Lay spirituality. Staying at the Center
Our life is not separate from Life. Our individual existence is part of the total Existence, inseparably connected, inseparable.
There is a beautiful image in Hinduism that depicts the Creator, Brahma, attached to Vishnu with an umbilical cord. Vishnu in this case represents the One from whom everything proceeds and not just the Preserver. And we too are connected to the navel of the cosmos, since we are a vital expression of the whole of life, dependent on the Source.
In a form of Zen meditation we focus on the navel, hara in Japanese, which is considered the meeting point of vital energy, ki. In Tantra that point corresponds to the chakra in which the eternal fire burns, Manipura (solar plexus). According to other schools, the basis of connection with the infinite, of which we are the manifestation, is indicated in other areas or chakras: in the base of the spinal column, in the heart, in the pineal gland or on the top of the head (the fontanel).
Its hypothetical "location" does not matter - which is only a descriptive convenience because how can what everything contains be "located"? - what matters is that surely for each of us there is a "Center", a root that nourishes the our being. We may not be aware of it but the "Center" exists and is expressed in the form of Consciousness.
According to Abraham Maslow, "self-actualization" means becoming aware of this "Center".
Living away from one's “Center”, which is the bridge that unites our individual existence with the Universal one, corresponds to feeling separate, “thrown into this world” - using the words of Sartre. That is, considering oneself strangers and rootless with existence. From this derives a condition of perennial restlessness, which we try to satisfy with desires and choices, but the result is only frustration, fear, uncertainty and struggle ... and it is a struggle that knows only defeat! In fact, how can we rebel or try to change life when we ourselves are an emanation of it?
Therefore, in secular spirituality, fulfillment, integrity, "holiness" (if you prefer this term) consists in residing in one's "Center". In letting oneself go deep down to the roots of the ego.
It's difficult? It seems impossible?
In truth, it is the simplest thing in this world, since - as Ramana Maharshi said - we cannot help but be what we already are, just become aware of it: "Go down to the very roots of the ego. Experience what you are deep inside ”.
“Anything that has been experienced, and accepted, can also be transcended; whatever is repressed, and not accepted, can never be transcended "(Osho)
"Conscious joy in the world is the same as ecstasy in Samadhi (transcendent absorption into the Self)" (Shivasutra)
"My Father and I are One ..." (Jesus)
Paolo D’Arpini
P.S. It is not necessary to propagate precepts but to discover the spontaneous "holiness" (read integrity) of man, beyond all doing and not-doing. Even if I use examples and anecdotes drawn from this or that religion or spiritual path - for a communicative or exemplification facilitation - all these things (including the explanatory speech I am doing) I consider them "cultural junk" that from the point of view of "knowledge of Self ”has little value, it is only an externalizing“ added ”knowledge, like all the notions of empirical intellectual speculation. (P.D'A.)
There is a beautiful image in Hinduism that depicts the Creator, Brahma, attached to Vishnu with an umbilical cord. Vishnu in this case represents the One from whom everything proceeds and not just the Preserver. And we too are connected to the navel of the cosmos, since we are a vital expression of the whole of life, dependent on the Source.
In a form of Zen meditation we focus on the navel, hara in Japanese, which is considered the meeting point of vital energy, ki. In Tantra that point corresponds to the chakra in which the eternal fire burns, Manipura (solar plexus). According to other schools, the basis of connection with the infinite, of which we are the manifestation, is indicated in other areas or chakras: in the base of the spinal column, in the heart, in the pineal gland or on the top of the head (the fontanel).
Its hypothetical "location" does not matter - which is only a descriptive convenience because how can what everything contains be "located"? - what matters is that surely for each of us there is a "Center", a root that nourishes the our being. We may not be aware of it but the "Center" exists and is expressed in the form of Consciousness.
According to Abraham Maslow, "self-actualization" means becoming aware of this "Center".
Living away from one's “Center”, which is the bridge that unites our individual existence with the Universal one, corresponds to feeling separate, “thrown into this world” - using the words of Sartre. That is, considering oneself strangers and rootless with existence. From this derives a condition of perennial restlessness, which we try to satisfy with desires and choices, but the result is only frustration, fear, uncertainty and struggle ... and it is a struggle that knows only defeat! In fact, how can we rebel or try to change life when we ourselves are an emanation of it?
Therefore, in secular spirituality, fulfillment, integrity, "holiness" (if you prefer this term) consists in residing in one's "Center". In letting oneself go deep down to the roots of the ego.
It's difficult? It seems impossible?
In truth, it is the simplest thing in this world, since - as Ramana Maharshi said - we cannot help but be what we already are, just become aware of it: "Go down to the very roots of the ego. Experience what you are deep inside ”.
“Anything that has been experienced, and accepted, can also be transcended; whatever is repressed, and not accepted, can never be transcended "(Osho)
"Conscious joy in the world is the same as ecstasy in Samadhi (transcendent absorption into the Self)" (Shivasutra)
"My Father and I are One ..." (Jesus)
Paolo D’Arpini
P.S. It is not necessary to propagate precepts but to discover the spontaneous "holiness" (read integrity) of man, beyond all doing and not-doing. Even if I use examples and anecdotes drawn from this or that religion or spiritual path - for a communicative or exemplification facilitation - all these things (including the explanatory speech I am doing) I consider them "cultural junk" that from the point of view of "knowledge of Self ”has little value, it is only an externalizing“ added ”knowledge, like all the notions of empirical intellectual speculation. (P.D'A.)