Discovering Spirituality - Episode 06 - Spiritual Being - Podcast Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Discovering Spirituality podcast. Episode 6: Spiritual Being. In this podcast I will be sharing my thoughts on the writing "Spiritual Being" taken from the channeled book "The light in Your Life is Spirit" by George A. Thompson.

Atonement. We all make mistakes and if history is to judge us, we have continued to make mistakes despite the obvious lessons set before us.

History, both personal and social should always be viewed as a guide to redemption, because should we take the time to truly think about our transgression we could learn valuable lessons and insights.

But in order to make any significant changes we must act upon what we learn, so that we do not repeat the same mistakes or inadvertently copy negative behaviours from our peers.

Life always finds a way to confront us with our inadequacies since many of the situations we struggle with occur with a degree of frequency. You could shut yourself away and avoid that which you fear, but in your mind you will always know that you chose the path of avoidance.

Very often it is not until later in life that we begin to see the error of our ways. Those hurtful words, those hurtful actions and thoughts. As a sword has two edges to its blade, what cuts on one side will also cut on the other.

It is ones conscious that acts as our moral barometer. That inner knowing that makes itself known when we are too close or even step over the proverbial line. And that line was tens of thousands of years in the making, so it should be regarded with respect and listened to.

Most people are generally good people, but fear takes us to the edge all to easily. And the fears we tend to experience where millions of years in the making.

And this is the dilemma for all human beings. To understand these fears take a great deal of courage, patience, perseverance and honesty. Which as far as virtues go, most people find lacking.

It is all too easy to distract the mind and claim piety when in truth we are cowards. Because we fear that should we expose our failings, we will be rejected and ejected from the group.

To be human is to be a failure on multiple levels. Although this sounds harsh when you take in consideration the complexities of the human condition and this point in our evolution. With a bit of thought and consideration for human history you will begin to recognize that we are very much in our infancy. And perhaps this is a valuable starting point, to recognize what we don't know and stop trying to defend our inadequacy and shame with dishonesty.

In eastern philosophy there is the concept of karma, what goes around comes around. And at some point we will be faced with our past inadequacy. The question is, will we be prepared mentally to deal with these situations so we can move beyond our fears and face life knowing that whatever we encounter we are capable of understanding if we choose to do so.

Each and every day we have the opportunity for growth, with every thought and every action lies the possibility for enlightenment.

Perhaps this is why we have a memory, so we can re-examine the past. The past could be a second, a minute, and hour, a day, etc that passes from any single moment. This ability affords us the opportunity to apply our thoughts and to understand the experience of that moment.

But self awareness does not happen over night, it grows with our intelligence, it takes time to develop mindfulness. As children we react in a very chaotic way, without discipline or self control and so the child's capacity for selfishness is very apparent.

In order to help the child understand their wants needs and desires parents need to provide a loving and secure environment that has boundaries . It is here that the child learn, with love, what is acceptable behaviour, in essence they are socialized.

This does not stop then from making mistakes, but if the parent is aware of the responsibility and nurturing a child needs then this can provide a reasonable foundation for continued development.

At a very young age children are keenly aware when they push boundaries, to the child this is acted out as a game. Very often the child will look at the parent and smile before they commence with their act of mischief. Throughout the development the child they will become more aware of their actions, and more importantly the results of their actions.

With years of accumulated experience and support, with any luck, the child should grow with a degree of confidence and stability. They should understand their capabilities and the consequences of their actions.

But since everyone has freewill, having a lack of understanding will ultimately lead to decisions that cause both internal and external conflicts. Very often, due to confusion and imagination the mind will construct false narratives to protect the fledgling identity. Fear also plays a huge part since the development of social bonds and group acceptance are very powerful especially during the teenage years.

Inner conflicts arise all too easily in our younger years and it takes many years to develop enough emotional maturity to feel more comfortable in our own skin.

With growing emotional maturity come growing awareness. This is when we become more acutely aware of our conscious. With any luck we can derail any bad habits we pick up as children.

