A question I return to time and time again, throughout the year, and over many years.
We are consciousnesses temporarily housed in biological bodies, with a finite lifespan, destined never to know the true nature of our reality. We may inch towards that knowledge, one life at a time. We all have diverse levels of intellectual curiosity; the curious will want to educate themselves, either as specialists or as generalists. Now, intellect and spirituality do not necessarily overlap; many militant atheists are highly intelligent human beings, whilst those of modest intellectual capacity are not excluded from the spiritual journey. Intuition trumps intellect. A picture of reality that you honestly feel to be right.
But curiosity – especially when it comes to the Big Questions in philosophy and theology – is fundamental. Is there a God, if so, what's the nature of God? Is there life after death? If so what is it like? What is our purpose? What is life for, what is the Universe for, and why is there something rather than nothing?
We can take guesses, educated ones or wild ones, but ultimately we die not knowing. The epistemic underpinnings of what we know are ever-more sophisticated, as we progress from animism to particle physics as language to explain reality. Even so, we can but intuit. We can have a feeling, not certainty. This is faith. That intuition is internal, it comes from a personal conviction rather than from teaching or learning.
Moments of awe, of wonder, of contemplation of the numinous, being lost in the ineffable – this often triggers such feelings. Many people report such moments when looking up at the stars in a cloudless night sky far from urban light pollution, or gazing into the eyes of a newborn infant.
Image: ChatGPT
So how much spirituality do I need? Enough to remove the doubts cast by physicalism that consciousness is but an illusion and all is matter. Enough to keep me connected to and aligned with the Flow, the non-local Big 'C' consciousness that connects the Cosmos.
Is the answer qualitative or quantitative? Religions like to prescribe times of holiness; holy days of the week, holy days throughout the year, times of day allocated to prayer. And Lent is certainly a part of that! But is that enough – or too much? Or does each individual feel for themselves how much of their lives should be given over to whatever form of spiritual practice, be it meditative or ritual in nature.
For some, the act of communal worship is the high point of their spiritual week. For some, the 'religious, but not spiritual', it's a tradition, you turn up, see people, and go home, no great sense of communing with the Eternal and Infinite having been achieved.
The mind does turn away from matter to consider the metaphysical, the numinous, the ineffable. And as I have written previously, it does so with increased frequency once material comfort has been achieved and social striving can be switched off, or a least dialed down.
Many esoteric traditions purposefully do not engage with the young. Step into spiritual pursuits once you have done all your biology and your society expects of you. Youth needs guidance, instruction; organised religion brings that framework and sense of certainty. Organised religion works alongside material striving in a way that more gnostic approaches to spirituality don't need to.
My daily walks, averaging about two hours in duration, provide me with ample opportunity to ponder the Big Questions. But am I doing enough? I carry with me a notebook at all times, but often feel I'm not having enough of those deep insights profound enough to jot down. I do pray (petition) to be 'in the Flow', to connect, to have those significant dreams – but not often enough. The discipline of daily blog posting is helpful here; but that discipline is underpinned to a degree by the Ego; seeking the external validation of getting to Easter Sunday with another run of unbroken Lenten posts.
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OK, I get it!
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