Our belief in the intangible may be characterized by one the following scenarios:
1. We can and do believe in the intangible (mostly like due to the influence of a religious or spiritual upbringing) but our belief is tempered and plagued by nagging and deep-seated doubts stemming from the lack of absolute proof of trueness to support it (a burden borne by, for example, those who are blessed with a highly analytical or logical mind). Our minds are open and we have the desire to believe but we are vulnerable to being swayed into disbelief by stronger influencers (who do not believe) who challenge our lack of proof.
2. We have never been exposed to any religious or spiritual teachings or points of view during any part of our entire life (formative, teen or adult) and thus we find it extremely difficult or impossible to embrace any degree of belief in the intangible. We have the desire to believe but are unable to bridge the intellectual divide that blocks us from effectively opening our minds to the belief.
3. We are quite content, happy, fulfilled and at peace with our lives and have harmony with others in the absence of any belief in the intangible and find no reason or motivation to explore or entertain any ideas or thoughts that are rooted in the realm of faith (belief in the intangible and everything associated with it). Our mind is not open to believing but it is not completely closed either.
4. We loathe, resist and will fight any thought process or belief system that is based on a belief in the intangible. Our minds are completely closed to the fallacy of the belief in the intangible and we feel threatened by the prejudicial and damning practices that we perceive certain institutions of the faith to be waging against us.
My own personal spiritual experience is characterized by the first scenario above. A saving grace for me was the persistent (almost nagging) and powerful “calling” from the intangible that I experienced in my spiritual dimension. Others have used the term “aching” to describe this persistent feeling that somehow cannot be associated with any tangible part of the body. Nevertheless, the aching feeling is real; as real as the toothache of a decaying tooth. The spiritual benefits arising from this experience is just as real regardless of whether the perceived experience itself is true or false.
It is an exercise in futility to attempt to find rational, logical, and analytical proof for the truth of the intangible and all beliefs associated with it. I have tried this activity for years, foolishly and mistakenly nullifying practically all existing beliefs that I held while I immersed myself in the process of "finding the truth". Not only was this an activity that ended up in vain, it constituted the darkest period of my life…dark because I made a choice to close myself off from the light while I was making an earnest effort to find it. The light did not walk away from me…I walked away from it.
I eventually came out of that dark period…walking away with what I ultimately wished to find…an unbreakable faith in God and all beliefs associated with Him that I embrace to be true…this time though, without a deep-seated need for tangible proof or validation.
Keep this in your mind and thinking always - The intangible cannot be validated through tangible means.
Just as those who chose to believe in the intangible cannot prove its truth with tangible means; to a like and equal degree, those who chose not to believe cannot prove its falsehood. Does it make sense then (even to the logical and rational person) to deprive oneself of an entirely different dimension of existence that offers the sort of inner peace, completeness and fulfillment that only a “life in the faith” can bring, just because we are incapable of proving its truth or untruth?
Absolute truth will manifest itself clearly over time no matter how anyone tries to cover, alter, hide from or deny it. When the truth concerning the intangible becomes evident to you, it will become so through the very visible and tangible benefits that a belief in the intangible brings into one’s life (or the life of someone you know who believes).
Stated another way, for those who make the choice (in the midst of this stalemate in reckoning within the rational and tangible dimension) to earnestly open their hearts to believing in the intangible, the direct effects of the spiritual gifts that this choice brings to their lives will incrementally bring them closer to a steadfast faith that transcends their need for tangible proof.
Here are some of the potential spiritual gifts that a life in the faith enjoys:
• Courage to face fearsome life challenges and tackle them head-on
• Wisdom to recognize the right thing to do
• Strength to execute the right thing to do
• Flexibility and elasticity to adapt to whatever life and living conditions we are placed in
• Inner peace that comes from knowing you can handle and survive any life challenge with the aid of all the above
• A solid foundation on which to build our sense of what we hold with value, our set of principles and our guide for prioritizing things in our life
• A sense of place and purpose in this world and all humanity
• A sense of compass and direction• Perseverance in overcoming aspects of our human nature that are poisonous to body-soul harmony
• Ability to love, to love truly, and be loved
• A reliable spring of hope that we can always turn to when everything else (tangible) has failed us
Given all these beneficial gifts that a belief in the intangible potentially brings to the life and well-being of a person (regardless of the validity of the belief) and subsequently to society, we should consider never ever doing any action that would cause an individual’s belief in the intangible to be in doubt. They already do enough self-doubting themselves.
These thoughts are written down here to bring light and healing to the spiritually sick or broken. In doing so, I have come to fully understand what a great spiritual teacher and healer meant when He said to His criticizers, “They who are strong have no need of a physician, but they who are ill; I came not to call righteous men, but sinners to reformation.”
My interpretation of this teacher’s use of the term “sinners” here is to refer to those who are spiritually broken as a result of a lifetime of actions and choices that have corroded their body-soul harmony. I will expound more on the concept of “sin” in one of my next reflections.
Here are the three fundamental spiritual questions about the intangible that we can use to guide and shape our belief in it:
1. Does the intangible (from which all creation originates from) exist?
2. If this intangible exist, what are its characteristics and nature?
3. What, if any, is the nature of the relationship between this intangible and mankind?
For those readers who are more accustomed to a different terminology (such as my kids), here is a rewording of the above questions:
1. Does God exist?...does the soul exist?
2. If God exists, what is the nature and character of God?...what is the nature of the soul?
3. What, if any, is the nature of the relationship between God and the soul?
These are the questions that all religion seeks to provide mankind with the answer to. Religion is thus a means to an end (the end point being the finding of the truth concerning these three questions)...it should not and must not be the end-point itself.
Mankind was not made to serve the needs of religion; religion was made to serve the needs of mankind.
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