My Thoughts On Spirituality: How To Nurture It
Recently I read a Huffington Post article titled “Spirituality: How To Nurture It.” I feel that the author, Steve McSwain, shared some very good ideas with his readers. Here is a summary of that article.
What is Spirituality?
Rabbi Kaplan defines spirituality as “the progressive unlearning of the strange ideas about God you’ve been taught.” This quote highlights some of the failures that organized religion has. Many are moving away from the church – and for obvious reasons.
Nurturing a Spiritual Life
McSwain discusses how he has learned to be spiritual instead of religious due to the failures that organized religion have. People who were “religious,” using religion when needed and discarded it when not, constantly surrounded McSwain.
McSwain breaks down what he thinks are important for all spiritual seekers to remember and how to nurture a spiritual life.
#1: Spirituality is not something you attain; it is instead the nature of who you are.
Start with the understanding that we are spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. Spirituality is everlasting. Spirituality is written in your DNA – this is not proven but is simply an idea. Start with this assumption, then move on to McSwain’s next point.
#2: Spirituality grows in the garden of your attention.
Spirituality is like a garden – if you do not pay it any attention, it will wither and die. You do not have be involved in organized religion – spirituality is separate from that.
That to which McSwain gives attention to has a tendency to grow. Spirituality is no exception to this rule.
#3: Spirituality and/or your religious upbringing, such as either may or may not be, holds no patent on the Divine.
This is something that McSwain did not admit to himself until a few years ago. McSwain felt that he would be thrown out of the church for voicing his doubts about his faith or the fact that Christians held no patent on God.
There is a wisdom about uncertainty. The wiser McSwain gets, the more certain his is that there is very little we can be certain about.
#4: A deep, enriching spirituality is the consequence of a regular practice of meditation, introspection, reading, and reflection.
By practicing an art, whatever art it may be, is the way that one becomes a skilled practitioner. This is also true of spirituality.
Meditation, reflection and introspection are the fertilizer and food that your garden needs.
Prayer is not included in this list because of the nature of it and how it has been degraded over the years. It is a way to ask God to fill your “grocery list” of needs.
Meditation is a method of real prayer. If you practice it regularly, your spiritual life will flourish.