This post must involve a bit of a discussion about religion. I hope that isn’t going to put you off because I feel that this is one of the most important questions to answer.

The first point to make is that this is an even harder question to answer if you are an atheist (or even agnostic). I’m not saying this to force my viewpoint on anyone but that you need to admit that if you don’t believe in a creating god (whoever that may be) then it is impossible to answer any questions about what you are here for. The best you can answer this question might be to do the greatest good to the greatest number of people. But you might just as well say that your aim is to make yourself happy. Essentially you will have no set purpose and you simply make up your own idea of what you are here for, but if you are looking for an answer to the question then one doesn’t exist.

Of course if you do have a belief in a god then your purpose will be bound up in what your religion says about your purpose. There will most certainly be an answer to the question. I’m a Christian and so my response for me must come from the message of Jesus Christ. I’m here to worship and serve God.

There is more to it than this because I also have a part to play in God’s plan (you did know that God has a plan didn’t you?) – a part that is unique to me. So I can look at how God made me, what gifts and talents I possess and then work out how God wants me to use them.

The exciting bit is that no matter how insignificant I might feel I know that God wants me. No matter if I feel that I really don’t matter in the eyes of this world – I know that I matter in the eyes of God. I also know that even if things don’t quite work out for me now – this is not the end of everything.

I happen to believe that Jesus gives us the best chance of finding out the answer to the question of “what am I here for?” and if you want to explore this subject in more depth you can take a look at the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (official website here) but there are other religions and other options.

Buddhism for instance teaches that this world is full of suffering and life means detaching oneself from this world so you can get away from the suffering. You can find out more here.

Many other religions follow a set of rules to gain entry in heaven so the meaning of life is following those rules (Christianity is not one of these by the way – despite popular belief). You can see a list of the religions and what they see life as at the religion facts site. Although I must warn you that the Christian section is woefully inadequate and the chart, as far as Christianity is concerned, leaves an awful lot of information out. I’d recommend the Purpose Driven Life web site for this information. Or you can find out more about Jesus here.

There are three broad strands of thinking in spiritual terms when it comes to thinking about the self.

The first of these is the idea that god is impersonal and so the self does not exist or is essentially something to escape from. We see this idea in many of the ancient faiths of the east and in much of the so called New Age movement. Buddha, for instance, saw his greatest moment of spiritual achievement as being released from the self. As Buddha himself once put it: ““Life is suffering.” This turns the self into something to escape from and so in spiritual terms we need to be released from the self if we are to achieve wholeness. Happiness and enjoyment and success are alien to this way of thinking because they are things that concern the self.

The next is the atheistic approach. We see this in many of the philosophies of the early to mid part of the 20th century. Here the self is whatever we choose it to be. We can decide for ourselves what we want to be or where we find wholeness. In much atheistic literature we read that there are no limits for the self at all. However if we try to find a purpose or meaning in life then we discover ultimately that there is none. This approach truly does lead to selfishness and it can do no other. Ideals of getting benefits from helping others will in the end come down to the benefit to yourself in doing this.

The third approach comes from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths where God is viewed in a personal, even intimate, way. Here the self is a created being who finds purpose and meaning within the purposes of God. God who is working to make right a world gone wrong gives meaning and purpose to those who will help him. Yes the self can become selfish but that is not a part of the approach to spirituality that we talk about but is part of the broken world God is trying to mend. Here we find our purpose and reason for being in following God. Within this view of spirituality the self is important but the self is also part of the whole that works towards the building of a kingdom of God.

It is, of course, up to you where you want to seek your spirituality but it’s the latter of the three approaches that makes the most sense to me.

Many people believe that money is a good motivator – give someone a bonus and they will work hard to earn it. There are all kinds of problems with this – not least that for most people money isn’t a good motivator. Most people want what they believe the money can buy them (security, peace, love, health, freedom, etc) but all of these things can be acquired without money. To try and get this motivator to work we are constantly bombarded with adverts to try and make us greedy – we fall for it for a while but soon become disillusioned when the promised lifestyle doesn’t arrive with the acquisition of money. This is born out time and again by surveys that show that rich people tend to be less happy than the rest of us.

In the end what really motivates us is our values. This is one of the reasons that knowing what you value is so important. In some self help systems you will be told to listen to what your insides tell you about values. I think this is only part of the story. To really understand what motivates us we need to understand what we value – relying on feelings is not always productive.

