Being Spiritual for the WRONG Reasons

I am starting this thread to talk about my issues, but feel free/welcome(d) to join me if you want to discuss on this theme or related ones…

So, I Admit it, I am not spiritual and the only reasons I want to be Spiritual or rather “Spiritual” is to have a better life, to gain something (health, money, power, pleasures, etc. You name it) and even to make some people who hate me and my family jealous…
So, I want power, I want siddhis and I don’t care about enlightenment… Perhaps I care about Knowledge and Yes, I also want Love, to love more, well all that I am and all that I want, I measure, I quantify…

There, I said it.
Now, judge me or don’t, add something, share your opinion, if you want.

Now, am I wrong?
Am I a fool? Perhaps for admitting these things?

Edit: I’ll come back a little later…

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What do you think the “right” reason is?

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It’s completely understandable. The intention behind why you want those things is almost the reason why everyone becomes spiritual in the first place. You want to lessen your suffering. To you not having those things is causing suffering. A rock eater would suffer if it didn’t have rocks to eat just as you feel suffering by not having those desires met. This is perhaps the purest reason to become spiritual. The hard question though is if not having those things is causing the feeling of suffering or if the obsession itself is causing suffering.

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90 percent are here for that, 98 percent claim they have it on YouTube.
So you are well within range.

Humans are ruled by a few base drives, but the refinement of that leads to development.
We have desire,
you wish and desire this.

You see an example, you think, maybe i can do it, maybe be better.

This is a regular basal competitive drive we have learnt to operate with in society.
Is it wrong?
that’s really up to you,
the journey towards it, can teach you.
That is how spiritual development can happen.
You learn along the way, well if you really want to.
But then if you really understand, you stop, re access and change your direction or path.
It can become the steppingstone to growth.

It is good to understand yourself like this.
Admitting, means you understand and are not using your masked desires with placated stories as to why you feel so.

Know thyself

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Huh
Learned a new word tonight. Nice.

Personally, I want everything that feels good lol
Can’t we have siddhis and enlightenment?

It’s 2022

image

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Wait huh? Dont we all want to be spiritual because we want somthing out of it?

I want a better life, to be rich and smart. U make it sound like that shamfull?

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True that I was ashamed for a moment

Like someone saying is bad to eat sweets. But it’s sweet.

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Best recommendation here is the foot spa

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So, few things that I learned: it’s waay more common than I thought to want to use spirituality, to gain something material or concrete out of it; as Captain said, desire is the driving force, for whatever reason I desire some things; I had this preconceived notion that Spirituality means selflessness, love for the other(s) and perhaps even self-sacrifice, along with a notion of purity (although I can not explain it that well) of some sort, plus reaching a Higher Consciousness (something along those lines) (my background = christian, as a child, then I just very briefly studied a lot of stuff, philosophies, different religions, yoga, mysticism, etc.); so, being spiritual, I see that it can mean a lot of things, it doesn’t mean that my reasonings and desires are wrong, but it can be a process, where I can aspire to/for something higher - perhaps in/with time, for now I’m certain of my desires; all of these desires I somewhat considered to be corruptions, human imperfections, lack of higher clarity and beingness, perhaps that’s what they are, yet it all depends on the perspective, for if you ask a Saint/Higher Being they might give you some views and answers, while I have mine lol.

I could, perhaps, add other things/thoughts, but I feel it’s enough for now.

Still, I’ll add this: I’m much more “dirty” (again, it’s just a word) than I wanted to admit, yet it’s far more common than I thought; I did not want to be fake, at least to myself, I wanted to admit what are my reasonings and to realize that my thoughts and desires are opposite of selfless and loving, so for now, I stick with the basics.

Also, in some ways, everything is fake, including basic things like words; they only express something, they convey ideas and feelings, yet they can’t be replacement for them, at a deeper level, we are (made of) emotions, not words, so all our Society, you could say, promotes a level of dishonesty, sure, perhaps a needed one, but a mask/layer over the authentic inner self, nonetheless.

I was a little bit ecclectic, yet I wanted to cover as much as possible.

