Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

Waiting for my death in peace, trying to help humanity progress to the best of my ability.

Reading a bit of the Gospels in my mother tongue.

I describe myself as "culturally Catholic", which is my way of saying that my cultural heritage includes plenty of Catholic elements and I am fine with that. I love popular traditions and ancient buildings, for example, even if I don't care much about faith.

For me, the fact that religion is a human creation makes the good parts about it more worthwhile, not less. It is a shared story that has been told and shaped over the centuries, and it has ended up shaping the people who told it in return.

> But they need not be tied to morality.

Is morality a monopoly of religion?

Meditation while giving myself over to daily chores. Just being at peace with them, being mindful of why I'm doing them, weathering the thoughts and emotions that rebel against them.

And the same with everything else positive in my life. Living and not following the impulse to constantly stop and reassess. I have my life pretty well figured out, but something in my brain always wants to stop doing, analyze, rethink, second-guess every action every day until the actual doing is crowded out, in my head and in reality, too, if it gets its way. So my practice is to give myself over to the things that make my life and the lives of the people around me better.

Not long ago in my new apartment after breaking up with a long time girlfriend I had an amazing experience while meditating. The odd thing was I never really meditated back then. Something just told me to do it. I was led on an internal journey that showed me some things about my self. One, don't turn away from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Two, don't judge yourself. Three, the ego or this idea of myself is an illusion. It ended with my sense of self expanding out into infinity. I was not a body; I was infinite and an awesome wave of (I assume) serotonin like a big dose of E. Since then I meditate often and just try to be completely open to my entire experience. I'm an indifferent witness as often as I can. "Bad" feelings have lost their edge. When I sat with the feeling I discovered there is nothing "bad" about it. It's just a different feeling in my experience. With this I have become lighter, freer, happier and more at peace with the experience just as it is, right here, right now. I recommend you try observing yourself as if you are a third person. What do you think about, how do those thought make you feel, what do you do in reaction to uncomfortable or "bad" feelings? I think you will start to notice that it's all just thoughts, often silly, ridiculous thoughts about a future that will not happen. Memory too are just thoughts. They are not happening now and even if they were the judgments of them are just ideas that come from social conditioning. Good and bad, right and wrong are just opinions and they change over time and from person to person. Don't take them seriously. Its like trying to hold on to vapor as if it's something solid. I have since learned from watching Rupert Spira videos on youtube that this is kinda like Atmananda Krishna Menon's Direct Path. A lot of us here are science and engineer types. Think of this as like hacking your human experience or rooting your brain. Why be satisfied with little doses of happiness and satisfaction gotten by jumping thru social or cultural hoops. Happiness, peace and contentment are within us. Go get it for yourself.