Here is the foundational understanding on the spiritual quest discussed here thus far. The inner spiritual sensations you feel are your direct communications in understanding your spiritual space. The inner experiences cover the entire spectrum of your reality. From the darkest places of frozen-in-fear to the most enlightened experiences of complete oneness of connection in spiritual love.
From one end of the polarity to the other it’s all part of the whole. From the spiritual quest perspective there is nothing solid in any of these inner spiritual states. The darkest levels of fear are a flag of caution demanding your full attention because you are exploring in uncharted territory within your spiritual space. You should be willing to acknowledge and confront these fears that arise as a part of you. It is a foundational starting point of a new discovery just begging for you to explore and understand.
When you discover a seed of fear beginning to sprout; if you love it and hug it, allow it to fully express itself within you it will be liberated into the light of your conscious awareness. Trying to ignore it or trying to suppress it you are performing a personal disservice to yourself. Ignoring the seeds that sprout from the darkness is like turning off the spiritual perception signals trying to communicate with you. These signals always start as honest and pure and are deserving of your full attention. They are begging you to understand and integrate them into your spiritual space. Blocking these communications or ignoring them will only increase the intensity of the signal over time and will pollute your interpretation on its relevance to you.
Those on the spiritual quest are open to all these inner sensations. Allowing them all to be fully felt will allow your path to become wider and brighter. Be willing to fully accept and feel what you discover inside yourself. It is uniquely your discovery. Examine them deeply, and meditate on how they actually feel.
Whatever you feel inside examine it with curiosity. Always remain open-minded to welcome whatever comes up, especially the negatives. Rather than being in denial, opposing it in your mind, find the courage to feel it, and recognize it fully. Where is it coming from? What is causing it? What is it telling you? What is its message? Let your total self, your personality and your inner spirit embrace it, flow with it and learn from it. You define your world by the sensations you experience.
Double-edge Sword to Enlighten and Constrict
As you discover these inner states you attach words of description. Words like I’m afraid, I’m angry, I’m scared, I’m impatient, I’m frustrated, I’m hurt, and there are a hundreds of words and word combinations you can add to expand the description of your discovery. The more words you can discover to describe these inner states the more clarity and focus you acquire. The deeper you explore the more concise the description. However you should always remember that no word or word combinations can even begin to define the full spectrum of understanding and comprehension you access in your spiritual space.
To help you attain comprehension of the world you live in you attach words as a description and explanation to help you identify things. Soon however you begin believing your words are the truth and you limit your perceptions to your own word choices. By reaching personal conclusions you stagnate into a set of rigged beliefs which constrict your spiritual discovery. You will begin to reject other people’s words and descriptions that contradict our own and this will only hinder your comprehension.
Unlike a physical experience where we can all describe something using similar words and most others will likely understand it in a similar way. The spiritual states are not that way at all. Our inner words are always unique and totally subjective.
As you grow to be open to all explanations your perception expands accordingly; however if you rely only on words you are still limiting yourself. Be aware that even your thinking can become narrowed to word thoughts only. To rely strictly on words and human intellect to define “truth” you actually end up covering the deepest of connections in understanding, those of the spiritual.
Words alone are incapable of containing “the truth”. They contain some truth but they are limited to the associations that you have assigned to them. Every human attaches words to their experiences, you feel more comfortable around those who share the same or similar word associations. Conversely word associations around sensitive subjects like god, religion, politics and spirituality can create conflicts with others. These conflicts certainly are not enlightenment for either party.
Words are but labels trying to contain what is ultimately unattainable when limited to words and word thoughts alone. To discover the unknowable, you must let go of your thoughts and labels around everything. Be open to a deeper understanding that is only discovered inside of you, in your own personal spiritual space.
By opening up and being receptive to what’s happening inside of you. By exploring beyond words and word thoughts alone toward fully experiencing the internal sensations you are fully engaged in the spiritual quest. By acknowledging all your internal states and feelings you’ll discover true spirituality. This is only attainable by you working internally with your own nature. Inside yourself is where you’ll discover “real truth” which cannot be contained by words, stories or explanations of any kind. It cannot be named or labeled, it can only be experienced.
Here are some previous articles posted on the www.the-spiritual-quest.com blog that might help shed more light on these concepts.
Quotes From The-Spiritual-Quest.com Blog
“As the discourse on discovering spirituality progressed I was spell bound at the edge of my seat as I sat and listened with keen interest. “A box with five openings, that’s me”, so the opening to the public presentation began.
Yes, my five senses are the tools I use to master the physical word. What world did Helen Keller live in? Could I ever experience her world? It scared me to contemplate such a condition. Yet the more I thought about it the more it began to touch something within me that was bigger and more expansive than knowledge or experience.
I began to comprehend an entirely new way of understanding my own life and all that fills it. Like when a small child first comprehends how counting from 1 to 10 connects to counting from 10 to 20; the light goes off and you just get it!