So to get motivated you need to know your values.

I don’t mean that it will always be a happier place or more fun place but that somehow we have made things there a little better. I think sometimes the only way to make things better it is cause a few upsets but perhaps that is a subject for another day.

What are you going to leave today? How are you going to make the places you have been better?

However not everyone appreciates this amount of freedom (where do you start with prayer if there is no guidance?) and they have looked to others who pray for some tips on how to do it. This has resulted in various structures and liturgies that have become available to Christians to help them pray and meditate. Such structures only exist as an aid and are not meant to be the only way to do it.

Today I want to talk about meditation in particular. Now meditation is for many Christians a bad word, they see it as something associated with other religions that should have no part in the Christian religion. I disagree with this. When I read the Bible I find references to meditation time and again. We might just as well rule out any expression of faith that predates Christ or is found in another faith. What about music? Or what about art? Or what about preaching? Or even what about scriptures? These all predate Christianity so does this give us a reason to reject them?

Now of course Jesus did give us guidance on prayer; for instance he told us that there is no point in keep repeating the same thing over and over in the hopes that somehow this will make the prayer more effective; he also said we should prayer with the right attitude. However, he made a particular point of not laying down a structure for our prayers – this was to give us freedom, not to stop us from expressing ourselves.

For Christians meditation has traditionally taken two forms. The first form is where a phrase is repeated over and over again – this is particularly so in the Eastern Christian religion (look up the Jesus prayer on Google for more information). The other form is to slowly read a passage of scripture to help get the meaning out of the words.

The repetition of a phrase (e.g. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me or similar – often a line from the Psalms works well or why not try a worship song or hymn) helps to cleans the mind and soul. As the phrase is repeated it enables your focus to move from the world to God. The repetition is not to make the prayer more effective it is simply a way of getting your thoughts under control to enable God to speak. This can also be done just by opening your mind to God and stopping yourself thinking about other things. It takes a fair bit of practice and requires you to commit to doing it but after a while it can help you get closer to God. If you do want to try this then you will find that your mind still finds loads of things to think about – let it do that thinking at first – just let the thoughts come and then gently put your mind back to opening yourself up to God.

The reading of a passage from the Bible is a different kind of meditation and involves asking God to open that passage up to you and then as you read listening for God to speak.

Which ever form you take though be very careful because its easy to let your own thoughts sound like they are Gods. Anything that comes to mind you need to test against the rest of the Bible. God is always consistent with what he has said in the past so don’t ever assume that God is allowing you to do something because you heard him say it in your meditations when you know God prohibits it in other places in the Bible. For instance if you felt God was telling you to get revenge on an enemy because of what you read in the Bible or because it felt right when you meditated then you would be mistaken (try reading Matthew 5).

So Christian prayer and meditation is about freedom. Like any freedom it needs to be exercised wisely. There are ways of thinking and doing that God does not like and we would be wise to be aware of them. However apart from getting our thinking right there are no structures to limit us. Find your own ways to pray and your soul will be grateful.

Why not leave a comment telling others how you prayer?

Some scientists want us to believe that the only thing that is real is the physical world. If you can’t poke it with a stick then it doesn’t exist. Of course they go further than wanting to poke things with a stick but this is the essence of the argument. Then others seem to think that the physical is just an illusion. Who is right?

Well – of course what I am going to say is just my opinion but I think it is worth exploring the question.

If you can replicate a spiritual feeling in some other way does it mean that we have proved there is no such thing as the spiritual?

This is one of those problems that many scientists hang ona nd which seems to spook a lot of people who are undecided. The simple truth is that this does not prove anything other than that the spiritual things of life have an impact on the physical. Anyone who has ever studied a major religion will know that this is a basic truth taught be nearly every religion going. Being able to make you feel spiritual by poking part of your brain with a stick (sorry I had to get the stick in again) proves nothing.

You might well say that when someone watches a film and they fall in love with the main character this proves that love is not real because watching the film brought out the same feelings as love (of course love is much more than a feeling anyway but hopefully you are getting my point). Or to put it another way: if you read a war book and you get feelings of revulsion reading about a dead body this means that there are no dead bodies in real wars because we can simulate the feelings in other ways. Nonsense.

