Aspects of Spirituality

Spirituality is an elusive thing for most of us.

We are born into a physical world and to make sense of it all we are given religion. It doesn't really matter which one, just so long as you have one, then you'll have the answers to everything. Or so we are told, until we start questioning the answers. Some never question and accept blindly.

As we dig a little, we find that organized religion is not the way to spiritual enlightenment. Sure...it gives comfort to some. For others it gives "respectability" and to the corrupt it gives power and wealth. It is a great tool for governments to control the general populace. I suppose, in all fairness, it might offer enlightenment for a few, but for many it is not enough.

I am one of the many. I grew up with a Christian background. In my search for answers I bounced around from one church to the next. As time went on, disillusionment set in. I started casting my questions further afield. What did make some sense was karma and reincarnation.

With this understanding, my journey began. Whether I will reach a state of enlightenment and full consciousness is an open question. What I do know is that I found an answer to one of my most abiding riddles:

What is the purpose if life?

Why...to evolve spiritually...of course.

It sounds so simple. It took me forever to find that out. Now all I have to do is evolve... I know that I will never become a monk. I can however take the principles of karma and reincarnation and apply them to the world I live in. I can try to find some sort of balance. I think its a good place to start...

In my book, CODA, XN5, I have explored some aspects of spirituality and mind science that interest me. Please click on the images below to see what Wikipedia has to say about them.

Spirit The English word spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") has many differing meanings and connotations, all of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. The spirit of a human being is thus the animating, sensitive or vital principle in that individual, similar to the soul taken to be the seat of the mental, intellectual and emotional powers.

Soul The soul has often been deemed integral or essential to consciousness and personality, and may be synonymous with spirit, mind or self. The soul is often believed to exit in the body and live on after a person’s death...

Karma Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called sa&ra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies.

Reincarnation Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, comes back to Earth in a newborn body. This phenomenon is also known as transmigration of the soul.

Meditation Meditation is a holistic discipline by which the practitioner attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. Meditation is a component of many religions, and has been practiced since antiquity.

Chakra Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which, according to traditional Indian medicine, are believed to exist in the surface of the etheric double of man. The Chakras are said to be "force centers" or whorls of energy permeating, from a point on the physical body, the layers of the subtle bodies in an ever-increasing fan-shaped formation.

Spiritual evolution Spiritual evolution is the philosophical, theological, esoteric or spiritual idea that nature and human beings and/or human culture evolve along a predetermined cosmological pattern or ascent, or in accordance with certain predetermined potentials.

Astral travel Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of any form of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the astral plane.

Telepathy Telepathy (from the Greek, tele meaning "distant" and pathe meaning "affliction, experience"), is the ostensible transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five senses.

Extrasensory perception Extrasensory perception (ESP), also commonly referred to as the sixth sense, involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind.

Clairvoyance The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception.

Psychic A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception, or is said by others to have such abilities.

Telekinesis The term psychokinesis also known as telekinesis(literally "distant-movement"), sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by publisher Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy.