According to Nobel Prize in Medicine Elizabeth Blackburn, meditation increases telomere activity by 26%, which directly affects our longevity Sound Baths.
Other studies show that prayer and other spiritual practices help reduce stress and reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disorders , among other benefits.
HOW TO FIND THE PATH TO SPIRITUALITY?
At some conferences I met the priest Pablo d’Ors , author of a dozen books. I had read his Biography of Silence , a small volume on meditation that has been an unexpected bestseller.
After giving my talk on a Saturday, on Sunday I curiously attended his talk, titled “We are the light of the world.” From the speakers’ box, I was expecting an erudite presentation . Maybe even read a sheet of paper.
Fortunately, none of that happened. Sitting before the audience , Pablo casually explained his search for light and wisdom.
He used a very beautiful metaphor: for years he had felt that he was repeatedly knocking on a door that did not want to open .
Many people feel this way in their spiritual inquiry. Carried away by the noise and violence of the world, they try to find the teacher, the discipline or the practice that will take them to an oasis of serenity. And that’s not an easy task .
Pablo D’Ors explained that he knocked on that closed door without success, until he realized that it was not the only door. Every person, every place and situation that life offers us gives us access to the light. This revelation allowed her to unravel his spiritual search.
In his own words: “If the door to enlightenment is everywhere, that means there is no door.” And if there is no door, then we are already enlightened, we just didn’t realize it.
SPIRITUALITY AS AN ORIGINAL STATE OF MIND
The thought of this Catholic priest harmonizes with Zen. Bankei Yotaku , who lived four centuries ago, insisted to his disciples that they were already enlightened.
This teacher from the Rinzai school explained it like this: “I only tell people to remain in their original mental state and not to transform it into thought.
I don’t expect you to do anything special nor do I give you any specific rules or practices. Just stay at home and don’t look for anything else. Let them sit, stand, sleep, wake up and do everything in this original state of mind without letting it transform into anything else.”
You may wonder what that original state is, or how you can return to it if it has been hidden by layers and layers of thinking, of preconceived ideas.
In his Biography of Light , Pablo D’Ors points out that the center of the search is the question “Who am I?” , and warns: “This is obviously not a question that admits definitive answers, perhaps any type of answer: it is not a dilemma that must be resolved, but rather a horizon with which we must live . Keep this question alive is now beginning to answer it.”
SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION: A CLOSE BUT NOT ESSENTIAL RELATIONSHIP
This author uses the Gospel for his investigation, since it seems to him to be a text that lucidly presents the paradoxes and greatness of life. However, is it necessary to follow any book or religion to truly access spirituality?
The Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti declared: ” I don’t know if God exists, but if he exists, I know that my doubt will not bother him .”
It is a common mistake to confuse religion with spirituality: you can be an agnostic or atheist and be deeply spiritual if you believe in the natural goodness of human beings, in their ability to go beyond themselves and extend their hand to others and the world. .
The level of spirituality is also manifested in the way we relate to ourselves and the world.
I return to Pablo D’Ors’ conference, this was his conclusion. When you leave yourself alone, accepting yourself as you are, with your strengths and weaknesses, your successes and mistakes, you evolve spiritually, because you have eliminated the enemy within you that did not let you love yourself for who you are.
If you reach that state of non-struggle in which you do not pretend to be anything else, you are already very close to the light. A step up from the previous one is to leave others alone.
Loving and accepting others for how they are , without trying to correct their path, guide them or change them, is a sign of a supreme degree of spirituality.