What is Spiritual Development?

[Alex]

Hi Malcolm,

I may be no profesional here, but in my opinion spiritual development is getting closer to the God-Force (as you put it)...
The final stage is being ONE with the WHOLE...
But at the beginning you just have to be less human (in a positive way)... so yes - you are to become better person...

And I think meditation is one of the ways to achieve it...
Another way that I know is the practice of Hermetism - it is also headed towards spiritual growth, development and merging with the ONE...
Maybe energetical work with the Kundalini also will give you major spiritual development...
Or you propably can just get enlightened just like that

And you're right - psychic/occult abilities are not a measure for spiritual development...

As RB put it - these are things that can be done the same way by the saint or black mage...
And it has almost nothing to do with the spiritual growth ('cause you can have this abilities if you practice for some time - it's really nothing special)


I hope my post is not too messy ;-P

Regards,
Alex

Human life is full of magic, one only needs to spot it.

[fastwalker]

I'm just your average suburbanite, so I have no great wisdom from the ancient libraries of Middle Earth (although each year I look a bit more like Gandolph). Nonetheless, I would agree that spiritual development entails enlarging one's perspective beyond the "little self", which is often referred to as the ego that obsesses on striving for earthly power, fear, comparison,  judgment and vanity...perhaps all as part of a survival mechanism that evolved in humankind long ago when a focus on third dimensional reality was crucial to survive. Spiritual development would be enlarging your awareness to see a larger reality. This is often compared to climbing a mountain. You still may see your starting point (the ego) and may not really leave that behind (since you need it to effectively manage in this world) but you also see the hillsides and sky. What is the hillside and sky? As others have noted, this may be your conceptualization of the "ultimate", being your connection to what is commonly called God, which some belief systems claim IS everything and everyone (making us all therefore ONE).

Now spiritual development isn't just memorizing this sort of philosophy (the way I had to memorize a catechism as a boy) but instead may entail experiencing a greater reality. As noted, meditation is one tool.

A lot of people in this world (traditional religious versus New Age) insist that they are on a serious spiritual search and even claim to be highly spiritually evolved. But the proof is in the pudding. I've found (even here in the suburbs!) that the ultimate test is whether the individual expresses the timeless universal spiritual verities, e.g., nonjudgment, kindness, equanimity, forgiveness, detachment, humor, etc.  As a recent example in the USA, after the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center, that wellknown fundamentalist Southern Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell and his sidekick Pat Robertson used the situation to proclaim that gays, feminists, lesbians, civil libertarians (and a host of other political enemies) were the cause of the attack, prompting "God" (trade mark pending) to disown America. Compare the ranting of these 2 professional "spiritual men" to the litmus test I just gave above, and you'll see what I mean by the proof being in the pudding.

In my opinion some folks use spiritual development as an escape from their problems. They hope to cross some rainbow bridge to nirvana by avoiding their internal psychological issues. That strategy is doomed to failure. God (or the universe) just isn't that easily fooled! Eventually we each much encounter ourselves and saying "Hail Mary" 10,000 times or participating in a New Age ritual in the center of a South American Mayan ruin in white robes will not eliminate the need to eventually face yourself.

[Kathi B.]

Hi, Malcom --

Read your post and wanted to tell you that:  Meditation is a method of becoming aware of your spirit and the central focus of all existence.  Psychic/occult abilities are sideline events.  By this I mean that as we exist here in the physical form and world that we know, other worlds exist in their context also.  Our awareness of them is just that -- an awareness.  They really don't have anything to do with spiritual growth.  Religion is a man-made structure that is supposed to lead us to whatever the goal of that religion is, whether it's Budda, Mohammad, or the God "I Am".  Religion and spirituality can intertwine but don't necessarily have to.  I feel that all spirits are interconnected in that they all stem from the same source.  The spirit is that part of us that is "life", that will live on after the physical body is gone, that exists in all living things, whose goal is to return to its source.  Hence our search for things of the "spirit" and the need for spiritual growth.  Hope that makes some kind of sense to you.  

Kathi B.

[Malcolm]

This may sound like a silly question, but what exactly is spiritual development? I'm guessing it's related to meditation, since they are both topics of this forum. Is it something that can be measured in any way? I'm assuming it's not merely the development of psychic/occult abilities. I'll also assume that there is a difference between religion and spirituality. Is the goal of spirituality to become a better person, to unite with the God-Force, or what? Wait a minute, is spiritual development the same as spirituality? Perhaps I'm using the wrong terms. Anyway, I'd like to hear anyone's opinion on this matter.

Thanks,
Malcolm