You can defeat all that by being generous to those in need around you especially those you do not like.

As you imply Josh and I agree, “truer” includes being not for profit, and obviously that changes when it becomes commercial. The selling corrupts it let alone any changes or omissions made to the original to make it more commercial so I choose to avoid those things.

However, I think there is still a value in exploring consciousness and questioning reality and looking for the answers to the big questions about life as a personal spiritual search without having an ego about being a spiritual person whilst avoiding the commercial spirituality trap.

Unfortunately a lot of people on this planet at this time are not interested otherwise if they were it would just be the norm of life and no need for a special word like “spiritual” to describe it. So what you seem to be really bemoaning is the state of this world and the need for a label of spiritual and the commercialisation of it but that does not wipe out ones own inner search through non-commercial means.

Yes David I agree with you, but commercial spirituality can easily absorb what you call “truer altruistic spirituality.” Look what it’s done to yoga. Yoga is a multi-billion dollar business, when in its “truer” form (whatever that means) it was a means of rejecting society and its norms.

hi Josh, I find what you are saying to apply more to commercial spirituality rather than a truer altruistic spirituality.

Hey Josh,

Some of my thoughts. I think when someone says yellow bird, red car or a Ralph Lauren t-shirt then other people will know what that person is talking about. Even when someone says I felt angry in traffic or I was nervous just before a job interview then people would still know what you’re talking about. But when you experience or go through things that are not so common to an everyday person’s life and try to describe it to them, then they might not know what you’re talking about. Also there’s often a lack of terminology for it. Then they’ll have to try to understand you as best as they can through the things they’ve experienced themselves. When someone says ‘God’ for example the images that come up in one’s mind and their understanding can be vary greatly from person to person.

When the writer of this article mentions spirituality he might mean a certain type of spirituality, or use the term in the way it is most commonly understood.
I do also think, unfortunately, that many people misuse the term spirituality as what they’re doing is something different. This kind of misleads and confuses people and ruins words/language in my opinion. Perhaps also because as a society we’re not so focused on spiritual things we correspondingly lack words to describe the differences more accurately.

However, things beyond the ordinary, life beyond the body, feelings beyond what we normally feel, divine beings, supernatural events, inner change, a different way of perceiving life, a journey to reach higher things (etc.) do exist. And when talking about these things you can only use the known words that best describe it, if you want people to (kind of) understand what you’re saying.

Hello Chuck,

I too want to thank you for sharing your insights from past experience. I have never felt comfortable about the precepts behind LOA, it has always had a very selfish ring about it to me. It is all about ME, ME ME in the end and the person does not see reality objectively. And it seems your experience really confirms this.