YOUR SPIRITUALITY IS IN YOUR HANDS
By Mark Seltman

As a professional hand analyst, clients have often asked "Do you think I'm a spiritual person?" "How can I become more spiritual?"

I have responded with more questions. "What does spirituality mean to you?" "What do you think?" Spirituality is such a personal and nebulous realm, that my first impulse is to say "yes" and hope for the best. How can one person see spirituality in another? If a person is religious or goes to church, does that mean they're spiritual? If they're agnostic or atheistic, but love their family and friendsi are they spiritual? How does spirituality relate to the "new age", materialism, and even neurosis and psychosis. Is there a useful definition of spirituality?

In the February 1995 issue of Plain Truth magazine, Nell Earle writes "...the popular media appear infatuated with the subject of God, Jesus Christ, prayer, and angels. Is God back, or does he, as some have quipped, have a better press agent?"

A majority of people have a concept of spirituality which is colored by the exoteric and dogmatic beliefs of formalized religion. For e[xample, you can become more spiritual by being celibate, denying materiality, or fasting. These are ideas fostered by religious institutions in order to support their own private agendas. Modern psychologists believe that by consciously denying something, the slurrounding issues become highly charged. Edward Whitmont, in his The Symbolic QuesL writes "Whatever is repressed, while then lost to consciousness, still does not disappear. It becomes an unconscious compulsive force which then has primitive and potentially destructive characteristics." Denial sounds more like a route to religious fanaticism than a healthy path to spirituality.

Manly P. Hall, in his book Questions andI Answers: Fundamentals of the Esoteric Sciences, writes "all men suffer from certain reasonable doubts concerning Life and Truth..." He postulates that "Spirituality is not in keeping with either the church or the state. Each person is his own high priest, and the obligations he makes to himself are what's real."

Everyone seems to agree that spirituality is a good thing to have, though few can effectively define it. To the ancients it meant life...not in its physical aspect, but as a universal principle which permeates, drives; and sustains existence. It's the abstract energy in man which is the only reality in the midst of an ever changing world. To the eastern philosopher, spirit is never individualized. Spirit is universal. One man does not have one spirit and another man have another. Man is a race of individual personalities, but indivisible spiritually. Mystics throughout history have always known that there is only one spirit in the universe. There are no divine spirits, human spirits, or animal spirits, but one spirit flowing through divine, human, and animal forms. The Taoists of China know that as springs flow into streams, and streams flow into rivers, and rivers into oceans, so evolution is the imprisoned life in all things flowing through the innumerable forms back to the sea of its own universality. The Tao cannot be defined.

Rudolf Steiner, in his book Knowledge of thejHigher Worlds and its Attainment, explains that human beings can attain spiritual enlightenment and wisdom through diligent esoteric study. The primary goal of this study is to recognize and live a life of truth and inner tranquility. There are six attributes which the initiate strives to acquire: control of thought, control of actions, perseverance, tolerance (towards persons, creatures, and circumstances), impartiality (the faith which can move mountains), and equanimity (cultivation of inner balance).

In all esoteric teachings, the goal of spirituality seems to have something to do with raising consciousness in order to be aware of Something greater, higher, and deeper than things appear to be in the moment. There is reference to all that is good, exalting, uplifting and God-like in the nature of man. There is a feeling of reverence, devotion, and affection, and a separation from all that is Iow and degrading. Perhaps Jesus of Nazareth captured the essence of spirituality best when he preached, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).

I have come to believe that free will is the basis for spirituality. No matter what your circumstances, you have the ability to exercise free will in your thinking and feelings. You can decide what your own higher truths are and choose to live your life accordingly. Now I answer my clients' original question, "Your Spirituality is in your hands."