Investigating our concepts of Light, Life & Consciousness
Defining Spirituality
Greetings, my name is Michael Sharp and in this column I want to talk about Spirituality and what that means. Now I’ll admit up front that I have a different view of spirituality than most people. I don’t believe, for example, that being spiritual is primarily a moral or ethical problem. For me this world isn’t some kind of moral or even evolutionary testing ground of worthiness or potential. This world is not a test and if you fail, there isn’t any judgment.
If you ask me, that’s just propaganda.
Instead, I believe that in spirit we are already perfect, powerful, and complete. Our spirit (our consciousness really) is powerful, bright, compassionate, loving, and profoundly aware and this is the way it has been ever since “the beginning.” The bottom line is, you are like this already (your are fundamentally and by nature, good) and you don’t have to go through any sort of moral, ethical, or spiritual hijinks to be like that again.
Now perhaps I know what you’re thinking. Perhaps you are looking at the world right now and you’re saying “ya right! Take a look at all the evil and suffering in the world Michael and say that again.”
I agree, it’s a bit of conundrum, a Gordion knot really, and it’s been around for thousands of years. Truthfully, the best philosophical minds on this planet have been unable to cut the knot. But that’s only because they are taking the wrong perspective on spirituality. They are taking an “it’s a problem of Spirit” perspective and that’s wrong. That doesn’t get you anywhere. In fact, that turns the truth on its head and gets you looking in the wrong places for logic and sense. However, once you take the right perspective, the big picture falls immediately into place, you understand about spirit, and you start to make rapid forward progress in your own spiritual awakening and empowerment.
And what is the right perspective?
Well the right perspective is simply to consider spirituality a problem of the body. You basically have to view your body as a container for spirit. I have what I call the water glass metaphor to explain this.[1] If you view your body as an empty glass, and your consciousness (your soul, your spirit, your higher self, or whatever you want to call it), like water then spirituality can be defined simply as the process of filling up your physical container with the light of your higher consciousness.
Simple.
The more of your consciousness you are able to get into your body, the more aware, compassionate, loving, and powerful you will be. The less consciousness you get into your body, the less compassionate, loving, aware, and powerful you are. As you can see, spirituality is really a problem of the body (your “physical unit” as I like to call it). The problem is basically, how do you encourage the expansion of consciousness into the physical unit.
Now obviously, that’s a different perspective than the one put forward by most “gurus” and priests who say that the goal is to work on the soul. If you go to church, they’ll tell you some version of the “you are an in imperfect copy of the creator god and therefore you have to work your little soul off” story if you are to attain salvation.. Maybe they’ll also add some kind of punishment as incentive, as if some abusive father God is going to throw his children (whom he purports to love) into some eternally painful fire just for not living up to expectations. However they do it (hell, karma, rebirth as a slug), that perspective is always the same—it’s your soul that needs tending.
But if you ask me, that’s not a very fruitful way of looking at things. If it was, you’d think the world would be better today than it is—but it’s not. A lot of rotten things continue to happen in the world and the traditional spiritualities and religions, which emphasize the need to work on the soul, have been singularly unable to help move this planet forward. If you ask me, something’s missing. Which is where this new perspective comes in. Taking the perspective of the body, considering the idea that spirituality may be simply about preparing your container to accept greater amounts of higher consciousness, changes everything and in a good way. It creates the conditions for a spirituality that is far more fruitful and successful. The people that I work with, the people who adopt this model of spirituality, the people who ask the question, “what do I need to do with my physical unit (i.e., the physical body or “vessel” of spirit) to enable consciousness to flow into the body, move a lot faster in terms of their own process of spiritual awakening and empowerment than those who follow the traditional model. In fact, those who follow the traditional perspectives often get stuck and make no forward movement at all.
I see it all the time.
This perspective works.
If you want to find out more, stay tuned. In the months ahead I will be exploring this new perspective with you. We’ll look at some new ideas and concepts that I have developed to help you shift your perspective (like for example the “physical unit” and “consciousness quotient”) and I’ll even provide you with some of the tools, like my revolutionary new Halo/Sharp tarot deck (http://tarot.michaelsharp.org) that you will need to successfully navigate an expansion of consciousness into the body.
