Now that I have considered – however imperfectly – what spirituality means to us, or, what our understanding of it is, I will put together some thoughts on it that I have in respect of humanity in general.
Of-Course-It-Is
The world is full of poets, artists, musicians, writers, songwriters, craftspeople, film-makers, comedians, spiritual and/or religious leaders, philosophers, sportspeople, people who make great sacrifices for others, who have great insights about life that they bring to our attention, wise women and men, people who just do good without anyone asking them, and other creative and innovative people.
They provide meaning in our lives, remind us of the wonder and awe that is part of living, and offer us a sense that there is another world out there that we can tap into for strength. That is, a mysterious indefinable world of the spirit.
They highlight and point out things that we take for granted and get us thinking about them. They imagine a different path for us using metaphors and symbols. We listen to their words, try and figure out what they mean to us, look at their art, experience their creativity and appreciate it greatly. Often we are moved and/or inspired by these people to do something out of the ordinary ourselves. Sometimes we are moved to tears.
And in our history, wise people have pointed out the wonderful opportunities that are there for us if we are generous, kind and compassionate – and that we will reap the rewards of that which we sow.
Most of us come into contact with children during our lives. They speak the truth though it may be uncomfortable, and give us insight into the world as it is with their spontaneous uncensored comments. They draw wonderful art and make beautiful things out of their own imagination. (They get expensive toys and play with the boxes). If they are our children, or related to us, or we have a connection with them, our hearts swell with pride as they succeed in something or overcome some difficult challenge, and similarly our heart is broken if they have some misfortune or they are struggling, or are hurt.
Apart from children, we have loving relationships and friendships, within and outside our family that give us joy and put fun into our lives. Our relationships are important to us. We have pets which we have relationships with, as well as hobbies and interests that give us a sense of satisfaction and, often, if the hobby involves a challenge, spur us to achieve greater perfection over a long time.
Since the advent of social media we are alerted to injustice in different parts of the world and many of us use social media to generate support for causes that will help vulnerable or disadvantaged populations – as well as, of course, keeping us together when we are apart.
In times of tragedy, difficulty or other trauma our communities come together to help each other and provide support both emotional and practical to those who suffer loss. Each person inspires others to assist in ensuring that suffering is eased. And similar to this local type support, there are thousands of organisations all over the world run by voluntary effort to make the world a better place for everyone.
These organisations, coupled with the forces of good, will ensure that humanity’s journey will be fulfilling and that each generation will benefit from the wisdom of the former in an upward trajectory towards spiritual and material fulfillment.
The above proves without a shadow of a doubt that spirituality as most of us know it is really important to, and has substantial positive effect on humanity.
Not-A-Bit
When we are offered a choice in life, we always appear to choose the path of least resistance – the path that is lazy. We overeat and overdrink, take no exercise and then pay money to go on a diet to lose weight. We drive a short distance on a sunny day to buy the paper.
The most popular and best-selling media outlets are filled with lurid stories of crime, war, conflict, horror, terror, soft porn, mild, subtle racism, all delivered in brief passages of text that require little or no concentration – which are published because the publishers know that a substantial majority of us read and/or tune into such stuff over and over again rather than thoughtful or reflective material which might provoke deeper thought and consideration.
In our choices, shallow thinking always seems to trump a deeper understanding of society’s many problems. Social media is full of objectionable, angry, incoherent and offensive comments that are mostly badly thought-out knee-jerk reactions to some controversy or other and are designed to stimulate our baser emotions such as fear and anger.
We allow ourselves to be manipulated by powerful, wealthy corporations to believe that there is no alternative but to spend, spend, spend, even if it involves getting loans from banks which ultimately leaves us short of money raising our stress levels and blood pressure. We complain about this but don’t change our behaviour.
Our insistence on driving everywhere leads not only to pollution and possible catastrophic global warming, but also terrible tragedies from high speed crashes, child obesity, and destruction of communities, small towns and villages, as we abandon them to drive up the motorway to the distant impersonal shopping mall.
And talking about impersonal, we virtually always chose impersonal contact over the personal because it speeds things up a little and we just haven’t time to wait around to speak to our fellow human.
Our A+E Departments are overcrowded – many attendees are there because of their own carelessness, drinking to excess or misuse of illegal drugs. Our cities and towns are saturated with CCTV cameras to deter violent crime and theft of our goods and we believe that more cameras will make our streets safer. We over-fish our polluted seas and use industrial methods of farming that visit cruelty on the gentle, defenceless, helpless animals that we eat – and in turn cause more global warming.
Globally, we adhere to an insane economic paradigm that causes war, famine and hardship in other parts of the world because most of us don’t really care enough to make a little economic sacrifice for a fairer world.
In our history, going back as far as anyone can remember, if there is a choice between a non-exploitative way of improving our standard of living and an exploitative way, we will almost always choose the exploitative option. Exploitation only enriches a tiny minority of us but the vast majority of us go along with it – manipulated by the false promises and obfuscations of the minority.
And as is evidenced from old legends and fables (most notably the killing of the goose that laid the golden egg) we are on a seemingly unstoppable roller-coaster ride, the long-term effect being the reduction in the quality of our lives.
The above proves without a shadow of a doubt that spirituality as most of us know it is of little or no importance, and has little effect on humanity.
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In an early part of the website, I mentioned that paradox seems to be a feature of humanity. I will attempt to unpack the paradox of the two perspectives above, that is, humanity having high regard for spirituality and having no regard, (and even those of us who consider ourselves to have high regard having no regard when it suits us), in the next post.