Pilgrim Simon

The spiritual life is not about resting in the external and transient and to do so is to fall into the error of one form or another of spiritual materialism. The spiritual life is not about prayer, fasting, vigils and spiritual or religious exercises, decorating the meeting place, installing the latestsound equipment and computer technology to enhance community worship. Attending meetings, writing presenting or reading or listening to studies, giving some or all of ones money to the spiritual community, spending time in singing, praying, worshipping, doing charitable work in the community, attending communion, following a disciplined religious schedule, performing rituals or ceremonies as devotion and so on.The spiritual path is about the discovery and experience of the Self as Absolute, about Unity with Essence, about realisation of the Self in the Eternal Now. It is primarily an inner concern of the heart or ‘soul’ if you will. It is about the perception of Reality and the overcoming of Illusions and Ignorance and thus becoming awakened or enlightened. All these other things such as religious or spiritual ‘duties’ are secondary, transient and external,useful only in the lower and beginning stages of thespiritual quest. They are not an end in and of themselves and though some of these activities may be noble,charitable and altruistic, they do not form the essence or core of spirituality but are secondary. The fact that such activities may be centred around or motivated by religious or spiritual concerns does not alter the case at all. Altruistic behaviour and charitable actions may be the secondaryresult of an Immediate experience of the Divine but they are not the main core or focal point of spirituality and certainly not to be rested in as some sort of achievement that keeps us in close proximity to the Divine.