In Reply to: Re: I see it differently though posted by Thinker on December 07, 2009 at 20:50:06:
I've grown too. First of all, I don't think of myself as a Christian or a Buddhist or any one thing. In my present journey spirituality for me is about a feet on the ground awareness, a consciousness, that of being present in the moment. And I'm learning more about meditation, the kind that works for me ...especially when I'm in the woods or on a mountain path (just like Thinker was saying). If I'm mindful, aware, in the moment as they say, I experience what some have called God-consciousness. Daily I do try to seek a conscious contact with the Great Spirit, or Great Creator, as I like to think of "God". (For that I give credit to the native American Indians.)
But not only alone and in the mountains or countryside, I can also experience a shared awakening consciousness in my classroom with the adult learners of English that I'm teaching. Because the job is about learning a language that's foreign to the student, the objective is to guide them to discovering how to communicate in a language that's not their own, and communicativeness is nothing more than personal interaction. The authentic language that they learn to produce is often generated interaction that reaches a genuine shared level of consciousness which at times can be profroundly deep. It's really thrilling, the divine nature, the spiritual nature, of the experiences that take place from time to time ...and this is in a classroom, a group of simple human beings together, without any kind of "religious" practice or "prayer".
And what about that moment of consciousness, presence, and the divine, if you're paying attention, which can occur with a cashier in the supermarket.
As I journey and grow ...the past has less and less to do with who I am, because everything that I am is what I am in this moment, and my thoughts are less and less bothered with tomorrow and the concerns that follow when I start thinking about anything "future".
So real peace, serenity, and a sense of being useful has come my way. I did not have that before.
A book that I've been reading which I really like is: "Coming To Our Senses" by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Reading of this nature has really clicked with me these recent few years.