What does it mean to be a spiritual person?

Human life is a path into the unknown. How to walk along it and where to arrive. who to choose as travel companions, what to focus on, so that the result of the journey meets expectations and bestows upon us the rewards and gifts we deserve. How to distinguish real valuable life gifts from fake ones.

In this article we will try to reveal the depth of the concept of spirituality and realize that it is the light that illuminates the traveler’s path in the darkness and twilight on the beaten roads of life, the energy that gives him the strength to move on when there are almost none left. We will talk about what riches within us can be illuminated by this light and characterize each of them in order to answer the question: “What is the spiritual path?”

What is spirituality

Whether we like it or not, our life is always a path under the influence of two mutually opposing forces: creation and destruction. Our future, and perhaps not only ours, depends on which of them we give preference to or even choose as travel companions. Each of us has a life-giving source inside, only for some it has completely withered away and is overgrown with tall, impassable grass, for others it gushes with the purest springs, flowing from mysterious unexplored depths.

This source is the most important part of each of us. This is our Spirit - the divine inner flame that gives us the strength to live and realize life in its many colors and forms. The answer to the question of this subtitle is our interaction with him: how much we are able to take from him, having drunk the life-giving moisture of wisdom and love of life, and also what we are able to give him in return with our love, caring attitude towards him and caring for the path , through which not only we can come to his living water. Let's talk about this interaction, and also how we can develop in it.

Depending on the life priorities and moral preferences of people, the concept of interaction with our Spirit that we examine is considered by everyone through his subjective internal prisms. But whatever they may be: adherence to certain religions, philosophies, ideological positions, this concept is universal. It contains the essence of the inner nature of man, since man is initially the essence of the spiritual order, because he is the bearer of the Spirit kindled in him by the one who created him.

This powerful Someone not only produced, but also invested in a person a program according to which both the individual and humanity as a whole moves in the direction of the vector of a comprehensive goal given from above. The All-Wise gave his child the right to choose the path forward. But in order to open new horizons and create radiant worlds, the child must reveal in himself the capabilities and functions of his Creator, returning his original image of the magnificent likeness of the Father.

In other words, a person must come to himself, becoming truly spiritual.

Teachers who are always with us

Are there signs by which one can determine the degree of spiritual level? Of course.

But before we start talking about them, I would like to mention three teachers who are always with us:

body;
soul;
Spirit.

Teacher-body

It teaches us to be careful with ourselves, to value our health, and not to get carried away by what can destroy it. A person always has the right to free choice, including his own destruction.

In this world there are three qualities of matter that bring us:

true good;
seduced by passions;
plunge into ignorance.

Through the last two, the forces of destruction act, and at different speeds, making us realize the harmfulness of the chosen path and return to goodness. Our first teacher knows everything about the body and will help you become a universal master—a connoisseur of yourself and your health. To do this, we need to learn to understand him, because both at the initial level of training and at a more advanced level, he often addresses us precisely through bodily pain.

Teacher-soul

Expands the boundaries of understanding of both our internal and external worlds, teaches us to feel the soul of our neighbor. The soul knows everything about our life program and helps us interact with those with whom we have to intersect in our reality. When we have learned the lessons of the first teacher, the second gradually, if we are ready, begins to reveal to us the tools of subtle sensitivity, resorting to resources of a more subtle plan.

By turning to our soul, we can discover in ourselves what has been dormant until now, sometimes surfacing to the surface of consciousness.

We begin to experience insights more often: big and small. Sometimes we discover the ability to understand people at a glance, sometimes feeling what they want to tell us. Gradually, we acquire the ability not only to feel subtly, but also to sincerely sympathize and empathize, and not only with words. Students of this level are sometimes said to be a sincere person.

The soul is a repository of enormous information about all our incarnations, and sometimes it gives an advanced student valuable hints on how to realize oneself more fully and correctly in this life.

Spirit Teacher

This is the most important teacher in our school of life. He knows everything about life. He knows about everything and everyone. It is he who has counted the number of hairs on every head of any inhabitant of the planet, and not just ours, for he is the spark of the Great Flame of Love, which warms countless souls of an unimaginable number of worlds.

This mentor can be called the Voice of Silence, because he can be heard by those who:

calmed my mind;
subdued passions;
opened my soul to the unknown and what is difficult to express in words.

He is like a light breeze, akin to the rustle of grass by a clear stream, like the subtle movement of springs in a source, to which he leaned to drink the living water of knowledge.

