What is the Spiritual Journey?? Life on earth is interesting in that everything, everything is interconnected, both physically and spiritually. Notwithstanding, many people continue with day to day activities, in mundane obliviousness. These mundane undertakings serve to anchor individuals in the dualistic world (in the you and me / us and them paradigm), into survival mode, into assuaging the(ir translucent) wispy emptiness with . . . material things. They also disconnect individuals from the basic, synergistic underpinnings that give rise to, support, sustain, and subsume all life on earth, the cyclical energy flow of earthbound life. Awareness of and tapping into the continuous cyclical energy flow on earth (the moon, the feminine) and uniting it with the universal, cosmic energies (the sun, the masculine) and transcending them both is the essence spiritual journey.
Day to day activities . . . . consist of going home, eating, sleeping, getting up, going to work, going home . . .etc, etc, ad nauseum. It is these acts which keep people focused on the that future paycheck to pay the current bill, on the latest sport scores, on celebrity gossip, on anything that can distract one’s attention. Day to day actions serve as daily distractions. As most people are caught up in keeping up, there is just never enough time to do things. Do people feel as though they are not achieving? Do they feel as though they are not meeting some(one else’s or their own) expectations? These are also distractions. What the distractions serve to do is to keep individuals from finding their center. Their point of ‘Oneness’, that Locus of Connection with that which lies simultaneously Within and Beyond.
People thus become anchored in the either or scenario. Things are blatantly Good / Not Good – Not Bad / Bad. It is much easier to navigate within the mundane with this point of view. Decisions are cut and dry. There are advantages for the most part to operating within this mindset. Yet, if one’s reality runs into an inconsistency that cannot be rationalized within the dualistic framework, then some readjusting becomes necessary. For example, religions play up their own specific point while downplaying those of others. Religion must be intended to bring the practitioner, themselves, closer to that (Entity, Spirit, God, Source) which they profess to worship They are to take the teachings and live them. Any professed adherence to a faith, any faith, ANY FAITH, is for naught if that is not the direction in which said faith is heading. This then is religious dogmatism. Religious dogmatism conscripts the individual to ideological isolationism, their professed truth is The Truth.
This mindset flies in opposition to that of the spiritual sojourner. The spiritual path does not lend itself to overt, over-assertiveness over and above that of any other path. The path that one spiritual seeker may take is not the same as that of another spiritual seeker. It does not have to necessarily be the same path. This brings the concept of pluralism to the fore. Pluralism is a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain and develop their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization. Moreover, the spiritual seeker is free to adhere to one vein of practices / thoughts or to mix and match as works best for them. There is no limit on what can be revealed because the spiritual seekers sees truth in all paths and all modalities
This is not meant to imply that a religious cannot be spiritual. the roots of religion stem from spirituality. The religious journey becomes spiritual as it embraces the connections that pervade humanity, specifically, and overall existence. Religion can be a reference point from which to unify points of commonality with those of other paths, other faiths. This is the coalescing of opposites. The resolution of what some may deem to be different points view. The platform of commonality through which the coalescing of different religious paths can occur sets the stage for facilitation of spiritual transcendence
The spiritual journey is the path of self-realization. This can include the religious path as well, if one chooses to approach their religion from that angle. Self-realization is the resolving of the darker aspects one’s being with their lighter aspects. To come to terms with one’s darkness is often viewed as a fruitless endeavor. A good number of spiritual seekers skip that part of the journey while ascribing solely to embracing and expressing their lighter side. Yet, light gives rise to shadow upon encountering an object and it is vast ness of darkness within which, upon which, and throughout which light is sparsely contained. They must and do coexist. It is through mastering the influence of both, that one is capable of transcending them. Thus, leading to the creation of something totally new within one’s self.
This is a personal synopsis of a sojourner on the spiritual journey . . . . .
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