But this is a lot easier said than done since well established behaviours are assumed to be a part of our identity and are thus accepted without question.

Many people see a degree of futility in this effort and fail to understand that they can change. Some people, however, do decide to reconcile their lives and ask deeper questions regarding their being as they become tired of the hurt and the misery so they seek a new way of being.

They say that time heals all wounds but history cannot be erased. Although we can learn from our mistakes and minimize further harm to ourselves and others.

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Personal responsibility. Responsibility is something that we have to learn over time. It should start with our parents as they guide and nurture us through our childhood years. We also learn from society through social interactions.

More often than not our lack of understanding paints a very gray picture until we learn the true value of responsibility. Responsibility is not just about taking care of ourselves, it is also about extending a duty of care for others.

As a mature adult we embark on a journey of responsibility from the moment we wake up. If we look at this concept closely we can see that responsibility is the fine line between order and chaos. We should be living in a constant state of responsibility which in truth is a constant state of appreciation for living. It is an acknowledgment and a respect for the consequences of our actions. It is a state of awareness that, should we venture into the realm of responsibility, the results of our actions could have a detrimental affect on our future. Accumulated detriment not only limits our understanding, it also affects our behaviour, our thoughts and our perceptions of life.

This mental suffocation can last for many years before it can be re-examined and hopefully understood. Very often fear becomes the emotional gate keeper as we sink into a state of denial.

Should we choose to challenge our ignorance, the road towards progress can lead us towards truths that can set us free, but first we must endure the misery as hindsight can make us all too aware that we could have acted differently.

Blame and shame can also hinder progress as we look at ourselves with a degree of weakness, assuming that we should have known better. So evaluating our past can be tricky because our memory along with our imagination and lack of understanding manifest events that can be less than honest.

Later in life we have the opportunity for salvation if we are prepared to be honest and it does help to have some kind of support to help us make sense of our many complexities.

Man's capacity to overcome adversity is one of our greatest strengths although in modern life it is given little consideration most of the time. Sometimes it is far easier to remain ignorant, but that is just a lie we tell ourselves to avoid discovering our potential.

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Avoidance. During the various stages in our life there will be moments when we make mistakes, 9 times out of 10 these mistakes will be due to a lack of understanding and will usually have fear as their origins.

But all too often we are either unaware or experience varying degrees of shame and so retreat from the truth and settle for avoidance. Avoidance is the calculated form of denial. Our conscious may let us know that we have stepped into the realm of chaos but our denial and avoidance re-write the narrative to save us any pain or minimize any discomfort.

This state of avoidance limits exploration, which is in fact a very primal response accumulated over millions of years to ensure our survival.

If we were to expose our shame and inadequacy one has to ask, what the outcome would be. The most obvious would be the affect it would have on our standing within our group and the large society. In short it would undermine our sense of belonging.

To be shunned within the group would cause great stress and increase any threat to our survival. One could also take the view that it would affect our position within the group hierarchy.

Denial is a barrier to discovering truth, and the discovery of truth is the pathway to growth. Mistakes, if reviewed as opportunities, can be the path to enlightenment. Yet even with our limited understanding we can always appear to be certain. Why is that? Is this one of the downsides to having freewill and self awareness? They do say that a little knowledge can be dangerous.

Is it a question of IQ? Genetics? It seems to me that we are all capable of comprehension since good and bad at times see so obvious. When we add our conscious and emotional responses surely they sound a loud enough alarm that would warrant some kind of examination. Does it really just boil down to fear? Do we gain a certain degree of security from our ignorance? What we don't know won't hurt us.

So we have the capacity to think, we have spiritual support, we have a multitude of written resources, we have a conscious and we have our freewill. So why do we continually make the same mistakes over and over again? Do we really find that much comfort in our ignorance?

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Motivations in life. Modern levels of prosperity are causing problems, which would seem like a contradictory thing to say but without adequate motivation most people are becoming increasingly lazy. The progress that man has made over the last hundred years is being taken for granted. What was once coveted is now just normal life and little or no thought is given to how we reached this point, what it took, the work the effort and the thought.

