Desperately seeking spirituality. I believe many people would like to become more spiritual in their lives, even though most people cannot define what spirituality is or what it means. Most people often say they do not like religion, but that they are spiritual instead. However, their words are only words, and their actions do not really demonstrate a spiritual focus. I want to offer some guidance here, such as it is.
One Quest For Spirituality
I started my quest for spirituality, unknowingly when I first read M. Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Travelled” in 1983 while working in Saudi Arabia. Peck’s book led me to Dan Millman’s “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” and the New Age Movement. I was not satisfied with New Age thinking for many reasons and decided on another life course. I soon discovered Jim Rohn, Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles, James Allen, and many other writers in the personal development world. Only in recent years did I discover Murray Oxman, Charles Haanel, and Vernon Howard.
The rest of this post is about Mr. Howard because he is far beyond all the men I have just mentioned in his thinking and understanding of human nature. His is a voice of value.
Spiritual Principles
Vernon Howard has written many books that are remarkable in their lucidity and wisdom. They are in print and available on Amazon. His books require study and quiet reflection.
I want to offer 25 spiritual principles I have collected primarily from two little booklets of his (referenced below) that I bought years ago in a bookstore of forgotten memory. I believe these statements are self-explanatory, at least they are to me. I hope you find them of more than passing interest. I have numbered them for ease of reference if you wish to comment on any of them.
1. Your first duty in life is toward your own spiritual health.
2. Don’t live at the mercy of other people.
3. You are more intelligent than your troubles.
4. Understand right and wrong questions.
5. You can know what to do with yourself.
6. Practice at interrupting mechanical thoughts.
7. Ask God to give you (a) guiding light.
8. Don’t allow suffering to have its way.
9. Notice how everyone resists helpful truths.
10. Remember (recognize) who your true friends are.
11. Understand that truth alone will never betray you.
12. You need not feel sad or defeated.
13. You are not chained to an unhappy past.
14. Egotism is an enemy who pretends to be your friend.
15. People do not see that they do not see.
16. Maintain healthy views of yourself.
17. Don’t credit human beings with power. Do not be in awe of anyone.
18. Go through the temporary discomfort of being wrong.
19. You need not try to prove anything to anyone.
20. Never protect yourself against failure.
21. The only thing you have to give another person is a spiritually-alive nature, which is also the only gift you need for yourself.
22. One human problem is the inability to tell the difference between the valuable and the worthless.
23. I find no pleasure in arguing, so you will have to argue with yourself.
24. Just think—he (or she) could have handled that event or situation in a decent and intelligent way, but he (or she) chose foolishness (instead).
25. Don’t try to be spiritual. That is only a word in the dictionary. Make it your goal to become a normally functioning individual. Let these principles shape you according to your real nature of a simple, decent, honest, unafraid human being.
These are very simple statements, but they are most profound. Study them, ponder them, and then act on them if you wish to move closer to a more spiritual inner life.
Links
External Link: https://theasianantiquarian.com/
Internal Link: https://whitebeardwisdom.com/just-for-today/
Vernon Howard Booklets For Reference
50 Ways to Escape Cruel People
50 Ways to Get Help from God
