We Must Live Spiritually, 24/7

For 56 years I have studied spirituality. I have read hundreds of books, attended numerous classes, had one-on-one sessions with my teacher, yet I am unable to solve my problems with spiritual principles. 

The reason?

I have an intellectual knowledge of principles but not a realization of the truth of them.

I became an electrical engineer in my 20s. From the time I was 14 until I left the profession at age 40, I lived, breathed and practiced the principles of engineering. That means that I developed the consciousness of them. 

They are not just knowledge--they are living understanding. 

This is what we must do if we are going to benefit from our studies of spirituality. Otherwise it is like learning the alphabet as a child--that knowledge is useless until you learn how to combine them to make words,  and practice doing so until it becomes second nature to you. 

It is the same in sports, art, music, and every other discipline. You must develop a consciousness of the principles through practice. 

Spiritual practice and living must be a 24/7 activity.

What Is Spiritual Living?

Welcome to the first post for this blog. I believe it is important to address two issues up front. One is, for whom is this blog being written? Secondly, who is Dr. Jim Lewis and what qualifications does he have? 

If you are dissatisfied with church religion, aren't finding answers to your questions, don't like the dogma, but you want answers to questions about life and meaning and why we are here, then the spiritual search may be your path, and this blog is intended for you.

I was searching for answers at a very early age. My parents came from conventional protestant backgrounds--Methodist and Presbyterian. As I grew I became increasingly dissatisfied with the contradictions that I heard in Sunday school and sermons. When I got out of college, I began an earnest search for truth, and by 1970 I had found my path in the work of Joel Goldsmith, who called his message the Infinite Way®. Now, in 2021, at age 79, I have reached the point of sharing what I have learned.

So now the question from the title must be answered. What is spiritual living? Quite simply, it is living in conformity to spiritual truth. Well, that really explains everything, doesn't it? What is spiritual truth? One church says this and another says that, so what am I to believe?

There is no one who can say that they have all the answers to these questions, but the clue to me is to be found in the spiritual traditions that go back thousands of years. Most of them come from India, but I have found confirmation through psychics or mediums, modern mystics, and definitely the work of people like Mary Baker Eddy, Ernest Holmes, and Joel Goldsmith. Most importantly, I have found confirmation in Quantum Physics, especially from founder David Bohm.

I will keep this first post short and tell you that all of the traditions and modern mystics agree that the ground of all being is Consciousness. Matter does not produce awareness. It is the other way around. A clue for you: this is supported by a saying attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, in which he says that spirit could not have produced matter, and that if matter had produced spirit it would be amazing indeed. 

Bohm talked about consciousness being needed to understand reality and other scientists are saying that reality is a hologram. I agree with them. This is an exciting idea because it reveals that we are not worms in the dust, victims of a capricious universe that knocks us down and stomps on us. The fact that we create our own experience is a beautifully freeing fact, and we will delve into this in subsequent posts.

If you are interested, subscribe. You can unsubscribe at any time. Welcome to the Art of Spiritual Living. Namaste.