Let me first add a bit to the title you’ve just read. Everything and everyone teaches spirituality! Every moment has that power. Every object leads you to it. You simply have to ready yourself to accept it.

One of my favorite quotes is by Confucius: “When the student is ready, the teacher shall appear.” Read this line again and let its essence enter the holy depths of your being. We are all looking for some power nuggets that will suddenly appear and infuse us with the enlightenment to help us transcend the mundane and reach the portals of heaven right here on earth. All this is possible and all of it is achievable. However, we mortals have to prepare ourselves for it.

Have you ever seen a grenade burst? You may certainly have seen it on the celluloid screen or read about it and then visualized it in your imagination. But I have not only seen it, but have actually primed and thrown a live grenade and… it had actually burst! No, I am no terrorist neither a propagator of violence. This happened during one of our WT (Weapons Training) sessions while I was at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. In case you’ve missed the crux in the sentences above, I had mentioned the word ‘primed’ there. Even a grenade, unless it is primed, does not ‘bother’ to burst! Priming means opening up a grenade and inserting a charge that converts a grenade into a ‘live grenade’. There are two lessons here:

1. Priming or activation is essential for that burst of energy that we classify as spiritual maturity!

2. An external force must intervene and do that responsibly.

When a grenade bursts, it symbolically releases its negative vibes and merges with the eternal. No, I am not attempting to justify explosions and destruction in any form. The grenade is an euphemism for reaching out and experiencing the super power that pervades in all of us. The grenade burst because there was a thought somewhere within someone who wanted or wished it to burst. Even the Buddha says: “All that we are is a result of what we have thought.”

When W. Clement Stone remarked: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve”, what he may also have meant is that it is the thought that makes its appearance within a human mind to get him whatever he thinks of. The first point I’d like to make here is that it is your own thought that will make the spirit of spiritual come alive. Thinking indeed makes it so but, this thought has to be primed by an external agency.

Before we go any further, let me define ‘spiritual’ for some of our uninitiated readers. “I hope that you understand what the word ‘spiritual’ really means. It means to search for – to investigate – the true nature of the mind. There’s nothing spiritual outside. My rosary isn’t spiritual; my robes aren’t spiritual. Spiritual means the mind and spiritual people are those who seek its nature.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche. So obviously, YOU are not spiritual; it is YOUR MIND that can attain that level.

Now let us talk about this external agency that we are trying to crown as the begetter of this spirit of spiritual! These external agencies do give us insights into the meaning of life. Let me quote from the internet here:

“Keeping cool,” said the ice.

“Driving hard,” said the hammer.

“Being up-to-date,” said the calendar.

“Being sharp,” said the knife.

“Making light around you,” said the fire.

“Sticking to it,” said the glue.

“Being bright,” said the lamp.

“Being on time,” said the clock.

“Saving a drop,” said the faucet.

And best of all, “learning from it,” said the mistake.

Similarly, all conceivable objects and all animated beings will have something to teach, something that will add to the force that will create the priming thought within you.

Thus the great truth that I must now speak of, is: Learn and be one with EVERYTHING. Only then the mind will understand the true nature of life and will create the thought that will be the priming energy for your sojourn into the spiritual realm!

There are a few things that will help you do this:

1. Acceptance of the journey for which you have come – why fight the very things which you have come to learn?

2. Accept Your Power – You are great and mighty. True Power comes not of ego, but the collective One of your Spirit… True Power is that which is Love, the intentional living as co-creator from within all opportunities that are offered you.

We all work with one infinite power. Whatever is going on in your mind is what you are attracting, so attract the best thoughts. Thoughts send out a magnetic energy and it is true that people think about what they don’t want and attract more of the same. So channelize your thoughts wisely. This is because “Thought = Creation”. If these thoughts are attached to powerful emotions, they can carry you faster towards a spiritual realization! So just look around. Everything and everyone teaches spirituality! Get taught. Be primed and burst into the spiritual wonderment that exists here on earth!

[Arvind Passey]
[June 2007]
Published in Preptalk, June 2007