As my old logic professor used to say: “nonsence is nonsence whichever way you look at it”.

Is there something other than the physical world?

No one can prove there is and no one can prove there is not. So ultimately this will boil down to making a choice. You can choose to believe or not believe – sometimes called faith.

Sometimes people will try and refuse to make the choice, but the way they live and think betrays the choice they have made (but are too afraid to own up to).

I’m told that the vast majority of people in the world do have some kind of belief in another spiritual world. Some Atheists try to make out that all these people are just ignorant morons but this is simply not true. Many of the people who have a faith are very intelligent and have considered all the arguments in detail.

But at the end of the day this can only be a choice – to believe or not.

What evidence?

Well if you want empiric scientific evidence then I’m afraid you will be disappointed. This is just because science is all about discovering the physical world and so no scientific experiment is going to discover a spirit (unless it turns out the spirit is something physical of course).

But if we want the kind of evidence that is delivered in a court of law there is plenty. There is endless amounts of personal testimony. If one person says something you might doubt them or think they are mad but if thousands says something is true then you have to start taking notice. If lots of very sensible people who you trust says something is true then the balance of believing starts to become overwhelming.

Now I don’t know who you trust and just because nearly everyone says it is true doesn’t actually mean it is. But as I said before this is ultimately a matter of choice – your choice.

For me it is all about Jesus

Some people say that your faith is just a matter of where you are born and in some cases this is no doubt true. However I am one of those people who made a choice for myself. It is true I had Christian parents but they never spoke to me about their own faith. I was also at the time not going to a church. I did believe in spiritual things – because I had made my choice – and I wanted to find out more.

I looked at the great religions and I considered taking the spirituality without beliefs route but ultimately they were all very unhelpful to me. It was reading through and thinking about the teachings of Jesus that I started to believe that Jesus was the only one with any real truth to what he was saying. More normal than any others and yet with a simple truth of faith and a God wanting to forgive swayed me in his direction.

An awful lot of rubbish talked about Jesus

Ever since it’s earliest days people have been talking a lot of rubbish about Jesus. The church has been as guilty as anyone for doing this but thankfully every now and then a revolution happens in the church and they discover the real Jesus again. It happened when the early church got together to make the creeds and put the new testament together. Thank goodness they got rid of a lot of rubbish back then. It was not a cover up and it was not down to the whims of one powerful man it was the church purging itself of those ideas that were not from Jesus. This happens again and again in the life of the church. No religion or science has ever been as critical of its own believes as the church has throughout its life. I’ve been at the leadership end and I know first hand just how serious the church takes being true to the teachings of Jesus.

Now no doubt like me you have watched all the latest “top” scholars (they aren’t by the way) telling us how the discovery of some new forgotten gospel proves the church wrong. These are just wayward people who wouldn’t be heard unless they made a controversial statement, and so keep telling T.V. producers (who then see the chance of a bit of fame and fortune) about their amazng new discovery, who then make T.V. programs claiming to prove the truth. They don’t. No T.V. producer is much interested in the real truth because it doesn’t make money for them. You may like to know that the church has known about these so called hidden gospels for a very long time and they have been studied in detail but found wanting.

Sorry I’m starting to rant a little.

There is an awful lot of rubbish talked about Jesus but I have come to love him and what he says gives me hope.

Is there a spirit?

Yes – I believe the weight of evidence is overwhelming.

Can we poke the spirit with a stick?

No – it is not physical.

How do we find out about spiritual things?

Listen to people who are spiritual but also look for what makes sense to you.

Personally

For me the greatest spiritual teacher (and also my friend by the way) is Jesus. I would recommend him to anyone.

But you must make your own mind up.

I’m going to tackle things from a Christian perspective for two reasons. The first is that I am a Christian and the second is that I think Christianity is the one religion that appears to be opposed to business and making money.

Christianity and spirituality is not opposed to business.

It is wrong to say that Jesus didn’t like rich people or that he had a thing about rich people becomming poor. It is true that some passages in the Bible tell us that Jesus thought money could be a barrier to a relationship with God. So what. Isn’t this so obviously right that even if Jesus didn’t say it others would. It seems to me that Jesus knew that being rich often means taking your focus of what is important and when you do it gets hard to be truly spiritual.

If you read through the Bible properly you will see three important things.

