Posts Tagged ‘blog’
Everyday Spirituality
The Spirituality Of Everyday Life: Transforming Ourselves And Spiritualizing Everyday Life!
When we talk about spirituality of everyday life we are talking about bringing a special sense to everything we do. It means approaching life with a sense of awe and wonder and is associated with feelings of care and concern for others, for the Earth and all living forms. It also means having a sense of gratitude, being thankful and having a feeling of being blessed by an energy or power greater than ourselves.
Engagement with everyday life means life in the family, at work, when socializing, being involved in recreation, sports, doing the shopping or indeed in anything we do whether we are dealing with other people or not. It also means engagement with the mystery of the sacred energy of the universe of which we are a part, without the religious baggage of the past.
My motive for raising these issues is a concern for the state of the world. We face an economic and ecological meltdown, serious social division and widespread psychological alienation. The problems are well known and the experience of more than a century to establish a more humane society through conventional political and religious institutions has not occurred suggesting that new ways must be found to deal with these challenges and bring about a happier world.
There is a lot of interest in various forms of spirituality, but also a widespread feeling that traditional religions have lost relevance. I don’t necessarily share this view, and I would want to bring traditional believers, as well as those who yearn for a spiritual renewal for their lives outside of traditional religious practices, along with me. There is also widespread belief that a serious engagement with spiritual issues is a critical in bringing about lasting change at the collective level, as well as creating the conditions for deep fulfillment.
It seems to me that a twenty first century spirituality of everyday life involves expanding our consciousness around six themes. I call these the six themes of consciousness:
- What is the true nature of the self and reality generally;
- How do we define our needs;
- How do we satisfy those needs;
- How do we define a successful life and what motivates us in that life;
- What is the span of our care and concern for others, for the Earth and for other living forms;
- How do we define our social and civic commitments?
One of the most important aspects of a spirituality of everyday life involves moving from a sense of self as a separate isolated individual defined in terms of I, me and mine to a realization that each of us, in the words of Eckhart Tolle, does not have a life, but that we are life. In this sense life has us we are life’s instrument or servant. I call this the universal self. Developing a universal self is a pre-eminent spiritual quest. A limited sense of self cuts us off from the universe and we tend to experience our self in this limited way, as all that we are and all that we have. We resist every experience that threatens this sense of self and seek nice experiences and avoid unpleasant ones.
The field of development psychology teaches us that the six themes of consciousness can be defined by people at ever increasing levels of complexity and they can undergo development and growth throughout the whole of life. For many, the themes of consciousness plateau and remain fixed at that level throughout life. For others, their lives are an ever increasing spiral of growth and development. This is a natural process and everyone has the potential to expand their spiritual of awareness and consciousness.
The spiritual challenge that we face is being called to find a way of expanding our consciousness and awareness around the six themes, (particularly the development of a universal sense of self) and to find ways of transforming these themes into an engagement with everyday life. To do this we need to develop the capacities of what I call the seven paths of spirituality of everyday life.
The first path involves qualities needed to live fully aware moment by moment so that we are able to adjust our actions in real time as events unfold. This is about what Eckhart Tolle calls living in the NOW. Living in the NOW involves engaging with everyday life moment by moment as life unfolds and in being able to monitor our actions so as to be able to adjust what we are doing as events unfold
The second path involves the capacity to treat everything that arises as an opportunity to learn and make the most of every moment. This path is about a transformation from a mindset of unilateral control to one of using each moment of everyday life as an opportunity for infinite possibilities. This path opens people up to the realization that the life that they are has the potential for enormous growth around the six themes of consciousness.
Developing the capacities to walk these two paths contain useful guides about how we can develop a universal self where we become a servant of life
The third path involves the capacity of learning how to take full responsibility for the choices we make. This is the secret to living as a full participant in the game of life rather than as a victim of circumstances.
The fourth path involves the potential of gaining mastery of our emotions so that they become an ally in helping us deal effectively with the fortunes of life. All emotions even emotions like anger and fear have their place in our lives. The secret here is to use the energy of the full range of emotions as a positive influence rather than being a prisoner and at the mercy of our feelings.
The fifth path involves the capacity to learn how to turn a crucial conversation where opinions differ, where the stakes are high and where emotions run hot into a positive outcome. This means being able to tell your truth without offending others, even when you disagree with them. Most people when confronted by a crucial conversation become aggressive or withdraw rather than buy a fight. Learning about this path has an important part to play in helping us recognize unconscious attachments relating to the self and has the potential to create an opportunity for a major lift in consciousness.
