Real Spirituality

Real spirituality demands both internal -and- external work, and shows us that our limited identities and perceptions of them - of self, of what we think is best for our self, the full extent of what we know, etc. - are ethically-and-morally-speaking not enough.

Real spirituality, I'll adamantly argue, demands self-scrutiny and the decency of holding one's self accountable...and goes so far as to realize that, when we do something unethical, it cannot be magically 'undone' or 'transcended' by our future work or development in some way, shape, or form.

Real spirituality doesn't have need for double standard-loaded beliefs to pseudo-explain-away those topics that we must sit with and be uncomfortable with in order to genuinely confront.

Real spirituality does -not- claim that everyone exists in their own little bubbles and that one's reality's problems are exclusively their own fault, nor does it claim that the good in your own reality or anyone's own reality comes solely from your work, or one's own work - and therefore, such a holistic spirituality doesn't fail to address reality, its interconnections, its interactions, and its mysteries.

Real spirituality addresses mysterious and hard-to-grasp facts, and questions, and topics, without trying to shove them all into easily-understood-and-quickly-comprehended 'nutshells' or 'conceptual boxes' - and acknowledges that a human mind cannot grasp everything (hence its finite form, and finite processing power)...and is still able to make -genuine- peace with the reality that not all things can be addressed in so finite a time for a finite being.

Real spirituality demands we walk a hard path, including and especially -now- because it is the right thing to do, and it will better our selves and others' selves...the likes of which, I'll personally argue, are not so separate and 'us vs. them' as our cultures and current social frameworks mislead us to look at each other as being.

Real spirituality doesn't lead to the mentality and broad, unrelenting presumption that, if your life is good, that you've earned it - and that if your life is bad, that you've earned it.

Real spirituality is realistic and acknowledges real complexity in reality. It is -not- dismissive, -not- divisive, and -not- the self-obsession that is reflected in such things as most new age versions of "The Law of Attraction" or models of reality as a "reflection" of one's inner self - both concepts that need to be picked apart, significant portions of which need to be decomposed, and ultimately returned to a more life-giving-and-enabling state.

Thoughts on Numbers, Letters, Counting, Communication, Language, and Art:

Today, I stumbled into a reoccurring question I keep finding crop up on my mind:

Why do people keep espousing that numbers have significance in-an-of their own 'selves' as if on a spiritual level...?  It's how something -interacts- with something else symbolic that gives it significance, that opens up the opportunity to realize a certain potential, and maintain a distinct meaning...

No, for example '7' is not innately synonymous with a strong, righteous, and sacred power.

Similarly, no, '4' doesn't innately symbolize balance and structure and orientation.  Rather, it's just been convenient to associate it (and rightfully so) with the number of directions we use on our maps for North, South, East, and West...which relate to both physical systems we came up with (how many sides of a sheet of rectangular paper are there that we can use to associate one with each direction we then give a name to...?  There are 4.  Same with corners...) and natural systems (as directions again go, it is convenient when one is well into the Northern Hemisphere to think of 'North' as 'cold' 'South' as 'warm' and 'East' and 'West' as similar in temperature...but probably as all go, each one leads to a different kind of terrain and place/places the further that one journeys).

And, while I find it endearing when agreed upon by others and sent to me as a message of intended compassion or uplifting spirit, no, '143' is not innately a message saying "I love you" or anything else of the sort, without people (or any entity that can interpret that number, made of three numeric characters) creating, sending, and interpreting the message and its carrying symbols.  It's the fact that someone who -uses- '143' to mean that as they send that message to me that uplifts my spirit, my soul, and my emotional being...not the numbers, or some innate meaning behind them (which they, again, honestly don't have).

No, just like 'j' doesn't -automatically- and -innately- represent the planet Jupiter, nor a particular person who happened to be named 'Jasper' by their parents, and so on...so, too, it is that individual characters in language, and the words, numbers, and/or other combined forms that they amalgamate into do -not- have any -inherent- meaning.

Why else, if you write a note to your pet fish and tape it on the non-wet-side of its fish bowl/preferably its fish tank (fish need room to swim and explore, too, you know...I bet they don't like being quarantined perpetually...at all...) does your fish not automatically understand what you mean, clear as day?  They understand other symbols, after all, as do birds; that's why examples of both types of creatures use color displays as symbolic communication when trying to attract a mate.  They're saying "I'm interested!  I'm open to this!"

Really, why else is there clearly misinterpretation, unless there isn't innately implied meaning...? Misinterpretations exist because words -can- and -do- mean multiple things -- and that is possible explicitly because they aren't innately imbued with meaning...but they don't have anything meaningful innately communicated by them.  They must be given form, and even more importantly, contextualized (ie. 'actualized') to bear meaning and for that meaning to be, then, agreed upon and communicated with ease and effectiveness.

