Considerations on lay spirituality by Paolo D'Arpini
Consciousness cannot be explained only in terms of physiological functioning and certainly has its own nature and reality. The observed is never separated from the observer, the image cannot replace the substance. The mental identification of forms and names is not enough to complete the picture of life by giving it a wholeness. Therefore in search of a common matrix, in its own right and at the same time all-encompassing, I asked myself and investigated the nature of the questioner. I called this reflecting on reflection: Lay Spirituality.
My journey towards the realization of the unity of life began in 1973, during a profound "spiritual" experience obtained in the presence of my Master Swami Muktananda. From that moment I learned to recognize the environment, the people, all that is manifested in the world, as a projection of the same consciousness.
Consciousness and matter are not separate. In view of this my life took on new meaning and seeing no division between the I and the other, my action also conformed to this awareness. Everything manifests itself in every single part and each part participates in the whole. Later I found that this perception also resembled descriptions of bioregional feeling and deep ecology.
Putting this holistic feeling into practice is the spontaneous result of that initial experience, but it is not a traced path, it is essentially an ability to respond to different situations in the most appropriate way without having to resort to memory-based built.
Not that memory becomes useless or harmful, rather it acquires new meaning in consideration of the enrichment it receives with each new experience, without having to submit to the obligation of a payment with previous experiences, so that it is not a trap in which to remain entangled. The recycling of memory is the ability to recover in other forms those ways that served to the satisfaction of other and different experiences and situations. Not therefore memory in the repetitiveness of the discourse but in the increase of the ability to respond. Needless to try to give detailed explanations ... one could only define: capacity for growth.
This is no time to retreat to a "ivory tower" but it is time to mix with our fellow human beings, in the situation in which they find themselves, trying to share experiences and feelings that can contribute to developing an evolutionary discourse ...
All the qualities that we incarnate are already there ... all derive from that Original Power. They could not exist in us if they did not already exist in That. As it happens for a playwright who creates different characters by endowing each of the necessary features ...
Each of us embodies those characteristics necessary to carry out the specific part that was granted to him ... but it is the same playwright who plays, who directs, who passes the lights, who assists as an audience, who applauds and cries and laughs...
In this stage, that is life itself, we can neither fight nor favor. We can only be present and act as it comes in our way.
Paolo D'Arpini
My journey towards the realization of the unity of life began in 1973, during a profound "spiritual" experience obtained in the presence of my Master Swami Muktananda. From that moment I learned to recognize the environment, the people, all that is manifested in the world, as a projection of the same consciousness.
Consciousness and matter are not separate. In view of this my life took on new meaning and seeing no division between the I and the other, my action also conformed to this awareness. Everything manifests itself in every single part and each part participates in the whole. Later I found that this perception also resembled descriptions of bioregional feeling and deep ecology.
Putting this holistic feeling into practice is the spontaneous result of that initial experience, but it is not a traced path, it is essentially an ability to respond to different situations in the most appropriate way without having to resort to memory-based built.
Not that memory becomes useless or harmful, rather it acquires new meaning in consideration of the enrichment it receives with each new experience, without having to submit to the obligation of a payment with previous experiences, so that it is not a trap in which to remain entangled. The recycling of memory is the ability to recover in other forms those ways that served to the satisfaction of other and different experiences and situations. Not therefore memory in the repetitiveness of the discourse but in the increase of the ability to respond. Needless to try to give detailed explanations ... one could only define: capacity for growth.
This is no time to retreat to a "ivory tower" but it is time to mix with our fellow human beings, in the situation in which they find themselves, trying to share experiences and feelings that can contribute to developing an evolutionary discourse ...
All the qualities that we incarnate are already there ... all derive from that Original Power. They could not exist in us if they did not already exist in That. As it happens for a playwright who creates different characters by endowing each of the necessary features ...
Each of us embodies those characteristics necessary to carry out the specific part that was granted to him ... but it is the same playwright who plays, who directs, who passes the lights, who assists as an audience, who applauds and cries and laughs...
In this stage, that is life itself, we can neither fight nor favor. We can only be present and act as it comes in our way.
Paolo D'Arpini