I was totally engaged as I listened to this fresh topic of conversation. The information pushed me and pulled me in different directions. I was thrown about in a raging river of conflicting thoughts and feelings. I was confused and yet simultaneously fulfilled with an inner satisfaction that I admit I find hard to explain.
Trust me it’s an incredible experience yet really hard to explain with words alone. I promise to do my best to explain it, and I assure you if you get to this place these words will ring true for you too. Again, I will try to explain using the very limiting communication tool of written words.
Imagine trying to explain, through an interpreter, what a small bird is to Helen Keller, she was deaf and blind. You could talk for hours explaining in great detail about all the bird’s unique characteristics. The birds color, the texture of their wings, their beak, how they fly and sour through the sky, how they maneuver through tight tree limbs, how they sing with beautiful harmonic resonance that is pleasing to the ear.
You could spend hundreds of hours with endless explanations and yet never truly convey your attainment of seeing and hearing that small bird. As I listened to these new spiritual concepts being presented I thought, what would I understand if I lost my hearing and my sight?
I tried to imagine what Helen Keller’s perception of life was like? Helen Keller had never even experienced sight or hearing at all, what did she base her perceptions on I wondered? I began to explore all these new sensations swirling within me. My insides were being torn apart as I tried to comprehend this unexplored space within myself. I felt disconnected from my own being and yet even more deeply connected at the same time.
I thought deeper and deeper about it; who am I? I am aware that I exist but how? I see, I hear, I taste, I feel and I smell. This was the surface topic of discussion but it took me deep within myself. I listened intently while simultaneously exploring the tumultuous sensations in my core Being.
As I listened further to the discourse I was so enthralled from within. Like I completely understood the subject matter yet at the same time the words and concepts were all foreign to me. It was like I was eating foods I was familiar with yet the preparation styles and seasonings were not familiar to me at all. They were completely foreign to my pallet and yet my desire was such that I craved to eat more and more. I was almost hypnotized like I had a piece of warm chocolate fudge melting in my mouth. I was lost in the incredible satisfaction of this experience.
Words are so hard to share on this topic, and no I was not on drugs or drinking alcohol. The truth is I was learning and everything was fresh and new, yet somehow I knew the topic of conversation. The discussions were ultimately helping me to discover myself at a deeper level, looking from the outside in at myself as a person.
I began to explore within myself how all these interactions via my senses explained my world. I have interactions with nature and with other people and they are totally unique to me. What could I learn by further exploring these deeper inner sensations to comprehend and understand who I am in relationship to the world around me?
I realized that I really had no control at all over anyone or anything around me. It was like I was a sci-fy probe put here to measure and experience life, not to control it. I began to sense the need to discern how it is I am connected with the world around me. This began my journey into spirituality. I began to discover a new higher level of awareness in experiencing life and in grasping reality.
If my words have touched you at all; if you yearn for something more but can’t quite put your finger on it, I invite you in to explore with me and other like-minded people. Discover a deeper perception of life and reality. Discern a bigger community and a bigger connection to humanity and the world of nature to which we are connected. Discover with us a deeper more satisfying life, experiencing life in a fuller more complete way.”
Allow yourself to be open to fully explore these inner sensations without fear. The thoughts about such feelings may be scary but if you suddenly were thrown into such a restricted world as Helen Keller you would be forced to face them.
Another Post on The-Spiritual-Quest.com Blog
“We are not our name or anything else that we attach to ourselves. Be it terms like parent, student, teacher or homeowner, athlete, poet, etc – these are words used to help describe us but they are not the essence of who we are. The word “I” can be very limiting, or your “I-ness” can help you expand and grow depending on how you use your “I-ness”.
Does the word sparrow really contain a complete comprehension of that bird in nature? No! Telling someone your name, or other word attachments you assigned to yourself does not encapsulate who you are. Do you really even know yourself? Frankly we will never fully attain any substantive matter using words as a description or as an explanation alone, enlightenment goes beyond words.
In fact all words and descriptions, whether they are thoughts or vocalized into sounds, actually restrict our perceptions of reality. And yes our thinking too is just visualizing words. Words do shed some light on a matter … but reliance on words or a combination of words alone will actually limit our comprehension.
To help you attain comprehension of your world, your “I-ness” attaches words as a description and explanation to help identify things. Soon however we begin believing our words and thoughts are truth, sadly we can limit our I-ness to these conclusions. We’re often quick to reject other peoples words and descriptions that contradict our own, this hinders deeper comprehension. But even as we grow to be open to all explanations we are still limited if we rely on words and thinking (word thoughts) alone. Relying strictly on words and human intellect as “the truth” we actually cover up the deepest of connections and understanding, the spiritual.
