nikola on Nostr: To lead a spiritual life is always to live in relation to the possibility of ...

To lead a spiritual life is always to live in relation to the possibility of devastation and death. We can become ill or disabled. Our loved ones may leave us or be taken away from us. Projects to which we devote our lives can fail, and we ourselves may break the integrity to which we hold ourselves. Moreover, the standard of integrity to which we hold ourselves can be called into question - either by ourselves or by others - and the lives we have tried to lead can come to be seen as a waste of our time. In short, who we take ourselves to be and anything to which we are committed can be negated, leaving us devastated and - in the last instance - dead.

We cannot discover who we are through introspection, but only by emptying ourselves out in the sense of being wholeheartedly engaged - being at stake, being at risk - in what we do and how we are recognised by others.

/MH