This is a Secular Spirituality:

I have always been a healer, a seeker of philosophy, truth, medicine, art and ways to live a life of harmony.

Just like any human I have been perplexed by life’s difficult questions, contradictions, explored beliefs, meditated on the grand ideas, tried to escape difficulties or embrace fleeting pleasures, all to understand. To find safety.

As human beings we are vulnerable creatures, no human is born safe and without risks of suffering, disease and death, we need to be made safe in order to survive, thrive, flourish.

This book is an explanation of my discovery to the power of safety, what it means and why it is a primary to freedom, human flourishing and a secular spirituality.

I seek to share my view in as simple manner as possible, brief and to the point. This is not an intellectual exercise in debate and comparison, today’s readers can easily explore other opinions and texts and find their own solution.

Here is mine.

Chapter 1

Existence Exists

“Reality is, no matter your wishes or beliefs”

A book on spirituality often brings to mind an exploration of beliefs, philosophy of ideas and the like; so at the outset of this book it is important to state my definition.

This chapter begins with Aristotle’s axiom on the primacy of reality, existence exists. The Spirituality I define is not mystical, of another world, supernatural or immaterial, nor religious, it comes from something real.

The word 'spirit' comes from the Latin root 'spirare' meaning "to breathe", which became the word 'spiritus' meaning “breath". As breath, spirit is considered a fundamental reality of being alive. A human cannot be considered alive without breath, spirit is this aliveness.

To be alive is not a belief, it is a reality. To breathe is not a belief, it is a reality. Aliveness encompasses every facet of a human being and is demonstrated in their ability to survive, thrive and ultimately flourish.

This book is not an exploration of beliefs, rather it is an exploration of what is required to survive, thrive and flourish in reality.

The first breath of life in the real world signifies the first moment a human participates actively to survive. It is the first active impulse to exert an individual will to be within existence.

Every moment thereafter requires breath to nourish and maintain an inner connection to the outer reality. The atmosphere of life presses its reality into our being in a dynamic dance between the gases of respiration. This rhythmic exchange is the first acknowledgment of existence and the fact that we exist within it.

To survive requires an acknowledgement of reality, to thrive requires success in reality, to flourish requires mastery in reality.

The definition of Spirituality I propose therefore is -

“the full aliveness of human flourishing within reality”.

Reality is often portrayed according to subjective terms, however reality can never truly be subjective. This would make it a contradiction in terms.

Reality is. Reality can be known, experienced and acknowledged by multiple random sources. A man, woman, child and a horse can all take a bite out of the same apple, walk around and enjoy the shade of the same tree, feel the heat and pain from the same forest fire. The relative subjectivity of the senses of one does not cancel the objective truth of reality.

So let me be clear and state that for each concept we explore within this book I will present its grounding in reality. I am not going to rest on a belief or faith of any kind to validate any aspect, this is a Secular and Reality based Philosophy. Practical implementation and real life actions can be taken that objectively lead to increasing the aliveness of an individual.

An individual to be fully alive and flourish requires freedom, freedom to pursue the fullness of their potential and the happiness of a flourishing life.

Safety is the primary to freedom and human flourishing, and so this is what we will discuss in the next dialogue.

I hope you will join me in this journey.

A Secular Spirituality is a publication that I would like to keep free and open to everyone so that we can build a community. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Get full access to A Secular Spirituality at secularspirituality.substack.com/subscribe