The True Potential of Spirituality
The rise of New Age spirituality has had both its positives and negatives. I myself was pushed away by the New Age attitude especially when I would hear people talk about crystals, astrology and yoga. I mention these topics because the attitude towards spirituality was more so, “I do it because it feels good” vs one of deeper meaning. But I was led to spirituality pretty quickly after investigating psychology. It was clear that there was a lot being left out in the mainstream knowledge of the self and I needed to figure out what that was.
Through my exploration and investigations of psychedelics, depth psychology, meditation, and other practices I found a lot of powerful tools I used to overcome a lot of the obstacles in my life. Along with working out, spirituality became one of the biggest things that helped me achieve my goals. Between my college classes I’d dive deep into the way the mind worked and how attitude affected results. I frequently aced my exams and my self-esteem shot through the roof. I was performing at a level I never considered possible.
With my integration of spirituality into my college courses I found out that there was a place for spirituality in our day-to-day lives. I gave myself permission to dive deeper and deeper into the esoteric topics. All of the while I dove deeper and deeper into my own transformation. By the end of my first semester of college I wasn’t the same person I was when I began. I had a different attitude on life and all of the main complaints of my fellow students were not really a problem for me.
I truly felt like I had found the key to success. I felt like I had all the tools I needed to make my dreams a reality and all I needed to do was focus and give myself some time. And so, I switched majors, and I shifted my focus on helping others achieve their dreams also.
But I often saw through conversations in social media and in person that I found a lot of people who were not using spirituality to its fullest potential. They didn’t see deep enough and would either disregard it, or they would get lost in the fanaticism of the new age. There is a place for a practical spirituality, but people need to learn how to access such a place.
So my goal is to have people craft a more meaningful life by using spiritualtiy. Through the integration of spirituality, people can gain self-mastery and achieve their dreams. The way to go about doing this is to understand what the goal of the spiritualist should be, what to avoid and how to integrate. In this post I will talk about the goal of the spiritualist I will later talk about the other two topics, what to avoid in your spiritual journey and then how to integrate.
Understanding the Goal
The goal of a spiritualist is not linear, it is cyclical. I will explain this because the main goal of a spiritualist is the Self. Carl Jung talked about the circumambulation of self being a great description of a spiritualist.
“I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the self. There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the self. Uniform development exists, at most, at the beginning; later, everything points toward the centre. This insight gave me stability, and gradually my inner peace returned.”
At the end of the day, we are striving for completion. We want to know ourselves, but in getting to know ourselves, we get to know just how infinite the self is. We are all connected to this Self, and we all have equal ability to connect with that self at a deeper level.
The goal of the spiritualist becomes more about how to best use the self. How efficient are you in the expression of the self? How good are you at being yourself? And this could get tricky as their multiple aspects of ourselves. But spiritual development involves understanding all of these factors both as individuals and as a sum.
An important book that really pointed me to the understanding of spiritual evolution was from Alice Bailey’s Esoteric Psychology. Alice Bailey explains that as we mature, our ability to express our higher selves increases. So, our urges and desires change, our antennae are then connected to a higher frequency and as this happens, we get tuned into subtler aspects of life. Life becomes less animalistic and more about service.
In truth our goal is to serve. A philosophy that I understood through Marcus Aurelius’s writing. The goal of life is not pleasure, but service. To serve man is to serve oneself. But the how is determined through your own subsequent personality and soul dynamic. This “how” becomes your purpose.
Implications of the Goal
A spiritualist is not just spiritual but is a master of the material world. This is the thing that many people do not understand about spirituality. Spirituality is meant to help us navigate the material world, not take us away from it.
As you grow and develop, your personality becomes more refined. You begin to see things differently. You become more sensitive to specific stimuli and your desires move you towards higher goals. Through the refinement of personality, you gain much more control over yourself but with that control comes responsibility.
Responsibility is the mark of a great man. It is the tool that sharpens the blade. So, a spiritualist should constantly be looking for opportunities to refine themselves. We get worked on through the endeavors we choose to take on. As we refine ourselves, we become more able of helping our fellow men and the fruits of our labor become more and more bountiful.
We must build ourselves up so we can then guide others through their own actualization.
Achieving the Goal
I want to explain the 3 components that will help a spiritualist achieve their goal of self-actualization.
- They appreciate and seek responsibility.
- Continuous pursuit of self-knowledge
- They seek expansion.
Responsibility
Responsibility shapes a man. It is the thing that reminds us of our potential. One might see the successful people and wonder how they got there, but no success can be made without some form of responsibility. It is responsibility that raises the standard of our living and helps us to refine ourselves.
The more we evolve to take on more responsibility, the farther we get from our lower self. The lower self gets eaten up by responsibility and transmuted into a tool or platform to which we can launch ourselves. Maybe that is why people fear commitment, commitment transforms the lower self and renders it unrecognizable after a while.
The spiritualist is aware of this fact. His goals are largely based around how he could continue to add responsibility to himself so he could best serve others. Through the implementation of responsibility, he discovers his capabilities and evolves.
Knowledge
The pursuit of knowledge is an essential component of the spiritualist. All knowledge is ultimately self-knowledge, and the spiritualist is well aware of this. He constantly seeks how his experiences and studies connect to his understanding of himself. He is constantly seeking to understand himself and as he does, he creates systems and ways of moving that allow him to maximize this self.
The more he learns and understands, the more he is able to create. The spiritualist is a scientist in his own right. He is not afraid to experiment, and he approaches challenges with curiosity. At the beginning and the end of the challenge is the spiritualists curiosity for how such an experience can help him evolve.
As time passes his systems are made to sustain his transformations. A meditation practice is essential to maintaining his connection to himself. The spiritualist might also have some sort of exercise regimen as his physical health is of importance to him. Reading also becomes an important part of his studies. His systems reflect his desire to constantly seek expansion.
Expansion
Expansion is the name of the game of every spiritualist. He seeks constant expansion and can connect with the implications of such a word. When talking about expansion, we are talking about the essence of Life. Life is expansion.
To have the desire to expand means to be connect to the nature of human beings and to the nature of all life. Life is expansion while death is contraction. As humans grow, they understand how connected they are to everything around them. Expansion reminds us of the ultimate reality - we are all one. So, a spiritualist is constantly seeking expansion, he determined to expand himself.
How does one expand? Well through the expansion of one’s consciousness. We all understand man’s basic desire to expand through procreation. This primal desire is really an expression of the desire for consciousness to expand. Consciousness seeks expansion, it wants to get to know itself through itself. So as a man stretches his awareness, he gets closer and closer to the truth. He might know the truth consciously but with every expansion he is reminded of his nature, and he feels connected to who he is. This desire - to feel like oneself is at the foray of every decision. To be oneself and to expand in this feeling through everything one does.
Expansion is at the center of life and the nature of every living being. A synonym for expansion would also be growth. The spiritualist will then be seen to want to expand in all areas of life. In his relationships, in his business, in his family, in his fitness, all of these things are aspects that enhance his connection to himself.
Conclusion
Spirituality is the missing piece to our modern understanding of human potential. Being a spiritual person is more than just appearances, it is a way of life and a person who falls under this category is driven by something different. This person is focused on the betterment of the of himself and seeks to evolve as a human being. The values of the spiritualist are often focused on the welcoming of responsibility, the constant pursuit of self-knowledge, and a deep connection to his own expansion. With this being said, I hope that this helps to clear up a lot of misconceptions that people have about spirituality and it guides the novice towards a clearer understanding of his trajectory.