What is Spirituality?
Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 7:35 pm
Sometimes I get an urge to just start typing, not always knowing what the end result will be. This happens more frequently the more I stick with my meditation routine. When I get this feeling to just open up and let it flow I have to do it or I can never focus on anything else long enough to get it done. This is one of those times.
Begin:
What is Spirituality? This may seem like an odd question to any of the frequent visitors to this board but it is a valid question. How does spirituality work into anyone's daily life? Do you have to search for it or does it find you? Is it always there do you just have to "turn it on" or do you have to start from the ground and work into it? Once it finds you or you find it do you have to work to keep it or is it always with you? There are so many questions wrapped around this single word.
One of the definitions from princenton.edu dictionary is "property or income owned by a church" other definitions say it is only this way if it is termed as spiritualities. Spiritualities sound a lot like Royalties to me in that definition. I did not know that was one of the definitions of that word until I recently looked it up and was sort of astonished by what I read. I know languages and meanings of words change over the years and one hundred years from now spirituality could have even more definitions attached to it, but to think that at one time it meant church "royalties" still has me sort of baffled.
The definition that I would be more inclined accept in my journey would be the one I picked up from dictionary.com which is "predominantly spiritual character as shown in thought and life" which is how I always saw it but in my opinion that does not cover my view of spirituality with a closed case answer, actually it just leads you to another question of what is a "spiritual character". Spirituality is much more than that....
I have not lived a totally spiritual life, for many years I did not know what I was searching for, I did not know who I was or where I was going. I partied a lot, more than a lot, mass amounts I partied. I claimed Agnosticism when asked if I followed a religion, for the main reason that no one can argue with that more or less, it was an easy way out of the question. After many years of being forced to attend Pentecostal church with my grand parents I was lost as I started to become an adult. I knew there had to be some kind of higher power, but did not think the Pentecostal church or any other organized religion for that matter was going in the right direction. My mind refused to accept that I had to sit in a little building with a lot of other people to show my love for our Father. So I wrote off everything and did not try to find any spiritual path for many, many years, I was adrift in a sea of nothing. I had my family and work, but otherwise I was lost.
A lot of things happened to me and my family in a short amount of time and I was mentally crushed. Being mentally crushed like that with no spirituality and hence no path led me down some long dark roads, when you are at that point you will believe almost anything that you think will make your situation better, and I did with no good end result. Then all of a sudden about 3 years ago the 11:11 prompts started. Like almost everyone else I wrote it off as coincidence the first few dozen times it happened. Then it started to happen all over the place, everywhere I looked I was seeing combinations of 1's. I thought I was going insane, searching google for "repetitive 11:11" of course the first thing I came to was 11:11 Progress Group. I found this board not long after and started reading all of the information I could find about the 11:11 prompts and meditation. I had tried meditation in the past but could never calm my mind enough to get past a few minutes.
After I found this board and read about the meditation, along with the help of the Akashic Construct audio tracks I was able to start meditating on a regular basis. I was actually afraid at first because I did not want to know what was in the deep recesses of my mind or soul after all of the years of partying and not really caring if I went to hell or heaven (Remember Pentecostal teachings here). I have fallen off of the wagon a few times as far as keeping a daily meditation routine, but have gotten better with that over time. I am not a meditation guru yet by any standard, but it is helping me in my daily life. I am more calm now, I am more at peace with myself and every day getting a little better being able to forgive others for the sad things they do. I still have a few amends to make over things that happened in the past, but I am not quite there yet. Of course I also have to mention all of the great people in the 11:11 Progress Group that have given me support when needed and set me straight also when that was needed.
In closing my view is that we all have the capability to be spiritual, we are born with the spark, it is always there. Some people are afraid of the spark as I was for a long time, mainly because of the teachings of the Pentecostal church. Those teachings more or less say, you will go to hell pretty much for any reason that they decide you should go to hell that week, or that decade or century, ESPECIALLY if you do not follow their doctrine to the letter. If this is true then why did our divine Father give us free will? If we were supposed to be bound by the rules of a specific religion or specific set of rules that govern everything we do then that is how our minds would be programmed, but they are not. We have the free will to make whatever choices we want, good or bad, up or down, sideways or longways, they are all choices. I waited a long time before I made the choice to follow my current path with the 11:11 progress group and I am quite happy with my choice. This is my spirituality and no one is going to change my mind that this is the way it should be, not under the rules of the soul governing body called organized religion….
Father gave you the spark.
Father gave you the free will.
