Being Spiritual within Yourself

Written by Mathew Naismith

Extract: Spirituality is a process of personal transformation, either in accordance with traditional religious ideals, or, increasingly, oriented on subjective experience and psychological growth independently of any specific religious context. In a more general sense, it may refer to almost any kind of meaningful activity or blissful experience. There is no single, widely-agreed definition for the concept. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

Spiritualism is quite different to spirituality, or being spiritual, in that spiritualism is more defined to the actual belief and communication with spirit’s/ghosts, this also includes reincarnation.  

Spiritual:  

Extract: 1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not material; supernatural: spiritual power.

2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul: spiritual guidance; spiritual growth.

3. Not concerned with material or worldly things: led a spiritual life.

4. Of or belonging to a religion; sacred: spiritual practices; spiritual music.

The thing about being spiritual is it’s not supposed to be about material or worldly things but we are often taught to manifest for our own desires, this is brought about by spirituality also being about meaningful activities and blissful experiences.  There seems to be also a definable difference here between being spiritually aware and being actually spiritual in oneself.  I often defined myself in being spiritually aware, full stop but that actually isn’t the case as for a lot of us who are not focused on our own blissful experiences.  

Let’s take a look at sages, shamans, Jesus and Buddha for an example, are they defined as being spiritually aware or spiritual in oneself or both?  These people conducted themselves in many meaningful activities and had many blissful experiences; this must make them spiritually aware rather than being spiritual in oneself?   

What does it take to manifest for our own desires?  Awareness, now what does it take to being spiritual in oneself? A lot more than just being aware, Jesus, Buddha, sages and shamans didn’t become aware overnight, it can take many hours of mental and/or physical pain, and like Jesus, they can take that pain with them to the very end, they are certainly not about manifesting for one’s desires.  

I’ve never manifested for my own desires since I’ve become aware some 40 years ago, I’ve actually done the opposite many times over to assist others, in this time all my needs, as opposed to desires, have been met to one degree or another . In this time I have also had many blissful experiences and many not so blissful experiences, I have not once manifested for such experiences blissful or not.

Now you could say people like Jesus and Buddha manifested for their own blissful experiences and yes they would have had many. As you become aware you experience many blissful moments, however, to a person who is being spiritual in oneself, these moments aren’t manifested, they are part of being spiritual in oneself, this also includes experiencing  not so blissful moments as well.  

These people didn’t just fixate themselves in feeling blissful as they became aware, they experienced everything to do with being spiritual in oneself rather than being spiritually aware.  Is there anything wrong in just being spiritually aware?  There is nothing wrong in this it’s just not being spiritual in oneself.  

Being spiritually aware is just about human development not spiritual development; becoming spiritually aware can help us to become aware of our own spirit, this is until we experience something that’s not so blissful, at this point we choose to only be in bliss. You could imagine if Jesus and Buddha did this, they would have stopped at just being spiritually aware and not gone on to being spiritual within themselves.

Is it worth becoming being spiritual within oneself and should everyone try to become spiritual in this way?

I can experience the most traumatic times and deal with the most obviously destructive people and still come out on top all the times, this is mainly due to realising that everyone has their own path to follow no matter how destructive that might be.  This actually answers the second question, “Should everyone try to become spiritual in this way?” Not if these experiences are not a part of your own path.  If you are fixated to just feeing bliss, that is your path, there are no right or wrong paths just different experiences.

There is something I feel we need to be aware of though, religion has time and time again made the same mistake in manifesting for it’s own desires which in the long run created even more disharmony.  I see so many people today doing the exact same thing, yes it sounds good to manifest for our own desires but it also sounded good when the various religions and churches made it sound good as well.  Everything is consciousness and we think we can manipulate it as we like to our own desires; we seem to be forgetting the cause and effect, action reaction, push and pull.

Pulling something in that feel like bliss to push something out that doesn’t feel like bliss is rejection, there is no acceptance here when everything is consciousness including what we are rejecting.  You don’t have to pull something in to push something out that is less desirable, this is active intentions. Passive intentions take one to change what seems undesirable to something more constructive, something that is more needed than desired.  A more constructive way to exist has become a need not a desire.

Buddha and Jesus felt a need that needed to be met, they didn’t feel a desire, desire would have taken to be of active intentions, pushing and pulling, rejection. They didn’t reject anything; they changed this destructive consciousness within themselves through a need not through a desire.  I said within themselves because it’s always within ourselves, we are not a separate consciousness, consciousness is consciousness no matter what, it’s all of the same consciousness, this is why it seems  strange to me why so many people reject any part of this conciseness to pull in a more desirable conscious experience .

Like Jesus, Buddha, sages and shaman, all you have to do is change this consciousness not reject it for something more blissful , what you have rejected doesn’t go away, as human history quite plainly shows us, but what we change can last forever if we do it for a need rather than a desire.