What is a Spiritual Gangster?
Spiritual gangster seems a bit contradictory, doesn’t it?
It’s more than just a T-shirt company, the road between flower children and war pigs have long been traversed by another spiritual warrior, the martial artists. The spiritual gangster is bridging the chasm between a populist society filled with manic-depressives and Taoism is sneaking its way into western culture, as we approach the polarization tipping point.
“Yeah, I’m in touch with my spirit. No, it does not mean that I am religious. Also, just because I am spiritual, don’t expect me to be a pushover. Yes, I have another side, that I am aware of, and if you push it, you may become aware of it too.”
What is a Spiritual Gangster?
The Spiritual Gangster is someone making a statement to the world. That statement is a commitment of spirituality that does not fit within the traditional description of “spiritual” found in western civilization. Yes, I’m spiritual, as a matter of fact, I love, pray or meditate, get in touch with a higher self, and I tune into a divinity. I also kick-ass and I make no apology for it. I am as proud of my “other side”, as I am of my “spiritual” side. I can be both an ass-kicker and a spiritual being, and it is in owning both my sides that I am a truly spiritual being.
The explosion of yoga, meditation, life coaches, positive thinking, and alternative lifestyles, that has occurred over the past thirty years, has propelled a massive development within the consciousness movement at a global level. It is clear that the evolving identity of spirituality is becoming more and more pervasive. This movement is threading a new conversation through products and services into our gyms, movies, health-care centers, corporations, and even our bank commercials.
It has become much “cooler” to be spiritual. The Dala Lama and Hollywood, Depak Chopra and Madonna….all of them are seen as cool. At the same time, an endearment for “anti-establishment characters” such as The God-Father, Good Fellas, The Sopranos, Ray Donovan has become clear. It’s cool to be spiritual, it’s cool to be a gangster (in varying degrees).
The Spiritual Gangster unites and presents what may seem like opposing sides to the world. I’m spiritual in my own way. I’m gangsta, and that doesn’t mean I kill or hurt people (for no reason); It means that I’m strong, I’m loyal to my crew and if you mess with me…..it’s at your peril. You bet that I am content in being a spiritual being of strength.
Finding a precise meaning or measurement of how much “Spiritual’ or how much “Gangster” is required to be diagnosed with a Spiritual Gangster is not the point. The variability which exists within its meaning from person to person is as wide as the sky. At the same time, when one spiritual gangster meets another, there’s a respect between them that is opening new doors. These doors are opening an evolving thought process that is reaching our children, effecting and evolving all our cultures and causing a thorough rethinking of God, religion, ethics, morality and spirituality, one gangsta move at a time.
Written by ThankGodi team
