, after losing a round or two in the continuous struggle against your animal- and ego-based whims.

It is your resolute honesty with yourself when reviewing your actions vs. your beliefs, where your beliefs and values are in place to make you a better person and the world a better place. Your honesty and self-review are catalysts to continuously correct course no matter how far or how many times you went astray.

It is your non-ending maintenance of your bilateral relationship with the Deity you believe in — regardless what it is — manifesting itself in your actions, activities, practices, daily behavior, choices within weal and woe and course correction towards your values that keep elevating yourself to get closer. Such relationship gradually emancipates you from the lures of materialism and by definition also consumerism.

It is your continuous strive to stay steadily centered and equidistant from events of joy and sorrow, while slightly leaning towards one or the other as needed or as it happens, then self correcting back to the center.

At the end of the day, you are still a human being on multiple journeys: one you take through the world, another through yourself.