My Inner Life

I have a hard time understanding people's lack of spirituality. I fully understand people's lack of religiosity, especially their disdain for the historical implications of most organized religion, and of any dogma in general. But at the same time, spirituality, my "faith" informs everything I do. That's not to say that I do things because I'm "supposed" to, because it was written down by man, but rather, because it comes from a place deep inside. A place which is both me, and is beyond me, that says: this is the right way; or: this is the wrong way. Something that is beyond self-interest alone (though I'm sure that is a part of it, evolutionarily speaking).

I've never been good at explaining this, and while some of the good people that I surround myself with are spiritual or religious, many, if not most, are not. They find it quaint or slightly amusing that someone like myself has so deeply and completely rooted myself, my life, my actions, in faith. (Personally I don't know how one could know even the basics of the workings of the universe and not live in a mind-blowing state of awe beyond ones self. We are the universe reflecting back on itself and I just don't see that as an accident. If it were an accident, that in and of itself would be miraculous.) At any rate, as I said, I have a hard time explaining what I mean when I say I am spiritual, and that I have faith. So this quote from the Dalai Lama hit a chord with me, it is a good way to explain what I mean when I say that I'm a very spiritual person.

Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit -such as love and compassion, patience, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama