On being attuned to the spiritual

‘There are two ways to live your life, ‘ said Albert Einstein. ‘One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.’ Which is another way of saying you can live as though there is no spiritual basis to life or you can live as though there is.

You can live as though you and your desires are all that matter. Or not.
You can live in selfish ignorance of a moral code. Or not.
You can live in a void of gratitude and reverence. Or not.
You can live…

Well, you get the drift.
There are two worlds existing around us at the same time. The material and the immaterial. The visible and the hidden. The mundane and the spiritual. Most of the time the spiritual is not obvious unless you train yourself to look for it. Unless you are awake to it. Unless you are attuned to it.
Look at an airplane. If you are not attuned, you simply see a big piece of technological hardware, so many hundred tons of metal and a nice paint job. But an airplane is the embodiment of man’s infinite creative genius. A great deal of imagination, dedication, hard work and sacrifice over time from a great number of men and women like you and me was necessary to perfect that flying machine.
Look at the banking system. It was designed and perfected much in the same way as an airplane – it is also the embodiment of man’s infinite creative genius. Normally you would not think much about it, when it works properly. But unlike an airplane, the banking system is built on relationships between people. And these relationships are subject to moral law. And recently, the consequences of neglecting moral law became visible in a spectacular fashion. To everyone. Looking for it or not. Awake or not. Attuned or not.

The power of spiritual forces in the Universe – how active it is everywhere! Invisible to the eyes, and impalpable to the senses, it is inherent in all things, and nothing can escape its operation. Confucius

At World Scripture I came across this quote from the Bhagavad Gita in the section on Ignorance. Here you have in a nutshell the two ways to live your life: as though you are but a higher form of animal living in a sensual world or as though you are a human being attuned to the spiritual in the material. Think of the credit crisis as you read it.

The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do. They have no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.
"There is no God," they say, "no truth, no spiritual law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else can it be?" Holding such distorted views, possessing scant discrimination, they become enemies of the world, causing suffering and destruction.
Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends. Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, "Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer."
Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.
"I got this today," they say; "tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity." This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell.

Bhagavad Gita 16.7-16

This was written centuries ago. Human nature is the same today. We cannot expect human nature to change overnight. We can only try to change ourselves. One person at a time, starting here, with me and you.

On being a gentleman - Kinowear style

I came across a very interesting (and stylish) blog the other day: Kinowear. Kinowear is ‘one of the top men’s style blogs on the net’ and is ‘dedicated to bringing you in-depth and practical advice on men’s style, fashion, grooming and image development’. Now, I probably would not have lingered more than a second on this site but for two things: one, the featured article, How to build unstoppable confidence, which already had 9,000 views although it was published that day, was very well written and very inspiring, and two, this blog has style! It does not flash, it does not try too hard to get your attention and because it doesn’t try too hard, it succeeds.
I am not what could be called stylish. Let me rephrase that. I am not stylish. Yes, that’s better. I am guilty, along with a certain neglect of my physical fitness, of a certain neglect of dressing well. And just because here at Healing Philosophy we spend our time thinking lofty thoughts, it doesn’t mean that clothes and presentation and grooming are not important, because they are. When one fine day we have retired to the mountain to live out our days in contemplation of nature, we may no longer have need or care of style and may sit about in our PJ’s all day. But until then we live in the world, even though we try not to be of the world. We live in contact with people, and in order to exert our full share of good influence and magic (and in passing perhaps to receive a bit too) we need to be well-dressed and presentable. A gentleman is never improperly dressed, never suffers lack of respect through neglect of his appearance. On the contrary, his outer appearance is an indication of his inner quality. In my post Noble behaviour we saw:

A wise man should dress decently, and must not wear his clothes stained with grease and the like. He should not dress flashily to attract attention, nor shabbily to suffer disrespect. His garments should be modest, appropriate.

And in Sincerity - Polonius’ advice to his son we saw, through Polonius, what was probably Shake-speare’s (Edward De Vere’s) opinion about style:

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

So I have now included Kinowear in the Guide Blogs link list, and not only for their knowledge about gentlemen’s style, but for some very good posts about the confidence and self-esteem that are the hallmark of the gentleman.

New 'Healink' - World Scripture

You may have noticed that when I give quotations about a subject they usually come from a variety of religious and philosophic traditions. This is not an accident, as I make a point to do so where possible. I feel it serves to underline the universal truth of the subject in question, as perceived by men and traditions of diverse origins. So it was extremely gratifying to discover World Scripture – A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts.
What I like about this site is not that it is a vast resource of sacred texts – see The Internet Sacred Text Archive and others for that – but that it draws together choice quotes from many different sources to illustrate the universal truth of what makes for a moral life. Here you will find many of the themes I have discussed: humility, patience, gratitude, anger, self-denial (non-desire), sincerity and many others that I have yet to address. If you enjoyed my posts on these subjects you will find new gems of insight on them at World Scripture.
What I also like about this site is that it has a unity and a structure. It covers all the bases. It is virtually a course of education in understanding and wisdom. It begins with ultimate reality and the purpose of human existence (a pretty good place to start) and takes you through the human condition, the major sins, salvation-liberation-enlightenment, the religious (read also ‘philosophic’) life, and it culminates in providence, society and the Kingdom of Heaven (a pretty good place to end).
Yes, it is a comparative anthology of scripture, not philosophy, but scripture in this case includes also Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, African traditional religions and many others that I (and perhaps you) am not too familiar with and which bring a fresh perspective to the subject.
In short, if one day I decide not to write Healing Philosophy any more, my last post will be a link to World Scripture. They have it covered.
Here is an example of the kind of powerful quotes you will find at World Scripture. It comes from the section on Sincerity.

By the Truth I mean purity and sincerity in their highest degree. He who lacks purity and sincerity cannot move others. Therefore he who forces himself to lament, though he may sound sad, will awaken no grief. He who forces himself to be angry, though he may sound fierce, will arouse no awe. And he who forces himself to be affectionate, though he may smile, will create no air of harmony. True sadness need make no sound to awaken grief; true anger need not show itself to arouse awe; true affection need not smile to create harmony. When a man has the Truth within himself, his spirit may move among external things. That is why the Truth is to be prized!
Taoism. Chuang Tzu. 31