Duhovnost nije religija Spirituality Is Not Religion

Brkanje duhovnosti s religijom ono je što ljude čini beznadnima. Duhovnost je za svakoga. Nije izborna, i čak je i ono što izgleda kao običan život, nezainteresiran za takve stvari, duboko smješteno unutar određenog područja duhovnosti.

Kad religiozna osoba govori o Raju i Paklu, o kralju koji sjedi na oblaku, o četverorukom plavom liku, koja god bila tradicija, takve me riječi malo zanimaju. Religija se bavi onime što je stvarno, no to malo znači istinski duhovnom čovjeku. Onaj tko je duhovan gleda dalje od toga: što je to po čemu taj Gospodin, taj čovjek i sve drugo za što se kaže da postoji, uopće jest? Po čemu uopće bilo što jest?

Što je stvarno toliko je dosadno pitanje. Što je zbiljnost? To je nešto vrijedno istraživanja. Ili, drugačije rečeno, budući da je jedina zbiljnost s kojom uistinu imamo ikakav dodir, čak i kad se u sve posumnja, Jastvo, pitanje postaje: „Tko sam ja?“

Pretvaramo se da je duhovnost neka vanjska tvorevina, nešto nalik bajkama, starim knjigama, indoktrinaciji, ispiranju mozga. Ništa nije dalje od istine. Duhovnost se, ako mene pitate, odnosi na vlastito Jastvo. Koliko god je sigurno da je Jastvo stvarno, toliko je stvarna i duhovnost, jer je zapravo posve jednostavna. Tiče se najtemeljnije, najneporecivije razine onoga što jest, a ne dogme ili neke daleke apstrakcije. Neposrednija je od svega ostaloga, čak i od onoga što smatramo razumskim znanjem primljenim putem osjetila, jer i sama percepcija počiva na povjerenju, dok, ako se sve ostalo odbaci, čovjek ostaje posve unutar duhovne činjenice, a ne materijalne. To je vrlo važno razumjeti. Pitanje zbiljnosti temeljnije je od onoga što doživljavamo kao stvarno.

Kako onda netko može tvrditi da nije duhovan? Čak ni najveći cinik, koji odbacuje baš sve, ne samo institucionalne mitove nego i ono što se obično smatra stvarnošću, ne može pobjeći činjenici da postoji netko, nešto, što opaža sam taj čin odbacivanja. Odbacivanje je viđeno. Od koga? Ne od onoga tko o njemu misli, jer i misli o njemu su viđene. Stoga se znalac, ono najdublje u nama, ne može zanijekati. Zato se za Jastvo kaže da je samosvijetleće.

Istinska duhovnost počinje istinskim ateizmom u najradikalnijem mogućem smislu. Sumnja nije samo korisna, ona je nužna. Treba prepoznati prijevarnu narav religije i ne stati na tome, nego prodrijeti dalje u ateizam toliko beskompromisan da se društvo, religija, svakovrsni identiteti, uloge i dužnosti vezane uz njih, imena i oblici, sve to vidi kao posve očitu tvorevinu, nešto što promatra onaj tko sjedi unutra i svjedoči. Najduhovnija rečenica, ona koja čovjeka najviše budi, glasi: „Ne vjerujem ti.“ Nevjerovanje ne umanjuje duhovno iskustvo, nego ga sprječava da bude označeno, da bude zatočeno unutar okvira koji nameću društvo ili religija. Kad se objašnjenje, mehanizam iza iskustva, ostavi po strani, ateistički, uz čvrsto odbijanje svakog vjerovanja vezanog uz njega, tada se iskustvu dopušta da bude ono što uistinu jest. Dopušta mu se da naprosto bude, bez vjerovanja. Čovjek tada mora odlučiti prestati se pretvarati da je nešto drugo od Toga. To je Jastvo. To je ono što ostaje vidljivo i najateističkijem i najciničnijem umu.

