My dictionary defines spiritual as "concerned with the soul, or pertaining to God". On the web, not surprisingly, the definitions range from orthodox to off the map. Phrases like 'path of awareness', 'finding god within', 'transpersonal reality', and 'greater than self' abound. Nothing much has changed; people have always tended to look for a deeper reality, a meaning and purpose for their lives, how everything fits together. In other words, we want to know the truth. Or do we?



If you think of yourself as a spiritual person, why is that? Is it just a popular thing you decided to pick up? Take a yoga class? Try some meditation?

Maybe you are seeking a real benefit for your life. Our world is a stressful place, and finding a way to relax, get things in perspective, focus on peace and beauty and loving one another can surely help us feel a little healthier, a little saner.

Beyond seeking some immediate relief, perhaps you do want to find out what everything is really all about, and are prepared to follow wherever that search leads you. If so, then you are on a quest to know the truth. You can see all around you that life is more than inhaling and exhaling, eating and reproducing. There is poetry and music to explain. The desire for justice, the concept of honor, the reality of sacrificial love to try and understand. And what about platypuses? Although it is currently popular to deny that truth exists, or that it's different for each person, a few minutes of careful thinking will reveal the weakness of that position. Science is clear about quite a number of laws that few sane people will dare to decide aren't true for them. How about gravity, the human body's need for oxygen on a regular basis, the impossibility of two solid objects occupying the same space at the same time. You get my drift. There is absolute truth, and you can't afford to live like there isn't.

Here's where productivity steps into the spiritual realm. If you want to be productive in a search for truth, you want the genuine article. You won't be content to make up any old truth that seems stylish and convenient, and decide that's truth for you. Many do just that, but it's, um, not truth.

You might also be wary of choosing a freshly-minted truth off the 'new books' shelves at Barnes and Noble. Perhaps the one with the most celebrity endorsements can be true for you? These books all contradict each other, so they can't all be true, no matter what your philosophy professor told you. Stick to your quest for real truth until you find it. It's worth a lifetime of diligent research. But be sure you don't start out with a list of "anything but that" restrictions in your head. That will get you bogus results. The absolute key thing is, to go where the evidence leads, wherever that is. You're likely to be rewarded beyond your wildest expectations.