Words are incapable of containing “the truth”. They contain some truth but they are limiting to the associations that the “I” have assigned to them. Every human attaches words to their experiences. We feel comfortable around those who share these same word associations. Sadly, we argue and fight with those who have different word associations with things; especially around sensitive subjects like God, religion and spirituality. These conflicts certainly are not enlightenment for either side. The mystery of things like God, Nature, Love … these are but labels trying to contain what is ultimately unattainable by our mind if limited to words and thoughts alone. To discover the unknowable, you must let go of your thoughts and labels around everything. Be open for a deeper understanding, the spiritual, that is discovered inside Yourself.
Open up and be receptive to what’s happening inside of you as you interact with the world around you. Explore not only with words or thoughts … explore with your internal sensations. Acknowledge all your internal states and feelings. As you do you’ll discover your true “I-ness” and true spirituality. This is only attainable by you working internally with your own nature. Inside yourself is where you’ll discover “real truth” which cannot be contained by words, stories or explanations of any kind. It cannot be named or labeled, it can only be experienced by You inside your “I-ness” … we call this spiritual attainment, enjoy the discovery.
Words Are Weak in Communicating Spirituality
Dolphin and whales use sounds to communicate and coyotes howl. Birds sing and chirp, a cat meows and dogs bark. Although we do not understand most of it, they’re certainly communicating with each other and the world around them. Sounds are not the only way animals communicate.
Dogs for example communicate with body language during mating rituals and dominance posturing. Dogs transfer information with humans too. Communication behaviors include head and body positions, mouth shape, ear and tail positioning, eye gaze, facial expression and body posture. Dogs also further communicate with barks, growls, howls, whines and whimpers, screams, pants and sighs. If you’re a pet lover you know what your dog is communicating most of the time.
When you stop and think about words they are simply sounds generated to convey a concise understanding to others. They carry specific meanings that we all associate with familiar things. From this advanced attainment of speech we can convey tremendous amounts of deep information with others who share our sound combinations and understandings attached to the sounds. Language is a very sophisticated and highly evolved attainment that put human beings above all other life forms.
Human communications, just like those of animals, also include non verbal signals especially associated with facial movements and expressions. You can learn more in a split second by interpreting facial expressions and body language than you can by texting words back and forth for hours. In fact, as evidenced by these animals, social behaviors and non-verbal interactions communicate much deeper and faster than words.
The words you use to describe your inner spiritual sensations are powerful and tight in securing your own personal understanding. The way you define your inner states are totally perfect for clarity in defining your own perceptions. However these words are very weak in transferring understanding to others. In fact your word choices can actually distort and confuse another person’s understanding. How or why?
In the spiritual quest everyone in on a solo journey that can only be fully experienced and understood by the individual alone. Unlike words used to describe an external physical experience the descriptive words placed on your inner spiritual sensations will likely be disorienting or even misleading to another person. Word meanings assigned to these external physical experiences are easy to share and understand with others. While words used to describe your individual subjective inner spiritual sensation are totally unique and exclusive to you alone; making it impossible to fully share with others.
Your word choices are powerful in helping you attain spiritual clarity and confidence, but they do very little in conveying an understanding to others. By experiencing these inner spiritual sensations and defining them for yourself alone, you will be able to make rapid spiritual progress. Trying to have others explain, define or interpret this for you is an exercise in futility at a minimum and with bad input it can be extremely confusing and in severe cases a devastating disaster.
Sharing your inner spiritual discovery with others using your descriptive words can actually be counter-productive to spiritual advancement. For example using the word fear carries a powerful spiritual energy. To some people the word fear itself can be so overpowering that it is rejected as a spiritual state.
For example a person who has observed or suffered tremendous personal injury on a battlefield in wartime, or a child physically abused or assaulted by a person of trust, will have a much deeper understanding and attainment in the fear space. It will carry a completely different spiritual take-away and understanding from a person whose deepest fear experience was getting lost in the shopping mall as a child.
Which of these two contrasting fear experiences are true? Looking at it objectively by the descriptions provided it’s obvious that one is much more easily identified as a true-fear experience. However, subjectively on the inside, the fear description will trigger a completely unique take-away for every person. This same unique inner experience will multiply with tens of thousands of subtle variations with every word description you apply to your own spiritual journey.
Your word definitions offer you an added dimension to measure and explore your own inner spiritual discoveries, but don’t get stuck on your words. What’s important in your spiritual work is that you don’t judge one description over another but seek to understand and experience them all in their full intensity. Be open to sense it and to define it all; to fully integrate all of it into your inner spiritual consciousness. This is the spiritual enlightenment you discover on your spiritual quest.
The Subjective Objective Experience
On the external physical world we use words and descriptions to share in exploration with others. We all grow together through the input of one another. By being open to hear and listen to the words others use to share enables you to grow and expand in comprehension beyond your own personal perspective.