Nedavno sam čuo da moramo prihvatiti određeni „paket“ kako bismo postigli ikakvo duhovno znanje, okvir zvan religija ili tradicija, jer ako to ne učinimo, osuđeni smo da nikada ne napredujemo u spoznaji o tome što je stvarno, a što nije. No takvo znanje malo čini. Biti ono što jesi kategorijalno se razlikuje od znanja o tome, jednako kao što je nacrt kuće, za razliku od same kuće, beskoristan kad počne kiša. Um to možda pokušava obuhvatiti, ali ono što jesi nikada nije trebalo obuhvaćanje. Znajući to, čovjek ostaje smješten unutra. Slobodan.

Najzadivljujuća pojava, a istodobno svima najdostupnija i najpristupačnija, jest izravno vidjeti da, kad se prividi, takozvani duhovni učitelji i božanstva u hramovima prepoznaju kao prijevare, kao obični i beživotni, kad vanjski svijet počne nalikovati slici u koju se predugo zurilo pa se čovjek izgubio u njezinoj projekciji u vlastitu umu, kad sve to izblijedi, ono što ostaje, Jastvo, nije praznina. Ono je punina.

Misunderstanding spirituality for religion is what makes people hopeless. Spirituality is for everyone. It is not optional, and even what seems like an ordinary, uninterested life in such matters is deeply placed within a specific realm of spirituality.

When a religious person speaks of Heaven and Hell, of a king seated on a cloud, of a four-armed blue figure, whatever the tradition, such words bear little interest to me. Religion deals with what is real, but this means little to the truly spiritual one. The one who is spiritual looks beyond that: what is that by which that Lord, that human, and all else that is said to be there, is there? By virtue of what is anything at all?

What is real is such a boring question. What is reality? That is something worth investigating. Or, another way to put it, as the only reality we truly have any touch with, even when everything is doubted, is the Self, the question becomes: “Who am I?”

We pretend that spirituality is some external construct, something akin to fairy tales, old books, indoctrination, brainwashing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Spirituality refers to one’s own Self, if you were to ask me. As surely as the Self is real, spirituality is real, because it is in fact utterly simple. It concerns the most fundamental, most undeniable level of what is, rather than dogma or some distant abstraction. It is more immediate than everything else, even what we take to be rational knowledge received through the senses, as perception itself is predicated on trust, whereas if everything else is rejected, one is left entirely within the spiritual fact and not the material. That is very important to understand. The question of reality is more fundamental than what we perceive to be real.

How, then, can one claim not to be spiritual? Even the most extreme cynic who rejects absolutely everything, not only institutional myths but what is commonly regarded as reality, cannot escape the fact that there is someone, something, perceiving this very act of rejection. The rejection is seen. By whom? Not the one who thinks of it, for the thoughts of it are seen as well. Therefore the knower, the Innermost, cannot be denied. This is why the Self is said to be self-effulgent.

True spirituality begins with true atheism in the most radical sense possible. Doubt is not only useful, it is essential. One must recognize the fraudulent nature of religion and not stop there, but press further into an atheism so uncompromising that society, religion, identities of every kind, the roles and duties attached to them, names and forms, all of it is seen as such an obvious construct, something observed by the one who sits within and witnesses. The most spiritual and awakening sentence one can have is this: “I do not believe you.” Not believing does not diminish spiritual experience, it prevents it from being labeled, from being confined within a framework imposed by society or religion. When the explanation, the mechanism behind the experience, is left aside, atheistically, with a firm rejection of any belief attached to it, then the experience is allowed to be what it truly is. It is allowed simply to be, without belief. One must then decide to stop pretending to be what is other than That. That is the Self. It is what remains visible to the most atheistic and cynical mind.

I’ve heard recently that we have to accept a certain “package” in order to achieve any kind of spiritual knowledge, a framework called religion or tradition, for if we don’t, we are doomed to never make any progress in knowledge regarding what is real and what is not. But this kind of knowledge does little. Being what one is is categorically different from knowledge about it in the same way that the blueprint for the house, as opposed to the house, is useless when the rain starts. The mind may try to contain it, but what you are has never needed containment. Knowing this, one remains situated within. Free.

The most astonishing phenomenon, and at the same time the most available and accessible to everyone, is to see directly that when appearances, so-called spiritual masters, and deities in temples are recognized as scams, as ordinary and lifeless, when the external world begins to resemble a painting into which one has stared for too long and become lost in its projection within one’s own mind, when all of that fades, what remains, the Self, is not emptiness. It is full.