What Does It Mean To Be a Spiritual Person?

Does spirituality mean a long gray beard, an ascetic life in a cell, a renunciation of everything earthly? It’s an issue that many people are struggling with, and it’s often a matter of prejudice which put me in some more sympathetic situations than in a problem.

A woman entered my center. She sat across, turning her head as if she wanted me to know that I was not necessary to be in the room. I waited a few moments and then I addressed her again:

Good afternoon, how can I help you?

You, not at all. I’m waiting for Mr. Ilic.

I am Mr. Ilic.

Maybe we did not understand, I’m looking for Mr. Žarko Ilic, that’s what I presume is your father or …

No, Madam, you’ve heard me, I’m Žarko Ilic. You came to me.

I did not see such a disappointment in someone`s eyes by then. Later, after she met the Žarko she wanted, she told me she thought that I was a kid who just wiggled with her, and that she expected an elderly man, a steady, quiet voice, and dressed in white. And, as she said, I looked more like a disc jockey.

Today, when the human frequency is far higher than in the time of biblical saints, it is not easy at the same time to be a saint and a man of modern times. We do not need, for the sake of spirituality, to live in a cave on a mountain, but to be there in the world that is around us. Zen garden is always desirable if not in some corner of the apartment, then at least in the heart and soul.

People often ask me for my age. Many do not believe that I have finished all the schools they know or at least ask how I managed to finish them all in such a short time. One interesting situation happened to me with a lady who obviously wanted to insult me:

Honey, how did you have enough time to finish all segments of your education?

Madam, I’m one year older than you. It was my answer, and, judging by her expression, she understood it as an insult.

Our work speaks about ourselves. The scenery is for those who do not have the essence!

We look the way we feel and not how old we are.

Do not observe years as obstacles but as levels. I’m on level  43, it sounds nice 🙂

Also, one of the great problems I have encountered, leading others on their path of self-development, is that they often realize at the very end that they are not ready to meet their new self. It is a great misconception that if you start to work on yourself, you will by rule be different from your environment and therefore even worse. Being different must be worse.

These are frequent prejudices that accompany those who embark on their spiritual advancement.

The acquaintance once said to me: Go out with us, stop practicing for late life, you will have time, it’s for retirement, now you should live.

And when we retire, I will tell him: I am not a bad will because of a small pension like you, because I have earned another, spiritual retirement for myself and it is much greater than anything you know and more valuable than all you have.

One other asked me, “How can I do it honestly and correctly, when everyone around me is dishonest.” They are doing well, so I must be doomed to failure?

You will enjoy the short fruits of dishonest work, because they are by nature destructive. Correctness slowly produces fruits, but it is why their sweetness is greater and the longevity is safer.

All my friends drink a lot, since I began to drink less, I’m no longer desirable in the compny, I only spoil their entertainment, I am boring to them -told me a third acquaintance.

Do not look at others, follow your own path for yourself and not for others. Do not be angry with them, they do not know what they are doing. And when they realize that you are stable, as you work on your firmness, they will slowly begin to come to you and look for refuge, because they are actually unhappy in madness that they think is “living the life.” Then you will become a support to all of them, then you will be in the advantage of the one who is desirable everywhere, but then do not go, help them. At the moment you are nothing worse than them, in the worst case, you are the same as they are, but when things change, you will be the one who is exalted – I answered from my own experience.

Be what you are, work on yourself the best you know, accept yourself and the circumstances as they are given to you, and you will get the best for you very soon.