Dogmatic hard core beliefs usually show a limited comprehension in spiritual attainment. Holding onto any one thought or idea too tightly is an attempt to hold or control something that can never be contained. Like trying to hold onto water, you cannot hold it; it can only be felt. Words and beliefs are buckets or vessels used to hold some water. Eventually if you are open enough you can sense there is an ocean of water and you are not limited to a container of any size.
Communication, verbal and non verbal, are all we have to share with one another. That’s why it’s important not to judge the words or spiritual writings of others but rather to openly listen and explore them. This starts from a spiritually centered and balanced perspective discovered within. From that secure place within you can explore with confidence and courage everything there is experience.
Regardless of where others are on their spiritual journey, you will continue to grow and expand as you openly resonate and accept all concepts as part of the whole within you. From this place of confidence and security it’s easy to be open with others. You can engage and explore with another person who is willing to share from a place of honesty.
Be open to others and probe with questions to understand their unique perspective. Ask them to define their use of words. What does fear mean to them? What have they found as solutions to their dilemmas? What tools can they share with you from their own life discoveries? This approach from an honest and open heart, to hear an honest open reply, is the fastest and strongest path to positive connectivity.
When you block or reject others who share their words of experience you hinder your own understanding and development. Your personal level of attainment or revelation shared with another person is important to future connections. If a person is at a similar level they will get it. Those who have yet to reach your level of enlightenment may find your words nonsensical or even foolish.
Negative Consequences From This Disconnect
As our world has become more electronically connected our personal social interactions have become less and less reliable. Young people raised in the Internet age spend so much time looking at artificial screens they have become less and less cognitive of these subtle bio signals that have served human civilizations for thousands of years. Since social distancing and mask wearing has become common in many places this raises fear and distrust. This is becoming radically problematic for our human society at large, leading us to ideological tribal allegiances that put us at odds with one another.
This virtual electronic world has become more and more polarized, creating deep cutting separation and disconnects. These now extend into immediate family relationships. People sharing the same physical household occupy a completely different virtual space of social connection. These virtual electronic algorithms have corralled people into pens of limited thoughts and ideological beliefs that pollute our physical social human connections.
These citadels of connections have always plagued humanity but now, post 2020, they are running on steroids. In the past these were physical tribal connections. Today they have become virtual tribal connections and they are destroying civility. This crisis is a shining light to those in the spiritual communities. This is a calling beacon of opportunity for those in the spiritual space to discover and achieve the next plateau of human evolution.
The artificial intelligence (AI) of computer-generated connections has been polluting our biological connections. These non-human electronic connections use computer algorithms to continually reaffirm our disconnected tribal views. The children raised in this AI world are more loyal and dedicated to their virtual digital communities than they are to their own physical family members.
These artificial connections are metastasizing and are expanding at a pace that is unstoppable. There is a global breaking of familial ties of physical communities. This speed of change and the problems it creates are obvious to older people who were raised with physical connections of biological human interactions. Knowing this momentous revolutionary change is unstoppable many worry about how this new world order will affect humanity.
Human history shows that such times of dramatic change led to disconnections and hostility among people. Suffering is common during changing times, but especially impacted were those active in the conflicts. One by one they witness suffering, they then cause suffering and eventually they experience suffering.
A New Spiritual Positive Outcome
Eventually all these negatives burn themselves out and a new unifying energy arises among the collective to unite and pursue a positive path of connection and peace. Right now everyone is feeling alienated to one degree or another; and this pace of change will only continue to hasten until we reach the healing point. You can avoid much of this suffering by avoiding the conflict. Stop taking sides. Stop believing that there is some “right” that out-weighs our obligations to spiritual unity and connections of altruism and self-care. Those who continue to battle will suffer more and more.
Those in the spiritual community need to bring the total power of a love connection to bear on all fronts in this ideological battle we are having with ourselves. It’s happening right now in front of your eyes; humanity is demanding a world-wide collective desire for change. Since change is inevitable the question is what kind of change will you manifest?
Our role as spiritual individuals is to work at disseminating and spreading a “love-virus” as a positive infection. Unite everyone from every ideological corner of humanity to embrace love and spread love. Imagine a “love-virus” of connections making it the unifying principle to connect and re-connect all of humankind. In every community and sub-group within communities there is a completeness of human connectivity. That completeness has formed the building blocks of uniting people throughout history. Let’s return to this simple yet powerful method of love. It has worked since the beginning of time and is the only solution to heal what ails us today.
Almost everyone is part of some community that is built on love connections among the individual group identities. A new level of love that requires us to rise above our own group identifications and ideologies to reach a new higher degree of connection that connects the disconnections between these groups. This is the calling of those on the spiritual quest.
This calling is inviting all of humanity to a higher level of enlightened consciousness; connecting all of us together in love as one functioning organism working for the good of the whole of humanity.