Physical Family vs. Spiritual Family (Feb. 4, 2008)
Physical family is the most fundamental social units within which most of us were raised and spent childhood. Our personality is formed during the childhood, influenced especially by their parents. We all wish that we would have a perfect father and a mother in our eyes, which is often not the case. For many clients/patients that I worked with, dealing with the physical family is not an easy thing and they went through various forms of sufferings within their family. Dealing with physical family can be the most difficult task for many people in life since the connection by birth is truly strong.
Spiritually speaking, however, there is another group of people around us. This is called a Spiritual Family. The Spiritual Family is composed of the individuals that you recognize as spiritual friends with whom you can learn, grow and support each other. A spiritual teacher that you feel connected with is one of them. A family member can be your spiritual family member simultaneously.
It is very important to recognize that there is a spiritual family for you beside your physical family. Whether you have already found them or not, it is important to keep looking to find your spiritual friends. They are not simply “friends” whom that you can hang out for enjoying a moment. They will be your spiritual treasure for life. Spiritual family members are supportive, but yet independent. They fall in respective physical family units, but remain still spiritually connected. It is not the physical distance, but a spiritual connection.
For those who have suffered from relationships with the physical family members, I encourage them to seek to identify spiritual family members. This is not to replace the physical family with the spiritual one, but understand what truthfully the family function is.
The true function of the family is to give you spiritual love more than physical love, supporting your learning and growing while allowing you to make your own decision as to where and which direction you choose to go.
In a way, spiritual journey is a process of transcending the traditional concept of the family. Without diminishing the role of the physical family and love toward them, you can build a new group of friends who will stand by for you and vice versa. They will be the manifestation of the spiritual love. You will never be alone on this Earth…