The first is that sometimes God made people wealthy e.g. Abraham, Job, David etc. So God is not against wealth, in fact God sees wealth as a tool.

The second is that God sees wealth as a tool. It is not wrong to be wealthy but it is wrong to hoard that wealth for yourself. When Jesus said if you have a second coat give it away he didn’t mean make yourself poor (in fact he only ever said that to one person) he meant don’t use wealth for your own comfort use it to help others. There is a great deal of spirituality in this simple thing alone.

I’m a fan of the secret millionaire T.V. program here in the UK. In it a millionaire goes under cover to find people to help. Without exception those who do it find enormous personal benefit in helping others. The giving away of their wealth means more to them that the making of the wealth in the first place. Of course it took Channel 4 viewers 2000 years to pick up on this simple Jesus truth but at least they got there in the end.

The third is that God does have a special care for the poor. God is on the side of the poor. This doesn’t mean that God has no time for the rich but just that God will make it His business to look after the poor.

So God – it turns out is very much in favour of business.

Spirituality at the heart of business

Too many business people are beginning to see spirituality as a way to get more money – this is wrong. Spirituality is not a mystic force that will somehow attract more money to you if you wish for it enough. Money is made by hard work and dedication. How the money you make is used is very important indeed.

It is hard for a rich person to give money away. If you have worked hard to make money then you want to enjoy it. However the way to really enjoy money is not with another big car or new gold taps. The way to enjoy money is to use it to help other people.

Business can be very spiritual and spirituality should be at the heart of any business; not to attract more money in, but to use it for the benefit of others.

In this post we explore why we should take and break and how to do it.

Life is busier now than it has ever been before

I’m just old enough to remember a time when everyone believed that computers and technology were going to make life easier.

In some ways they have of course. Washing machines speed up washing. Microwaves speed up cooking. I even have a cooker  that cleans itself (well it’s supposed to anyway).

But the time I save doing these things is often spent on work. Mobile phones makes us more accessible. Computers help us to communicate through email and the Internet. When once there were secretaries to write letters there are now computers that fill this role. In my first job everyone had access to the secretary who would type some standards letters for us when needed. Now this is done on computer. It all takes time.

Of course we do benefit from more holidays and leisure time than our parents did. Yet much of this so called leisure time is taken up with technology or for some with work (now they can work at home).

But when do we get the time to think?

We all need the time to think. Those people who are on the go all the time often find that they cannot innovate. Research shows that those businesses where stress is high (often due to demands on time) are also those businesses who fail to be creative and who resist change. Often such businesses fail.

Some businesses try to get around this problem using techniques like brainstorming or perhaps the management has a day at a hotel to spend time thinking together. Yet all of these techniques are still activity. There comes a time when the activity must stop.

There is a story told about the desert fathers where three friends take different paths in their spiritual lives. Two of them choose activity while the other one chooses a contemplative life. Soon the two who commit to activity are having a breakdown and they seek the wisdom of the one who chose contemplation. He fills a container with muddy water (I guess all water was muddy back then) and gets them to look. Of course they notice that the water is full of muck and looks very unpleasant. Then they leave it to sit for a while and when they return to it the water is clear. The point being that sometimes you need a period of stillness to clear your head.

Now I’m not saying everyone needs to give up life to meditate but simply that periods of silence and doing nothing are important.

Silence is not self-indulgence

Silence can feel like self-indulgence. Taking some time to be on your own and relax without thinking about the 1001 things you have to accomplish can feel like being lazy but it isn’t.

You are just letting your brain have some time to sort out all those things that you are filling it with. It just needs some quietness so it can be creative with some solutions.

Silence at the beginning and at the end of the day

I recommend finding 5 minutes of silence for the beginning and end of every day. Parents might find this difficult but its worth working hard to find the time from somewhere.

Don’t fill that time up with self talk or noise but just let your mind relax and be quiet. Thoughts will come up as you start but don’t panic – just let those thoughts come and then do your best to let them go and be quiet.

If you are a busy person these times of silence are more important than anything else you might have to do in a day. Give this a try for two weeks and see the difference it can make.

What experience are you aiming for?

Few of us can live in a Cathedral or some other place of beauty and so we must look for other places of sanctuary in the normal world. Beauty is a powerful medicine for a soul and there is more of it around us than we usually notice. However it’s not this beauty aspect that I want to talk about today.

