Spirituality and its components
Energy and glowing:
Energy is all about mastering yourself. It’s about mestering
the energy within yourself and being able to read other people’s. Increasing
your energy allows you to become more pure and glowing.
There is also a component of getting your attention under
control within mastering your energy. What you put your attention into grows –
both the positive and the negative. Fear grows when you focus on it too much,
and so does determination. So get your attention under control and you will
decide what within you grows and what doesn’t.
Connection - knowing God
and yourself
There are two types of connection I’m talking about: the
connection to yourself and to something bigger. What does “connection” means? It
means building rapport, being in tune with something and having the sense of
proximity towards that which you develop connection with.
Building connection with yourself is both being closer to yourself and knowing who you are and what you want. You
are capable of ‘feeling’ yourself and talking to yourself but you are also able
to see your tendencies and be transparent with yourself. It’s also about being
true about he shame you feel and the sides of you you hate or feel ashamed of.
Now you can connect
with God by connecting with yourself. God is everything around you, from the
pen you hold in your hand, to a stranger talking with you in the park and to
your own voice. Developing a connection is a matter of mental proximity. You
can’t cheat it with false commitments or by following other people’s advice. This
connection and the way you develop it has
to come from your own thinking. By feeling God (the transcendent) around
you and in your mind, you understand that not all forms of advice are true –
and that not all of them can serve you.
Thinking for yourself
as a prerequisite
To make spiritual progress you need to develop your own psychological
freedom. This means that you have to think for yourself (I will explain how
later). Now that does not mean you won’t
progress by following someone else’s advice, but I want to emphasise you need
to develop this skill because it is a prerequisite to becoming your own ruler –
which is freedom. The more you develop your own
way of going about the spiritual path, the more the rules you set on
yourself have a good impact on your progress.
There are two sides to the argument. There are those who call
out our humbleness and point to spiritual tradition as being reputed and tested
over centuries, saying that those know much better what works. And there are
the others who say that we must think for ourselves – even if it means risking
making a mistake. I belong to the ladder because I prefer to learn than to
listen. For me, it is better to end up in the wrong place because of your
mistake than trust someone blindly and end up in the right place.
The “how” to thinking for yourself is simple, but let us first
appreciate the contradiction of looking for it in someone else. Thinking for yourself starts with figuring out the
“how” yourself! It shows how much we’ve
been trained to look for our answers in other people (and to think they have
the advice we need)!
The “how” is to challenge the belief that other people can
give you the advice that will work for you. Know that all the advice you’ve
been given might be false and that only you can create a better way of thinking.
Consider that all the advice and thoughts you’ve been given has holes and is
not exactly what you need to progress.
From now on, only you can determine what spirituality is to you.
It’s not a process of picking at other people’s theories incessantly
– but one of creating your own.
Additional benefits of connection
When you are intentional about who you are, you’re less
afraid of social situations. You have a direction and can learn to become
strong in it. People can’t perpetually pressure you into changing and you are
living on your own rules – defying those that aren’t useful.
Plus knowing yourself allows you to recognize your capabilities and use them