What is the spiritual development of a person? We will try to understand this by determining the signs of his spiritual level and how to develop in this direction, going through a number of important stages.

Signs of human spirituality

Well, now is the time to talk about the signs that characterize the degree of spiritual growth of a person.

They can be listed in order reflecting the degree of spiritual awareness:

Conscientiousness.
Ability to build harmonious relationships.
The desire to be useful.
The desire to become original.
Humility.
Gratitude.
Enlightenment.

Conscientiousness

The main awakening element of our nature is conscience, through which the Spirit knocks on the doors of the soul, shaking the areas of our brain to protect us from wrong and dangerous moves.
Even in the word conscience itself one can hear: “Common message.” This concept is rather a state when a person’s consciousness is able to merge with a consciousness of a higher level, which, with its harmony, increases its vibrations to the extent where it is already difficult for him to commit inharmonious actions, to make a deal with his conscience, and he is already under its protection.

The spiritual growth of an individual and society as a whole is characterized by the degree of correct interaction with one’s environment. Therefore, the next sign characterizing the degree of this growth is not called that for nothing.

Ability to build harmonious relationships

One gradually begins to realize the value of right relationships with others. When belligerence leaves your heart, you begin to move beyond your inner limitations, accepting the world and the people in it as they are. After all, this world was not created by you, and the one who created it, apparently, had good reasons for it to be so.

By fighting with the world without accepting it, you enter into conflict with its Creator. Think about it.

A society in which there are more such people who have accepted peace reduces the number of claims against their neighbors, be it issues of disputed territories or ideological disputes. Inflamed social abscesses begin to dissolve, pressing issues are gradually being resolved. People realize that mutual cooperation is the way to strengthen both sides.

The desire to be useful

Everyone came to earthly life with their own individual program to develop, working on the most important personal qualities. It's never too late to start improving yourself as a person and spiritual unit. The time comes when a person strives to realize himself by finding a more suitable place for himself in society.

But with spiritual growth comes the understanding that there is too little usefulness just for oneself. A person wants to leave his mark on this world. His spiritual manifestation is expressed not by an attempt to feed a sense of self-worth (so that descendants will remember), but by his selfless service. Remember, as in the fairy tale: “Do good and throw it into the water.” But here it is necessary that spiritual eyes be open, so that, while serving someone or in the name of something, you do not become his slave.

Here you need to feel the degree of your true usefulness, feel the line beyond which an overabundance of useful desire can cause harm - and not only to you. An example is overloved children who, already as adults, continue to be dependent on their parents, who have deprived them of the ability to make independent adult decisions. In this case, there is mutual suffering, but the one who stood at the origins of this problem still gets more.

The desire to become original

Probably, the presence of this sign in you indicates that your development is close to the stage of spiritual awakening. You already understand that you are wearing a lot of extra clothes and masks, put on by parents, school, society, forcing us to act in a stereotyped way - like everyone else, and do - as expected.

The spiritual imperfection of social institutions has led to the creation of an artificial world that uses man as a chicken laying eggs. Beyond this painted world there is another - a real one, but in order to get into it, becoming the true creator of your life, you need to get rid of the faces that have grown together with us, and we mistakenly believe that this is us.

Our original nature is spiritual. And if you are ready to change, realizing that taking off each new mask is a painful process that will be accompanied by a rejection of something important to you in the past, a natural rejection - you are already at the door, be prepared for trials, as well as for miraculous transformations .

Humility

It’s already hard for anger and indignation to reach you; you are slowly but surely approaching yourself, throwing away useless masks one after another. The range of your perception of the world has expanded, in which you try to pay attention to what supports the state of presence of harmony in you, although you do not reject what you do not like in the world. You just don't pay attention to it. Your energy is where your thoughts are at the moment and you enjoy thinking about the eternal.

You are mentally balanced and spiritually strong. Thanks to the spiritual balance established within, it is already difficult to knock you out of the saddle, because your faith in the correctness of your actions and trust in the Spirit is incredibly strong. You begin to awaken spiritually.

Gratitude

True gratitude from the heart not only to our neighbors, but, first of all, to the One who created this amazing life on the wonderful planet Earth - a fairly high level of spiritual development. It is a transitional period before real spiritual awakening.

At this time, you continue to improve yourself as a person, but you are already aware of a spiritual being within yourself.

