Why Do You Follow Your Spiritual Path?

[Wayfarer64]

I love that story, Cameron! It really nails the message of Zen Buddhism for me.

 

As ThisLife said, there are so many people who readily give of themselves in this world, yet seemingly have no real interest in this spirituality thing. Just minutes ago, I stepped out of the front door to walk up the hill and drop a letter in the post box. A neighhour just happened to be walking by, moving slowly in her "older age". She said, "I'm going that way. I'll take it for you." It was nothing really, yet it was everything. A smile, a selfless gesture, and from someone who has a much harder time walking up the hill than I do. And like ThisLife, I often see much more of that "selflessness" in public, in our little village even, than I ever did within the religious organizations I've been a part of, where many only put on the face of spirituality.

 

Maybe the Buddhas and Boddhisatvas are everywhere, ready to teach, if only we will open our eyes enough to see them. Maybe the Buddha fields are right here in front of us, and when we stop looking for our lost heads and realize they were always here we will see them.

 

Thank you everyone for your stories,

Bruce

 

That is the real deal - the essence of the word Namaste - that we use here so often... The awareness that we are spiritual beings sharing a world of wonder and terror and beauty and strife - It is simply a world in essence being all that we make it as we muddle along... moving towards the light...

 

each on our own often lonely path -yet shared in deep knowledge that we are of the spirit...

[ThisLife]

To be honest.... I don't really know

 

I started out with pretty selfish and lame reasons, but those have mostly fallen away....

 

But I keep walking

 

I absolutely love this reply. Bruce's stimulus for this thread was such an interesting question for every person caught up in this bizarre phenomena of 'spiritual seeking'. But for clarity, brevity, and the unsurpassable virtue of honesty,... I think the way you expressed 'a life on the path', is just about as close to truth as our inevitable limitation of words can come.

 

Personally, I am someone who very often has a great deal of difficulty controlling my flow of excess verbiage,... while your manner of perfectly catching the essence of what we really 'know' about why we are following our spiritual path I find as refreshing and stimulating as a Zen poem.

 

Thank you,.... and good luck with your search !

 

 

ThisLife

 

 

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