The Spiritual life and the material, worldly life are no more opposite than poetry is to pancakes. The spiritual is not separate from the physical, nor from the psychological and the psychic. Indeed, it is not separate from any aspect of life. In this world the spiritual is where your feet are, now, in the present moment; whether you are soliciting sex or singing psalms. In a moment of revelation the psalmist, David, realised that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you cannot be separate from God.

"Where can I go from the Holy Spirit? And where can I flee from God's presence?

If I ascend into heaven, God is there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, God is there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the deepest parts of the sea, even there shall God lead me, even there shall God hold me.

If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall hide me", even the night shall be light about me. For the darkness hides nothing from God. The night is as bright as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike unto God."

What exactly is spirituality? Spirituality is no more and no less than God awareness. It is sensing who and what you are and your true relationship with 'All That Is'. It has nothing to do with long faces, disciplines, rules and ceremonies. In particular it has nothing to do with robes, vestments, clasped hands, upturned eyes and speaking with an ever-so-gentle voice. You cannot awaken spirituality by any outward expression. In truth, you are as spiritual right now as you ever will be. Awareness of your own spirituality is awareness of God in the All. It must be more than a mere belief, more than a concept, more than a philosophy. Real awareness can come only by direct, personal experience of the God Force. It is a union which, in the physical plane at least, is not a permanent condition.

Meister Eckhart, the catholic mystic, wrote: "While I am here, He is in me; after this life, I am in Him. All things are therefore possible to me if I am united with Him who can do all things."

Those of us who are capable of inner silence, after first expressing an ardent desire for union and by seeking, waiting and keeping available, may, through Grace, move into Sunyata, the void; a stage of true mystical meditation which leads to union. It cannot be obtained by will-power. It is a gift which is earned through passionate desire and, paradoxically, achieved by letting go of all desire. A temporary annihilation of the false self, or that which we conceive ourselves to be as individual from God.