The last few posts have been linked, in a kind of serial discussion. I try to keep individual posts to a tolerable length—about 500 words. This allows breaks for input of comments, which greatly influence the direction we take. It’s an interactive process, “as in life”, like a plant growing in its environment. It’s an ongoing experiment, which was the original title of this place in cyberspace, as still reflected in its URL: perpetual-lab. There are many who have not yet grasped that blogging is a new dynamic form of literature, not to be derided. I’m only beginning to grasp it myself.
I was going to talk on the theme “Distinguish what’s real” but Kathy has raised a point about spirituality—a topic on which I always feel there is much to say. Where should “spirituality” be placed on the Maslow hierarchy of needs? Here is a web page which suggests that it should be at the top. I recall a discussion in a counselling training group where we all accepted this without question. The site linked above suggests that the spiritual needs in question are: love, wholeness, perfection, completion, fate, justice, truth, orderliness, justice, God, meditation, prayer, purity. It’s a long list but why not?
In my One Piece of Baggage post, I spoke about people who reach the top of the Maslow pyramid and then float off like balloons into a sky full of fluffy clouds. To them that’s their spiritual path—trying to grasp hold of mere words or rituals—and I was mocking it in a way, because something felt wrong.
Kathy must have felt the same because she commented: “I think spirituality is found at the bottom of triangle”. In one sentence she punctures the New Age balloon, I mean its false element. For who can live without the spirit, whatever spirit may be, from birth onwards? It’s the difference between a baby and a doll. Some would even claim that a doll is a fetish into which a certain amount of spirit is poured, from the love that its owner bestows on it. Of course this is contrary to science, but it’s a way to talk about our subjective experience, which is the only place we’ll ever encounter spirit, whatever spirit may be.
Can we put spirituality at the bottom of the triangle, along with breathing, food, excretion and sex? Yes! Spirit means breath anyhow, from the Latin spiritus from spirare, to breathe. Ancient sages of both East and West did not understand why we breathe so they made it into a ghostly myth. We know that breathing is just as basic and physiological as excretion.
Spirit by the common consent of language usage is my inner life, the ultimate feeling of “me”, my instinct to worship, to feel gratitude; the joy in being alive which I share with all creation. It is the possibility of a joy transcending any material grimness or deprivation. Fie upon those who push their pseudo-spirituality in the market-place and think they are better than the poor and wretched and brain-damaged and the Death Row prisoners! Spirit is basic, and spirituality can be nothing more than a conscious connection with it, independent of other needs.
a wayfarer’s notes 
And here's an afterthought which proves that spirit is at the bottom. If it were higher, it would be dependent on the other layeers of needs, so in extremis, just before death, with our physical systems barely functioning, our safety gone for ever, we’d lose touch with spirit, before our death. But, as Elizabeth Kubler-Ross points out, dying can trigger a great awakening of spirit.
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Thank you for making this more clear for me. I too believe that Spirituality would be on all levels of the pyramid.
who can live without spirit? i enjoyed reading your words about spirit and its origins Thank you!
(((Hugs)))
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spirare breath. Inspire, aspire. At the moment of birth, Inspiration, take in the spirit.
Spiritus Sanctus – holy spirit. Where does it come from? From the air we breathe.
At the end, Expire; the final expiration. Where does the spirit go?
Back into the vast meld and mix of the Inspiration and Expiration of the world – the universe – of which we are all part.
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Davo
yes! Back into the vast meld and mix of the Inspiration and Expiration of the world – the universe – of which we are all part. 🙂
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My view: The Spiritual, as real, and as belonging to every single individual, regardless of anything being theirs or not theirs, is a parallel existence, that runs the gamut of this pyramid which itself is in only this one side of life. This parallel continuum of life is overhead, meaning that it is greater in time-length than a single lifetime, this is the ultimate Soul of the individual and the individual is only one facet of that Soul at one moment of that greater timespan. That timespan is the actual psychology of the Soul, which finds the 'incarnation' necessary for its' psychological purposes. During the incarnation, both are operative in a parallel fashion, bring on events, dealing with events, and both are the product of many long years of existence and experiences. So one, even one-sided one, does not ever simply act based on 'here' only. And that is not a complication, that would ultimately be a simplification of living, in that we would not have to make things 'here' fit that don't really fit or that don't really have any thing to do with the event or experience (which is actually what we spend a lot of time trying to do, understand while deficient in the whole).
Now let me read these comments, this is a very interesting direction that this literature is going in, eh Vincent? Thanks for all the help, I am enjoying the whole process.
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thanks for these comments! Now it is time to follow with the post I'd planned, on the theme “Distinguish the Real”, which will set a framework to examine your remarks on Spirit, Jim, and everyone's ideas including mine, which have been shifting! Even in the matter of “Where on the pyramid is spirituality?” I have conflicting views and feel guilty for giving a dogmatic and one-sided answer.
For certainly, in my life, it is the completion of all layers & components of the pyramid, as if each was a brick required for the stability of the whole, which enables me now to contemplate and discuss matters of the spirit. I'm not at all sure that the purpose of spirit is to be contemplated, though, like a fine wine.
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I don't think in pyramids or in circles.
But what is real or reality?
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Thanks for the reality-check, Imemine! Let's chuck away the triangles and circles & move on.
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if still we consider the triangle. it should fall in the self-actualisation. cause, frankly speaking, when we are too busy managing our daily chores, when the question is survival, where does spirituality comes in mind? it's brute force that speaks.
only when we are well settled and secured, we think something about spirituality, if at all.
or may be that's my inexperience that is blabbering.
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No, Ghetu, you are right and it has been bothering me in a way. Here's my thought: spirit is always with us, omnipresent. Spirituality—as understood in this consumer age—is up there with self-actualisation or perhaps above it. But I am not sure I understand what spirituality is, or whether we even need it. Isn't spirituality some middle-class hobby?
Nothing whatever can get in the way of real connection with spirit. Supposing we are hungry, homeless, sick and dying: might not this be the case with a saddhu or a monk? Does a person who connects with spirit consciously have to be well-fed, secure, respected by others? Jesus was mocked, beaten, nailed on the cross etc, according to Christian myth. He is recorded to have said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But I don't think it has been suggested he abandoned his connection with spirit.
We are in danger of getting confused here with stereotypes of the life of spirit!
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and there is the book of Job in the bible…one of my favorite books. he lost his family was stricken with some kind of flesh boils on his skin and lost everything, yet he didn't curse God. He keep his connection to spirit.
I am so looking forward to reading your following posts. my family is leaving for Vegas we will be gone for a few days. But I'll be back.
Have a happy holiday Vincent.
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Ive heard stories that Job might of been Oriental because of the scripture that mentons the incence that he burned. I have no idea if this is true or not but find it interesting and i haven't done any research on it. Maybe he was from india? lots of people burn incense :)…anyway i often think of Job when i look at my buddha. He was from the land of oz? wherever is that?
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The “land of Uz” sorry
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I'm Kortny,
from Arabia,
and I'm 14 y.o
Hi, All
I've studied English sinse Winter .
It's Really difficult
I want like to meet peple and practisice My English with them.
Kiss!!
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[…] I am to grasp what is in front of me and not dodge. 3. I need to have a purpose in every moment. Maslow’s Pyramid springs to mind. Hunger, thirst, shelter and so on. Just to recognize my felt need and do […]
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