Enlightenment

You have become what you originally were - a conscious spiritual being. Life reveals to you its secret doors, hidden from the uninitiated. She generously shares her real knowledge with you, because she knows that it will be used for the benefit of others, for the benefit of life itself. It's time to create consciously.

Manifestations of spirituality in everyday life

There is only one important thing for everyone in life - to improve your soul. Only in this one task is there no hindrance for a person, and only from this task does a person always feel joyful.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Spirituality is a complex concept. Spirit (Latin spiritus, literally: breath, subtlest air, breath, smell) is, in the broadest sense of the word, a concept that is identical to ideal consciousness. The concept of “spirituality” has always been important in philosophy, and plays an outstanding role in key problems: man, his place and purpose in the world, the meaning of his being, culture, social life.

Spirituality is a specific feature of a person. It manifests itself in all people in the form of a universal human basic need for orientation towards higher values. The question has not yet been resolved: whether spirituality is of divine origin or is a consequence of the socio-historical existence of man. However, no one doubts that spirituality is a purely human phenomenon.

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about spirituality. Sometimes spirituality is understood as a set of positive, moral qualities of an individual, sometimes a believer who goes to church and strives to keep the Divine commandments in his life is called spiritual; often this concept is used too abstractly in order to protect oneself from unwanted criticism, and as a result it turns into a fashionable word with no reality behind it.

As a person grows up, he increasingly thinks about his life’s path, strives to treat himself consciously, to develop himself, to educate himself. One of the philosophers called this process “human self-construction.” The object of such construction is the spiritual world of man.

The spiritual world of man.

SPIRITUALITY - the highest aspects of the inner world, which are manifested in humanity, cordiality, kindness, sincerity, warmth, openness to other people. Spirituality is based on open-mindedness, erudition, culture, and overall personal development. The loss of spirituality is tantamount to the loss of humanity. A prolonged crisis of spirituality in an individual leads to its degradation. Spirituality is incompatible with callousness, selfishness, and focus on material gain. Spirituality can be conscious, meaningful as a manifestation of intelligence. It may be partially unconscious - they say about such a person: warm-hearted, kind, sincere by nature. Society and the education system must take care of increasing the spiritual potential of everyone, introducing them to the achievement of material and spiritual culture

The specific microenvironment that surrounds him has a significant influence on the spiritual mood of an individual: family and everyday conditions, social circle, general microclimate of the immediate environment.

A more significant impact on the spiritual world of an individual is exerted by his social status in the general structure of social relations. Who is he? – a worker of a state-owned enterprise or a private entrepreneur, a civil servant or an employee of a commercial bank, is connected with agriculture, but how? – you can simply work for a farmer or be a farmer yourself, etc. A guard on the street, a watchman at the entrance of a security enterprise, even a student - all these are examples of social status.

Spirituality, caused by the social status of an individual, plays an extremely important role in the life of an individual: whether he is satisfied with his position or not, whether he is able to ensure the material well-being of his family or not, whether the position of his enterprise is stable in the general structure of the market economy or not - these are aspects of social status extremely important for the individual. In addition to this natural-social “specificity,” each individual is far from indifferent to the events taking place in society and even throughout the world. For example, the terrorist attack in New York on September 11, 2001, which took the lives of thousands of innocent people, resonated with pain in the souls of millions of people around the world,

A serious element of an individual’s spirituality is the degree of his familiarization with scientific knowledge and the achievements of world and domestic culture.

· Spirituality is the ability and willingness to act in such a way that the amount of good in the world around us increases.

· Spirituality is a free mind and the ability to perceive difficulties and failures as a simulator for spiritual development.

· Spirituality is the subtle ability to compassion and come to the rescue.

· Spirituality is education, moral purity and integrity of worldview.

· Spirituality is the absence of selfishness in a person’s thoughts, words and actions.

Manifestations of spirituality in everyday life

· Religion. Religion is justifiably called “spiritual food” - spirituality develops and manifests itself in faith.

· Volunteering, charity. One of the manifestations of spirituality is selfless help to those in need, a sincere desire to alleviate their suffering.

· Family relationships. A good family man and caring parent is spiritual.

· Education, science. An educated person with a refined, developed intellect has spirituality.

· Respect for the law. Law-abidingness, respect for moral and ethical standards accepted in society is one of the components of spirituality.

Art. Works of art carry a charge of spirituality inherent in their authors.

