ShinNa: Spiritual Blog

 In the ShiNa School, our core teaching is centered around one essential truth: the nature of the mind is a field of infinite potential and possibilities. This foundational understanding positions the mind itself as akin to the quantum field—the very fabric from which our universe arises. Essentially, our mind and the universe are inseparable, unified in potentiality, suggesting that our inner consciousness directly mirrors universal creation. This concept parallels the idea of dark matter, an invisible yet potential-rich space awaiting manifestation. Similarly, traditional teachings describe this fundamental nature as emptiness or void, a space from which all things arise and to which they ultimately return. Recognizing this truth illuminates our real challenge in life: ignorance of our inherent nature. Our primary difficulty stems from believing we are limited by external physical reality. When we perceive life through the restrictive lens of Newtonian physics rather than the e...

Have you ever felt that a good part of your spiritual life doesn't make it into your real life? Have you ever felt a frustration within yourself because your life experience doesn't reflect your spiritual desires. Perhaps, there is no separation of the two and it is only in your perception. We often keep our spirituality in a “higher plane” than our earth realm. We can fall into the trap of expecting our spiritual desires to be created in the moment, without necessarily any preparation on our part. Just connect and it's there for us. It is certainly true that everything is there for us, but something more needs to be added for us to have access to it. I have seen many spiritual seekers forgo the practical tasks of everyday life. But if you think about it, how can we bring our spirituality into the world and connect with others consistently if we don't do what is needed in the earth realm. I am talking about things like, money management, organization, planning, learni...

Faith or Hope There is an old story about a boy who lived in a small village.  Since the village was centrally located, the circus would come to town every year for a month and perform each day.  This boy was captivated by the circus.  He loved the elephants and the tigers. He loved the clowns and the acrobats.  And he especially loved the tightrope walker.  The tightrope walker had a “trick”.  He would push a wheelbarrow in front of him as he walked the rope.  This man really impressed the boy and finally at the end of the month he got up the nerve to talk to him.  He told the tightrope walker how great and fantastic he was. He smothered him with accolades. The tightrope walker smiled , said thank you, and added, “if you think I am so great, would you like to sit in the wheelbarrow for my next performance?”   No matter what the boy said, his answer to the question showed his true faith. We can say we have faith in something, but d...

Let's Be in the Moment One common spiritual desire I often hear is to be in the moment. I believe this to be true, but I think that we often want to short cut the disciplined effort that is required to be able to get there. We often mistake being in the moment as just doing what we feel like doing at any moment. I have participated in many “spiritual” drum circles where people get in a circle and drum “together”. However there often seems to be a problem. Instead of drumming together, people are drumming out their own rhythms and the sound, if you took the time to listen, would definitely take you right out of the moment. You will want to be somewhere else. From a spiritual perspective, I believe that the desire to be in the moment really means that we want to be able to connect to and align with a higher power at any time. We really want to be and do in the moment what our purpose calls us forth to be and do. Did you ever notice that some people in your life just seem to rai...

Spiritual Freedom is Discipline – part 1 In many spiritual circles there seems to be a special admiration for the free spirit.  The people who can just go with the flow and wing it.  The spontaneous ones. They are the people who are supposedly most plugged in to life.  But the question is, do those people truly experience freedom? I have lived a lot of my life trying to be that free spirit, and from my experience, it does not really give you true freedom.   In fact, I was experiencing a lot of stress below the surface because there was nothing I could count on and I was often less prepared to get the most out of myself.  If you think about it, true freedom or aliveness comes from the interplay of flow and structure. Water flows powerfully in pipes and music has both notes and space.   We often mistake structure as something that will keep us rigid, but if used properly, it gives us a powerful way to create. We are amazed by sports figures li...

Spirituality and the Ideal There is an old joke you may have heard about a man who lived in an area where there was a flood that rose to just below the roof of his house.  So he climbed on the roof and asked God to save him.  Soon after, the police came by in a row boat and told him to hop in.  He said “No, God will save me.”  Later, a helicopter hovered over him and he sent it away saying “God will save me.”  After he sent away a canoeist who came to help him, the flood got worse and he started to drown.  He cried out to God, “ Dear God, I have always believed in you, but when I asked you to save me, you never showed up, and now I am drowning.  Why did you ignore me?” And God said, “You idiot, I sent you a row boat, a helicopter, and a canoe.” One way we can trip ourselves up in our quest for enlightenment is that we can hold some ideal of what enlightenment should look like.  I always thought that I would really have arrived when in every se...

Looking back, I can laugh out loud at my spiritual journey because I believe I missed the obvious. The brother of my best friend in high school studied personally with the Dali Lama and he tells a story about the first time he saw the Dali Lama speak.  To the best of my memory, the story goes that after his talk , the audience was able to ask him questions.  A student asked the Dali Lama what the secret was to living a spiritual life.  Everybody took out their notebooks and with baited breath waited to write down the profound words of wisdom that they were about to hear.  The keys to the kingdom.  They were ready to write down many words and many sentences.  As the Dali Lama was about to speak, everyone focused in , not to miss the the pearls that would change their life forever.  And then came his answer.   “Be Happy”.  It seemed too simple.  Was that all there is? Now I can't say for sure this story is true because I wasn't th...