Best Of

For me, ultimately, the spiritual life is attempting and answering the who-am-I question by methods of introspection.

Or just... moving with practical steps towards one's highest ideal/aspiration.

Years ago, this was all theoretical for me, and my goals lofty. These days, I honour actual-factual steps and efforts, even if the goals are lower.

@marcitko said:
For me, ultimately, the spiritual life is attempting and answering the who-am-I question by methods of introspection.

You might be interested, Eckhart Tolle said this about the “Who am I?” question recently…

“When you ask yourself, who am I, the important thing is to realize that you won't be able to answer that question. So anything the mind comes up with is wrong, no matter what you say. And even if you say, ah, I've got it: I'm consciousness! Wrong, because it's a concept. Who you are is not believing in a concept. It's just a concept. So who am I? This was recommended by Ramana Maharshi and other spiritual sages as a profound meditation. Who am I? That question, you can ask it yourself with eyes open or eyes closed and then wait for the answer, which is not going to come as an actual answer that you could identify. It's not going to come as a thought or a word or anything you can talk about or think. The answer is the space after the question 'who am I?'.”

@how said:
For me, a spiritual life just describes the transition of selfishness towards selflessness.

Certainly at a young age it seems to be true, and often later in life one becomes more giving automatically when material things become less important.

It reminds me of something that Osho used to say, that he was “full like a raincloud, showering his blessings on us all.” The raincloud gives naturally, it is in its nature. That too is a spiritual way of being.

Selfishness applies just as much to form as it does to sensation, thought, activity and consciousness.....just like selflessness can.
While a spiritual journey often begins with an addressing of those attachments that seem coarser and material in nature, they are only the preparatory steps towards addressing the subtler expressions of ignorance which brooks no limitation of age.

For me, a spiritual life is the way of self-emptying love.

I’ve played a bit of poker online and socially with friends in some small home tournaments, I never did it seriously though, I didn’t spend the time on it learning to get good at the game although I did win a few of the tournaments among friends. So I’m sort of familiar with different aspects of playing.

I quite enjoyed it, the mechanical aspects of putting together a winning hand, a bit of excitement, the idea of reading people and tricking others, the idea of victory. The playing for money part never really grabbed me as particularly captivating, so I never really considered it gambling.

For me it was an innocent bit of fun, a pleasant and social game but it didn’t excite or captivate me in the way that a really good role-playing game did. What I didn’t like so much is that it sets you up in conflict against the other players, your winning means they have to lose. So in terms of dealing with social anxiety it does put you in a place where you have “enemies” and where the world is an unfriendly place, which is not ideal or a real representation of the world.

Its a good question.

On the one hand I do think that the medicine needs to reflect what the patient requires. So there isn't one path or technique that should be expected to fit for all people.

On the other hand, there is a difference between engaging in a "spiritual" life, what ever that does mean and living a destructive sort of life. So there is some sort of common "one way" that does link differing paths.

So the question is, what is that one broad way? Just trying to think of that now I'd say it has an inward looking quality to it. Its first focused on improving those inner qualities, that could be in service of the outer, but the practice is inward. There is some quality of moving from one state to a nebulously defined better state. An inwardly focused move from what causes us psycho-spiritual suffering to what causes psycho-spiritual flourishing? I think there is probably some level of mystery involved even for the most secular and skeptical. Sam Harris, for example, is in search of some unanswered question about what the spiritual experience is and means for people. What can it offer us? Probably some other things too that aren't occurring.

For my own sense of spirituality, I want to engage in practices and ways of thinking that help me become wiser and kinder so I can have a positive influence on the world around me. I want to have left the world better for having been in it. I don't have any grand ambition to be maximally wonderful, if I can be more additive to my world than subtractive, with some sense of trying to be better (not perfect) everyday, then I'm satisfied.

For me, a spiritual life just describes the transition of selfishness towards selflessness.