Benefits of Spirituality

· Spirituality gives love – for people and life.

· Spirituality makes it possible to understand and experience the beauty of the world around us.

· Spirituality gives faith – in the highest justice.

· Spirituality gives humility - in the face of the insurmountable.

· Spirituality gives strength to improve oneself and the world around us.

· Spirituality gives liberation - from the shackles of baseness, rudeness and malice.

What does it mean to be a spiritually developed person?

Anyone who devotes himself to something for the benefit of his life will certainly develop and improve in this.

If we want to develop spiritually, we need to understand three golden rules:

value your life as a great gift;
do not encroach on someone else’s life, as well as on someone else’s experience;
be grateful.

Through them, our three teachers teach us by creating certain life circumstances, leading us along the path of personal and spiritual growth. Development consists precisely in following these instructions to come to your original spiritual nature.

A person may become a person, or he may not. Is a person capable of following the path of spiritual growth or is the state of social realization in the awareness of what material wealth and volitional qualities she still lacks sufficient?

Society is the best platform for testing a person’s degree of spirituality.

There is a place for everyone:

morally flawed and astray;
advancing in development and degrading;
simply living and socially realized;
those beginning their first steps on a long ascent to the heights of the spirit and the spiritually enlightened.

However, no matter what stage of social or spiritual development you are at, life will always push you towards development - often with difficulties and problems. She will mirror people, their attitude towards you, and will also show something that is not at all easy to discern in yourself - the degree of your selfishness.

Hard work on yourself is precisely the most valuable because, having taken control of your egoism, curbing the beast in yourself with its passions and belligerence, you begin to develop faster in the spiritual direction.

Improving spiritually means being attentive to the world, listening to what it wants to tell you: be it the actions of people, their attitude towards you, other phenomena and events. However, it is not only your observation, but also your attitude shown in action.

To be spiritually developed means to work on character qualities that correspond to the characteristics discussed above. It is also the ability to stay at the newly discovered stage of development in yourself, becoming a wise explorer of a new ocean unknown to you.

A person has seven main energy centers, seven internal oceans of energy, located from bottom to top - from the tailbone to the crown. Each of them is responsible for the vital activity of certain organs, body systems, and the work of subtle mechanisms of consciousness and subconsciousness.

By exploring these centers, turning to certain practices, and improving in this, we move along the path of knowing not only ourselves, but also something more in ourselves. Gradually we begin to understand that there is no limit to improvement, that it has a beginning, but no end. Consequently, to be developed in this direction means to continuously improve oneself, focusing on inner harmony.

“Samples” – examples of spiritual life

Having a lot of good and holy things, the Glinsky monks were especially distinguished by those aspects of feat for which the inhabitants of the holy monasteries were primarily famous. These are: humility, chastity, non-covetousness, obedience, work.

Humility

to one degree or another is characteristic of all ascetics. If it is not there, then there is no feat, and therefore no ascetic himself.

The Patericon testifies that “the distinctive feature of Father Job” (†1946) was precisely humility - he, who received the gift of tears and enjoyed great spiritual authority, “sincerely until his death considered himself worse than everyone and below everyone... and always asked the Lord to grant him repentance" (597).

Hierodeacon Serapion (†1859), due to his deep humility, considered himself unworthy even of monasticism, much less of holy orders. But, having accepted the rank of hierodeacon out of obedience, he decisively refused to become a hieromonk for the same reason. “Unusually meek, quiet, like an Angel of God, Father Serapion, upon accepting the hierodeaconship, became even more zealous about pleasing God” (176).

Archimandrite Macarius (†1847), the famous founder of the Altai Spiritual Mission, was aware of his weaknesses and asked himself: “Isn’t it necessary to educate oneself more thoroughly before bringing spiritual benefit to another?” – The study of sciences will not bring any benefit if the soul does not know “a good and godly life” (149).

The saying of St. Mark the Ascetic can be applied to the Glinsk ascetics: “I saw simpletons who humbled themselves by deeds, and they became wiser than the sages” (465).

Chastity is also characteristic of ascetics .

The above-mentioned hierodeacon Serapion, who had deep humility, strictly guarded his virginity, which he “preserved until death” (176). And about Hieromonk Evgraf (†1848), along with other ascetics, it is said: “In everything, strict abstinence, constant fasting, poor nutrition, a hard bed and the like, served them to mortify the sinful person within themselves with his passions and lusts and to constantly hold oneself at the height of the great feat of achieved virtues” (161).

