Some people proudly declare that they have no heroes, and that they worship nothing. This isn’t necessarily a negative statement, but it tends to be short-sighted.
They lie? Also true. Some people feel they are down to earth. I would offer that the most down to earth people are those we bury. Bury, inter, put under ground. As in disregard? That too.
Maybe it’s more that they don’t want to be seen as relying on someone? It’s likely ego based. To live is to be moved, and no mind is so hardened that it is moved by nothing at all.
Spiritual practices vary a great deal. Spiritual practices I see like art. They express feelings and intentions, and the idea that spiritual practices are for the pleasure of a higher power has led a lot of people to crisis or even loss of faith. This isn’t necessary, and the idea of spiritual practice as a sort of political approval seeking, well … I feel it was never anything other than unhealthy spiritual practices.
Spiritual practices meet our need, and we do need something from them. The state can be called reverence. We have to hold something sacred. An ideal, if not physical presences. Life needs to have some value in our eyes for us to keep living it. Many people don’t and for the same reason that people praise as rational, being “objective”, objectifying everything and everyone. There are countless proofs that illustrate the limitations of human perception and reasoning.
Seeing a celebrity as great simply because they are rich and famous? True, and the celebrity may be a miserable soul in truth, but no one would know or even care.
Many (men usually) put their reverence into sports. They put a distorted reverence into sports. It’s a block more than the realization it could be.
Reverence is the practice of faith. Literally the practice, not the feeling. Many people complain that they can feel no faith in anyone or anything. But faith isn’t just a mood you have sometimes and it isn’t kept from anyone because of an emotional disposition. We all developed emotional habits or have inherited emotional tendencies. Just hormonal dispositions and incidental really, by no means any barrier.
Can you say it is as basic as love? Yes.
You mean we all have the capacity despite individual dispositions? Yes.
Faith is a very functional practice, and I am not referring to religion. I have faith in my wife as my partner, but I don’t restrict that adherence to a practice. Religion literally means practice. Faith and religion are not the same. I practise reverence for the bond she and I share. It’s publicly called marriage, but the abstract ideas of marriage have nothing to do with my reverence for our bond.
How does one practice reverence? It’s actually more simple than it would seem. You likely recognize things in life that are vital to life’s process, even if you don’t understand why they are. Is this not so?
A sense that it’s loss would be tragic. I’ve always had ideas that certain things were very important, even if I wasn’t always sure why. That is faith, and you don’t have to know why they are important. Your human consciousness has limits. Can we all admit that?
Limits of perception you mean? Yes.
True consciousness exceeds perception. Reverence is touching each of these vital things, taking inventory of their presence in our life, and then acting in keeping with their integrity. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Reverence is no form of self abasement, if anything quite the opposite. Though people don’t realize this, and shun faith in things they feel they don’t understand, and question things even they claim to understand. Can this person live with any peace or strength?
It is what society does though. Beats it out of us telling us to be objective, hence the anxiety issues. Yes. The commonality of mental illness and stress related health disorders. It’s a psychic poison.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~