Father gave you the resources.
If you choose not to use the resources you have been given
that is wholly your choice but your life will be empty if you don't.
Peace and Happiness,
Bryan
Begin:
What is Spirituality? This may seem like an odd question to any of the frequent visitors to this board but it is a valid question. How does spirituality work into anyone's daily life? Do you have to search for it or does it find you? Is it always there do you just have to "turn it on" or do you have to start from the ground and work into it? Once it finds you or you find it do you have to work to keep it or is it always with you? There are so many questions wrapped around this single word.
One of the definitions from princenton.edu dictionary is "property or income owned by a church" other definitions say it is only this way if it is termed as spiritualities. Spiritualities sound a lot like Royalties to me in that definition. I did not know that was one of the definitions of that word until I recently looked it up and was sort of astonished by what I read. I know languages and meanings of words change over the years and one hundred years from now spirituality could have even more definitions attached to it, but to think that at one time it meant church "royalties" still has me sort of baffled.
The definition that I would be more inclined accept in my journey would be the one I picked up from dictionary.com which is "predominantly spiritual character as shown in thought and life" which is how I always saw it but in my opinion that does not cover my view of spirituality with a closed case answer, actually it just leads you to another question of what is a "spiritual character". Spirituality is much more than that....
I have not lived a totally spiritual life, for many years I did not know what I was searching for, I did not know who I was or where I was going. I partied a lot, more than a lot, mass amounts I partied. I claimed Agnosticism when asked if I followed a religion, for the main reason that no one can argue with that more or less, it was an easy way out of the question. After many years of being forced to attend Pentecostal church with my grand parents I was lost as I started to become an adult. I knew there had to be some kind of higher power, but did not think the Pentecostal church or any other organized religion for that matter was going in the right direction. My mind refused to accept that I had to sit in a little building with a lot of other people to show my love for our Father. So I wrote off everything and did not try to find any spiritual path for many, many years, I was adrift in a sea of nothing. I had my family and work, but otherwise I was lost.
A lot of things happened to me and my family in a short amount of time and I was mentally crushed. Being mentally crushed like that with no spirituality and hence no path led me down some long dark roads, when you are at that point you will believe almost anything that you think will make your situation better, and I did with no good end result. Then all of a sudden about 3 years ago the 11:11 prompts started. Like almost everyone else I wrote it off as coincidence the first few dozen times it happened. Then it started to happen all over the place, everywhere I looked I was seeing combinations of 1's. I thought I was going insane, searching google for "repetitive 11:11" of course the first thing I came to was 11:11 Progress Group. I found this board not long after and started reading all of the information I could find about the 11:11 prompts and meditation. I had tried meditation in the past but could never calm my mind enough to get past a few minutes.
After I found this board and read about the meditation, along with the help of the Akashic Construct audio tracks I was able to start meditating on a regular basis. I was actually afraid at first because I did not want to know what was in the deep recesses of my mind or soul after all of the years of partying and not really caring if I went to hell or heaven (Remember Pentecostal teachings here). I have fallen off of the wagon a few times as far as keeping a daily meditation routine, but have gotten better with that over time. I am not a meditation guru yet by any standard, but it is helping me in my daily life. I am more calm now, I am more at peace with myself and every day getting a little better being able to forgive others for the sad things they do. I still have a few amends to make over things that happened in the past, but I am not quite there yet. Of course I also have to mention all of the great people in the 11:11 Progress Group that have given me support when needed and set me straight also when that was needed.
In closing my view is that we all have the capability to be spiritual, we are born with the spark, it is always there. Some people are afraid of the spark as I was for a long time, mainly because of the teachings of the Pentecostal church. Those teachings more or less say, you will go to hell pretty much for any reason that they decide you should go to hell that week, or that decade or century, ESPECIALLY if you do not follow their doctrine to the letter. If this is true then why did our divine Father give us free will? If we were supposed to be bound by the rules of a specific religion or specific set of rules that govern everything we do then that is how our minds would be programmed, but they are not. We have the free will to make whatever choices we want, good or bad, up or down, sideways or longways, they are all choices. I waited a long time before I made the choice to follow my current path with the 11:11 progress group and I am quite happy with my choice. This is my spirituality and no one is going to change my mind that this is the way it should be, not under the rules of the soul governing body called organized religion….
Father gave you the spark.
Father gave you the free will.
Father gave you the resources.
If you choose not to use the resources you have been given
that is wholly your choice but your life will be empty if you don't.
Peace and Happiness,
Bryan