Apr 14, 2013

The Spiritual Life

"The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin." Parker J. Palmer

Mark Nepo says it similarly, "Anything that removes what grows between our hearts and the day is spiritual."  I think sometimes people equate being spiritual with being religious.  They may or may not be connected.  If one's religion helps one to "be more at home in your own skin", then religion is also spirituality.  Spirituality to me is mostly an interior journey: making friends with all parts of oneself, forgiving self and others, realizing our oneness with Spirit and one another, becoming increasingly compassionate and loving toward oneself and all others (to include our planet), becoming a more mature and better functioning person.  For me, the spiritual path is also the path to good mental health; which includes subduing the ego.  Dr. Joan Borysenko says, "You take your ego into every situation, creating the meaning of everything that happens and everything you see, out of the images of your past."  Recognizing the ego at its work enables us to be free to not take things so personally, to see the universality of it all, and to be at peace within ourselves and with one another. 

No comments:

Post a Comment