As a conclusion: even when I did some good, I did it because it felt/feels good, I felt joy (out of it), not because of other reasons; love? Well, I like the feel of it, to be loved and to love, but I think I barely truly love, again, I love the feeling of love, not it’s essence.

Gotta leave for now.
See ya.

Edit:

It would be awesome to get both, I mean if enlightenment is as good as it’s advertising, sure, yet, for now I can’t focus on all things, gotta stick with siddhis lol - but perhaps I’ll get enlightnement from there, perhaps after I’m bored.

Now that you made it clear - it is truly wonderful and spiritual; perhaps everything is spiritual, just that I don’t see it (?)

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I think this sounds absolutely wonderful.
Spiritual - the spirit.
You acknowledge your spirit and seek it’s realization in the 3d through your desires.
What is not spiritual about it?
It’s wonderful

This is life and you are living it in the way you want

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In that case it would be worth of a clarification that the spirituality you’re bringing up is a Christian spirituality.
A spirituality that is limited by the canons of the religion.

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Perhaps, but only partially, as I mentioned that nowadays I’m more into Yoga and Hinduism than Christianity.
Notions of purity are also present there, you have ascetism, good karma = good deeds (it can be good deeds, but other things as well), also purity is a higher and inner concept, not necessarily just a word or idea being present just in christendom; I think it has to do with my own very views, rather than a religion or a spirituality, also just to add this, I’m not interested in dogmas, yet I have my own “dogmas” (limiting beliefs).

Anyway, the basic idea is that I don’t desire God or Enlightenment, I desire Power, Knowledge, to feel good, pleasures, love, spiritual powers, money, etc.

Edit: And I find out that it’s perfectly fine and common.

Just listen to yourself. Be present if your body wants something. Even if it’s bad. Do it. And learn from it then observe it. But don’t put yourself in regret. You already being spiritual by being born in here anyway. It’s a lesson from the beginning to end of your life. Just be present and grow your awareness

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Perhaps my Higher Self wanted to experience these desires (?)

Just a curious and funny thought - what if I have reached Enlightenment and I was/became bored? :thinking::grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Naah… Or is it possible (?)

Most probably I did not reached/realized such a state.

Edit: why do we (well, I’ll use we for this sentence) search for enlightenment?
What is it and is it possible that we alll had it, then we “lost” it (“paradise lost”?) and perhaps we want to regain that state?
Just a thought.
There was an Israeli American scientist and mystic from whom I first heard this (or a similar) idea - Itzhak Bentov.

The ego is also part of your spirituality in itself. So yea. Good or bad evil or not. It’s all the part of the process. By you wanting to be rich or not. That’s also your journey. You admitting your mistake is already good step to realization itself. Just always be present :)

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Pleasures and money, all loaves and fishes are divine.
Although that would imply that the ego is only a separable aspect of the divine, when it is all one.
Blood, war, death and hell are divine.
Everything is a one thing and god never stops being one all thing.

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I think that’s great. I think it’s great that you know what you want and you want it because you want it. I think it would be so much worse if you wanted “enlightenment” because someone told you that you should want it or because someone said it was good. Full of heart instead of brainless sounds good to me. Sounds like you’re on the right path. What kind of sheep would you be ignoring yourself to follow after something someone said?

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Well, to be rude, the world is full of these.

Edit: with all due respect…

To continue the edit: just because someone follows othere, it does not mean they are less than me, I just wanted to sound cool…

New Edit:

That is truly what I want, to see or to have firsthand experiential evidence, I don’t take no one’s word, nor sacred texts, but my own experience; I don’t find anything more natural than going after something, because I want or desire.

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I’m not trying to be mean either. However it may come across. I wouldn’t dare look down on anyone like that because things are complex. I may wax passionate and poetic and foolish but not condescending.

But on another side of the coin, if enlightenment or a religious book or teacher etc is “good” you should be able to find some firsthand experiential evidence of that for yourself that then lets you know you really want to dive in to it.

And that would then persuade your heart, so once again, you’d be going after something because you want it.

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