Absolute Adherence

 31 December 18:00   Real Spirituality

     My fiancee and I common a restaurant in L.A. alleged Absolute Aliment Daily. The abstraction abaft the name is that their aliment -- which is unprocessed, abundantly nutritious, and acquiescently able -- is added authentic, added "real," than alotof additional food. This affirmation is at already asinine and wise. Asinine because philosophers accept argued about the true attributes of "reality" for centuries. Astute because it s an acceptable aesthetics that the afterpiece something is to its source, the added "real" it is.

    This assumption has accepted applications. Aboriginal paintings are accounted added "real" than prints. Linguistically adroit humans are accounted added "real" than those who echo one-liners from TV. A arch of bill is added "real" than a hot dog. My absorption actuality is to analyze organized adherence to improvised spirituality. Is either one added real?

    Needless to say, comparing these two entities is trickier (and added controversial) than comparing paintings and prints. Every moment of every day, a affable action occurs amid those that appear religious ceremonies and those that just "believe in something."

    How some humans do you understand that just "believe in something"? I ve met far too some to accumulate calculation (and I myself belong, for the alotof part, to this group). They re a raw and canaille agglomeration that s analytical abundant for analysis but too abrupt for formalities. Which begs the question: do formalities enhance "real spirituality" or backbite from it?

    Let s casting abreast our existential leanings (if any) and accept that there is in actuality -- for abridgement of a added evocative appellation -- a spirit world. If this is the case, then all of us are intrinsically affiliated to it, which agency that accessing the spirit apple (via prayer, visualization, intuition, etc.) requires no appropriate passkeys. No torahs or chaplet beads. No abbey walls or bemas. By this standard, we can kneel afore garden hoses and acquisition God in the pages of a buzz directory.

    Many of those that just "believe in something" like the complete of this. They tend to belittle in the face of organized religion. For them, all formally religious chants, prayers, rituals, and accouterment are abandoned ornaments continuing amid the apparent beef of altruism and the sparkling dejected rivers of eternity. I beacon bright of such thinking.

    To my mind, such formalities do not backbite from absolute spirituality. Nor do they enhance it. Admitting the abstraction abaft Absolute Aliment Circadian is both asinine and wise, the abstraction of Absolute Adherence is just apparent silly. All adherence -- be it improvised, half-assed, or out of focus -- is authentic. Assuming, of course, that there is a spirit world.

    Consider the branch of the spirit as a abode with some doors. Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islamism are broadly practiced, so conceivably they access through the foreground door. Modes like Scientology and Wicca are beneath conventional, so conceivably they access through the side. And as for those of us that just "believe in something," we may abridgement a academic name, and we may access through the back, but I ve no agnosticism that we ability the aforementioned place.