30 Days of Gratefulness-Ramadan Pt 9: Spirituality

We all seek happiness. Some say it is inside of us …some look for it outside in the external world. The sages say that a man’s life is always chasing after knowledge, devotion and acievement and a healthy balance between the three leads to a fulfilled and pleasurable life.

Inlaid natural coloured marble Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque f/9; Exposure 1/320sec; ISO-100

Spirituality means something different to everyone. For some, it’s about participating in organized religion: attending church, synagogue, a mosque; gathering in group discussions, communion, prayers and public devotion. For others, it’s more personal: getting in touch with their spiritual side through private prayer, yoga, meditation, quiet reflection, or even long walks, all with the aim of  ultimately leading to union with the divine uncreated Light.

Agia Marina (Chapel of Saint Marina), Attica, Greece: f/20; Exposure 1/30sec; ISO-200

Even skeptics can’t stifle the sensation that there is something greater than the concrete, material world we reside in. As our brain processes sensory experiences, we naturally look for patterns; seek the regular, then pursue meaning in those designs, and find comfort there.

For me, the human destiny is not to achieve mystical union with the essence of God, but rather to attain moral and spiritual perfection by participation in the divine uncreated energies.

Agios Nektarios (Saint Nektarios), Anavissos, Attica: f/7.1; Exposure 1/320sec; ISO-100

Spiritual contemplation is not “ecstatic,” that is, outside ourselves, but it takes place within the person – who is a temple unto himself. The divine energies are within everything and outside everything, and all creation is the manifestation of God’s energies.

Whether in church, on a prayer rug, in a meditative pose or in group discussion, spirituality is intuitive to me, not a rational perception, yet as real to me as the sentiments in my mind that are manifest in these sentences and created in words by this keyboard I type on.