On Spirituality

Its been a long time since my last post. Sorry about that. I could give loads of excuses on how i've had no time and i've been really busy and what not, but i've just been a bit lazy, and there's no denying that! Well, i'm back again, and alot has happened.

Alot.

The biggest, ofcourse, would be the fact that i'm now in university. Thats right, ladies and gents, i'm now a MEDICAL STUDENT.

Ha.

No, really.

Its completely awesome. Med school is very very different from secondary school, or college even. Somehow the atmosphere in general is more matured (yeah, i know, i dont quite fit in.), and the people there just seem on a whole new level. I guess its becacuse we (i mean, they) are adults.
Another difference is the level of competition. Back in school, your relative ranking was rather important, but here, a pass is a pass, and a fail is a (gulp) fail. Which is great, because the people here? They're all BRILLIANT. Seriously. There's not a single slow person in the batch. These guys really are the cream of the crop, getting into monash is supposed to be really difficult.

So anyway, i just got back from a transition camp held solely for the med students, all the way in PD. It was loads of fun, we all got to know each other pretty well, and we had all sorts of opportunities to embarrass ourselves infront of each other. We even had a little serious work, a few talks and such about the various issues that would affect the future doctors of the world *puffs out chest*, everything from the layout of classes to the Health Enhancement Programme (HEP) designed to help us stay alive.

At this point you're probably wondering why i'm rambling on about my utterly boring life, when spirituality is in the title. And you're probably wondering why you're even reading this blog. And i'll tell you why. Its because you've got absolutely no life, so stop thinking and keep reading.

Anyway, back to my story. In one of the tutorial discussions on the HEP we had, the facilitator introduced us to the ESSENCE concept. It's supposedly a frame work for self examination or something, and each letter stands for something like Stress Management or Excercise or Nutrition or something. And one of the Ss in that word stands for spirituality.

So there we were, talking about spirituality. And out of the blue, the facilitator dude asks "So... What IS spirituality?"
Silence. I swear, we could hear the crickets chriping. What the hell was spirituality? And why is it important? So i thought about it. And after a few seconds, i came up with this definition: "Human beings, despite having everything they really need, still feel a sense of lacking; a void in them that nothing seems to fill. Spirituality fills this hole."

That seemed like a pretty good definition, to me atleast. Except for the fact that it doesnt REALLY define spirituality, rather it explains what it is. So for me now, a persons 'spiritual needs' simply refer to that feeling of lacking that many people experience.

You see, in my case, i really crave something. For the longest time i thought it was something sexual, like i needed some sort of companionship or maybe even plain old physical gratification, but when chances to satify this came along, i tended to turn them down. This forced me to rethink my original conclusion, because i realised that i didnt really want sex or anything sexual. It wasn't an intellectual need either, because i was getting enough mental stimulation, but it did nothing to reduce my cravings.

So maybe thats where spirituality comes into play. You need something more in your life, something spiritual, something beyond the material and substantial. And much like the way you feel heart attack pain in your left arm instead of your chest, people tend to displace this need, mistake it for something else, predominantly sexual.
It explains why many people tend to misbehave sexually, too. Instead of them being bad or reckless or whatnot, perhaps these people just feel an intense need for something, something they cant identify, and they make the wrong assumption about it. They try really hard to satisfy the craving, but somehow never can, because its not really a sexual need, but a spiritual one.

Now before i continue, i must say i'm making a major assumption. I'm projecting my own feelings onto the general population, so its actually quite likely that the entire argument is wrong. This only holds true if the feeling of emptyness i sometimes experience is also experienced by a large portion of the other humans out there.

Anyway, to continue. It just so happens i was in church today, and a phrase in one hymn struck me: "Come, let him fill the emptyness in your life", or something like that. Thats why religion is such a big seller! Some people do realise that this emptyness is more of a spiritual thing, and they try religion (instead of sex like some others). And since many people join religion (when i say religion i mean everything that offers to fill the void in peoples souls; Christianity, islam, buddhism, whatever), i assume it works! They must find it healing, or fulfilling, more so than any of the other alternatives people could take.

While you can debate my definition of spiritual needs, there's no denying that fulfilling them is an extremely important factor in one's entire well being. And since religion is often the answer to one's spiritual well being, you can almost say that human beings NEED a god. They need some sort of higher metaphysical being controlling and influencing their lives, giving their lives meaning.

Now why in the world would human's evolve a need for god? We need many things, like food (for obvious reasons) or sex (to further the species), but why a god? It makes no sense, because it is an essentially useless trait for the species. Infact, i think it actually hinders us somewhat! So many people die over disagreements about these gods, gods we apparently all need. From a scientific sense, spiritual needs, or the need for a god, is completely illogical. It shouldnt exist.

Unless.

Unless. Someone, someone who didnt quite want to be forgotten, put it there.