Many people believe what makes us spiritual are those ‘spiritual’ things we do. But what if spirituality had nothing to do with rituals, meditations, prayers, or any religious activity you schedule on your calendar?
Going to church on Sundays and praying every day. Joining a spiritual group and following the teachings of a guru. Practicing yoga and meditating every day. Lighting candles and burning incense.
Do these things make you a spiritual person?
No.
What does it mean to be spiritual, then?
Spiritual work is anything you do to overcome your ego’s selfishness, egocentricity, and self-centeredness in all of its various disguises:
The compulsion to have and own more.
The addiction to manipulation and control.
The desire to win and succeed at all costs.
The belief that the world revolves around you.
The attachment to your story and wanting to be right.
What can you do from a practical standpoint to transcend all of these? How can you grow spiritually? Where does the spiritual path begin?
Buddha taught his followers how to be compassionate and kind. Jesus showed his disciples how to be loving and forgiving all the time. These two masters didn’t come to start religions or spiritual fads. They came to help us overcome our human selfishness, egocentricity, and self-centeredness.
What makes you a spiritual person is the decision to be loving and kind towards all of life, including your own, at all times. Unconditionally. To be loving, forgiving, and compassionate no matter what.
This includes that neighbor you dislike, the ex-partner who broke your heart, the friend who never paid you back, the co-worker who stabbed you in the back, that friend who called you out, and anyone who mistreated or victimized you.
It also includes everything you’ve ever done in the past, feel guilty or ashamed of, and everything you think is wrong with you or makes you unlovable, unworthy, and “less than”.
The more you become loving, compassionate, and forgiving, towards yourself and others, the more spiritual you are.
That’s what being spiritual is all about.
From my heart to yours,
