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The Path For Spiritual Growth

Watch a small child begin to explore it’s world. It grabs and touches everything in sight. The child will explore and examine visually with the eyes, everything it touches goes in the mouth to explore further. The child is so engrossed in this learning process that when it comes time to sleep the child will cry and fight to stay engaged because they are so excited with all they are learning.

At some point the physical learning phase is satisfied and they begin seeing others in their world. They learn to react and interact with their parents and peers. At this point society is quick to instill the wholesome constructs of civility, instructing social skills and respectful behaviors to keep a healthy community.

Society continues the pressure to keep learning; learn to read and learn the fundamentals of mathematics and science, history, economics, etc. etc. Then one day we reach the magical point of adulthood. When we graduate from societal pressures to grow we are left on our own. Where do we go from here?

Sadly most people barley mature beyond this basic growth phase. The resulting consequence of a lack of growth is the beginning of death. If we are not growing, expanding, creating, maturing we are working against our own nature. The resulting consequence of this lack of growth initially is laziness, bordem, escapism, etc. If this lack of growth continues it leads to depression, anxiety, stress, fear, etc.

The real growth that everyone can embrace is growing spiritually. Spiritual growth is growing within oneself. Just as the small baby begins to touch and experience everything in the physical world the spiritual path begins in the same the way. Experiencing every internal sensation to explore it.

Those who have experienced serious trauma are usually most likely to be open to the spiritual dimension of life and living. The trauma events continue to resurface which tends to force an individual to begin exploring their internal spiritual sensations triggered by those life events.

Those who refuse to explore these spiritual sensations, who try to suppress them, are tortured by these feelings. If left unexplored the individual suffers more and more as the negatives metastasize and show up as physical illnesses.

If one can learn to embrace the internal spiritual components of life, and grow by means of exploration of these internal revelations, a joy for life will return. Like that of a small child and there is no limit on the growth one can achieve spiritually. Spirituality is the nature of who we are. It resides inside our heads with thoughts and thinking, in our mind as visions and dreams, in our heart and soul as feelings and sensations.

As we grow to attain this spiritual awareness and awaken from within we manifest a sense of deep joy, peace and happiness with life. Embrace your spirituality and join us on the spiritual quest.

Spirituality Your Secret Place

Your thoughts …. you can never really shut them off they run 24 – 7. Thoughts run on autopilot just like our blood circulates and our digestion system functions. Our thoughts are not reality … they’re just descriptions of our reality and our thoughts are running endlessly day and night. While we often see our thoughts as who we are … they‘re not. We are the entity behind our thoughts.

In the last post we explored how words and thoughts are not real things, they are just descriptions. From this perspective we can now better explore Spirituality. Spirituality is an internal thing and it’s deep inside of you and it’s beyond your thinking or even your praying, which are just more words. If you can go deep inside and watch yourself think and watch how your thoughts effect how you feel. Watch how your thoughts try and describe others as you interact with them. Watch how you are quick to judge others who disagree with you.

When you can get into that space inside your mind and heart, where you watch yourself thinking. You go behind or above your thoughts, that is the real spiritual space and that’s where clarity resides. From that spiritual space inside of you … you now can exercise full control of the moment. And only the moment you’re in is your reality. You now have a deeper control from a spiritual point of view of the moment (Now). Some call this space inside Christ consciousness, some call it being centered, some call it God’s perspective or the spiritual space, etc. The words used to describe this place are irrelevant. This is your own secret place, and discovering that space within you is where real truth resides.

That spiritual space, your secret place, can only be felt and experienced internally (spirituality) it can never be fully explained in words, thoughts or stories of any kind. It can only be experienced by getting beyond your thoughts and connecting to that internal energy flow that is one with you. Only Love and Peace reside at that deep level behind or above your thoughts. From that spiritual level you will always act perfectly with genuine love.

The minute you start focusing on your thinking again you start adding interpretations to the moment, at that point you step out of the spiritual space of clarity. Now your background, upbringing, life experiences, instincts, prejudices, beliefs, fears, etc. take control of you and you‘re no longer in the moment. You’re now in the future by planning a response, or in the past drudging up an interpretation as to what the moment means. When our thinking is running our lives we are in a place of darkness. Thinking has it’s place but clarity is when you’re watching yourself think.

