Profit, certainly. But "freedom" is the better word. Once you have that, then everything else become lighter... It's still the same world, still the same science, still the same trees, and friends, and family, but simply held in a much more illumined mind. That's all. Just a change in how you live and perceive, and that results in profit to yourself and the world. Yes.
I honestly don't see an issue with how I see the world...
Then you are where you need to be. If at some point these understandings you hold fail to answer the questions you may find yourself dealing with, then sometimes just another set of answers won't suffice. It's that whole "shift" in how you see the whole and approach the question itself, that starts to impress itself on you at that point, existential questions.
and I have never needed to adopt, wholesale, the beliefs and/or ideas of one particular religion or belief system, etc.
Me neither. Those that do are simply choosing a given tradition as their path, as you do your own in likely embracing science and rationality as the path to enlightenment for you.
As I am exposed to things, I may or may not incorporate or change my understandings or beliefs as I see fit.
Same here.
I am always skeptical when I hear that someone has spiritual matters, "life outlook" or "meaning to existence" that they seem to feel is better than what I experience or know
I wouldn't say it's better for you, if you are getting your needs met with where you are at at the time. For those who were where you are at, and deeper questions impressed them to go further, what they experience is in fact held as "better" by them then where they were at.
- especially if it points to the supernatural
Nothing I have been talking about is supernatural.
where I am constantly told that I am "missing out".
Only you can answer what is lacking in your life. I will say however, that if someone says they have everything figured out, they probably don't.
I feel I have a pretty good grasp of those life concepts, and I am constantly assimilating new information, thinking on and contemplating things - coming to conclusions, or throwing away ideas and starting from scratch.
And all these things we share. What I am talking about lands outside "figuring stuff out". It has to do with "being" itself, of which the mind is only part of that. These are experiential things, not conceptual idea things.
And in all my time seeking in this way, never have I had need of, nor come across anything I would classify as "supernatural".
What people see as "supernatural" is really nothing more than a mythological construct to try to talk about something which seems beyond themselves. As I said before, "Brahman is the world". That's not supernatural, but it definitely is spiritual. The spiritual is natural. Don't confuse metaphors as descriptors of reality. The spiritual is the condition of being. It's not supernatural.
It does not resonate with me, in fact my intuition points me dead-set in the opposing direction.
I tend to think that's because you likely conceptualize it in these mythological terms, "spirit" is some disembodied ghost; God is "guy in the sky", etc. Yes, my intuition points me away from that too. Just because some may envision God as Sky Parent, does not mean I need to understand it that way.
And there is nothing wrong with that. So forgive me for being skeptical, and not jumping on the supernatural bandwagon.
No need to apologize. I'm not jumping on that either!
It will likely always appear to me as a waste of time - and I see no need to change.
I would say you see no need to change to adopt that system of belief. That doesn't mean your internal questions aren't seeking to reach beyond to where you haven't come yet. We all do that.
