Who am I?

If we want to run a marathon, we follow fairly strict exercise training schedules that are designed based on each person’s ability. To keep a good figure, we exercise regularly to burn off calories and tone our muscles. Even to keep a minimal level of health, we exercise.

So, if we want to live life spiritually, what exercise should we do to maintain our spiritual well being?

Well, let’s be honest! We don’t often think about our spiritual health. It would not be wrong to suggest that most people do not even think about living life spiritually.

Yet, we know we are spiritual beings. That is, we are more than collections of cells that have a certain length of life span. We are more than what our appearances tell others. As human beings we are thinking beings. We assume that we are already pretty knowledgeable about being spiritual. Only problem is that when we need articulate about being spiritual, we get stuck. We have a hard time defining “spiritual life” to others.

We think of Pope or Buddhist monk or those wise people who tell us about what life and death are as spiritual. The truth is that everyone is spiritual. Some are more aware of spirituality than others. Some people become more articulate on spiritual matters because they have a disciplined way of living their lives.

Spiritual stuffs have a lot to do with thinking. However, not all activities related to thinking are spiritual. Being spiritual is far more than knowing how to add numbers, observe stars, and feel the beauty of sunsets. It has much to do with seeing our world in ways that relate us not only to one another, other living beings, but also to all things that exist in our universe and beyond. It points us to something beyond ourselves and helps us to answer the most difficult question, “Who am I?”

The first (and the most basic) spiritual exercise is to ask this question, Who am I? It is an exercise that requires a discipline because the answer is not evident and gets more complicated as we get more serious in finding the answer to it. It can easily frustrate the person who asks it; it offers no easy and quick response; and it forces the questioner to see oneself more deeply than ever before.

There are few things to keep in mind; 1. The answer to this question changes each time we ask it; 2. The one who asks is the only one who can answer—no one can give the correct or right answer to your question (you have to do the hard work); 3. This question leads to many questions which take life time to answer; 4. The most important thing to realize when you ask this question is that if you do not know how to love yourself the answer you get will be the wrong answer; 5. Asking this question requires monumental amount of patience and strength to wait for the answer.

So, are you ready to do this exercise?

If you are a beginner, start slow and give yourself a lot of time. In the same way you train for a marathon, begin this spiritual exercise by spending a small amount of time asking the question and answering. Consistency is the key; spend few minutes each day and increase the time that you spend in seeking the answer after few days. Soon you will be comfortable in spending more time seeking the answer.

Try!

If you need help, let me know. I am here to help you do it.

As a Christian, I have discovered that everyone is spiritual and that the starting point of pondering about God, human being and everything in the world is asking this question of me. Being spiritual is getting engaged in the process of searching for the answer to this crucial question. Without this exercise a person ends up creating one’s own image, thought-world, and universe that are shallow and prone to destruction. In my view Christianity within me does not become real until I begin to ask this question seriously.