The sixth path involves the capacity to learn how to turn disagreement into the best decision even if it means giving up a cherished position when a better argument is presented. This is about skilful negotiation where the best decision is the goal rather than winning an argument to save face. This path is about how to participate in finding common interests in order to make the best decisions.
The seventh path involves the capacity to make promises and honor those promises. Learning to walk this path ensures that things get done efficiently and effectively and good relationships are preserved.
The fifth through to the seventh paths are about the practical ways of engaging in a spirituality of everyday life through our interpersonal relationships. These relationships are a critical area of living a spirituality of everyday life.
The achievement of the “Good Society” and the creation of the conditions for happy and fulfilled lives will involve massive transformations and change as we repair the Earth’s ecology, create a new economic order, redress the social divisions and heal the widespread psychological alienation. A necessary step in this process is for a significant number of people, sufficient to influence the course of events, to develop a spirituality of everyday life. This involves building a worldwide social movement whose aim is the spiritualization of everyday life.
If you seek a spiritual basis to your life and feel that becoming part of movement dedicated to the spiritualization of everyday life would fit in with your values and aspirations then visit http://www.bobcalkin.co.nz and join us in setting about playing a part in the transformation of ourselves and our world.
About the Author
Dr Bob Calkin has launched a new website to assist people develop a spiritual practice free from the baggage of the past. If you feel that you would like to experience in a heightened way the wonder of the sunrise, the awesome beauty of the outdoors, the wonder of this beautiful Earth, to be at one with others and the Earth and all living forms, to feel gratitude and to feel blessed by an energy or power greater than yourself then you might like to join this program by visiting http://www.bobcalkin.co.nz
36545 Day 95: Everyday Spirituality
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Marianne Williamson – Everyday Grace $4.79 Everyday Grace addresses the question: What do your spiritual convictions have to do with traffic jams, job anxiety, reading the newspaper or arguing with your spouse? Everything! According to Marianne Williamson. It’s the way we live in our everyday world that determines the shape of who we are. So no matter what spiritual faith you practice, it’s the moment when your daughter doesn’t make the ba… |
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Spiritual Practices: How to Meet God in the Everyday (Conversations with Donald Miller and Dr. Lauren Winner $7.97 SPIRITUAL PRACTICES – DVD Movie… |
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Opening Act $6.87 … |
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Marianne Williamson : A Return to Love (Bringing spirituality into everyday life) $4.48 Bringing spirituality into everyday life. AN INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP WITH MARIANNE WILLIAMSON Includes a copy of the bestselling : A Return To Love. Each feature of the program is designed to offer you a helping hand as you begin this personal journey…. |
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Discovering Everyday Spirituality, Thomas Moore (4pc Gift Set) [VHS] $28.98 This collection of four documentaries highlight how ordinary life is a path of the spiritual. Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, and a number of other people reveal how they incorporate spiritual concepts of “Place,” “Story,” “Activity,” and “Ritual” into daily living. Though there is much talk about “connecting” and “reconnecting,” and some of the interviews may come close at times to sou… |
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Discovering Everyday Spirituality – Place [VHS] $15.01 Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, hosts an examination of the concept of place and spirituality in this installment of the Discovering Everyday Spirituality set from PBS. The framework and general direction of the presentation is provided by Moore, but a number of people appear in interviews to discuss specific places, some of them as mundane as a reclining chair, where they get in to… |
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Discovering Everyday Spirituality 3 VHS videos: Story (Pts. 1 &2) Place (Pts 3&4) Activity (Pts 5&6). Thomas Moore; Robert Fulgram; Jeff Smith; Kathleen Norris; Dan Wakefield; Tom Chappel; Barbara Crafton…. |
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Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence $6.99 Uniquely inspired treasures from heaven for every day of the year by missionary Sarah Young. Jesus Calling is a devotional filled with uniquely inspired treasures from heaven for every day of the… |
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Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life $6.96 In the rush of modern life, we tend to lose touch with the peace that is available in each moment. World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. For him a ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spir… |
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Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life $13.89 In Between Heaven and Mirth, James Martin, SJ, assures us that God wants us to experience joy, to cultivate a sense of holy humor, and to laugh at life’s absurdities—not to mention our own humanity. Father Martin invites believers to rediscover the importance of humor and laughter in our daily lives and to embrace an essential truth: faith leads to joy. Holy people are joyful people, s… |
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Everyday Spirituality (Hardcover) $78.55 This book puts spirit back at the heart of spirituality. By exploring the everyday impacts of alternative spiritual beliefs and practices, the book examines contemporaryspirituality and how critical social science can map and understand it. |
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The Path to Love $10.1 A guide to everyday spirituality and ultimate enlightenment, written by the bestselling author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Su |
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