Do we choose something that is obviously right in spiritual terms? I have read and try to practise spirituality drawing from the rich pool of buddhism, vedanta philosophy, jainism, syncretic Sai Baba teachings, a smattering of biblical knowledge, gandhian ahimsa or non-violence, thai buddhism of animism and spirits worshipping, russellian humanism of respect and love, and jiddu krishnamurthi's belief of self and goodness as a a priori construct.
Each tentative step in my earthly intellectual journey for the search of spiritual truths of some 45 years is enriching. The journey is not plain sailing though. By this I mean, I had and still do reflect, investigate, discard, sieve, analyse what is good for me. Sometimes there is an inner tension between the intellect and the heart. Take for example, can I use violence means for a violence end? - if someone is behaving aggressively towards you, do you react or avoid a conflict?
As the material body is temporary, we know we have to give up this body and all the material things, what is left are experiences and consciousness. Our lord Buddha and others have shown the way by their living examples: devoting full-time to be the roaming mendicant monks, the wandering hermits, the solitude sanyasi. They have realised the truths and showed the way. Their vision has become our mission.
How would a person react in the face of such visions laid down by great masters? Do we have to go through the cycles of mundane living to reach the juncture that they are impermanent? If we have implicit trust in our spiritual teachers, wouldn't it be simpler to follow the path so as to avoid pitfalls and unnecessary discoveries?
My guess is that we are either restless spirit or contented fools! For the latter, a person is contented with food and creature's comforts and does not think about the after-life or the other worldly issues. On the other hand, the restless person will think, mull, investigate, reflect and keep searching for his or her spiritual compass. A happy pig or an unhappy man? A quesion of means to an end or the end itself. If happiness is the end, a happy pig has reached its end. For a restless person, it is searching for some finality and sense in all that is going on around him.
In an urban society like ours, our psyche is bombarded daily by the external influences of the mass media like the newspapers, tv, internet and the utilitarian patronage of the state - cpf, erp, inflation, health savings etc. The bombardment is endless. It is therefore no surprise that many people here are sensitised by materialism and desensitised on spirituality. Try asking someone in the street about existential questions like: why are you here? or, do you meditate? will be met with bewilderment and strange looks.
We often observed when individuals who had met with a life-changing situation such as accidents or recovered from a disease, will almost always turn to spirituality, a search for meaning of life. Meanings of life are inherent epistemes to ontological finitude. Searching for meanings can, paradoxically, stops at the first step. The first step which all great masters have experienced going round in full circles and many lifetimes, and cystalising their wisdom in prescriptive tenets. They are called the path, commandments, steps, stages which are the ends in themselves. Humans choose, knowingly or unknowingly, to go full circles, not realising that they can hop on the spiritual bandwagon via the super expressway that great souls have shown to reach the spiritual end in the shortest possible way.
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