Touching God

True spirituality stirs your blood. It touches the deepest layer of your heart. It feeds your soul. It is so much fulfilling that nothing else matters. Disillusionment with spirituality happens when it is only a mental exercise, a conditioned belief, a recitation of scripture. Many critics consider yoga asana merely physical exercise and say, "You will never find God on a Yoga mat." I think you just might, if that's where you are looking for God.

 I see asana practice as praying with my entire body. Intellectuals feel that the act of ritual is for those unable to understand the abstract concepts of spirituality. Ritual is a way I spend time with God without the distractions of my mind. It is a way of being grateful, an outward expression of my love and devotion to that which matters most to me. Grand churches and temples are built to house God, so that people have a place to find him. I find God everywhere, all the time. And when I'm not "finding" God, I go to nature. I sit on the ground and feel the support of the earth beneath me. I breathe in the air and watch the clouds float by, and I feel my mind settle back down into my body. I hear the birds chirp, the crickets sing, the stream babble or the ocean roar, and my body aligns itself with the rhythm of nature, the rhythm of God. I feel the the rays of the sun expand my body with it's warmth, and I find space for the places that were constricting it. My eyes go soft as I watch the twinkling stars of the night sky, and the moonshine mystifies me as I breathe in the vastness of existence.

No, I do not need a church or a temple to find God. Spirituality without sensuality is difficult for us human beings. God is in our aliveness, in the aliveness of nature, in the aliveness of each other. I find God anywhere, when I look with the totality of my being. Go ahead, reach out and touch God. You know you've touched God when you feel your blood rushing through your veins, when you feel the beat of your heart expand your chest, when you feel your breath down into your toes.... And then, when in every cell of your being is pulsating with aliveness,  go beyond your sensations, beyond your thoughts and there, in that space where nothing happens, you are with God.