I think we need to find places that help our soul find peace.

Now, I don’t think for even one moment that it is actually the place that gives us the rest but what that place helps us do.

Beauty helps distract us from the ordinary things of life and so for a few moments we are transported by beauty to another world where we find the rest we desire.

Surely then it is this experience that we seek.

There are many things that can help us and in other posts I have spoken about the need for silence etc. Today though I want to encourage you to find a place of sanctuary.

Men love their garden shed

There is a commonly held belief in the UK that men love garden sheds. That somehow these sheds are an essential part of being a man and having a need for a place that one can retreat to.

The truth is that we all need this place.

We all need somewhere we can go to that helps us to escape from the ordinary things so we get a chance for our souls to reach out to a bigger existence.

In the ancient world people would seek out these sacred spaces. They might mark them with a standing stone or a circle of some kind.

It doesn’t have to be a place

The next strange thing is that this place doesn’t have to be a place. It’s actually not the place that creates the connection to God. It’s the attitude we take into it.

Places help remind us to reach out beyond ourselves. They are powerful because when we enter them they help trigger those memories and experiences that make us more spiritual.

The power of having a sacred place in your home is that it helps move you from one state into another (e.g. from ordinary to extra-ordinary).

Churches do it for me

Because some of my most profound spiritual experiences have happened inside church buildings being in a church helps me very quickly get into a spiritual frame of mind.

Build your own space inside your home

Find a place inside your home where you can have a spiritual space. It could just be something simple like a candle and a bible in the corner of a room. Then go there when you pray or meditate. You will discover that after a while this space will become an important help in helping you find some peace for your soul. When things are difficult then going into this sacred space will help you.

Take your space with you

Then again why not take that space around with you? If you kneel to pray or hold your hands together when you pray you will find that performing these simple acts will help you find that soulful rest you need. This is something that people used to teach their children but in more recent times its tended to be seen as a bit silly, however we are now starting to discover than our grand parents might not have been so daft as we suspected.

I want to encourage you to find a sacred space. Give it some thought and try to find a simple place in your home where you can have a place of prayer. If you don’t have any space at all then make yourself a portable space by always sitting or kneeling in the same position for prayer.

Do you ever wonder if you will ever get away from the noise?

I do.

We live in a world that is full of noise. If you walk down any ordinary street you will hear all kinds of noise: cars passing, lawnmowers mowing, planes flying overhead, teenagers on mopeds, music beats from peoples windows and mobile phones ringing etc.

Most of this noise is just a part of life and thankfully our brains have a filter system to stop us taking notice of most of these noises.

However there is another noise we can’t escape and that is the noise we generate in our own heads.

We all have a little voice that rattles away in our head with all kinds of stuff. Some of that stuff is good, some of it is very bad but most of it is pointless prattle.

One of the developments in modern society is our need to have an opinion on everything. Newspapers – once filled with news – are now filled with opinion. Even the television news is punctuated with the opinion of the newsreaders. It is getting hard not to have an opinion.

Having the right to an opinion is different to having an opinion

We should have the right to an opinion – no matter how wrong that opinion might be. This does not mean that we should have an opinion about everything. For instance I think we should have an opinion on global warming or world peace but not on whether my neighbour should have purchased the red car rather than the blue.

We fill our lives with constant opinion and never stop to let ourselves hear the silence

One of the most profound experiences any of us can ever have is to have a time of silence. It must be deliberate and not just happen. We need to find a place where we can be silent and choose to be silent. Many people seek out a monastry or convent for this experience but you don’t have to do this.

Choose a time and a place and just be silent. Don’t read a book or listen to music or anything else – just be silent.

There will be noises all around you – there are few places in the world that are perfectly silent – but just ignore them.

Silence is an experience to enjoy

Try to shit out your inner voice. Let it prattle on for a bit and then start to silence it by stopping having an opinion on everything. Stop it from talking altogether if you can.

At first you may find the silence a little overwhelming and even frightening. Don’t give up. Let yourself learn to enjoy the silence.

Start to listen

It is in these times of silence that God can speak. Start to listen for God. God may not speak in words to you but if you have enough silence you will start to experience God in a deeper and fuller way.

It takes time and sometimes a lot of time but please persist. Let the still small voice of God speak to you.