The hectic world around us can pull us out of our spiritually centered state. Your being mindful of this depth of awareness within yourself puts you in a descriptive category of an enlightened spiritual person. So close your eyes often and watch your thinking and thoughts from that secret place inside of you. There lies the real truth of love and peace and you’ll feel it for everyone else too. Yes, included in that Love will be every man, woman and child on this planet regardless of their beliefs or religious heritage, friend and foe alike. Working this out within ourselves is how we change the world. Let’s all try and find this place inside ourselves where the clarity of love resides and do our part in awakening. When we do we have real power to affect change in our world.

Revealing Spirituality in Our Lives

We are not our name or anything else that we attach to ourselves. Be it terms like parent, student, teacher or homeowner, athlete, poet, etc – these are words used to help describe us but they are not the essence of who we are. The word “I” can be very limiting, or your “I-ness” can help you expand and grow depending on how you use your “I-ness”.

Does the word sparrow really contain a complete comprehension of that bird in nature? No! Telling someone your name, or other word attachments you assigned to yourself does not encapsulate who you are. Do you really even know yourself? Frankly we will never fully attain any substantive matter using words as a description or as an explanation alone, enlightenment goes beyond words.

In fact all words and descriptions, whether they are thoughts or vocalized into sounds, actually restrict our perceptions of reality. And yes our thinking too is just visualizing words. Words do shed some light on a matter … but reliance on words or a combination of words alone will actually limit our comprehension.

To help you attain comprehension of your world, your “I-ness” attaches words as a description and explanation to help identify things. Soon however we begin believing our words and thoughts are truth, sadly we can limit our I-ness to these conclusions. We’re often quick to reject other peoples words and descriptions that contradict our own, this hinders deeper comprehension. But even as we grow to be open to all explanations we are still limited if we rely on words and thinking (word thoughts) alone. Relying strictly on words and human intellect as “the truth” we actually cover up the deepest of connections and understanding, the spiritual.

Words are incapable of containing “the truth”. They contain some truth but they are limiting to the associations that the “I” have assigned to them. Every human attaches words to their experiences. We feel comfortable around those who share these same word associations. Sadly, we argue and fight with those who have different word associations with things; especially around sensitive subjects like God, religion and spirituality. These conflicts certainly are not enlightenment for either side.

The mystery of things like God, Nature, Love … these are but labels trying to contain what is ultimately unattainable by our mind if limited to words and thoughts alone. To discover the unknowable, you must let go of your thoughts and labels around everything. Be open for a deeper understanding, the spiritual, that is discovered inside Yourself.

Open up and be receptive to what’s happening inside of you as you interact with the world around you. Explore not only with words or thoughts … explore with your internal sensations. Acknowledge all your internal states and feelings. As you do you’ll discover your true “I-ness” and true spirituality. This is only attainable by you working internally with your own nature. Inside yourself is where you’ll discover “real truth” which cannot be contained by words, stories or explanations of any kind. It cannot be named or labeled, it can only be experienced by You inside your “I-ness” … we call this spiritual attainment, enjoy the discovery.

In Spirituality … There's Only One Energy

When you dislike an individual or a group of individuals, the resulting problems it causes are suffered by YOU. You are out of alignment with Source Energy (God’s Love). You may feel utterly justified in the way you feel about their seeming wrongdoing or about their betrayal, but you suffer when you’re out of alignment with source energy.

When you focus on anyone with an attitude of anything that is less than pure love (God Energy), you go out of sync with Source Energy and it feels like a negative emotion to you. And if you keep it up, you experience a stronger indication of discord, uneasiness (dis ease).

So the first indication of discord or resistance is the feeling of negative internal emotions. The first indication of alignment are positive emotions. These emotions or internal spiritual sensations (Spirituality) are your indications that you are in alignment or out of alignment with Source Energy (God).

If you are experiencing spiritual sensations that are not pleasing, YOU have to change the vibration that is emanating from you. The internal spiritual indicators will remain the same until YOU change. YOU must change to align with the Source Energy and when you do you’ll feel it.

Comprehending Spiritual

Understanding the connection between physical laws and spiritual laws is only what we perceive. As our perceptions grow we have greater enlightenment. We all hope that there is “one truth”- “one path” – “one faith” some foundational understanding that we will grasp and when we do we will be done growing and know all that we need to know.

