Nothing here below is profane to those who know how to see.
On the contrary, everything is sacred.
Teilhard de Chardin
The fully functioning person has a very deep sense of spirituality. He knows that his personhood and the world in which he lives cannot be explained or understood through human experience alone. He knows that he must take the "mystical leap." He has to go beyond herself, beyond his limited reality. He possesses an inexplicable feeling of something else. He feels that there is an operative intellect greater than his, although he cannot find words to name it. He is aware of a grand design, ceaselessly operative, in which everything is compatible and in which there are no contradictions.
Life offers us few explanations. We cannot be sure of the true meaning of life, nor of its source, nor of life after life. Only we can fill the void that this uncertainty creates. We can accept with faith or choose nothing.
Both plunge us into mystery. Either we choose to believe that everything is important, or that nothing matters, and yet, in essence, both positions are the same. Both involve mind games, because neither offers definitive proof. This does not mean that there are no answers. It is like the Zen Koan which says that it makes no difference whether we think we are the monk who dreams that he is a butterfly or the butterfly who dreams that he is the monk dreaming that he is a butterfly.
Some of us can't live without answers. The void is so terrifying and bleak, that we must create answers. Others of us choose to live without answers. We find them unnecessary. We live our life without asking questions, living in the answers. Both systems require the creation of a belief system for which there is no confirmation. Both positions embody a living sense of spirituality that arises from the affirmation of the self through personal choice itself.
Spirituality, faith, and mystery are inherent in every aspect of life. I remember visiting New England and having my first taste of the grandeur of fall. I had never seen trees with such prismatic splendor of color. What impressed me is that on the same tree there were leaves that varied from bright yellow to deep purple, often on the same branch. I remember turning to my friends in bewilderment and astonishment and asking why. They had lived in the area all their lives and could not answer me. "That's right" they told me in response. It was a kind answer, but not enough for me. Surely someone more knowledgeable than me had already asked the same question and come up with a more "scientific" explanation. Yes, there was such an answer. Botanical explanations that referred to the individual position of the leaf with respect to sun and shade, as well as the frost factor. All this was scientifically explained, but I left the library no less surprised and no less astonished. the scientific answer did not take the mystery out of the experience. The fact that something has an explanation does not detract from the wonder of the event!
Tides can be predicted almost every second. We can know the date and time of the migration of birds and whales. We can walk on the Moon. But, does that lessen the attractiveness of the sea, the magic of the birds or the beauty of the planets?
To be in contact with nature, to deeply feel its moods, to fully experience its spell, to know how the things we call inanimate work, is to immerse oneself in the spirituality and divinity of all things. I have never been able to take ordinary things for granted and I still tremble with emotion when I dial a direct telephone number to the other side of the country, or to Europe, and I hear the voice of the person saying "hello", "helium", "soon" or “mushi mushi”. The fact that striking a match produces fire, that just pressing a button produces heat, or cold, or music, or images on television is something that never ceases to amaze me.
The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, that I can teach something that becomes part of another, that I smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are continuous spiritual exercises for me.
I give a lecture and find out that something I said affected someone's life. I start to interact and I have the power to create sadness, joy or laughter. Spirituality!
The wide variety of foods amazes me too. Oranges, apples, turnips, celery, lettuce, hundreds of different cuts of meat and poultry leave me in a state of perplexity. A trip to the supermarket staggers me into a state of perpetual overload. The wonder that each food has a different flavor, each flower has its own characteristics, each day and each night its own music. It is easily apparent that it is not the world that is empty and devoid of magic, it is us.
Magic is not the sole prerogative of the sorcerer. We ourselves are magicians who have the power to conjure and disenchant.
We create the mystery every day, the secrets lie under each tree, in each insect, in each thought. Flowers will bloom whether we care about them or not, all foods will have different flavors, even if we don't bother to taste them. There will always be dazzling sunrises, even if we don't get up to see a single one. The spirit of every person and thing is present, even if we are too asleep to feel it, even if we deny its existence. Spirituality encompasses an awareness of all that is and an openness to what is not. It is the strength and fearlessness to allow ourselves to transcend reality and transcend ourselves. The fully functioning individual knows that it is magic that spices life, eradicates boredom, and elevates existence beyond space and time. A fully functioning person is entranced by an orange and ecstatic by a blade of grass! To function fully is to reach out with absolute trust and touch God in all things.