Lay Spirituality. Freedom from duality.
I am going to tell you a nice story:
Lay spirituality before the seventies of this
last century was a non existing term. It started, by chance, with an
intuition by Antonello Palieri during a meeting in Calcata’s “Circolo
Vegetariano”, only because we felt the urge of describing a free and
spontaneous spiritual approach to life; it was an invented word, depicting a
search for self, free of bonds, a natural expression of the “I” looking for
his own origin. Unfortunately, I discovered recently that this term has been
used for extolling worldly religious spirituality.
That’s a pity…. It is happening because religions and creeds are eager to
maintain control over man, doing their best to spoil the natural awe and
mystery of life, impressing the need for a savior and the necessity of
external help.
Still, lay spirituality is a fact.
For the spiritual accomplished layman there is no time but now, no place but
here. The basis for each experience is in consciousness and there is no
need for corroboration. No one can give another either salvation or
damnation. And truly speaking there is nothing you can do to attain that
understanding, it is simply within us.
The only hindrance is ignoring ourselves, believing and following any
practice alien to us, in the false hope of getting what we already are.
Freedom from desires and fears, from concepts and separativeness, from
stupidity and ignorance. Nothing more is wanted but freedom from any
imaginative state different from ourselves, from reality.
Although it is true that everything is made of consciousness, it is also
true that there are different densities of consciousness. The most heavy are
the separative ones, and religions are of course separative, since they
uphold a God, a creation and many separate individual selves. This sense of
separativeness from the whole is the only hell, cause of fears and unhealthy
states of mind.
Lay spirituality, of course, is also a concept but pointing only to a
present and concrete reality, revealing the tricks of all
“cleverly devised religious help”. I hope that all sincere laymen may be
aware of this bare truth, relinquishing the imaginary, abiding in awareness
and presence.
No spirituality for sale or to purchase, no fancies or alien states, no need
to overcome or reach. Please understand. Please recognize.
Paolo D’Arpini. Some day in May 2008.
circolo.vegetariano@libero.it
Tel. 0761-587200
