Spirituality

What does it mean to be spiritual? 

I’ve discovered that it means to see far.

I’ve learned to look beyond immediate appearances to the truth. I try to make decisions for the whole of the future and not just for the immediate situation. I know that all great things are built from the accumulation of many small things, so I set about pursuing a life where I can build steadily. The divisiveness of academic distinctions, social categorization, political divisions, profit-seeking exploitation, and resentment usually end up scattering efforts. I look for the essential humanity in all people.

That can be a challenge, but it’s one I continue to face. People can be just or unjust. But I don’t assume that’s true of life itself. Life does not discriminate and it has no “plan” for us. How hideous this existence would be if some were favored over others! Instead, life is a series of opportunities and challenges from which any of us can choose. We assess the odds. We take risks. Accident or difficulties may damage us, but no force “selects” us for misery. Everyone has the same chances for happiness—and the same vulnerability to sorrow.

For me, the spiritual is ultimately the reason for martial arts and creativity. It joins both those deep personal concerns together. To be a martial artist for the sake of fighting is limited. To live a creative life is wonderful, but risks becoming too inward. Spirituality is communion, and it takes those concerns and expands them into the universal. 

Every person suffers. I’ve met beautiful and wealthy people who were dressed in designer clothes and who lived in custom-built homes. Eventually, though, they hinted at serious health problems, family conflicts, institutionalized siblings, devastating deaths, or simple fear of the unknown. No one escapes the misery of this existence. But we mustn’t let that blot out its joys and truths. 

Grief has been my valued teacher. I absolutely did not welcome it. It took me many years to appreciate it. But I wouldn’t have a complete understanding of life without it. Life is bittersweet. That’s the fullness of this existence.

I have hurts, but that motivates me to protect, help, and be kind to others. Sometimes, when I help others, I am encouraged to see them liberated, even if I cannot free myself from the same dilemmas. But knowing that I’ve helped another escape gives me hope.

Eventually, I learned that there’s a far shore to grief. I never understood that when I was tumbling in waves of sorrow. That far shore is remembrance. We cross a turbulent ocean, and when we beach ourselves, it isn’t cessation. It’s a new land where we solemnly remember every wave that brought us there. We honor those we’ve lost and we give them new life in our hearts. 

I’ve concluded that the greatest spiritual value is love. Love nurtures life. Love inspires me to put the needs of others before my own—or I might say love that leads me to adopt the needs of others as my own. Love leads to a union that does not obliterate me, but it instead joins me to others for a higher purpose. Love lets me know exactly why I am here on this planet.

Love takes me into the true current of life. That’s where practice is so helpful. What begins as a dutiful daily act, perhaps sometimes bordering on drudgery, gives me the steadiness and determination to remain with love.

Practice is spirituality. Spirituality is love. Love is life, life, glorious life.