Mark75

Awesome thread about agnosticism... though not over my head, I have no meaningful words to add... But it did get me thinking, I know, dangerous...

Hmm, I am not agnostic, I know there is God... He lets me have a peek now and then... I think if He let me see too much at one time, He'd have to kill me... or send me somewhere East of Eden, which maybe He did as that is the address I've given, and you may have thought I was just being a smart ass... LOL... IDK... anyway...

I said I know there is God, I didn't say I know all about God, or that I know who YOUR God is, or should be....

But where do I get my spiritual experience... or "food" as Patrick likes to call it, which, now, I do too... ??

We have a priest who moves me to tears nearly every time I am fortunate enough to attend when he is saying mass.. his homilies... well, words fail me, he has a gift and all the incense on the planet can't bring the Holy Spirit to the church like his words can... why can't they all have this gift?

I find it in the rooms many times, not always, but it is mostly up to me whether I feel His presence or not.

A very reliable way for me is exercise and music... IDK, is that cheating? I find that spinning on my bike with music, extended jams, endorphins and the right lyric can help bring me to a spiritual place..

Reading, not so much... Meditation can bring me serenity but not always spirituality... but that's just me, and that's why I'm asking...

Where do you find your spiritual food?

Mark

Bob23

Somewhere in the book "The Little Prince", the little boy is told that, and I'm paraphrasing here, "one can only see with the eyes of the heart".
I find that the amount of spiritual fuel I can gather any given day is directly proportional to the condition of my inner eyes. Speaking only for me, my soul is the fuel tank. And if it's in good shape, I'm able to fill it almost at will.

CarolD

My God connection just.......is.
Prayer allows me to know His will.

McGowdog

I don't think so. The end of last year I was heavy into Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life and in that thing he talks about not getting stuck in a "worship rut" and if playing the guitar is your thing, maybe that's how you contact and meditate with this Thing we all talk about. For some, it's cooking. I've heard doing dishes! Hey, come worship over at my home anytime!

I don't think you can cheat, especially because you're enjoying it.

Many of my spiritual mentors have talked about approaching the spiritual life in a sort of backwards manner. Imagine your body is gone. You're in the ground now... looking down at that...thing, but you still remain. What would you have written down in your own eulogy... if you could. Covey talked about that and it sounds somewhat vain on the surface, but it seems like a good starting point if you haven't done that sort of thing. But to realize that not too many of us gets outta here alive kind of frees us up from the BS. Enoch... comes to mind as the only exception. So at very least, another day in this body and in this mind is another day to play around and wheel daylight into dark corners, right?

Thx again, Mark.

WakeUp

Spirituality is where ever we are, whatever we are doing. I'm munching on some baby carrots right now. That is my spiritual moment now.

McGowdog

Then there's the old... spiritual awakening... "as the result of these steps". I like that one too.

Mark75

Yep

Sugah

There was this moment on Christmas day when the gifts had all been unwrapped and the kids had wandered off into different parts of the house, doing their thing. I had a ham in the oven and had this target time in my head of 2pm for dinner.

I'm standing at the sink, peeling potatoes and I realize I'm hurrying, so much so that I nicked my thumb, and I thought -- what's the hurry? Everyone who would be there for dinner were already there. The roads were horrible and no one was going anywhere. The only reason I was rushing to peel potatoes was to make this arbitrary time I told myself everything had to be ready. I laughed at myself. The laugh was spiritual, and as I slowed down and recentered myself in the moment, so became the rest of my day.

When I step out of the way, things get spiritual.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

McGowdog

You're not my Mother-in-Law, are you? That sounds exactly like my Christmas day! We even had ham!

Astro

That's a great way of looking at it. It's like it's always there, assuming my eyes, mind, and heart are open to receiving it.

Yesterday I got a huge dose of it when I bought a new Bible and went to a CR meeting.

Sometimes my relationships with my wife and family just seem more intimate, closer, warmer. Like God is pushing us towards each other.

I can hear something at a meeting and swear that God wanted me to hear that, it was set up just for me.

Special places that are new to me can feel spiritual and holy. Maybe it's something simple, like hiking into a remote area for the first time. Or maybe it's being at an ancient monastery on top of an island in Greece, that's still way up on the list of the most spiritual things I've ever experienced, being totally alone up there.

Great thread Mark, thanks.

Sugah

Unless you've eloped with my sixteen-year-old daughter unbeknownst to me, then, no

Peace & Love,
Sugah

freya

Since that "God" experience that I had at the end of April, I pretty much sense/feel/am-somewhat-aware-of God's presence to a certain extent all the time.......and, if I notice that that "sense" is weakening (always because I've somehow moved or looked away from God) or if I, for any reason, want to feel it more strongly or connect with it in a more powerful and intentional way, I seem to be able to do so simply by taking the time to stop, get quiet and do one of the prayerful or meditational "things" that I practice a lot and that I know work for me.

