Practical spirituality

What is spirituality? Is continuous character development spiritual unless applied in real life to experience it? A Simple definition of spirituality says, “Spirituality is more of an individual practice and has to do with having a sense of peace and purpose. It also relates to the process of developing beliefs around the meaning of life and connection with others”. Character development is important but unless it is applied in real life to gain experience, the effort will be futile. The purpose of this post it to look at some of the practical ways to improve our spirituality.

A systemic view of actions performed by us and contribution in the world promotes links between sustainability and an awareness of our limited resources. This approach to thought process, action and interaction is being increasingly associated with spirituality because it seeks to contribute to the greater good in the world. It also has the potential to actually increase spiritual value and enhance the company of good people around us. An understanding of sustainable growth and development includes a well-thought-out strategy that identifies potential long-term impacts or implications of our own actions that could have an eventual negative impact on our human values. This systemic view of greatest good of the world means that we as spiritually developing person will constantly reassess the long view of risks and rewards associated with doing our actions in the long run, including a careful ongoing review of potentially negative and unintended consequences of our actions to the individuals, societies, or the environment.

Creativity is a necessary part of the life cycle. When everything around us is changing, we would also like to change adjusting to the needs of everyone and everything around us. In fact, creativity is the key for the success to navigate such changes. Every individual life has creative component as part of the package and how each person enhances nourishing that creativity results in exponential brilliance. The spirituality helps one recognize the creativity in him/her and realize that creativity is not necessarily reserved for a special few, but that all people have creative capacities. In fact, one of the important parental duty is to bring out the creativity of the children one raises.

An individual life is an important element of the society around that life. In reality, the society is the macrocosm of the collective values of all the individuals in that society. Respecting values individual life experiences and learning lessons out of it is an important component of a society. Therefore, it is critical that every life should have respect for other individuals irrespective of their race, color, sexual orientation, ethnic background, etc. There has to be a firm conviction that exclusion of anyone from this learning process is an impediment not only for the individual growth but also overall growth of the society. Increasingly, the societies are seeing the value of the individuals working together in a society toward a commonly held vision. They have a sense that the concepts of love and acceptance within a cultural context of care builds a sense of community that supports the welfare of everyone in the society and brings a great level of happiness and peace.

Historically, the societies that have shared values and discuss their values openly among themselves flourish together well. Helping one another in formulating ethical principles for personal growth, long term character development, and sharing of life experiences promotes collective wisdom. In fact, that is one of the reasons why I tend to write in this forum so that we can learn from each other. Helping each other in integrating personal growth and learning and sharing life experiences promotes all of us together. This type of principled emphasis includes everyone providing knowledge that help everyone else better understand self and others, develop successful professional and personal relationships and enhance core values and skills. We begin to recognize the impact others have in our respective life and each one of us have on others life.

The societies of ancient years have long been aware of the benefits of shared human values and collective wisdom of the society. In fact, every civilization in the world started on these premises to become a very well-known and studied civilization even today. Individual’s general search for spiritual growth and fulfillment need not be separate from one’s day to day life, the family, the work place and the society around each individual. Frankly, the motivation of each individual to thrive comes from the thought process of people each one associate with as there is no individual growth in an interdependent world without contributions from people around us. The company of like-minded people emphasizes the discovery and appropriate utilization of individual giftedness and encourages each other to use their unique skills within the group.

Thoughts presented here are building blocks toward exploring a model of spiritual development framework for engaging in a broader conversation. Learning is a life-long exercise and learning from the experiences is the purpose of life. Every word I read and every word I write here makes a difference to me as well as to others around me and hence communication should be with a purpose to learn and grow together.

 

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

Thank you for your response. What I have written has nothing to do with scriptures and they are principles, management experts in the Western civilization talk about in order to encourage unity among employees, enhance productivity and help each other. The philosophy most are talking about now is to make use of the full potential of each human being rather than their specialized skills. If this thread has any resemblance of quote from scriptures, the credit should go to our Saints who have drawn the whispers of God and chanted them back for the well-being of the people. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire world draws spiritual lessons from the Sanatana Dharma.

When I briefly reviewed a few ancient civilizations in the European and Asian countries, I noticed similarities and I thought the management experts are drawing knowledge from those ancient civilizations.

Self-assessment itself is a vast subject and each philosophy comes from different angles. It is like cutting a diamond so that it shines well. Self-assessment can't be restricted to work life but should include all thoughts and actions performed by each individual and how each one of them influence their behavior. That is my humble opinion.

Viswa

 

Dear Bhargavi,

Thank you for your wonderful response and you grasped the essence of my thread and articulated it very well. I still remember everyone of your feedback when AnuKarsha was writing here in IL and I know you are someone who looks to grow every single day. I have read everyone of your travelog and that shows the spirit in which you live your life.

Vijiakka is a great source of inspiration for many here in IL and she is a silent contributor. Her husband, in my view, is a yogi who thrives in serving the people in need.

A systematic self-analysis, becoming creative to enjoy the life as it comes and become inclusive in thinking of well-being of people around us result in spiritual growth and development. My emphasize here in this thread is not to look for spirituality separately but to make the day to day life spiritual.

You are yourself a great example of how to conduct life and your inclination to learn more and more is contagious. I wish I was like you when I was at your age.

Thank you for your wonderful feedback.

Viswa

 

Dear Rudrakshi,

Thank you for your first feedback. I am curious to know your thoughts.

Viswa