And, finally, with that said, no the number of single digit numbers in our number system is not significant; on the contrary, it so often has been that number systems end up 'base five' or 'base ten' because - surprise, surprise! - we have five fingers on a hand...a total of ten on our two hands.

Yes, that's why we count in multiples of ten to get to the next decimal place in our current number system. That is literally the only reason...But, it's a good one.  Here's why:

It's very practical, and very, very convenient and speeds counting up in a sensible, usable way for those of us who didn't have access to paper or charcoal and a wonderfully perfectly flat writing surface, and needed to count five, ten, or multiples of five or ten, crops, barrels of wheat, coins of currency, containers, or supplies or other items of a similar type or the same type that we grouped together. And believe it or not, when you don't have access to a writing system to do that, even ancient life exchanges in basic economic trading situations between, say, indigenous villages, become notably more difficult.

Here's a practical, semi-basic example: A rather large 'village' or 'town' has many people sick in it back several centuries and maybe two or three additional millennia, ago...and I must trade you a lot of valuable wealth for the ingredients for the medicinal remedies that we know work to help relieve the ill of their illnesses...How do I, who am trading a lot of wealth for know that I am getting enough supplies for -all- of the sick adults, all twenty-three of them, so that I don't give you the wealth and end up short-handed...? I need to count the supplies out, somehow. They each need about ten mature, green (not yet red) leaves from this plant, while it still has the medicinal chemical in it before it uses it in the fall...and also each needs six recently plucked berries berries from that plant, as well as five from that plant - though those second type of berries need to be ground up after being dried, so they're notably different. Then, we need a water bowl/jug/container for each person's medicine-in-the-making, to mix all of these into a liquid and consumable form that can be swallowed...etc, etc...

"23 adults" x "10 leaves, that are mature and roughly the same size" = 230 individual leaves...? Suddenly, this isn't so simple without numbers...at all. It's time-consuming, and you, having faith in your counting, want to trade for the wealth here and go on with your day...but I NEED to make sure I have everything, and goodness forbid I lose count...

But, that's a -LOT- of individual leaves to lay out in a single pile...wait, if I have ten fingers, I can count one leaf for each finger on my two hands, and then bundle them or bag them up in an 'individual pile/bag' for use by a single person. Then, I just do that 22 more times...and once the leaves are all accounted for, the same method is used for the recently picked berries, and the dried and crushed ones, too.

...So, the numbers, and the system (or really, systems...remember, there are base five counting systems out there that don't have a single-digit '6' or '7' or '8' or '9'...or maybe even '0' or '5' depending on which one ends up excluded, and what numeric concepts existed at the time...the idea of a symbol for '0' is a lot less than 10,000 years old!) that they are woven into, are indeed practical - not borne out of religious traditions, but rather out of our own flesh and our own daily, but survival-based, needs.

Heck, if our early memories could have easily handled it millennia and millennia ago, whenever we began creating symbols for counting, we could have also made twenty single-digit numbers - the number for the total of our fingers, and toes...or, the total number of our phalanges (finger-or-toe-type-appendages). But as present-day indigenous people have taught scientists and shown those who researched them and observed them, adjusting a not-young mind to counting in a number system with base 5, or 10, or 20 single digits with their own individual systems is...unless I've read incorrectly over the results of such research, pretty darn difficult.

Brain plasticity, or maybe just what one is and is not used to and how that struggles to change over time earlier on in life rather than later on, can interfere with our ability to grasp these systems.

Reread that last couple of paragraphs again, now, and tell me....does '7' still have an innately sacred meaning to you? If so, why? And, what are you stuck on, not understanding, refusing to see or acknowledge, or otherwise confused over about numbers...?  Or, has a context in which the symbol, or or seven different items or occurrences of importance, impacted and created that significance for you, through experience...?  Numbers themselves aren't 'vibrations,' nor do they arbitrarily represent them or hold inherent power or meaning; they don't correspond with 'this' or 'that' saint/angel/god/goddess/figure of note/etc...and without some shared, and interpreted, context to provide that for them, they literally are scribbles that merely hold a physical appearance - much like a painting that is of abstract lines, abstract blobs or shapes of color, without actual reference to reality.

It's the beholders, and the makers, of messages who hold and who craft the meaning of the artwork in cases such as those...and the same is true of all symbolic language, including numbers.

A Plea for these Trying Times

Here is the issue: 

We have experienced some 'notable shudders' down the spine of many a human society right now - in more ways than one.  These shuddering movements that has rippled down the spine of many of our societies point to a number of problems in the body of the human species, the human reality...all of which need addressed, and sooner rather than later.

