The Blackberry Walk

I don't know. It's one of those words thrown about all too often without a thought for what it means. Most people use the term to mean "finding something deeper" in their life, finding something more beneath the surface. Often the word is used for any kind of practice like meditation or yoga which quietens your mind, bringing you into a closer relationship with the world. Others use spirituality to mean reading loads of books, books about myths, traditions, theology, and philosophy. The common thread stitching these themes together is finding the unknown: finding something more too life beyond the mundane. The word mundane originally meant "of this Earth" as opposed to the supramundane - more commonly now called the supernatural - which was beyond the Earth, beyond the everyday mundane life. But isn't there magic in the mundane? Looking upon the world, there's great beauty and meaning to be found in the every day: the birth and death of days; of months; of years; the ticking of the clock as time marches on. Once the world was divine - now it is merely a divine creation, where heaven has divorced Earth, leaving not even the shadows of the divine left on Earth. But there is divinity here. The spiritual is bountiful in the everyday, should you be so inclined to look for it. Many, however, are blind to the spiritual, either seeing it as so powerful and distant it can't be grasped, or denying it outright. To deny a world beyond our own isn't to see the world as a cold, heartless clock tower. Spirituality shouldn't point to some greater world soul beyond us, or a infinitely deep psyche within us, creating caverns for us to flee into from reality. Instead, we should come in to contact with the world and figure out how it works. Science is one model amongst many; it's good for figuring out how to make plastics or whether a bridge will fall down, but completely useless to figure out what is moral, or what makes us happy. For those questions, turn to theology, philosophy, or better still, your own experience. Instead of the mechanical tick of the clock tower, the world has warmth and a heartbeat. It doesn't require the supernatural to notice that the world is full of life, instead of genes trying to reproduce themselves. The notion of spirituality I'm trying to form is thus: getting to know the world. It's coming into contact with the world, drawing a map of impressions and ideas so that everything life throws at you is as expected. Once you have the ultimate map, there is no threat of the unknown. And by mapping the world through honing your worldview, opinions, thoughts - seeing the world clear-sightedly - you will always feel in control of the situation: all according to keikaku. Science has bred a sense of disconnectedness from the world not because the world is more spiritual and metaphysically perplexing than first imagined - but rather because its arcane scriptures are more esoteric than any alchemical manuscript about. It takes years of study throughout school to get a feel for it, only to be told everything you learnt was wrong and that it's actually far more confusing and unintuitive than you throught. Saying the Earth revolves around the sun and that the Earth is spinning at however many kilometres per hour does not put us into contact with the world: it certainly doesn't feel like the Earth is spinning that fast, so why would it be? Instead we just become confused, subverting what our intuitions think to be true, cutting the cord between us and reality. Every map-maker must go out sailing across the oceans or walking through the desert to make a map, and making a map of what's real is no different. Spirituality shouldn't be found within the cloister alone, but rather found in the world by living and participating with people and the world around you. Practicing a skill, a craft, honing your knowledge - all of these put you into contact with reality instead of divorcing you further from it. The knowledge of books have their place too, but it's all mere fluff without real world experience to judge if they're talking twaddle. Socrates was a hoplite, for goodness sake - these great philosophers of old had experience of the world to back up what they said. Knowledge without experience - now that is truly maddening. "Beware of unearned knowledge." - Jung