Relationships and Practical Spirituality – 1
Many people feel that spirituality means retiring from worldly affairs. Apart from the great Rishis and pundits whose chosen paths are those of living in isolation or in ashrams, spirituality is a very practical way of living our day-to-day lives. In fact, spirituality actually enhances your daily life in what the everyday person might call “magical” ways.
This may sound mystical or esoteric, but spirituality is really a very practical way of enhancing one’s worldly living. For example, consider everyday interactions and relationships. Everybody seeks an ideal, loving and harmonious relationship and ideal interactions with all people. And it is absolutely possible to have an ideal relationship with another person in this lifetime by putting practical everyday spirituality into action.
One of the major reasons of friction within any relationships or interaction between people is the issue of “control”. The “why can’t YOU think the way I do, why can’t YOU be more like me?” is the underlying spark which triggers off arguments and disagreements.
Now if we can introduce a couple of spiritual tenets into ourselves before the disagreement reaches high intensities of emotions, the first thing that we will remember about practical spirituality is that we really don’t need to control anyone’s way of thinking. In fact, we cannot, no matter how hard we try, ever control another adult’s way of thinking. If we can surrender our need to defend our point of view, if we can just listen, actually listen to what is being said by the other person as well as to what is not being said by him/her, it would reveal a great deal to us. And as we understand the other person more, a greater insight is born within us.
There are no hard and fast rules about this in relationships. There are many factors that govern friction, and the bottom layer is always that of an issue of power or in simpler words, self-importance. If we can surrender a little of our self-importance, life would be much happier. That is also practical spirituality in everyday life – less self-importance.
Spirituality in everyday life is practical, and many of you have already experienced it and are continuing to experience it. All human beings desire to be loved unconditionally, and whatever we desire from the world is what we first have to give to the world. The language of unconditional love is also the language of Spirituality.
Many people feel that spirituality means retiring from worldly affairs. Apart from the great Rishis and pundits whose chosen paths are those of living in isolation or in ashrams, spirituality is a very practical way of living our day-to-day lives. In fact, spirituality actually enhances your daily life in what the everyday person might call “magical” ways.
This may sound mystical or esoteric, but spirituality is really a very practical way of enhancing one’s worldly living. For example, consider everyday interactions and relationships. Everybody seeks an ideal, loving and harmonious relationship and ideal interactions with all people. And it is absolutely possible to have an ideal relationship with another person in this lifetime by putting practical everyday spirituality into action.
One of the major reasons of friction within any relationships or interaction between people is the issue of “control”. The “why can’t YOU think the way I do, why can’t YOU be more like me?” is the underlying spark which triggers off arguments and disagreements.
Now if we can introduce a couple of spiritual tenets into ourselves before the disagreement reaches high intensities of emotions, the first thing that we will remember about practical spirituality is that we really don’t need to control anyone’s way of thinking. In fact, we cannot, no matter how hard we try, ever control another adult’s way of thinking. If we can surrender our need to defend our point of view, if we can just listen, actually listen to what is being said by the other person as well as to what is not being said by him/her, it would reveal a great deal to us. And as we understand the other person more, a greater insight is born within us.
There are no hard and fast rules about this in relationships. There are many factors that govern friction, and the bottom layer is always that of an issue of power or in simpler words, self-importance. If we can surrender a little of our self-importance, life would be much happier. That is also practical spirituality in everyday life – less self-importance.
Spirituality in everyday life is practical, and many of you have already experienced it and are continuing to experience it. All human beings desire to be loved unconditionally, and whatever we desire from the world is what we first have to give to the world. The language of unconditional love is also the language of Spirituality.
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