Our forebears strived for a better life, suffered and toiled to give us freedoms that we abuse and ignore. One cannot truly say where their passion and motivation came from, but one thing we can all appreciate is that there was a collective vision to create a better world.

Despite all of the conflicts, wars and atrocities that have afflicted our history, the survival rate of every human being has increased significantly. So now, especially in the west, we live in varying degrees of comfort and prosperity. For the average individual there is even a plan that defines prosperity. We get an education, we get married, we choose a career, we buy a house, we have kids, we retire then we die. That's the plan. A single cog within the socioeconomic machine. Sounds almost cynical!

Maybe this plan was to offer some kind of motivation, some kind of direction that would provide us with meaning, meaning for the life that we are supposed to live. If this plan does have a meaning for us then we work towards achieving these goals.

But when all the boxes are ticked, what then, what else do we do? What else is there to learn, to understand? What else can provide us with meaning?

But this plan is not our plan, we never created it. It is just assumed that this is the right direction to go in. Sure, we want to have some purpose that's why we need the skills and knowledge to find a job to contribute to society and make money to buy a home. Sure we want to find a mate, so we can avoid loneliness and propagate our species.

But when all is said and done do we find that we are satisfied, are our needs met, are we happy and fulfilled?

This plan is a relatively modern phenomenon, which was born out of progress instead of just pure survival and servitude. It also suggests that the death of spiritual faith and spiritual progress. The switch from human growth to social growth. But now there is an obvious imbalance.

Spiritual growth has been replaced by financial and economic growth. What we accumulate now, instead of character and virtue are integrity are things. Disposable material things. We get the high before we acquire them then we experience the low when our object looses its fascination. And so the cycle repeats. This is where we direct our motivations today.

But if you should take away all these highly sought after trinkets, what are you left with? What kind of person stands before you? Do you live and die with your regret? Or do you seek value in something else? What else is there?

Religion offers an alternative for many but all too often individuals just become followers of someone else's plan without thinking for themselves. Maybe this is the why we make the same mistakes over and over again because we do not follow our own plan. A plan that we create, that we think about, that motivates us and only we are responsible for.

Maybe we fail because we do not take true responsibility for our lives.  We see life as a means to acquire instead of a life that is to be understood and grown.

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A spiritual being is a thinking begin. A being that does not cling to the past but instead works towards creating a future. A future that is free from burden, fear and anger.

Yes, we will experience suffering, it is a part of the human condition that cannot be avoided. From the richest to the poor we are all afflicted by ignorance. It is a consequence of our individuality. No two people experience life the same way but what does unite us is the fact that we are human and we are unique, a part of the whole yet separate. A universal constant and contradiction that exists simultaneously with us all.

The past is also a contradiction, a paradox since it can either heal us or wound us. It can create great movement or cause us to remain stationary. How it ultimately affects us is how we look upon it. Do we utilize it as a means to learn and grow or do we use it to dogmatically assert our victim hood, this is of course all a question of choice.

Given the complexities of the human experience most people opt for the latter, choosing to lay blame at the feet of their chosen oppressor. This is not to diminish the varying degrees and severity of suffering which is experienced by individuals or to dismiss any suffering experience by saying "just get over it".

It is always a question of, how can I move forward from this experience. What does it take to move forward? What is motivation, what am I aiming for?

Is it the normality of the social plan? Is it by being financially successful? Is it by finding God through religion? What is it that becomes the light within the darkness, is it internal or external? Perhaps it is a question of both, to have external support so we may find the courage inside and when the fear subsides then one day we can walk our own path without external support as we start to rely less on that inner support. That invisible hand that guides us towards the discovery of true joy and true happiness. That moment when we become a true spiritual being, that is being spiritual.

And those were my thoughts on the writing Spiritual Being.

If you are interested in reading the writing from the book "The Light in Your Life is Spirit", you can download it from this link.

D.B 15/08/2019