Spirituality...

...as I see it

- Swahilya.

Spirituality. How often this word is used these days. What is this Spirituality after all, I ponder. And as I ponder, my fingers typing on the keyboard, my eyes close in meditation. Behind the closed eyes, I see something. That is, I see nothing. It is the same nothing that is outside of my physical frame. The same nothing inside, in the space between my eyelids and eyes. (my eyes are closed as I type this) And when I close my eyes, I am able to feel something that surges up to my head. Not surging, but I am able to feel what is already there, only when I attend to it. Well, that's force, that's energy. Now I open my eyes. That force that energy, within me, that which propels my thoughts, which in turn propels my action, which in turn impresses upon the others who read this, which sometimes formulates their thoughts and their action....that is the spirit, that is the force and that is spirituality.
The human species, is the most wondersome type in Nature's creation, for just this reason. He can simply close his eyes and realise, what he is, what is the force that moves him, what is the force that propels the earth to spin around itself, wonder, study about anything he perceives with his five senses.
The other creatures and beings are in this same spirit - the sun shines, the river flows, the trees sprout and grow, the animals breathe, kill, eat and reproduce. They all exist in the same consciousness, but the human has the faculty - the mind - to contemplate and study and know that all this is God or whatever he may call it, all this matter is spirit and that the spirit is the essence of matter.
Let me get back to the Nothing, I said I saw behind my closed eyes. In that Nothing, there is something I can perceive. They are invisible beings called thoughts. Some thoughts have form. Some are abstract. Some thoughts say that it is him, it is her, it is it, it is that and it is this. There is also one main thought - it is that which tells me that I am "I". The thought that tells me, "I" and the thought that tells me "it, they and them" - are the same thought, not even plural. Singular thought that takes many shapes and forms.
If spirituality is too abstract to grapple with, may I move to the more gross. The body. This body, the process by which it is born, everybody knows. What was nothing, became something when two microscopic particles now called the sperm and the ovum, united to form another microscopic lump called the zygote. And that zygote gave expression to all the aeons of contents stored in that eternal nothing. The heart, hands, legs, eyes and body comes into our plane of vision, finally. It is from a spiritual essence called love, that a matter called child takes birth. And this child feeds on love and then food and grows to be a man or woman.
The body grows, no doubt. But for what purpose. Of what use is a pot if there is nothing to store in it, nothing to cook and nothing to serve. The body is and exists to hold the spirit. Besides the all pervasive consciousness that contains space and holds the Earth and everything else, the spirit that the body holds are the thoughts and emotions. The thoughts and emotions get their inputs through the body and express themselves through it.
And why this body and why this thoughts? Well, that's where the whole game is all about. Evolution - not just of mankind, but of all nature. Nature in Meditation. Nature in its way to self realisation. Every individual is a bit of that nature. It began from nothing. It took shape as something. Now it's trying to find out what happened and how all this happened. The vehicle to find this out is human kind. We are all here to do that work for nature. And all the rest, cooking, eating, sleeping, playing, watching films, listening to music, hiking, trekking, studying, writing exams, working, earning, reproducing...they are just time pass. Evolution is the work. Evolution is the way. Evolution is the goal.
Evolution from what to what. From water to vapour, from Earth to Space, from the gross mind to the subtle consciousness. That's the way. That's the path and that's the goal...towards the destination of spirit. This body will be as long as that goal is reached. Till then, it will be back again and again and again in one form or the other...tirelessly. For it is here for that purpose and nothing else. And the deadline for evolution - well, it is eternity! So relax and chill. We're doing what has to be done anyway!

******