Organized religion has done a great job of taking spirituality out of practice. How do we form our own set of spiritual practices when it seems like the options are evangelical and overzealous Jesus fans, new-age “everything is love and god” flowy hair and tie-dye shirts, and complete atheism? As everything, spirituality is not as black and white as everyone makes it seem. The war between “non-believers” and “believers” has been waged for too long without any wiggle room for people still exploring the phenomena that is existence.

There are a few basic agreements (Four if you ask Don Miguel) about how people can live better lives. Most religions like to assign a number to them to make it easier for us to understand (i.e. the Ten Commandments or the Five Pillars) and if these are broken, you are basically fucked.

First of all, using fear as a motivator is a pretty lame way to make change, but hey, it worked for Hitler (for a while) so who am I to judge. Anyone who walks up to you in the street and says, “Hey there, you better not walk down that road, there is some super bad stuff that is going to happen to you if you do.” First, you immediately look down the road and want to inspect for yourself if that is really the case. Secondly, you have this strange uneasy feeling about that individual who just warned you. So all those days spent in church wondering, “what the F** is everyone talking about, what is the God stuff” really are quite normal. Finally one begins to walk; maybe even away from that “cursed” road and still wonders what’s down that “condemned” road.

Those who can just walk away from that “evil” road and blindly accept that they are following the “right” path have what is called faith. Faith, as one of my best friends and chemical engineer by training puts it is belief in something with a lack of evidence. That is why most scientific people don’t believe in God because they say there is no proof of it’s, his, or her existence.

Yes, nobody has yet to design the most advanced double blind research study to prove the existence of God. The proof is elsewhere, the proof is in experience. Maybe that cat who told you the “cursed” road is because when he went down that road he got royally messed up and had to give up completely. He encountered so much strife and suffering that there was nothing more he could do. He gave up going it alone and trying to make meaning for it so he said “f this, there has to be more that I just don’t understand” — welcome to spirituality.

Spirituality is connection to something that is familiar and foreign, it is whole and empty, and it is the greatest contradiction of your entire life. Spirituality is the often unexplained, uncertain, and very real and true connection to a broader sense of whatever one is experiencing. A music show can be spiritual, eating a good meal can be spiritual, helping someone can be spiritual. Spirituality is our heart’s connection to whatever our hearts connect to. Don’t get caught up in definitions and labels. Just because you can’t call yourself a good catholic or a Christ worshiper or a follower of the Prophet Muhammad or a Buddhist doesn’t mean you are any less spiritual.

Use all of the available knowledge and most importantly, your own experience existing in life as the way to connect to spirituality. Form your own definition and always be willing to learn and grow, after all, everything is just an opportunity for the soul to experience its self, so don’t limit the opportunities for your soul to see its beauty.

Challenge:

Write a twitter post about the next person who helps shape your evolving definition of spirituality.

or

Post a thank you note on the fb wall of an influential person who has helped shape your definition of spirituality.

If you accept the challenge, recommend this post so others can join the challenge! #millennialdreaming