Complacency, apathy, negativity, cynicism, ignorance, the list goes on and on, as ignorance is bliss, or some seem to think.
Our spiritual life has no beginning, or end. Religion has absolutely nothing to do with the spirituality, or lack of in anyone's' life, although it does play a part in the motivation or at times the manipulation of ones' life. Depends on the religion, or the teaching behind the particular theology or philosophy, along with we could say a myriad of other scenarios.
If the time is taken to observe children in an outdoor environment it can be seen with the naked eye what spirituality means, as well as why at times it is shunned, as it is only shunned from the teachings of adults to children, at times through manipulation and others from the children's observation of their surroundings. Back to the playground and children in the liberty of their imaginations and joy with almost everything around them, we see, if willing, what life is all about. Outside of the chains of the parents grasp, they will endure joy as well as pain, occasionally, though the pain usually is not at all even close to threatening the well being of anyone, much less the children. Abrasions on a knee are funny to some children, if they are not suffocated with pompous agony, though it must be admitted most parents in the park usually have pretty much common sense in the reacting to the abrasion. Tell a boy or girl they are OK, and surprisingly, to some, they are, while others just seem to fantasize the possibility of being hurt, well it is easy to see who has the parents or supervision of the so called intelligent society.
Spirituality then is learned to be shunned, as in, at times it is just beaten out of our lives, one way or another. And we wonder why so many have problems with addiction to drugs, mainly alcohol when they are a bit older, or old enough to legally drink. When we pull the blinds at night to alleviate the sunshine, or the gaze of the unwanted eye, it can be correlated to the shunning of the spiritual world. Windows are for the use of sight to the outside world, as well as letting light in, or fresh air, which can be likened to the eyes in our heads. Open the eyes and see, or close them and see. Spiritually we all can see with out eyes closed, even though we do not always admit to it, or like it perhaps.
Problem is when our spirits are beaten out of us as young people it is difficult to care when we grow up, which is the reason many do not grow up, which is the dilemma of course, as it almost amounts to beating a dead horse (excuse the anthology, please), which is about the only way this one knows to put it, at least nicely, as the audience is made up of many variations of understanding.
Love is the spirituality, or what this writer considers to be the answer to alleviating the pain of the past, though of course it also can bring up memories of the past, though hopefully we learn to use the past as a reference only, in order to not dwell on the negative in order to keep things positive and the correct perspective, even though we all see and perceive at varying degrees of what at times could be or can be called understanding, though we are still mostly ignorant of exactly what we are capable of achieving. Love can limit this thought process in the way of putting a cover over the past, though without understanding why. In other words we can not say we love someone and then refuse to talk about a painful subject with that person we say we love.
Psychology, as a science, is like trying to go live on the sun, even though spirituality is at times tied, or said to be tied to the so called science. In other words our spiritual worlds individually can not be figured out with the absurdity of say Freud, who was one of the idiots who started the problem with people shunning spirituality, well at least in my humble opinion. We can not say definitively what causes anyone to do what they do. We have no idea as to the spiritual life from the past, living in the present body, still at times trying to rid itself of the past trauma of life.
It is interesting that much of the study of the spiritual has come from the East, which is, if observed, is where some of the psychological labels seem to have come from. Problem is though that it needs to be understood in the essence of the observed what is being seen, which is near impossible unless from an enlightened being, which most of us never grow to due to our arrogance and ignorance to what is right in front of our eyes.
So where did I lose you? Perhaps I did not. Point is we all have our spiritual world intact, know it our not. At times it takes a hard look at oneself to answer the questions, with absolute truth, which will give the insight to perhaps grow out of the box.