Introduction to spirituality

Let us begin by understanding its relevance to an individual. Why would an individual take up to its study and practice?

Why Spirituality?

You have to take the trouble of going through the trouble (of incorporating spirituality in your life) so that trouble will no longer trouble you.

• It mentally prepares you to all possibilities.
• You get a better handle of your mind, which gives a better ability to focus on the task at hand.
• It builds an alertness, the term awareness is also used, of your surroundings and the people around you, but also about your own body and mind. Better alertness means better responses, which results in a better life.
• To reduce the mental chatter, the constant notifications, and pop-ups the mind gives when you do not seek them.
• To gain clarity and knowledge on how the individual is constituted.
• To come out of sub-normal and unhealthy mental states, such as anxiety, stress, tension, depression, panic attacks, sleeplessness, and the many many flavors of it.
• To get into supra-normal and ultra healthy mental and body states, such as calmness, bliss, pleasantness, tranquillity, clarity, alertness etc.
• To get answers to fundamental questions of life, who am I beyond the mind, what is God, what is the purpose of life etc.
• To make oneself more responsible.
• Be the source of stability, strength, and joy for those around you.

Perspectives

Limitations of worldly pursuits

Our actions in the world are primarily motivated by two things. One is to secure ourselves in some way, usually by earning more money or also through many subtle shades of status, power, and prestige. Some also focus on improving their health and fitness to prevent disease and be fit. The second motivation is to enjoy whatever we have, whether it is relationships, or the restaurant we go to, the movies we watch, sports we play, books we read and so on. Even hobbies, or individual pursuits, example people may be motivated to climb mountains or run marathons or learn classical music or the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. These too are motivated by more subtler shades of pleasure. Occasionally people are motivated to serve others through their actions and work. It gives them a satisfaction and that too, is a form of pleasure, a subtler and nobler form, but a form of pleasure, nevertheless.

Be that as it may, there are still limitations to the above worldly pursuits –

• Whatever we do, we cannot secure the future 100%. Investments can tank, unexpected health or legal and other issues can crop up and so on.
• The continuous struggle of life and its pursuits can cause stresses which make life less liveable. It may result in anxieties, lack of motivation, strains in relationships and one seeks a way out.
• Pleasures and enjoyments are limited. The same thing done multiple times loses its “enjoyment value” and “excitement value”. The pursuit for more and more pleasure can take us down a slippery slope – alcoholism and drugs, unhealthy eating, infidelity, money for the kick of it etc.
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The realizations and experiences of the above can result in an individual taking the path of spirituality.

While we are engaged in worldly life or worldly pursuits, we work to improve something vis a vis worldly considerations, in the spiritual endeavour, one works on oneself so that one’s state becomes more immune to external considerations.

So for example, in the worldly pursuit we would be working to improve our wealth and would be dejected if our net worth falls, in the spiritual endeavour we would be working on ourselves so that we do not become dejected in our net worth falls, In other words, if our state of mind continues to be pleasant and at peace, then from a certain perspective, it is equivalent to not having the fall in net worth at all since it did not affect us. So here, we work on having the appropriate response without having despondency. This in a nutshell is one view of spirituality.

Knowing oneself

Another equally valid perspective is that spirituality is about knowing ourselves. The tendency of the worldly individual is to know the world, which he or she considers as the acquisition of knowledge, A layman thinks what is there to know oneself. I already know who I am. But if we spend a little thought on this, we know how untrue this is.

Let us begin at the bodily level. A layman’s knowledge of our body is skin deep, both literarily and figuratively. Unless he learns about the human anatomy, physiology, human systems such as the cardiovascular system, nervous system, digestive system, skeleton muscular and so on, each of them incredibly complex and innumerable interactions between them, even after decades of study, one has only very limited knowledge of how our own body functions. Yet, we think we know ourselves.

When it comes to the mind, this is even more true. We think we know ourselves, however, it is very superficial. This is especially apparent in relationships gone sour where each person feels he or she is right, but the other person sees fault. Obviously, we do not know ourselves as well as the other person thinks he does. At a very fundamental level, we do not even know the source of our identity, for whose sake we toil so much, Other than a name, everything about our identity seems to be changing … from childhood to adulthood and old age. And the name is also a placeholder, which can be changed at any time as well. What is that centre of our identity, we have no clue. There may be a universe outside us, but there is an ocean within. Spirituality encourages us to know that, to understand ourselves, to know ourselves at a deeper and deeper level and also transform ourselves to go beyond worldly pursuits.

Whatever I can objectify, is an object of my observation, cannot be me. It is outside the I since I observe it. A car cannot be me since I observe it. The shirt that I wear cannot be me. Similarly, my hand is not I since I can observe it. It cannot be me. If you extend this reasoning, you are aware of and are observing your emotions, only because you are able to observe them that you realise that they exist. You may be angry, happy, in love, these emotions are not I, though I may have them. I know my thoughts; they are an object of my knowing and hence are not the quintessential I. Who then is that quintessential I? This is another perspective or approach spirituality tries to get to the bottom of.

If you are knowledgeable about carpentry, you can solve problems related to carpentry and create good furniture. If you are knowledgeable about money, you will be good with money and not have problems related to money. If you are knowledgeable about cars, you will but the right cars and maintain them well and not have car related problems. Similarly, if you are knowledgeable about yourself, you can solve all your problems and will not be a problem to yourself.

Connotations

Indic Understanding

I use the word Indic to broadly connotate the large body of Indic spiritual, religious and cultural traditions, spanning yoga, Vedic, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and what is referred to as Hinduism, their various sects, sub-sects, flavours etc.

Equivalent word in Sanskrit is Adhyatma, which is made of two words.

Adhyayana: Study of, contemplation of

Ataman = Aat – mana: Mana or man, Manasa which is used in all Indian languages means mind. Atman means beyond the mind, other than the mind, transcending the mind.

Again, Aatman would be loosely translated into English as Soul, but Soul is a hazy thing, it is abstract. Mind is something much more tangible and relatable to you as a person. That which is beyond the mind is something more indicative and connected to you and denotes an inward journey more clearly.

Adhyatma means the study and contemplation of that which transcends the mind.

As it happens, the Sanskrit terms are very apt and beautifully constructed and useful in understanding the core spiritual concepts. This is the connotation we will be referring to when we use the term spiritual.

Christian connotation

Rather, the term “spirituality” as applied to biblical faith is here understood to refer to that relationship between God and man that can be summed up under four headings: holiness, the gift of the Spirit, life in the Spirit and the discipline of the Spirit.

To me, it did not lead to clarity. My interpretation of the above is that the “Spirit” is something else, other than you which links the Christian God to the human being, and one must follow it. All human beings who do not this have to suffer eternal hell. This as I understand is the commonly held Church teaching. If there is some Christians out there who can help out, that will be nice.

Of course, it can also be interpreted as the soul within that guides us. There are many modern-day masters who have interpreted Jesuses teachings in the light of looking within or being with your own true / core self. Eckhart Tolles ‘Power of Now’ comes to mind.

Conclusions

The connotation used here is –

Spirituality is the process that looks within, transforming oneself, understanding oneself and knowing our core(deepest)        self.