Letter #23: Beware Spiritual Guff!
We don’t live in heaven?? Awe-inspiring feelings of joy for life while taking in this view
Dear Friend
I am late again, but better late than never… I hope you enjoy this week’s Letter, it’s a bit different, and marks a new style/approach from me, for you. I’m having a change of focus, but the central objective remains the same: your transformation of you, by you, for you, and for the greater good, and for the healing of humankind, which means all of us.
A proper education is skills-based and heart-centred, nothing less will do.
I’m now in the middle of rethinking how to move forward with my venture. We live in urgent times, where avoiding what we think are the ‘wrong’ or ‘difficult’ conversations is digging our own grave. Surely we must have certain conversations that we don’t want to have; we have to see the elephant in the room, which by now is gargantuan because—collectively, and for many individuals—we kept on refusing to see it.
But still it is possible to get it out. Only just, though. But for many it’s too late..
I have spent 33 years of my life (wow, a third of a century!) investigating, exploring, reflecting upon and coming to understand the human condition, human behaviour and human potential.
How we can be beautiful yet brutal, conscious yet subconscious, kind yet cruel, happy yet miserable?
I wanted to know and understand who we are, why we do what we do, and who we can become.
I learned. I understood. I wrote my book. I am now on this mission of mine to share what I learned.
If we would like to live with health, harmony and happiness, then we must choose the right pathway and actually embark upon—that is, take action, be proactive, get doing, get in the thick of it—the journey of transformation that we all need to tread.
So, my own transformation of content in this series of Letters is now going to bring you a sort of more direct and more focused style, shorter, and simpler. And I want to focus on what we need now, in our unique times. I think our world needs more clarity on what spirituality is, and what it is not. People are unsure, so don’t know if they are missing a good thing. (They are.)
That’s the subject of the following text which I wrote elsewhere, but definitely wanted to share with you.
So, you can look forward to Letters which will highlight the current, and troubling (and I think for many, traumatic) situation for all human beings, what our potential is, and how you as a unique individual human being can bridge the gap.
When enough of us bridge this gap, the human world changes, and we can breathe properly again, no longer exposed to this relentless barrage of negative energy in our media and in our so-called communities and societies.
Before Reading Task
What do you think spiritual woo-woo stuff and guff is?
How could it be a problem?
Living in Harmony is Spirituality
I want to say that from my perspective there is so much 'spiritual guff', or 'spiritual woo-woo stuff', out there, which is so misleading for ordinary human beings who are looking to navigate themselves out of this extraordinary mess that humankind has got itself into, bringing all of us into times of trauma.
It's just yet another challenge for those who are on the path of discovery and self-inquiry to tackle, another hurdle to get over. It's insidious because those who are exposed to this guff are consciously wanting to evolve in their own life, and are vulnerable to this 'spiritual abuse'!
What is this woo-woo stuff and spiritual guff?
Love wins.
God wins.
Just focus on your own positive energy, and cut your ties with ‘toxic’ people.
Trust me, follow me, I’m a guru and I am spiritually advanced.
There is no you, no self, there is just oneness; there is no you, no others, we are all one.
It’s nonsense! And all verifiable by you if you get on the right journey. And you ARE on the right journey by getting and reading my Letters…. haha!
Here is the truth of existence, verifiable ONLY BY YOU. It's my truth, and I know it's the truth of many others with maximum credibility and authenticity and those who have no agenda, because of my vast research I've done for the last 30 years or so.
I've also had these conversations in person with 100s of people from dozens of countries. So, here is the true spirituality according to me:
You are not separate, you are not the ego.
You are not oneness, you are not the soul.
You are BOTH.
You are, at once, BOTH OF THEM in a sort of synthesised whole. You are a unique individual and you are the whole of humanity and the whole of life. You are both, NOT one or the other. Unless you take care of both, you will be stressed and living in cloud cuckoo land.
By biological, psychological, spiritual and human dimensions we can visualise and conceive of these parts, but all these parts only exist within their whole… hence the soul, the oneness, the universal consciousness.
But the soul cannot be felt, cannot exist, cannot experience its own joy without a body to give it expression. Hence the ego, the "I am", or 'ahamkara' in Sanskrit. There is so much within you that is unique to you (which both egoic society and spiritual guff merchants do their best to deny you), yet you are also at one with me and all other human beings, all other life on the planet, and the whole universe.
But CONCEIVING of life is very much a real part of being human. Thought is NOT an illusion like the guff merchants tell us, it's human reality! It’s also the basis for being human.
So we can contemplate and ponder upon the parts, perhaps to better understand them, but the reality according to the laws of the universe is that everything is interconnected as one whole web of life.
Spiritual living and true spirituality - the meaning of which has not been politicised, hijacked, stolen by woo-woo proponents - is very very simple to understand:
spiritual living is living in harmony.
That is our natural state of being—and the natural state of being for all organisms, including our planet itself—and has the fancy word of homeostasis to capture it in our dictionaries.
If you are overly stressed - and nearly all modern human beings are pretty much perpetually stressed - then you are not living spiritually.
The journey to becoming a spiritual being and living spiritually is getting to know your ego, and getting to control its behaviour instead of having it control your behaviour.
Once you see your ego in action, you can embrace it, enhance it, change it, learn to live with it, love it, ignore it, sweet talk it, and you do so with your soul energy power and the universal intelligence and cosmic consciousness that creates all of life. When you see the ego, you have become your whole, you have become the way nature intended you to be.
To be the witness of your own ego is to be liberated as a human being, is to arrive at the point that evolution had in mind for YOU.
We are all, by our birthright and the laws of nature, integrated intelligent interconnected individuals. Unique and unified!
Spirituality is for each of us to discover for ourselves, although guides and facilitators can help, most certainly. However, most if not all gurus want you dependent on them and practise various forms of spiritual guff to keep you hooked.
Spirituality is the very best thing a human can experience.
After all, living in harmony is... HEAVEN ON EARTH.
Peace, love and understanding be with you!
All the best
Philip
