Spirituality

The Meaning of Life

1. People are not wearing enough hats.
2. Matter is energy. In the universe, there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches, it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.

What was that about hats, again? 

Thanks Monty Python! This movie ought to be the first thing watched by every high school student from grades 10 to 12 and repeated every year of academic study. Would definitely reduce the number of goths and wokers. 

One way I’ve identified to engage in spiritual development is the process of addressing, then reducing, psychological dissonance. Addressing what beliefs and actions we have that contradict, how they contradict, and the best way to resolve them, awakens in us morality. If we possess any, that is.

There is a degree of maturity necessary for this process, and that degree of maturity develops through this process. In this way, spirituality, self-awareness, and personal maturity, are one and the same. 

An example of dissonance is enjoying safety when outside and also believing that everyone has the right to carry guns in public. How could this dissonance be resolved? Sometimes the dissonance is not this direct, nor this clear. 

Entertaining paradoxes isn’t something everyone can do but it is the start point. Thanks to Douglas Adams (1979), we can map this process as the survival, inquiry, and sophistication phases. Unless stressful conditions force someone to understand their dissonance, this path of spirituality may not begin.

For the above example: I cannot actually enjoy any safety if people carry guns; what is the actual benefit for having guns in public; and, why is it that I like to feel safe in public? Observing ourselves as we process our dissonance forces the higher mind to process the lower mind, and this is the beginning of spirituality.

People, especially white people, ought to be wearing a lot more hats. Skin cancer is a concern but a much greater concern is wrinkles. Our skin wrinkles a lot more and a lot sooner. Plain fact.