My current position on this … that will never happen in our life time, because our universe is expanding and so are we. So even if we read every word ever penned as a spiritual writing we’re only getting the perception of the one writing it. We need to continue to discover more and more of OUR OWN perceptions. Using our external physical senses and our internal spiritual sensations we expand our own revelation.

On whatever WE focus OUR attention on, trusting OUR OWN perceptions on the specific subject matter is how WE grow. We should examine the perceptions of others to expand our own, but in the end you should only trust your own conclusions. If we’ve adopted another person’s written view and stopped comparing it with a contrasted view we stop our own growth.

We can always grow more by exploring more … “Keep on seeking” … “Keep on asking” … those who seek find, those who ask get the answers. Those who believe they have all the answers are at a stand-still … they are not growing at all.

Each one of us perceives the Spiritual/Creator/Upper Light/Nature/God differently. Initially we are exposed to our world by our parents, family and community. How do we continue to grow? I suggest that it’s according to one’s individual desires and internal qualities; these drive a person to explore and sense himself / herself in relation to the world around them.

The source or energy, Creator/God no one has seen (Exodus 33:20). Meaning I never feel it directly; I perceive myself in relation to Him the “Upper Light.” I reveal this “Upper Light” or discover Him only within myself, as I do all of nature. You sense the physical as if it were happening on the outside; when in fact all we ever experience is inside of us. Our entire world exists inside of us.

To illustrate … a person blind cannot experience a beautiful sunset; or if deaf they cannot experience a beautiful symphony. They can explore the attainments of others by reading about such beauty but it’s not their attainment. They are left experiencing the reflected Light of the experience of the one writing about it.

Our spiritual attainment is also inside of us, if we read spiritual writings we experience the reflected Light from those who wrote it, but as we focus inside ourselves we experience our own attainment. As we grow our own spiritual awareness we are given increased perceptions … a “sixth sense” so to speak. This spiritual advancement adds a whole new meaning to the miracles described in Isaiah 35:5.

So what Light can you share? You can only speak about it based on your own experience. It is inside of you and in your desires, the more you desire the Light the more you can experience it. So look within and share what you find there, that’s how together we can reveal and experience truth.

Attaining Spiritual Awareness

All biblical text, and other holy writings for that matter, are an attempt to describe and enlighten the reader by definition and descriptions; clothing the light with human attainment called speech or words. This is so that the reader can experience the sensation/spiritual components of the Oneness attained by the individual writing it. Jesus, a man at divine consciousness, exposed his fellow man to the spiritual by means of a human attainment called speech and metaphor (WORD).

There is nothing written or spoken that was not the attainment of a fellow human being. If God has spoken to you personally, bless you, you’re now left trying to explain that in words of your choosing. CHOOSE CAREFULLY as you are accountable for their effect on others who read them.

Spiritual awareness and trying to name the spiritual. Some common terms God, LORD, Jehovah, Jesus, Elokim, Elohim, Yahweh, HaVaYaH, Allah, Buddha, the Creator, Mother Nature, Energy, Source, Oneness, and some thousands more penned throughout history by fellow humans. These definitions are all attempts humans have made to describe their connection or unification with the Spiritual, the Now, the Oneness or whatever other description man uses to describe Him – Her – It …

What’s important is that we don’t judge and interpret one attainment or description over another but rather we can only seek to understand it and grow personally from that. Using words and descriptions to share explore and grow together from the input of all.

Our being open is what enables us to grow. Dogmatic hard core beliefs usually show a persons limited spiritual attainment, they are an attempt to hold on to something that can never be contained. It’s like trying to hold onto water, you cannot hold it, it can only be felt. Words and beliefs are buckets or vessels we use to contain some water. Eventually if we’re open enough we can sense there is an ocean of water and we see the folly of limiting ourselves to a container of any size.

Communication, verbal and non verbal, are all we have to share with one another. That’s why it’s important not to judge words or spiritual writings of others but to explore them. Your personal level of attainment or revelation shared with another person is important. If that person is at a similar enlightened level they will get it. Those who have yet to reach your level of enlightenment may find it nonsensical or even foolish.

What made Jesus such an inspiring teacher was his ability, through story’s and illustrations, to reach people at their level, thus his being called The Word.

The Science of Spiritual Growth

People who are uprooted and moved to a completely different environment usually experience a negative internal sensation. This is felt internally as a spiritual sensation. We have all had such an experience, even if just moving to a new school or a new job. Once we stay in this new environment for any length of time we assimilate, we adapt, we change, we progress, etc. This growth can be defined as enlightenment.

