The new book by Alberto Linero, ‘Spirituality for humans’, answers a basic question: how do we come to the understanding that developing the spiritual dimension is just what we need to go through this world that, for some, weighs too much and, for others, lacks? of sense.
“What I want is to demystify a bit what we call spirituality because some people believe that spirituality is religion and since they have some aversion to religion then what they do is also have an aversion to spirituality”, explains Alberto Linero in an interview with Vanguardia.
And perhaps the most interesting thing about ‘Spirituality for humans’ is that it doesn’t look for that spiritual materialism that we sometimes follow as if it were recipes.
Alberto Linero asks the reader to connect with himself, but in a broader and deeper sense.
“Regardless of whether we are atheists, agnostics, religious of any denomination, the important thing is to develop spiritual abilities.”
Alberto Linero spoke with this publishing house about how to face these spiritual dilemmas, how to recognize our path in the era of the self, and how to move forward in an increasingly troubled world.
We are running a lot. After the pandemic, for many, life has accelerated and there is often little time to think about oneself, which makes it very difficult to find that spiritual dimension. How to reach it?
“One has to put an end to some existential axioms that one has in his head and that is that the more things I do, the happier I am, the more I respond to all the expectations that there are of me, the happier I am, the more I produce, the happier I am.
The first thing is to attack that type of thinking. You have to understand that life that is done slowly is also productive. You have to do a whole exercise to deconstruct ideas that have been positioned very strongly by the economic system, by the way we live in our minds.
The second, being disciplined, plan the day well. You have to take moments for each one because that is where spirituality begins. When I planned the day and I say: I’m going to have this moment to read without any kind of complex, without any kind of guilt, on the contrary. Don’t forget that the first expression of spirituality is self-care.
How do you know if you have to correct the path? We are at a time when the self is too important, but how to question yourself to say?
“Life must be lived consciously. Automatisms must be avoided. Our brain, by its nature, builds routines and by building routines it makes us live automatically. Nothing is more damaging to the life project than these automatisms because they lead us not only to be predictable, but also to be highly manipulated by others and by contexts.
I invite you to live with awareness and living with awareness is nothing more than answering the question of why and why I do what I do.
What I am doing, why did I do it, why did I do it? When I do these types of exercises I can become aware of the quality of my actions.
Look, be careful with the ego. The ego is the lie we lie to ourselves so as not to feel inferior or to manage our inferiority complex. Therefore, the bigger the ego, the more emptiness you have in your heart.
It is about dismantling the stories of the ego and finding yourself and, beware, you always live with others. Human existence is coexistence. It does not matter that you are happy if those around you are not happy.
He who is only happy will not be truly happy because it is by showing solidarity and helping the other that I can generate spaces of happiness for myself”.
I mentioned at the beginning that there are many reports on spirituality. Social networks today show us astrology, Tarot, religions, positive philosophy. How to know which path is for each one? Can you believe in everything?
“We cannot compare ourselves. Each one has to connect with their essence. In fact, that is one of the concepts of spirituality that I propose in the book: connecting with one’s own essence, accepting and embracing what I essentially am in oneself, that which allows me to be this human being. Do not try to impose your truth on others.
That is why the text that I write does not have any proselytizing sense. I try that no one thinks as I think, on the contrary, I would love that the text provoke questions, help to move forward.
Each one knows what expectations they have, what their essence is and what they are contributing. You have to have criteria: one, if it takes me out of reality it is not a good experience. Nothing that takes me out of reality is good, even if it is a religion, a practice. It has to connect me with my reality.
What is irrational, that is, what is not logical, what I cannot demonstrate coherently, I have to suspect.
And if I feel like it’s hurting me, be careful, that’s not the way to go. I can’t tell you this is true, this is not true. I am Catholic, Apostolic and Roman, I live in communion with the Church, but I understand that it is my experience and the experience of those of us who have found ourselves in that community”.
When you have doubts, how do you solve them?
“Doubts are a blessing. Human beings who do not doubt are dangerous. Hitler seems not to have doubted and look at all the tragedy that caused us. Human beings have to doubt and the first thing I do when I doubt is to welcome the doubt. I am not afraid to doubt and I try to understand why I doubt, I try to find answers.
Doubts are wonderful because doubts are possibilities for new answers, for growth. Many times spiritual experience and faith are fed by doubts.
We are living in a time when doubting is difficult. In the networks you pay with the cancellation. How to assume this in the inner life?
“It is about living in continuous discernment, in continuous analysis of what I am, of what I do. It is about asking myself every day the meaning of what I am building.
I am very afraid of people who do not doubt. What’s more, I suspect that he who does not doubt is not intelligent and is evil at heart. So you have to doubt, but you can’t be a weathercock. You cannot let the opinions of others rule your life, because the opinions of others are as relative as yours.
You have to find a balance between what I believe and what I build my life from. In times of social networks, in which everyone feels that they are specialists in the subject and feels that they can tell you what to do, you have to know how to send people to hell, you have to say thank you for your opinion, but not I’m interested, it doesn’t work for me.
You cannot be a weathervane of the expectations of others, but if you have to know how to listen to others, you have to know how to be open to discovering what they are showing us”.
What expectations do you have with the book?
“Spirituality for Humans is the most important work I have ever written and I truly believe it is the best book I have ever written. That makes me happy because it means that I am growing as a writer, as a human being who expresses himself.
I am proud of the text and I am happy. I want my book to be read by many people, I am not afraid to say: I would like this book to be widely read and that it will generate many questions in people. People who have already read it, people who have already had questions, and I say: wonderful, the book is fulfilling its objective.
Also, I want us to understand that Love is winning everything and Spirituality for humans are the two doors of the same house, the two sides of the same coin. He who is spiritual loves and I believe that he who loves has learned to find his way of transcending and his way of connecting with himself in daily life.
I am happy, proud of the text, I would like spirituality to touch the heart. I am convinced that we would be less violent if we are more spiritual”.
Alberto Linero: “We would be less violent if we are more spiritual.”