SPIRITUALITY
Dr. Francisco Coll, founder of the Americana Leadership College (www.alcworld.com) and the Inner Peace Movement International (www.ipminternational.org), states in The Real You (Americana Leadership Press, Osceola, IA, 2007), 1,
You are a soul with a physical body, not a physical body with a soul. You are energy; a spiritual being that is, has been and always will be…. You have incarnated into a physical body to learn more about yourself. Every experience you have is an opportunity to learn more about who you are and the reality of your true feelings. As a true searcher, you are concerned about your spiritual life. You are on planet earth to learn to balance your spiritual world with the daily routines of the physical world. Ibid., 1.
Dr. Sandra Adler of the Peace Community Church International (www.pcciworld.org) adds the following:
“Be still and know that I am God."
We all are God; we are not separate because we are one.
Everyone is searching at some level. Each is trying to
find that oneness; the inner peace; the realization that he is
God - which is being one with all things in the universe.
Everything I do affects the entire universe because I am one
with it. The more I stay cleansed the better is my
environment and the better the world is.
There is nothing greater than me in this universe. I am the creator of my life. I attract to me what I think. The more positive I am the more positive my life. If I have troubles I am attracting them. As I heal my concepts my life gets better.
Is God outside of you or within you? If you are one
with all things then you must be God. If God created you
in his image then God must look like you. Religion has
confused the truth to control the masses so everyone is
suffering and looking for inner peace. Inner peace comes
when we have the facts.
As a soul with a physical body, your first priority is to grow spiritually. The study of the Bible and other religious works, and especially singing hymns, evoke much happiness and satisfaction in an individual. This is evidenced by Authentic Happiness by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D. (Free Press [a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc, paperback edition] New York, N.Y., 2003), 59-60. I say this occurs because we are spiritual beings.
To lend support to the fact that we are spiritual beings, I now include hymns from the Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist traditions:
From the Christian: “Here I am, Lord”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzp83SWRNZw
From the Jewish: “Sabbath Prayer” from the “Fiddler on the Roof”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnaZqHy2ZHE
From the Islamic: “I Look I See” sung by Yusif Islam aka Cat Stevens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypp3cQ1CpQo
From the Buddhist: “Imee Ooi: The Chant of Metta (Loving Kindness)”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D644BWAUOXo
The following is an explanation of happiness from the link, “Happiness,” in my website, www.davidhakim.com. When I read it, I realize immediately that we are spiritual beings:
I would like to state what to me happiness is and is not: It is not life forever filled with joy and peace, but one which includes growth experiences through which we learn to control our emotions, sometimes with help. It is when we trust guidance to assist us with our needs and wants, and to inspire us toward the greater good, or to just sing to us songs such as "On [with] the Wings of Eagles," "Cruising Down the River on a Sunday Afternoon" and "I Will Row My Boat Merrily Along." It is the ability to overcome the fear created by situations in life affecting ourselves and/or others over which we have little control. It is the knowledge that no matter what happens to us, God and His angels are by our side, and we know that we can handle any situation that life gives us. It is not the belief that someone else holds the key to determining what is in our best interest, but our ability to know from our inner guidance what is. It is not having wealth and power to control our lives and others, but having enough abundance to meet the needs of ourselves and those for whom we are responsible. And if we temporarily do not have such abundance, both financial or otherwise, it is having the fortitude with no false pride to ask for what we need. And if we do have extra abundance, we have the willingness to assist those who don't.
When we are tuned into our Guidance, life just flows. If we are having problems, they may not go away immediately, but when we are working on our life plan we find greater peace within ourselves. For example, when I was writing “Happiness,” when the timing was right and I began to write on the explanation of happiness, the words just flowed from spirit.
We are part of God and jointly involved in creation (See “Creation” by Rev. Estelle Minor on my website). The intellect of man is limitless since he is part of God. We can feel forsaken if we do not realize that God is always with us and part of us.
Blessings and peace are part of our nature, since we are part of God. Truth, love, beauty and happiness are also part of our nature.
In the e-Times Communicator Newsletter Wayshowers Philosophy Edition for April, 2008, Francisco David Coll states that to live a happy and fulfilled life he must
…Feel-think-act. Feel, means loyalty and sincerity to my True Feelings. Think, means to organize what I feel for success. And act, means to accomplish the fulfillment. There is no 'lack' when doing that, there is no 'fear' in doing that. But the moment I overlook or omit one of these elements, I erode the fulfillment and happiness of what I am involved in. Then I no longer freely make my own decisions, I sacrifice my inner freedom. I can count on feeling limited and unhappy anytime I leave my true self out, it is that simple . . . and that big a waste of time. My solution is to relax, tune-in again to my big picture, and redefine 'what I am getting out of it.'
If we damn God for our shortcomings, we are damning ourselves. I went through this when I was in adolescence and realized that I would be shorter than average all my life (I am 5’ 3”). After much therapy, and after getting my teeth fixed when in my 20’s, I realized I could be happy. The solution for me was learning to live, as in “Live and let live.”
The belief in God and our spirituality is subjective and for each of us God can be defined differently. One aspect that affects our lives is whether we are negative or positive. If we are negative, we may view life as fearful. However, if we are positive with gratitude, we open our lives to the power of the universe, to the “Law of the Abundance” (see “The Secret,” the movie or view my summary and “Enjoy” on my website, www.davidhakim.com).
As to the differences we have as spiritual beings, Dr. Adler adds:
If it weren't for religion we wouldn't define God that differently. We would know that we are all powerful, the master of our life, the captain of our ship, the creator of our destiny, one with all things.
David C. Hakim
Rochester, Michigan
March 31 – April 9, 2008