Enlightenment is just shedding light on the new environment, becoming more comfortable over time. Time allows a person to expand beyond their initial sensation and to see themselves expanding, fitting in and adapting to the new environment.

We can control and grow our own spiritual perspective by recognizing and embracing this enlightenment process. One can make advancement without completely changing ones environment. How so? We can seek to explore situations that cause us to feel a bit uneasy, especially when dealing with people of different cultures, political or religious backgrounds.

We should understand that almost every person on this planet is seeking to find connection, to find peace, acceptance, etc. A person’s life experience and associations have molded them into the person they are; as your life experiences have brought you to where you are.

A spiritual approach when meeting a new person of a different faith, political or ethnic background would be one of openness, to try and understand and feel this fellow human. To go beyond our own “closed-minded” animalistic tendencies and try and be open to understand that person uniquely.

This person’s perception is unique and different from your own and so may naturally feel a bit uncomfortable at first. But by listening, learning, feeling sensing these new interactions with this person, both the stranger and you can grow spiritually through the open interaction.

Instinctively our human tendencies tend to reject different ideas, concepts, conclusions; this human tendency stifles our growth. A spiritual minded person need not fear being exposed to the new; rather one should embrace and welcome it as a way to grow. By making that spiritual personal connection, with someone “not like you”, you will begin to open that person too, enlarging their perspective. In no time at all you both will begin to effect each other.

Both experience learning and shedding light on each other toward growth in connection, understanding, acceptance; and this is Love. Some might call it God’s Love …. call it the science of spiritual growth. Regardless of your personal heritage or theirs your growth and theirs is based on the interaction and ones willingness to understand, regardless of the title or description one uses to explain the interaction.

Spirituallity and The Future of Mankind

We are all born with 5 senses, vision, hearing, feeling, tasting and smell. These five senses define our world and through their use we attain enlightenment. What determines the language one speaks? Some might argue it’s where you are born geographically; such a conclusion has a lot of supporting evidence. But we know better, a child will learn whatever language it is exposed to; even multiple languages and all with perfect diction and dialect. This assimilation to ones environment is spiritual enlightenment.

If a new born baby was not exposed to any language would they learn to speak? Obviously the answer is no. The tools for enlightenment are the use of our senses. Our senses are not limited in any way from fully comprehending. The limit of comprehension is what we are exposed to and our willingness to focus on it.

In previous generations, and even today in other parts of the world, learning to read is understood to be very important to ones attainment and growth. For most of the western world this is taken for granted, so is a heated home, running water, flush toilets, etc. These attainments are what many people in our world eagerly desire. What keeps us from sharing such attainments worldwide? One might argue that it’s a spiritual deficiency not a lack of resources.

Unfortunately in our world today, particularly in the west, apathy and disinterest have the opposite effect on spiritual attainment. Since one receives all one needs immediately in life, the desire and drive to better oneself is severely diminished. The incredible gift of reading, or just the right to learn to read was a goal for the enlightenment of mankind. Now we have access to all this enlightenment found in books yet very few of the upcoming generation seem interested at all in the enlightenment our forefathers envisioned.

The lack in the western world, some might argue, is a spiritual deficiency; and this worries the rest of the world’s population. The “New World” and all it stood for is now seen as a selfish, egotistic monster. And the posturing of world governments and major civilizations create more and more distrust and anxiety. The history of the 20th Century should teach us that as human beings we are evil in our egoistic nature. We cannot relive the World Wars with today’s modern weaponry.

We need to unite using our spiritual qualities; advancing mankind and civilization to join as one family on the universal spiritual quality of Love and acceptance. To Love ones neighbor as they do themselves. Perhaps even deeper and broader to Love those whom we hate and distrust. Is such a world possible?

A Spiritual Story

This story I am told is true … I know not from whom ….
Read it all the way through … you’ll be inspired if you do.

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. My teacher being an Atheist was initially unsettling to me. Turned out she was absolutely inspiring; she had wonderful qualities that I wish every human being had.

Her last project of the term was called, ‘Smile.’ The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake.

Soon after being assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald’s one crisp fall morning. It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son. We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did.

I did not move an inch… an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved. As I turned around I smelled a horrible ‘dirty body’ smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men.