It is on that subject - the sudden shivers coursing throughout the human awareness and physique more notably than they have in my lifetime (short though it has been so far), shivers that tell of hunger, illness, and a lack of well-being for Humanity - that I feel a need to type this.

 

In the midst of the spread of a deadly virus that is taking many lives so far, and looks to be on track to take many more...

In the midst of numerous conflicting perceptions of reality, alongside a dangerously swelling perpetuation and overabundance of 'fake news,' 'propaganda,' and stories designed to manipulate people into believing or not believing - ultimately with division as the goal...

In the midst of 'leaders' (people in positions of often ill-gotten and ill-hoarded power) in economic and political systems trying to accumulate ends such as more wealth, and more control, through yet more draconian means...

In the midst of a time that has seen challenge after mounting challenge impeding upon and tarnishing the health of environments - the nature, the elements, the waters, the skies, the soils, the forests, the sands, the ice shelves, the clouds, the minerals, and more - that bore us and sustained us in physical life and form...

In a time of mass inner confusion, and of lackluster, self-focused, individualistic, and ego-driven 'solutions to these problems,' that leave them ultimately unsolved, and that teach us not much more than to numb ourselves to them...

...I am going to ask of you to be contrary to what you perceive as common sense that, when examined closely, centers on your own benefit at the expense of others...and re-examine your notion of what, and who, you consider yourself to be.

Chances are that the benefits you're experiencing by living as your 'self' currently are short-lived, and will dry up...and that they are the result of, whether you are aware of it or not, taking from others in some way. What, after all, is this not the case with in modernity...? What, after all, do we gain without great cost in the modern world, given the modern lifestyle and our modern, individualistic values?

- It isn't the case with our clothing;

- It isn't the case with our buildings - our schools, offices, storage facilities, workshops, or homes;

- It isn't the case with our food, or our waters;

- It isn't the case with what we deem our property, of any kind;

And - tragically and embarrassingly - it is too often even a struggle to secede our focus on benefiting ourselves first and upmost before any and all other things...with our relationships.

Be they acquaintanceships, friendships, family relations, romances, relations we have with our most dearly loved partners, relationships with our elders and ancestors, and even the relationships we have with our children...and, all of those who will inherit the Earth, the stars, and the learning that we have been fortunate enough to be able to pass on...all of those alongside and after them...

Be the relationships whatever kind that they may be, they, too, are too often motivated almost exclusively by a focus on our individual self.

So, given that this is not working - clearly, and has not been, ever, at all, really - I would plea that we all take a different course of action...of living, of being, of interacting, of influencing, of aiding and supporting...and of opposing (where and when and if it becomes, sadly, necessary).

Here is my plea:

Let's please, please expand our concept of what each of us sees as integrally related to and tied to our 'self.' We've been insistent on the claim and belief that we are 'individual people' - and leaving it at that - for a time too long in circumstances that demand we act with much more compassion, much more empathy, much more resilience, and much more vulnerability -- as a strength -- than that.

Because, whether it's giving more ventilation systems or masks to doctors, nurses, patients, and the like in hospitals and sick bed sites,

Or working to create a vaccine and/or other genuinely benevolent medicine that helps curtail those organisms that would bring about explosively dangerous epidemics, or revolutionizing the technologies and available resources to better the health of living beings in general,

Or planting the forests, cleaning the waters, and clearing the lands of toxic sludge and long-unused asphalt and tar,

Or bringing people together in genuinely close communities of friends, families, and loved ones of all ages and walks of life, to generate further solutions to problems, and create happier memories than have been experienced before (yes, that can be done),

Or change the systems and structures that ensnare, chain, and numb people so that they no longer impede upon the descendants of those who made them with less knowledge of their dangers than those enshackled within them...and repurpose them, their good qualities, and their empowering elements to better ourselves, each other, the world, and life itself...

...Regardless of what along these lines we focus on as individuals, we cannot enact such immense change on our own. Empathy and understanding of how to address the various needs each and every one of us - and others beyond human, too - has to take immense priority here. That, in the long term, is a clear matter of life -or- death, and the decision starts at an individual level to either broaden our awareness of what we care about as our very own self...or reject as if completely and utterly separate from, and cut off from, who we are.

If we successfully move into a world in which people can take a look at anything else, and say and feel, with sincerity and without doubt "This is me" of something that is not their own body, then we may yet stand more than such a small, meager chance at overcoming some of the greatest challenges we have seen and are currently seeing - and may even stand a chance at not repeating the mistakes that our least-wise of ancestors, and 'leaders,' have made into the problems we face today.

I plea and pray, and hope and beg, that we will move beyond our selves, as we currently know ourselves - and into a better world, as better people, united in better ways...as Humanity should be.