ASK THE COACH
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Spirituality a Challenge in Today's World
By Dr. Ray Angelini
The Saratogian
November 4, 2002
Dear Dr. Ray,
I am a religious education teacher and am currently preparing my curriculum for the fall. One of my lessons involves "putting spirituality into practice." What tips do you have in terms of helping my students confront the challenges to being a spiritual person in today's world?
— K.D. in Wilton
Dear K.D.,
Being a spiritual person in today's materialistic world is indeed a challenge. You have been entrusted with a great and wonderful responsibility in teaching youngsters the fundamentals of spiritual practice.
One of the best things I have ever come across regarding this issue came from Dr. Wayne Dyer in a letter he wrote in Time magazine in 1988 to people who would occupy the Earth 100 years in the future. He posed four questions to this future generation in order to determine if they had evolved into higher spiritual beings than humans of our current generation. I believe these four questions are perhaps even more relevant today than they were in 1988 to the challenges we all face in embracing our spiritual selves. They are as follows:
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Have you learned that your humanity lies beyond your body?
As I have said many times before, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We are much more than our packaging. There is an invisible intelligence within each of us that is divine, which is pure love. Our ability to express this invisible, formless part of ourselves is the most important aspect of our existence.
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Have you learned and adopted the understanding that we are all connected?
We are all living in the same house! When you live in a round planet, you can't afford to choose sides. We must develop an awareness that each of us is a "me that is we." We are all but one cell within the same organism. We cannot kill or harm adjacent cells without killing or harming the entire organism.
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Do you realize that what you think about expands?
The power of thought is immense. We create our own thoughts and out of our thoughts flows the entire direction of our lives. We have the ability to turn any thought into form through the power of our minds. Thus, our lives are literally what our thoughts create. Therefore, be very careful about what you think, for, sooner or later, it will start showing up in your life!
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Have you discovered the other side of "I'll believe that when I see it"?
You see what you believe, rather than believe what you see. Being a spiritual person involves focusing on character rather than appearance, ethics rather than rules, knowledge rather than achievement, integrity rather than domination, serenity rather than acquisitions. Quite radical notions, yet our pursuit of materiality has brought our world to its current state. We all need to practice these "radical" ideas, for our world desperately needs them!
