Spirituality, Do we Need it?

Well I mean Yes but also no at the same time. What we need is not spirituality but happiness or better yet, peace. For me personally spirituality has helped me attain more happiness but it may not be a tool that you need. I have not lived your life and you have not lived mine, we vibrate at different frequencies. Your journey is your journey, your thoughts are your thoughts and I reckon whatever you think is always going to have some smidge of truth to it whatever it is but first hear me out. Take an animal, an animal does not worry if there is a god or not, they do not worry about being good or bad because simply they do not need to. They are who they are and accept it. Your dog is able to give so much love because they resemble love much better than we ever could. Humans have separated so much from what we once were, Adam and Eve and the apple stands as a metaphor for the human race’s separation from our natural state so we are not any better than animals for having the ability to tackle these baffling questions. We only do it because we are lost. If we were all able to integrate every aspect of ourselves and return to our organic, natural state, if we were to find ourselves there would be no need for the concept of spirituality because we wouldn’t be separated from it. It would be second nature. It would be like our breath. You can breathe before you know what breathing is or what words are or even before you know anything at all. You don’t need to be taught how to breathe to know how to breathe. The spirit has been there all along just some forget about it and some are occupied in other areas. I’d like to say it exists regardless of our awareness of it. Cats can’t tell you what an internet is you know?

A point I’d like to make is that some people who don’t believe in spirituality mumbo jumbo can be potentially even more spiritual than people who do. People who find spirituality often use it as a coping mechanism but for anyone who is already happy, already themselves and already doing what they love, for them learning about spirituality is completely unnecessary. They are already at the destination. For me spirituality obviously plays a huge part of who I am and how I am. Learning the concepts involved have helped me become a better person. To accept a god can be so powerful for many people. People find faith in their darkest times and it transforms them. I may not take the bible literally as many Christians do or any religious texts for that matter (excluding Buddhist beliefs) and I may not believe in the same external god that most do but I have the same experience of faith, the only difference being my explanations differ a little.

Having just finished the book “revolution” by my old mate Russell brand (we’re obviously not actually friends but we can be on the level of brotherhood and connection between every living being, he’d agree to that) one thing that stood out to me was the distinction between religion and creed.  A Creed being a group or organization and religion representing a personal relationship with god. I think it’s good to know the difference. In that sense I am religious I just don’t belong to a creed although the new age movement or really any known belief system even atheism can be probably arguably be one.

A great example of not needing religion or spirituality is an interview I watched with the great Neil Degrasse Tyson. He explained his views so beautifully. He tells us how he needs evidence to believe something like most of us do but he isn’t in any way cynical about it like I’ve seen many people be. I needed evidence for my beliefs as well, I asked my intuition for evidence and I found it, it may have been a little more subtle than the physical evidence Tyson might look for but I found evidence none the less and it resonated with me. I love Neil because he is an atheist but yet he’s still at peace. He is grateful for his life and has a really awesome carpe diem attitude, he knows himself, he respects nature and my favorite part is he’s attached to the idea of being compost for the earth. I may also like to believe we are metaphysical compost but either way we are compost because energy cannot be destroyed. It’s a beautiful thing to know you are part of this never ending cycle of energy that we call the universe. He came to this state of mind just as I and many others have come to the same state of mind only for me I’ve chosen to add a dash of spirituality in the mix. But you don’t need to add it if you don’t want. Neil and I have both decided how to make our own signature philosophical cocktails and like actual cocktails our tastes are naturally going to differ so neither cocktail is a badly made cocktail. They are made for our specific tastes.

In conclusion I think all beliefs should be shared but none of them should be forced. We need to understand each other’s differences but we should try our best not to invalidate them. The spiritual journey should be a personal one, you should be able to take in as much information as you want but you shouldn’t have to accept any of it if it doesn’t suit you. This should apply to almost everything we learn. A spiritual aspect to your life I think can be super healthy but if you are already healthy, honestly, what’s the point? And if you don’t believe in it why should you have to?

here is the interview i mentioned before

and here’s my mate sharing some of his belief system

let me know if i nailed it on the head or if i missed something that you’d like to point out