You can ask "what is spirituality?"
To have the answer is to have understood the question.
The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-Tze's dictum:
those who know do not say; those who say do not know.
When the master entered, they asked him what the words meant.
The master said, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?"
All of them knew.
Then he said, "Put it into words1x"
All of them were silent.
Truth, wisdom, goodness, beauty, the fragrance of a rose all resemble spirituality in that they are intangible, ineffable realities.
We may know them, but we can never grasp them with our hands or with our words.
These entities have neither color nor texture; they cannot be gauged in inches or ounces or degrees; they do not make a noise to be measured in decibels; they have no distinct feel as do silk, wood, or cement; they give no odor, they have no taste, they occupy no space....
And yet they exist; they are.
Spirituality exists.
We do not define them, they define us. When we attempt to 'define' spirituality, we discover not its limits, but our own.
The modern Indian sage Romana Maharshi(1879-1950), once defined a genuine seeker as someone who has "a constant and passionate longing to break free from life's sorrow- not by running away from it, but by growing beyond his (her) mind and experiencing in himself(herself) the reality of the Self, which knows neither birth nor death."
Longing is, for most of us, an essential stage in spiritual life and journey.
To seeking is not finding,
Although we must seek in order to find.
That's the reason, the stages of the Hero's Journey in Myth is like this:
The hero must depart from his (her) familiar surroundings
and venture forth on uncharted paths,
pass through a period of trials and victories,
and return to the world with the boon of enlightenment.
After the basic stages of Hero's Journey, they return to the world with the boon of Enlightenment. But what does the phrase " Boon of Enlightenment" mean?
What state is the state of Enlightenment?
The Buddha said, "Please, don't think
that when I attained enlightenment,
there was anything I attained."
Jesus of Nazareth said, "The Kingdom of God does
not come if you watch for it.
For the Kingdom of God is within you."
Can you apprehend what they meant?
Do you have an ability to understand "Enlightened Mind?"
Here is an answer about those kinds of questions.
Throw away sacredness and knowledgement
And people will be a hundred times happier.
--Lao-Tze.
If you don't make yourself equal to God,
You can't perceive God:
For like is known by like.
-- The Hermetic Writings (3rd century,C.E.)
By Sang-Bong Lee, Ph.D.
Philosopher & poet
