Spirit-Free Spirituality
By Adam J. Pearson
I’m not interested in enlightenment or unenlightenment. My task is this: when I’m hungry, to eat, when I’m sleepy, to sleep, when I need to think, to think, and when I need to feel, to feel.
I do not aim to be extraordinary, but supremely ordinary, not beyond nature, but supremely natural, not tense for the future, but relaxed into the present.
This is my simple way, just this, and gently watering the seeds of wonder, caring, mindfulness, patience, and insight as I come across them in the garden. Beyond this, laughing and laughing, all along the way… this is all there is to my spirit-free spirituality.
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Q: But the path is complicated… how do we kill the ego?
A: All I find is a male human organism here. I’m simply trying to attend to his basic needs while remaining mindful and responsive to his environment and the other species and organisms that inhabit it.
As for killing the ego, how shall you kill what never lived? Only this wonderful organism lives; all of our ideas, concepts, notions, scales of achievement and so on are simply currents of activity within the life of the physical organism. That’s where the life is, in the organism. And that life is what we are responsible for, where our attention and practice must rest.
Q: What about enlightenment?
A: Endless talk about enlightenment is a waste of time and energy in our brief lives on this Earth. We confuse enlightenment with the thought and talk of enlightenment. We use the thought of enlightenment to produce an experience that matches it so we can add ‘enlightened’ to our resume, another credential for the ego.
Far more important than talk about enlightenment, however, is the actual experience of living. By this, I mean what it actually feels like to be a living human being, to taste, to smell, to see, to hear, to touch, to think, to dream, to feel. We can spend hours discussing how an orange will taste once we eat it and debate over whether that eating will happen immediately or over a long time, will reveal a sweet flavour or a sour one, and many other such issues.
The important thing, though, is not all of these speculative thoughts about what eating an orange ‘could be like once we finally do it,’ but actually eating the orange. That’s living at the core of life, totally awake, totally mindful of, and alert to, every detail… cultivating such moments is a worthwhile practice, a practice far more valuable than endlessly talking about enlightenment.
When we are intensely aware of life, we develop appreciation. With appreciation comes fulfillment, and with fulfillment, joy. These things need not be complicated. All we have to do is be mindful and appreciate what we are experiencing at each moment. It’s a simple practice, and though it is not always easy, its fruits are clear and well worth biting into and tasting for yourself.
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