WHAT IS "SPIRITUALITY FREE FROM ALL SYSTEMS?"

SPIRITUALITY FREE FROM ALL SYSTEMS is a teaching that helps us become more aware of Spirit. It does not work to fix us at the level of psychology, behavior or physical conditions. Rather, healing at these levels is a natural byproduct of radical self-change. Spirituality free from system is not concerned with improving the “false self.” It dissolves it, so that what remains is a radical and perpetual availability to Spirit. When our lives are free from systems, we become the occasion where Spirit lives its life as us.

READ ON....

Spirit is the activity of God. Spirituality is when this activity of God...acts as us.

Formulas, plug-in answers, positive thinking, behavioral modification--all these systems promise us increased spirituality. And it’s certainly true that changing our personality and belief-structures can make big changes in our lives. But changing ourselves at the level of belief and behavior does not necessarily change us at the level of heart and will. No matter how deep we dig in terms of psychology, we can never get to the root of the real problem, because the problem of existence is not a psychological or behavioral problem. It is a spiritual one.

Self-improvement is concerned with bettering the human self--and this is okay, because "better" is well....better. But God wants something better for us than just “better!” And our idea of "better" is rarely Spirit's idea of Good. Most of all, spirituality is not about getting all the things on our wish list--no matter how much we really, really want them.

Spirit is God. And spirituality, like God, Himself, is not a noun. Spirituality is a verb. This means that spirituality is not something we can get and have. Rather, it is what we are, to the degree that nothing in us blocks Spirit.

What blocks Spirit-as-us is often referred to as the little self or the false self. I call it “the habit-self” or just plain “self.” Self-help can improve self. But it cannot remove self. Self improvement based upon the self doing the improving doesn’t encourage genuine spirituality at all. It actually gets in the way.

Yes, of course spirituality often improves our human circumstances. But so often, what we call “better” or “improved” is simply something that is more favorable for us!

What true spirituality does bring is a vivid awareness of Spirit's abiding presence. This awareness is absolutely compelling. It doesn’t depend on whether things are looking up and it doesn’t wane when things go bad. It stands independent of our circumstances or even our own personal physical condition—health, sickness, whatever. This awareness of Spirit’s presence is so vivid that nothing can convince us otherwise, even when circumstances are extremely difficult or beyond hope altogether. Nothing uproots it. Nothing moves it. It just sticks, no matter what.

If you have a question you would like Susan to address, that you think would be of interest to other site visitors, please use our Q&A form or write to BeyondSelfHelp@aol.com. Questions of a more personal or specific nature can be discussed privately with Susan through her counseling work.