What is “Spiritual”

A few months back Ark asked, “what the hell is spiritually minded? If you can’t define spirit then such a term is simply fluff”. Well, I can define it.

What people think it is, is much different than what it actually is. Here is a sample definition—“Spirit is the ethereal conscious that infiltrates the corporeal being to cause and sustain life. Being aware of this duality in human nature is to be in tune with the eternal, external human nature beyond physical existence”.

What it actually is though, is a connection to our natural instincts. Being ingenious by trusting your gut based on thousands of years of hunches that continue to pay off, evidenced by survival.

“One cannot help but appreciate the power of this instinct, nor its effectiveness as exampled by humanity thriving—in spite of being populated by an idiot majority” yet somehow continues to thrive, now beyond natures ability to replenish it.

Every day billions of people use this instinct to make important decisions. After all the data is analyzed, prayers offered, pros and cons considered, the decision is typically made by snap-judgement, gut feeling, a hunch—and very likely on impulse or irresponsible wants. This is the “spirit” in action—the survival instinct, and its amazing how much it actually works. And delegating authority to the subconscious mind is a win, most of the time. Don’t think, just do.

To those who seek validation outside themselves, this they call the spirit. But it’s quite obvious it is ancient instinct talking to itself and subconscious genius protecting the masses, often from themselves. No belief required. It did fine before its name change to “spirit” and will do fine again without it.

The antithesis of instinctive action is waiting. Nothing is more useless than waiting on the Holy Spirit to direct your decisions when you already know what to do. More often than not, waiting on the spirit is a call to inaction—and excuses.

Delegating authority to instinct has the backing of evolution and a proven track record of success. Long before Abraham was, we were doing just fine trusting the gut to warn us of danger and prompt us to action when needed. Now we must go through proper channels to do so, only to do it anyway.

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Hard vs Soft Atheism

What I am seems so fleeting and intangible, but what I was—is fixed and final.

I am more closely identified with what no longer exists, than with what actually is. This overwhelming feeling that I am not a body, but have a body, is a curious look in the mirror. So who am I—and who are you? Just a skin encapsulated accident of evolution, or is there more to it?

When I became a non-believer, I was certain there was nothing beyond this physical experience—nothing but neurons, senses, hormones, and misinterpreted persuasions and perceptions. What it really was though, was a clean slate to view the world without the bias of belief. I really don’t care which way it is, so I ponder existence, consciousness, and try to find my own answers.

Now I am at a crossroad with nowhere to go, yet I press on daily collecting thoughts on a path of least contradiction. That the physical world too, cannot be explained without using the same abstractions of speech and metaphors, really leads me to wonder if there is any difference in stuff at all. And no one has yet put their finger on what the physical world actually is, generally meeting the requirements of spirit.

In the west we have a limited way with words that do not adequately describe the philosophies of half the world. Bonded by the Hebrew way of a monarchial boss, it is an imagery we can’t escape even when we know it’s crap.

The idea of the absolute god with all authority is a major, cultural catastrophe that set a course of dismissing other lines of thought, rebuttals ready before the sentence is even finished. But there are better ways of being, and we find when we look elsewhere it’s not even special—it never was. Just the only table setting.

One issue I have with hard atheism is it’s own automatic rebuttal feature. Sure, it’s easy to dismiss Christianity, but does that mean there is nothing at all?

With all the hairsplitting of physical and metaphysical jargon, it appears everything is god. We are all tits on the same sow—Alan Watts, and god doesn’t know it’s god anymore than you can identify your own source of thought. You’re it

Spirit or Matter

Why does examining the physical world still explain nothing about what it is? What is the most likely reason we haven’t identified one single solitary fact of what matter actually consists? Maybe it isn’t “real”? The simplest answer is usually the correct answer? Or Occam may say—”entities should not be multiplied needlessly” But physics is at a loss, as examining the atom we find 99.99999% empty space—We are empty space.

The physical world is the most elusive, evasive topic of all topics, yet at first glance it seems so obvious (here I am) But you can’t identify what stuff is, any more than you can find anything actually existing anywhere at all. You cannot put your finger on it, nor determine the basic physical makeup—of anything, simultaneously fulfilling all the requirements of spirit. Neither science nor religion has any idea what the hell is going on (forget resurrection of matterless matter for the moment)

Matter is all at once here, there, and nowhere. While it’s properties can be manipulated slightly for our imagined benefit, as far as being the real stuff we have hoped to identify as the physical reality, is likened most easily to an image at the end a projector—though you might just as easily identify the physical properties of an image on a movie screen—where there would be nothing seen at all without the background.

The farther we peek into the physical world the less is discovered—there is nothing there. It is empty shells everywhere we look, and the most obvious yet unsettling reality stares us in the face—there is nothing physical to discover. Is life and the physical world (as we assume) merely concentrated patterns of energy—like a dust devil in passing wind, we see its stationary effects but the wind keeps blowing? Whirlpools along a passing stream? Cyclones of organized chaos? Or is matter any more than a concentration of spirit, for lack of a better term? It, the obvious answer is, essentially energy forming a pattern. The other “one thing” we harness but do not understand in the slightest—electricity.

What should be the most obvious and easy to identify—the physical world, turns out to be the most elusive of all examination. We aren’t really even here in the sense of reality we have imagined. And imagine is what we do best, and will continue to do—our existence depends on it. Whatever the case, life is simply amazing to be a part of. It’s amazing!