Manifest Revolution Live Truth.

Why do we seek god? Why do we seek transcendent experience and understanding? Why do we live our lives, following particular prescriptions and prohibitions? Why do we need to find god? Are we incomplete without god? Is there a god-shaped hole at the center of our being that needs filling? This is a fundamental question to anyone considering following the spiritual impulse because without understanding why we do it, we cannot wisely ascertain how to go about it.

Many of us have been taught to believe that we must find god in order to be complete; and in many traditions that really just means "accept" or "accept and obey." That's certainly the most obvious interpretation of the spiritual impulse, and it's not a bad place to start because it creates within us an urgency to act. But acceptance and even finding imply a finality to the act; that it is a conclusion in and of itself.

But finding god cannot possibly complete us; the very nature of spiritual experience shows us this. It is fleeting, ephemeral -- like all of life -- it is impermanent. And the radical perception shift we experience immediately eventually fades into wondering and questioning and doubt. Even the most direct experience of the divine must eventually fade into dim memory.

It is not the finding of god that completes us; it is the searching itself. Searching demands continuity and unity of attitude and action -- not simply a desire to seek the divine, but a constant practice of seeking god at all times, in all places. That is, to look for and aspire towards the highest, noblest, greatest ideal that we can conceive, and to transform ourselves to embody that ideal.

We seek god because we are not complete if we don't; not because we are incomplete without god, but because we are simply incomplete, as in "not fully realized." We become whole by realizing the divine nature that is our own, and we do that by living that ideal which our search reveals to us. This demands that we engage with the world with constant awareness and without hesitation or restraint. Acting continually to elevate our perception and action to a higher standard brings us ever closer to that ideal while enabling us to imagine even greater potential that in turn becomes the new ideal.

The spiritual life demands action, it demands change, and it demands high standards. It is not "spiritual" to simply acknowledge, believe or even worship a diety or to profess metaphysical models of creation. Seeking the divine is a process of becoming divine, and becoming divine is the only way to know the divine.