It’s worth having a look at.
Until next month, I am Michael Sharp.
[1] http://www.thespiritwiki.com/index.php/Water_Glass_Metaphor
If you ask me, that’s just propaganda.
Instead, I believe that in spirit we are already perfect, powerful, and complete. Our spirit (our consciousness really) is powerful, bright, compassionate, loving, and profoundly aware and this is the way it has been ever since “the beginning.” The bottom line is, you are like this already (your are fundamentally and by nature, good) and you don’t have to go through any sort of moral, ethical, or spiritual hijinks to be like that again.
Now perhaps I know what you’re thinking. Perhaps you are looking at the world right now and you’re saying “ya right! Take a look at all the evil and suffering in the world Michael and say that again.”
I agree, it’s a bit of conundrum, a Gordion knot really, and it’s been around for thousands of years. Truthfully, the best philosophical minds on this planet have been unable to cut the knot. But that’s only because they are taking the wrong perspective on spirituality. They are taking an “it’s a problem of Spirit” perspective and that’s wrong. That doesn’t get you anywhere. In fact, that turns the truth on its head and gets you looking in the wrong places for logic and sense. However, once you take the right perspective, the big picture falls immediately into place, you understand about spirit, and you start to make rapid forward progress in your own spiritual awakening and empowerment.
And what is the right perspective?
Well the right perspective is simply to consider spirituality a problem of the body. You basically have to view your body as a container for spirit. I have what I call the water glass metaphor to explain this.[1] If you view your body as an empty glass, and your consciousness (your soul, your spirit, your higher self, or whatever you want to call it), like water then spirituality can be defined simply as the process of filling up your physical container with the light of your higher consciousness.
Simple.
The more of your consciousness you are able to get into your body, the more aware, compassionate, loving, and powerful you will be. The less consciousness you get into your body, the less compassionate, loving, aware, and powerful you are. As you can see, spirituality is really a problem of the body (your “physical unit” as I like to call it). The problem is basically, how do you encourage the expansion of consciousness into the physical unit.
Now obviously, that’s a different perspective than the one put forward by most “gurus” and priests who say that the goal is to work on the soul. If you go to church, they’ll tell you some version of the “you are an in imperfect copy of the creator god and therefore you have to work your little soul off” story if you are to attain salvation.. Maybe they’ll also add some kind of punishment as incentive, as if some abusive father God is going to throw his children (whom he purports to love) into some eternally painful fire just for not living up to expectations. However they do it (hell, karma, rebirth as a slug), that perspective is always the same—it’s your soul that needs tending.
But if you ask me, that’s not a very fruitful way of looking at things. If it was, you’d think the world would be better today than it is—but it’s not. A lot of rotten things continue to happen in the world and the traditional spiritualities and religions, which emphasize the need to work on the soul, have been singularly unable to help move this planet forward. If you ask me, something’s missing. Which is where this new perspective comes in. Taking the perspective of the body, considering the idea that spirituality may be simply about preparing your container to accept greater amounts of higher consciousness, changes everything and in a good way. It creates the conditions for a spirituality that is far more fruitful and successful. The people that I work with, the people who adopt this model of spirituality, the people who ask the question, “what do I need to do with my physical unit (i.e., the physical body or “vessel” of spirit) to enable consciousness to flow into the body, move a lot faster in terms of their own process of spiritual awakening and empowerment than those who follow the traditional model. In fact, those who follow the traditional perspectives often get stuck and make no forward movement at all.
I see it all the time.
This perspective works.
If you want to find out more, stay tuned. In the months ahead I will be exploring this new perspective with you. We’ll look at some new ideas and concepts that I have developed to help you shift your perspective (like for example the “physical unit” and “consciousness quotient”) and I’ll even provide you with some of the tools, like my revolutionary new Halo/Sharp tarot deck (http://tarot.michaelsharp.org) that you will need to successfully navigate an expansion of consciousness into the body.
It’s worth having a look at.
Until next month, I am Michael Sharp.
[1] http://www.thespiritwiki.com/index.php/Water_Glass_Metaphor
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