02/05/2024
Wow. Just wow.
WHY I PRACTICE 16/17
SPIRITUALITY
What does it mean to be spiritual?
Iāve discovered that it means to see far.
Iāve learned to look beyond immediate appearances to the truth. I try to make decisions for the whole of the future and not just for the immediate situation. I know that all great things are built from the accumulation of many small things, so I am pursuing a life of steady building. The divisiveness of academic distinctions, social categorization, political divisions, profit-seeking exploitation, and resentment usually end up scattering efforts. I look to cultivate myself and to support the essential humanity in all people.
People can be just or unjust. But I donāt assume thatās true of life itself. Life does not discriminate and it has no āplanā for us. How hideous this existence would be if some were favored over others! Instead, life is a series of opportunities and challenges from which any of us can choose. We assess the odds. We take risks. Accident or difficulties may injure us, but no force āselectsā us for misery. Everyone has the same chances for happinessāand the same vulnerability to sorrow.
For me, the spiritual is ultimately the reason for martial arts and creativity. It joins both those deep personal concerns together. To be a martial artist for the sake of fighting is limited. To live a creative life is wonderful, but risks becoming too inward. Spirituality is communion, and it takes personal concerns and expands them into the universal.
Every person suffers. Iāve met beautiful and wealthy people who were dressed in designer clothes and who lived in custom-built homes. Eventually, though, they hinted at serious health problems, family conflicts, institutionalized siblings, devastating deaths, or simple fear of the unknown. No one escapes the misery of this existence. But we mustnāt let that blot out its joys and truths.
Grief has been my valued teacher. I absolutely did not welcome it. It took me many years to appreciate it. But I wouldnāt have a complete understanding of life without it. Life is bittersweet. Thatās the fullness of this existence.
I have hurts, but that motivates me to protect, help, and be kind to others. When I help others, I am encouraged to see them liberated, even if I cannot free myself from the same dilemmas. But knowing that Iāve helped another escape gives me hope.
Eventually, I learned that thereās a far shore to grief. I never understood that when I was tumbling in waves of sorrow. That far shore is remembrance. We cross a turbulent ocean, and when we beach ourselves, it isnāt cessation. Itās a new land where we solemnly remember every wave that brought us there. We honor those weāve lost and we give them new life in our hearts.
Iāve concluded that the greatest spiritual value is love. Love nurtures life. Love inspires me to put the needs of others before my ownāor I might say love leads me to adopt the needs of others as my own. Love leads to a union that does not obliterate me, but it instead joins me to others for a higher purpose. Love lets me know exactly why I am here on this planet.
Love takes me into the true current of life. Thatās where practice is so helpful. What begins as a dutiful daily act, perhaps sometimes bordering on drudgery, gives me the steadiness and determination to remain with love.
Practice is spirituality. Spirituality is love. Love is life, life, glorious life.
