One of my favorite subjects — spirituality. Just who are we? I’ve been reading and practicing for over 20 years and I can tell you that this is really all you need to know about it. It’s one line from the Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell…
“Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?”— Lao Tzu
That’s it in a nutshell! How spiritual you are is how present you are, and nothing else.
“The ultimate Truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that need be said. Still, it is a wonder that to teach this simple Truth there should come into being so many religions, creeds, methods and disputes among them and so on! Oh the pity! Oh the pity!”— Ramana Maharshi
Once you’re clear, you need to set about coaxing your mind from its wandering, not more information.
How? Meditation and living in the moment.
Practice, practice, practice :-) An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory.
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Michael Kinnaird is the author of Happy Guide, the result of a 20 year exploration into what works for health and happiness.
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Thank you Mike…and yes, I have seen I AM LEGEND… interesting film… funny when it is all said and done, how people gravitate back to a belief of a faith…something to hold onto in our darkest hour so we can feel connected to something and in do so, not alone.
Faith in something greater gives us hope to rise above and move beyond. :)
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@ Al. Sounds like you’re a natural buddy! :-) Maybe more meditation???
@ Marian. Hi Marian, takes lots of practice to get into that place. When I first started meditating it was very hard indeed!
@ Katheena. What a beautiful summary of “what it’s all about”! I was watching I AM LEGEND today have you seen it? At the end, the woman says “If you listen, God speaks to you.” :-)
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Regarding what Al said about being totally separate from his thoughts, I fully understand this.I recently heard it referred to as “being a witness to your own thoughts” and for me, that exactly summed up what I have been doing. In doing so, we can choose what thought we allow, what we want to change them to, how to turn them off and allow ourself to be. When this is achieved, we can also recognise that the emotions we feel are our choice, we empower them by what we choose to think.
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Its very very hard to keep the old mind from wandering! You have to be in a certain “Place” to do that!
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Mike gonna keep that line in my head next few days. Had bit of a revelation few yrs ago in meditation when I actually distanced myself from my thoughts and it made a BIG difference to how I felt and viewed life. I could see I was totally separate from it. So there was another ‘me’ in there..Amazing! Wont get into a deep one about definitions of the soul but the experience was totally along those lines. Sometimes I get caught up in stuff but I do try and remember that I am not my mind. I think I read a hindu thing which said the mind is just like a chattering monkey and its so true.
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