Is spirituality for losers?

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Spirituality is for anyone who wants to explore existence at a deeper level. If you merely want more power, then you’ll want to stay nearer the surface.

Think of the phrase “the logistics of X.” For when you want to do a lot of X, you need logistics. To think carefully about flows and blockers and bottlenecks.

Now think of “the politics of X.” For when not everyone wants you to do X, how do you manufacture consent, what the consequences of ignoring said consent, what side effects would that fight have on your ability to get other stuff done that people might not want to happen.

Now consider “the philosophy of X.” For when you need to answer questions about what X means. How do you know when X is being done and when it’s not being done? What is X related to and where are the boundary points where if you step over it, you’re no longer doing X but rather doing Y?

Each step moves deeper, further away from the surface. X could be literally be anything in this world that you can do. And there can be more strata in between logistics / politics / philosophy. For example if you’re making burgers, you might have an ‘automation’ phase above logistics. Increasingly in the world things are getting automated, and there’s an entire field of study devoted to it.

But the more you study the field, the less you’re doing X. Executive chefs don’t make burgers, cooks or prep staff does that. If you want to rise up the ranks of people that do X, you need to do lots of X until you have to consider the next level. Then you can hire other people to make the burgers, but you’re responsible for keeping the entire enterprise going. If you get all the way to politics or philosophy, then you may be so far removed from X that you don’t know anything at all about it. Politics is an X all on it’s own, and if you rise through the ranks that way, then one day you’ll be called upon to lead an organization you know nothing about. That’s just how politics works.

Philosophy is similar, it’s also an X you can just start doing from the bottom. There are people that study the philosophy of philosophy, there’s the politics of philosophy and the philosophy of politics. There are no end to the combinations you can make here.

Now consider spirituality. Spirituality is, just like all the other things, an X that you can rise through the ranks with. There are certainly the politics and the logistics and the philosophies of spirituality. But there is also the spirituality of these things as well. When you consider something’s spirit, its essence, you’re doing something very like philosophy, but also something markedly different. Spirituality relates to the self, while philosophy concerns the abstract.

When you sit and meditate, you’re not moving along the X scale. You’re personally experiencing a new kind of existence, one mediated by and which further mediates your belief. If you start out with a Buddhist focus, you may move along the path to their soteriology, enlightenment, characterized by no-self and understanding of all as maya, illusion. But you might get, well, disillusioned with the structures of Buddhism and suddenly become open to a more personal approach, settling on Christian belief, even if you don’t join a religion and go to church. Or you might go the other way around.

But when it’s all said and done, your beliefs, whatever they land on, fit you better. And it gives you the energy and motivation to change your life to fit. You’re moving yourself along the X scale. You lose old conflicting beliefs, and win purpose and clarity.

If you’re lost in life, spirituality can help you find a way.