So begins the search for God. During that search, these persons are living between the two worlds: the world of material sense in which they give power to persons, things, and conditions, and the world of spiritual awareness where they begin to believe there is something greater than the external powers of evil. It is a volleying back and forth, living part of the time in the world of acknowledging the power of mind and matter and part of the time living in the world of accepting God as the greater power of the two.
The basic premise of this post is that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. First and foremost we are spiritual beings. I believe this because I believe that when our human experience ends (we die), there is some essence of us that goes on. Where we go very few of us who are living know. It is a secret it seems kept from us for some reason. So, secondarily we are having a human experience as spiritual beings. We have come to this world for some reason. Perhaps it is to grow and learn, to experience this realm more fully, or to help others by playing our role. This, too, is a mystery. I choose to live my life full out and I work towards this goal every day because I believe there is a reason for being. I am a unique expression of life and that expression should be fully expressed. It is my responsibility.
As we explore our spirituality, we look towards spiritual principles that say we have some control over our physical lives. For example, we can choose how to react to those bad things that happen to us. Bad things happen to us! Being of a spiritual mindset does not mean we ignore our humanity. Things hurt, things sting, things may seem incomprehensible at times.
There is nothing wrong with sitting in our suffering for a time. At some point, we use our spiritual principles to rise above the suffering, to accept the suffering for what it is, and to make meaning of it. The Buddhists would say we suffer less when we stop resisting what is. But to live purely in the world of the spiritual and ignore human suffering is a form of spiritual bypass. We may attempt to pray it away, pretend it doesn’t really exist, and try to ignore it. I contend that ignoring the physical world for a spiritual answer is not helpful. It can be downright harmful because we may lack compassion.
I think there is wisdom in embracing both worlds: the spiritual and the physical. The spiritual world and its principles can give us comfort when we experience challenges in the physical world. The challenges in the physical world can help us appreciate more the spiritual side of our existence. We must learn to co-exist in two worlds. Not doing so means we struggle and suffer in the physical, or we fail to learn and deepen our soul’s experience in the spiritual.
