When do we succumb? That slice of cake, a drink, a bet, getting into drugs or watching porn? I’m certainly not equating any of these but to eat that cake, take that first drink, place that first bet, take those drugs or click onto the porn channel or account, there’s a succession of events which leads us there. It’s a pathway. Like any journey we need to see if we have set off on that particular path, for then we could possibly stop. We may identify a spiritual dis-ease at this point.
A place where our own ‘spirit’ isn’t ill, but ill-at-ease, or not at ease.
Must, Should, Could anyone?
In life, there may not be so much as a stage where we must, should or could, for that means that there is an external expectation placed upon us. Maybe it is simply our choice : do we or don’t we? Where it is ‘Our Choice’. That choice is very much a mental decision which can affect us physically but it may well start with a spiritual dis-ease. They are seemingly all connected: the spiritual, mental and physical states of the human.
“I don’t feel right inside.
Finding Inner Peace
I’m not happy; something is missing.
I no longer align (or never aligned) with my spiritual upbringing.
I know there’s more out there; I want to feel true connection”.
Refugees
There is a systematic societal choice faced with refugees. We are pummelled by the media and Government that we have to break the evil business model of the people traffickers. Yes, that model needs to be destroyed but that isn’t the problem. The issue is that we have a compassionate choice, just as the refugees had a choice. Whatever they had to face in their home countries, they chose to leave: whether it be famine, warfare, violence towards them or food poverty. Recall that many of households in the UK go to a food bank but they own a car and the latest iPhone.
When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
Leviticus 19:33-34a
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.
Our choice is whether we exclude others, in fact identify refugees as ‘others’, calling one group “us” and “them” is very much like the idea of “sheep and goats” used by some evangelicals. Our choice is whether we wish to see people as “us”. That decision flows from the information we partake from our social media and TV diet. When we celebrate the death of migrants who lose their lives on the English Channel, we may see a spiritual dis-ease.
Spiritual Link
Regardless whether we think people have a spiritual or religious belief, I wonder whether we all have a spiritual yearning. Call it conscience, a higher being or even God. It’s a primal driver which leads us on our journey which can affects us positively or detrimentally: mentally and/or physically.
Our choice
When confronted with that choice a voice can speak inaudibly and offer alternatives. “What seemed at first a flimsy reed has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God [or higher being]” (AA Big Blue Book, p.28).
We then have that choice, a choice which can cause such trauma to ourselves or the lives of others. In that spiritual consciousness what is vital is the “willingness, honesty and open mindfulness…” it is ” in fact indispensable“. (AA Big Blue Book, p.568). Keeping it all within ourselves rarely helps. Releasing that burden so that it is seen or heard, so it can be examined by ourselves and others, may well help.
One colleague once said that “when we speak of our thoughts it may well be
the first time we have truly heard them…”
So who can we speak with when confronted with such decisions?
I found the dialogue interesting and I enjoyed it