Elevating the Soul

It is very interesting how different fields of thought talk about losing the ego and not identifying with anything (but rather everything) but then in the same stroke call this “enlightenment”.  This has been a conundrum for spiritual seekers (and here in lies the problem…”seekers”) for a long time.  I think we need to need to lose this term of enlightenment.  For it forces us to equate to something which is intangible…it is someone else’s definition.

Those that are truly “enlightened” will likely laugh at being called enlightened.  It may be something that happens but when it does we will be so lost in the moment we won’t even realize it.  How could it be any other way?  If we are total peace and free in the world, then we aren’t thinking about enlightenment.  We are enjoying life! You probably know some of these people.  They are so at ease, so humble yet “confident”, so easy to talk to, and yet some may seem to lack any spiritual beliefs whatsoever.  This is likely how you want to be, but the very beliefs (your road map to life) are what prevent you from attaining that.

Have you had a moment when you were truly happy, so filled with joy?  Why was that?  You were in the moment and totally enveloped in the emotions and sensations of those moments.  But then everyday life returned and you try to seek out that feeling again.  Failing to realize that by simply going back into experience (instead of thinking about going back into that experience) that feeling can be had again.

All these “maps” to inner peace are tools, but they are not an answer.  Just as there is this “rat race” in the financial/work world, there also seems to have developed a hamster wheel of spiritual attainment!  When it comes right down to it, we don’t need to attain anything at all.  In this way we end up attaining everything we ever wanted (before this realization).  We end up experiencing it, and not just thinking about it.  The answer is experience.

So what does that actually mean?  Well, let’s look at an example.  John Doe wants nothing more than to please his wife.  So what does he do?  He focuses on all sorts of things when he is with her, he also tried to change himself to her whims.  While some of these may provide a superficial level of appeasement, true connection is impossible, and while it was a good effort the relationship is likely to be unpassionate.  Rather Joe must focus on… nothing.  He must be in the moment completely with his partner.   Not attempting to say the right thing or do the right thing, but simply being.  By doing so John becomes authentic, real and relatable.  He is not constructing an ideal which can only be upheld some of the time.  This on the contrary to what some might think does not make him boring, it will make him spontaneous, adventurous, fun, witty, humorous, unpredictable and charismatic.  Why?  Because he does things without letting his insecurities get in the way.

John must also be in the moment and experience enjoyment when not with his wife.  That way he brings in continual energy to the relationship.  If he only focuses on his wife, and not himself and enjoying himself, his energy becomes stagnant.

John effectively steps off the hamster wheel of churning thought and steps into experience.  Experience is the only true spirituality and in that space even spirituality does not exist for it is something which is felt.  Everything becomes tangible, but everything becomes intangible when we try to attain something.

In sex, as soon we start to think about whether we are doing something right or pleasing someone else, we create a boundary for the other person to connect to us, and also for ourselves to connect to them.  Sex becomes nothing more than rubbing one persons boundary against another.  But if we enter that moment, live fully in the sensation and learn to pull those sensations throughout our body we attain what we originally wanted without ever having tried. Our focus becomes this split second of time in the experience we are in.

These things do take practice, which is why they seem elusive.  We need to turn off the old voice in our mind which we have become accustomed to.  The constant chatter is there because we have allowed it to exist and to rob us of experience.  But if in each moment we force the voice out, and live through our senses we see that this world exists because of our senses…there is unity.  Not because we label it as such, but because we feel it.  We experience this because the world is meant to be experienced and not simply thought about.

If spirituality even exists, it only truly exists in experiential form…and no word can describe it.  We know that if someone says they are loving, but never actually show love, then we don’t think of them as loving, so why would it be different with spirituality?  Thinking “spiritually” means nothing.  Simply living in the moments of your life means everything.

I will would invite you to go back through my older posts to the ones that talk about energy and conflict types/relationships.  Energy is how we experience things.  The more energy created the greater the experience.  Thus by becoming attuned to our energy and learning to create flow with it, it becomes easier to stay in the moment (because energy exists whether we think about it or not).  In the example above, if John focuses on providing and circulating his energy with his partner, and she focuses on giving and circulating her energy (not just with him, but with the entire world) the experience becomes magnified.  The experience is lived instead of thought about.

Don’t try to live a spiritual life.  Live fully in each experience, and you will attain fully what has been described as “spirituality.”

Now go do something that your really want to do, and embrace it.  Kiss someone and sense the softness of their lips.  Smile at someone and bask in the warm it creates.  Sit by a tree let nature envelope your senses.  Go hit golf balls and feel every muscle moving as it should and feel the ball leaving the club face.  It can be anything.  A moment is experience, and any moment can be fully lived and enjoyed…I think I need to golfing now

~Cory Mitchell

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Attaining the Life you Intend, Relationships, Spiritual Psychology, The Search for Meaning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.