As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was ‘smiling’ He had beautiful sky blue eyes that were sparkling with an internal Light, as he searched for acceptance. He said, ‘Good day’ as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.

I felt tears swell in my eyes as I stood there with them. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, ‘Coffee is all Miss’ because that was all they could afford.. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something .. they just wanted to be warm).

Being next in line I smiled and at the young lady behind the counter. She asked, “Would you be so kind as to help.” She gave me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I walked them around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman’s cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, ‘Thank you.’ I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, ‘I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope.’ I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, ‘That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope..’

We held hands for a moment and at that time, we knew that because of that giving we had been given a spiritual blessing too. We are not church goers … or even strong believers for that matter … that day however showed me the pure light of Love … the genuine quality some might call God’s love … Frankly it matters not what one calls it … it is what it is!!

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand. I turned in ‘my project’ and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, ‘Can I share this?’ I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class; she began to read. That is when I knew that we as human beings, being in tune with our internal spiritual compass, we can all find ways to heal people … and by that action we too heal.

In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald’s. The instructor, and every person in the classroom that night got one of the biggest lessons on Love we would learn that year: Was it God’s love? Was it the love of the girl behind the counter? Was it my love delivering the act of charity? Was it the two homeless men love for receiving it? Was it my teacher’s love for sharing this warm story?

Simple answer … Love is Love!

We all have this God quality inside of us, regardless of what one believes. It’s this love that needs to spread across our planet. It is not Democrat or Republican, it’s not Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, etc, etc. It’s real genuine love … and that’s what unites us as human beings. It’s not who plays what role, or why they do … it’s just Love; this is what we all need to work on!!

UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.

Such love and compassion is visible each and every day … Let’s look for it!
In handling yourself, use your head … When handling others, use your heart.
Some people love things and use people … we do better if we love people and use things.

Spiritual Love and Religion

We live in a physical human body that has spiritual qualities. It’s these spiritual qualities that separate us from animals. Our human tendencies create conflict and our spiritual tendencies create unity and love. Our human tendencies make us feel alone, afraid, isolated, defensive, etc. Contrastingly our spiritual qualities make us feel connected, joined, loved, a part, content, at peace, etc.

A new born baby responds to it’s spiritual environment. It wants a smile, a soft tone of voice, gentleness … it doesn’t like anger or aggressive tones. It knows before it can speak the difference. The child is molded from birth by it’s environment to develop it’s religious views, wanting to achieve a positive spiritual environment.

All humans regardless of race, color, religion are all molded by their environment, they desire a positive spiritual sensation. Consider a violent gang member … the most aggressive, angry, evil person you can imagine. The gang member wants the spiritual acceptance from their peers. Yes, they are full of negative spiritual sensations but still way down deep even they want love.

We all develop our spiritual qualities through association with those people around us, people “like us”, or better stated we become like them. This is a part of our nature we assimilate to to our environment, thus the growth of gangs in the inner city. Both positively and negatively we are influenced by our environment. We all experience both positive and negative spiritual sensations internally regardless of how spiritually mature we become.

Now let’s consider religion and it’s influence on humanity. Christianity flourishes in America while Islam expands in the Middle East and Hinduism in India, etc. The religious exposure is enlightening. All religions seek and teach spiritually positive sensations, but only to a point of conformity to those within their group. Strong religious doctrinal views will hinder further spiritual development. By rejecting other religious doctrines and holding tight to our personal brand of religious upbringing, we stifle further spiritual growth. Strong dogmatic religious views are “closed-minded”.

Being judgmental and closed to other religious perspectives will imprison us from further spiritual growth. Let’s face it we are quick to see fanatical religious views in others; although it’s hard to see it in our own religious views. Can we be big enough to see where our religious indoctrination is blocking us from connecting with religious people of other faiths? Respect the positive spiritual qualities of others regardless of how they reach that attainment. That is God’s love, that is genuine spirituality and that needs to spread across our planet.

As long as we hold tight to our brand of spiritual attainment as being the “only way” … “the one truth” … “the one path” … “the true religion” we are rejecting the Love of God. God’s love was implanted in every new born baby and only our human development determines our religious perspective. While there will always be those who fight against spiritual attainment, let the spiritually minded religious individuals from all faiths find common ground for Love and acceptance. Let us lead the way in moving mankind to a higher spiritual ideal … Love for all.