Other than that, I often find/experience God especially powerfully:

-- at meetings
-- swimming
-- during sex
-- in the presence of anything truly beautiful
-- doing deep, intense personal-growth/spiritual development work with others in a one-on-one or small group context (but I guess that could come under the category of being in the presence of something truly beautiful)
-- in certain religious rituals (although I do not often choose to participate in organized religion)
-- in "ah ha" moments (or moments of epiphany) when I am given very directly and obviously new insight or new perspective on something with which I've been struggling or on which I've been working (and this can happen in any of the above contexts or when I'm reading or when I'm standing in the middle of the soda aisle at Wegmans, because, of course, it always happens in God's time rather than in mine).

I will also give special mention to the local Monday night women's meeting, at which they close by holding hands and reciting the 9th Step Promises -- there is some amazing energy at the meeting and closing it like that always gets me there fast and in a BIG way. Love, it, love it, love it!

Also, I, too, say that I "know God," rather than that I "have faith" or that I "believe in God," because, for me, it would be a real "dis" to the power of the experience that I have been given to express it with less than 101% certainty. (Of course, that doesn't mean I understand God or have any kind of "inside scoop" on God's Plan, just that I know God Is and that God has a Plan and that I feel, today, fairly confident of my personal commitment and ability, one moment at a time, to trust in God and surrender to that Plan, as opposed to flailing around willfully, refusing guidance or direction, and, thus, making a total, miserable mess of my life.)

freya

shaun00

i do nice.

i do that "pause and think often"......often asking myself "what the f am i doing".....
falling into the slip stream of life........before i know it I'm breaking speed limits.
working 6/7 days a week.....and moaning about it
the dog walks get shorter because "i" dont get the time.....

sometimes i still feel the need to be the quickest....strongest ....gold medal badge winner.......and ultimately fail.

for me mark.. spiritual connection.....food.........whatever you wanna call it is always available to me........all i gotta do is.
strip away the nonsense........and the noise.
and walk in the opposite direction if you like.

pause.......walk in the country side........often praying out loud and best done on my own.......in solitude.
there have been times when i feel i can reach out and touch gods hand.
i feel a sense of peace beyond description.....

i guess some people get that from meetings.......me i get it from solitude and i guess meditation,, although i have no words for my experience.

McGowdog

No. Just your 30 year old daughter. But that couldn't be because you're probably still 20-something yourself, right?

Ribeye

You know, I expereince spirituality when I can connect with my spiritual self. That's the part of me that is outside my ego and material being.

I do think I can experience that without being close to God so I see God conciousness as a more narrow form of spirituality. I need to pray and meditate and reflect, do inventory etc to get that. They are related but not exactly the same. It makes sense to me, maybe no one else....

McGowdog

Makes sense to me. Good to see SR back online.

From time to time, I hear someone say, "Everything in the Universe is perfect and as it should be."

Depending how that hits me at the time is a sort of gauge as to where I'm at with ego/spiritual self.

Something else, I can be in ego and be having a blast. Ego isn't always bad nor does it even always feel bad. I hate to admit this, but sometimes I enjoy being in [s]elf, not [S]elf, but self... or anger or maybe even to some extent fear... and enjoying myself immensely. If you've ever driven with me or been on a rollercoaster, you'd understand.

I can also be in self-pity and "feel good" for a while. But that usually leads to lower states of consciousness, such as apathy, guilt, and shame... and takes a while to get back up and out of it. Or grief, for example... that's no fun. But I've had God carry me through it and I came out with Joy almost immediately and that seemed very spiritual to me.

Boleo

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn 'em all away. But they're not punishing you. They're freeing your soul. ... If you're frightened of dying and holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth."
(Meister Eckhart)

Mark75

That's a cool way to see it, thanx Boleo!

Patrick... Yea, I'm with you, Ego is not necessarily bad, or good... It's egoism that is what we avoid.

Mark

McGowdog

Well of course we should, but we don't. If you say that you don't, then you're a liar too.

We romp and stomp, connive and manipulate, whatever we can to control and dominate... sometimes in the name of love!

Don't you remember the line? "Everybody, including himself, would be pleased. Life would be wonderful."

This is maybe why some people say they do the 3rd Step Prayer everyday! I do not. I did not do it this morning. I will not. I am on Steps 10 and 11, walking the beam of 10 and 11 so I can be opened up for doing 12. I went to bed early this morning and reviewed my day. Got up and rehashed my nightly review, then did my 11th and 10th step stuff and here I am.

What I was trying to say is that I sometimes get off on my self-pity, anger, resentment, fear, etc. But I suffer and eventually, take it into my prayer and meditation. That crop report says "when", not "if", right?

Mark75

Right, maybe I should say... Egoism is what we must try to avoid...

I didn't do so great there for a while today... working on my son's car It's cold, we are both cranky, not going so well...

Mark