Ordinary Human Life as a Spiritual Quest
I've recently renamed my public Facebook page to "JK Kato-Spiritual Quests & Optimal Living." (LINK) Formerly it had a long and clunky name: "JK Kato-Studying the Human Quest for Depth & Transcendence."
Why? The new name reflects my growing conviction that human life--every aspect of it--is a spiritual quest, a quest which is nevertheless rooted in ordinary life with all its ups and downs. That means: Don't be afraid of "spiritual quests"! A spiritual quest is not an elite activity that is beyond the reach of ordinary people like you and me.
Rather, simply put, the spiritual quest actually consists in trying to live an "Optimal Life" (a key expression for me now), which is nothing else than trying our darned best to be the best versions of ourselves in the different situations where we find ourselves.
In Japanese, one of the most common expressions for encouraging others is the expression "Gambare!" (頑張れ). That basically means "Do your best!" It also includes though this nuance: (Do you best) 'under all the different circumstances where you find yourself'. For me, "optimal living" then, simply put, basically means --what in Japanese is-- gambaru ("doing your best"). Thus, the spirituality of optimal living is simply a Gambaru Seishin (頑張る精神), a spirituality of doing one's best in every given moment.
Another way of putting it would be the following: Optimal living is "showing up as the best version of yourself" in every moment of life. That is life-coach, optimal living philosopher Brian Johnson's dynamic rendering. To that let me add the important word: "mindfully." Therefore, my fuller description of optimal living is: While being mindful of where we are and what we face, we try to be the best version of ourself in every moment of life.
Now an important caveat: Optimal living is NOT perfectionism. The former is healthy because it is firmly based on reality and takes account of our different limitations; the latter can be unwholesome because it tends to have unrealistic demands.
So, What's "Spiritual" about All This?
If "optimal living" (that is, "mindfully showing up as your best self at every given moment") is practically what a "spiritual quest" is all about, you may be asking: What is "spiritual" about that? Isn't that just an ordinary "human" goal and endeavor?
Yes, that's a very important question and here are my thoughts about it.
The great spiritual traditions of the world have always reminded us that each one of us, as well as all beings and all things in the whole universe, are part of a BIGGER REALITY. The spiritual traditions have called that Greater Reality by different names: "God", "the Spirit", "Nirvana", "Interconnectedness" (Emptiness-Nothingness), "Brahman", etc. That concept has even been given names in the popular culture of our secular age such as: "the Universe", "the Force", "Destiny", etc.
What that means is, according to the great spiritual traditions of the world, each one of us is living out our daily existence within a wider and bigger dimension which is not normally perceivable by our ordinary senses. In other words, this bigger dimension is non-material; hence, it is "spiritual". Many spiritual traditions describe this bigger dimension as having a personal character. It is therefore thought of as a gracious, and compassionate personal Being (as in Christianity's assertion, "God is Love").
Remember then: According to the spiritual traditions, your actions, your thoughts, your very existence ... those are not only your own. You and whatever you do -- all of that is closely interconnected to everyone and everything else. You're playing out your life and your particular role on a bigger stage, and each and every action of yours, whether good, bad, or neutral, has consequences not only for yourself but for others and the whole universe.
All of that leads to this conclusion: To live fully as a human being, it's certainly better to be attuned to this bigger, wider, and deeper, non-material/spiritual dimension of reality. Without it, life will be shallow and lacking in meaning. This is why it is often said, "You've got to live for something bigger than yourself."
Furthermore, you don't have to attach "God" to this spiritual quest, although many of us still do so and that's fine as well. What is necessary though is to be aware and mindful of this "greater dimension." Whether you call it by a name (like "God") is secondary.
In our secular age, many people prefer to stress the mystery-dimension of this bigger realm and not explicity name it. This is a modern development that is somehow different from the practice of our past ancestors who liked to name this greater reality with titles such as "God", "YHWH", "Jesus", "Allah", etc.
The Spiritual Quest is Primarily about This Life Here and Now
For all the complaints that religious believers have about our present "secularized" age, I think that the secular age has a valuable contribution to our sense of spirituality. Nowadays, it is emphasized that things are primarily played out in this life, in the here and now. Therefore, we have to give this life our all, without being overly concerned with the afterlife, contrary to what many traditional religions have advocated in the past. To give a concrete example, this means that we cannot resign ourselves and sort of just passively accept the evils and oppressions of this time because we hope for a better existence in the afterlife. That is an instance of religion being an "opium of the people," to use Karl Marx's famous critique of religion. Rather, we struggle against and resist the many wrongs in this world; we try to live our lives now to the full, precisely as the best way of responding to the precious gift of life.
It is clear that we cannot conclusively prove that there is an afterlife or even that there is a non-material-spiritual dimension. Nevertheless, living our one life well and to the full, as the best version of ourselves, will bring us to--what Abraham Maslow pointed out is--the highest level of fulfillment: Self-Transcendence, a fully alive level of existence in which someone trusts that there is a greater reality, lives for a bigger cause and, at the same time, is authentically happy and fulfilled. Almost as an afterthought, if there be indeed an afterlife, living our life now to the full will be our best preparation for it!
If we somehow experience some self-transcendence, we will actually touch everyone and everything else in a deep and moving way. This has been shown by the spiritual mystics of all spiritual traditions. We will also somehow get a glimpse of and touch in some way the Greater Dimension itself or, if you will, the Greater Being, the one that some spiritual traditions have called "God", "the Spirit", "the Force", "the Universe".
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