God & Spirituality (Do you have to Believe in God to be Spiritual? )

Does being spiritual mean that you have to believe in God?

It doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to believe in God to be spiritual. Being spiritual has more to do with the meaning you choose to give to life itself / your life. Seeing yourself as a part of a whole, of something greater, which we evidently are (it could be called logical thinking too, haha!) but also choosing to take responsibility for that; for yourself and your own life and to try protect others as much as you can.

"Seeing yourself as a part of a greater whole and realizing the responsibility of that."

Being spiritual means that you're aware of that how and who you are and the choices you make affects others, and being willing to look into the parts of yourself that aren't serving the whole and change these parts of yourself . It's about changing or adapting yourself, you could say sacrifice yourself - not because it doesn't work for you but because it could, would or is causing damage to or harming others.

Sometimes and very often people are ushered unto their spiritual paths because their lives starts becoming dysfunctional too, as a result of being dysfunctional to others / in general.

Your faith in god and being spiritual / spirituality, has relatively little to do with each other in my opinion. For a lot of people, believing in god leads to and means giving up responsibilities and "leaving them up to god" or "in gods hands" and that leads to a passive kind of living, which is the very opposite of being spiritual in my opinion. Because if you're being passive, you can't possible have understood the meaning of that - you are an inherent part, creator,magnifier, player, actor - in this world. You are intertwined with this world & life. And you consider yourself as insignificant, which means that you are in denial of the most fundamental spiritual truth.

Being spiritual means taking responsibility of your own life, and actively choosing to make your life to be of the benefit for all life. It means to work in alignment with not only what serves best for you yourself, but what would serve the whole in the best way possible.

(I don't personally consider it self-sacrifice or sacrificial at all, but that's after have passed through the moments and times of my life when it DID feel sacrificial: First, it stopped feeling sacrificial because it became habitual. Secondly, when the results showed out to be, not only of benefit of others, but to myself as well!)

Wanting to be/become aware of and conscious of what and who and how you are in the world in order to improve it is an important part and aspect of spirituality - in my opinion the core - at least from the perspective of where we're finding ourselves today.

"To know yourself and to improve yourself, truly for the benefit of the whole."

Merely existing doesn't make you vessel of god nor good and this is one of the most important fundamental revelations and understanding for a spiritual person.

There is no accident that our world looks like the way it does today, and it definitely has to do with our ancestors (yes, your ancestors too!) and bad decisions of the past. I see that as our current challenge and task, to individually assess what kind of negative traits we can have inherited from our ancestors, what characteristics and beliefs/mentalities, world views and self views have we inherited (which causes more harm than good) that are damaging to our life; the lives of others and our own?

This is the most basic work we can do in the world.

We really, truly, are in that position: To make that impact! Regardless of your circumstances. Assessing oneself, self reflection and true curiosity about our genes and our souls without making presumptions or judgments about who or what we are is key to further development, for humanity as a whole and the world as well as ourselves. You don't need to have faith in anything else in particular than yourself to be able to do that.

If anything, the times we're living in today, should serve as the ultimate proof that life doesn't get better just because we have more riches, things or wealth but it only gets better when we have a healthy and good culture among us people, among humanity.

Every single person and individual gets to impact the culture, knowing, or understanding that you have that power is an important knowing and understanding to have which, if you live by, will alter your life in directions you didn't even think were possible. You, are an example of humanity and to humanity.

You don't have to have been born with a special amount of wealth or status to be in that position, simply and merely that you exist ~ and as a human ~ puts you in that position.

You were born as a human, so it is humanity that you can and will and do affect with your life, even if not directly, if you would have disabilities or limitations in interactions with others - with your consciousness.

(That is definitely your destiny- and always - until you pass away.)

Being aware of that we were not born "pure" is an important aspect of spirituality. We were born with imprints of many lives lived before us, and our genetics (their memories) lives within us. And it's our duty to see where, how, with what and in which ways we are flawed, as well as "gifted" and talented and how we can use our natural inherited heightened abilities to serve humanity. Your family might tell you that your flaws are acceptable, and here is where/when god becomes important within spirituality; it's the faith and the belief that it isn't the people around you that knows the best, and these are not whose rules you should live by or who you are here to satisfy - but that which would be serving "god" / the greater whole. Of course, believing that god is one things, rather than multiple, millions or billions of things is easier for the mind to comprehend, and I don't believe that one or the other way s worse or better than the other. Bottom line is that your life isn't about having to listen to other peoples opinions or values and just follow them, especially if you know that they are wrong or bad for you or others, but/and to believe in God, and that God believes in you is very helpful if you ever find yourself in that position.

Believing in God is not the important part, but knowing and understanding and living by the point of view/perspective that you are an inherent part of this life and world, maybe very small but at the same time very powerful.