One of the most important vows of a monk is non-covetousness. Violation of this vow is tantamount to a denial of monasticism itself. That’s why the Glinsky Patericon talks about this too.

About the monk Demetrius (†1891), the Patericon testifies that this monk set an example of “monastic non-covetousness” - he did not even have a spare pair of underwear - “when he washed his underwear, he remained in only a cassock” (403).

Monk Alexander (†1869) even received the name Non-covetous for his selflessness and indifference to all material benefits. “In his cell, Father Alexander continued to be attentive to himself: he loved to read books, spoke everything Divine, but not a word about the physical, like an Angel in the flesh. This is what one venerable Glinsk elder, who knew him personally, said about him” (315).

And Hieromonk Paisius (†1641) is called in the Patericon “spiritual elder”, “impeccable life and selfless service” (143).

Obedience is very important in monastic life, and therefore the “most important subject of concern” of schema-abbot Anthony (†1946) “was the establishment” of this virtue among the brethren (594). The elder taught “that the life of a monk should be spent in church and cell prayer, unconditional obedience and fasting, non-covetousness and virginity. He himself set an example in everything with his truly ascetic life” (593).

Not the least place in monastic service is given to hard work

Monk Theodotus (†1859) knew well that the evil force acts especially successfully on a person “when he is in idleness and inaction” and therefore he himself “was constantly in labor and prayerful deeds” (181).

The Apostle of Altai, Archimandrite Macarius (†1847) “spent 14 years (1830–1844) with complete self-sacrifice in the great works of apostolic service, like a lamp shone with words of truth, an example of strict piety, purity, diverse works of mercy, spiritual wisdom, true love for neighbors and to those who are perishing... and other virtues" (153).

The result of everything that has been said about examples of spiritual life can be summed up in the words of the rector of the Glinsk Hermitage, Hegumen Juvenal (later archbishop, †1904), addressed to the abbot of another, no less famous, Optina Hermitage: “We have enough brothers, 163 people and many of them are very capable, all, by the grace of God, are very successful in spiritual feats” (215).

Truly, the life of the Glinsky monks was a continuous service to God, or, as the great teacher of East and West, St. John Cassian the Roman, says, “continuous constancy of prayer” (Rev. John Cassian. Writings... Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 1993, p. 323). They first of all sought the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. And to them, these wondrous men, the “great and terrible secrets” of the heavenly world were revealed (191).

Thousands of those attentive to salvation reached out to these earthly angels and heavenly people; they were respected, revered, and asked for their holy prayers and spiritual advice. They were loved during their lifetime and remembered after their death, trying to imitate them.

***

Turning page by page of the Glinsky Patericon and getting acquainted with the exploits of great men, you involuntarily compare their lives with our vanity and see the striking dissimilarity. But this difference should not lead to the conclusion that it is impossible for a person of our time to accomplish what was almost ordinary for the workers of the holy desert. We must remember that at first they were the same people as we are, and if they became different, it was because they remembered man’s earthly calling and tried with all their zeal to fulfill everything commanded to him (Luke 17:10). The Lord, seeing their labors, sent them His blessing and the necessary gracious help. If this thought enters deeply into our consciousness, it will certainly remove from us the fear of our distance from the life of the saints and encourage us to boldly follow them, especially since the path is indicated and well-trodden. And the great ascetics, looking from Heaven at our zeal, will rejoice for us and stand before the Throne of God in prayer, so that we may hasten.

“And in our days God is raising up

Good ascetics among us,

Through whom it reminds us,

That the light of faith has not gone out” (433).

Spiritual development of personality

A person who has managed to become an individual is not immune from the fact that, thanks to willpower and the ability to “step over the line,” he chooses the path of a destroyer rather than a creator.

Even if a person is an individual, his willpower is very great, allowing him to implement large-scale business projects with fabulous profits, but his egoism pushes his mind into the far corner, clearing the territory for the activity of a strong mind; this person is still fast asleep spiritually. And perhaps he will break more than one someone’s life before the law of retribution and justice knocks on his contaminated window of the soul with the most difficult trials, pushing a strong personality to the beginning of a spiritual search, and it does not matter whether he is a man or a woman.

We will try to answer what the spiritual development of the individual consists of.

Why does a person need this?

First of all, in order to evolve and move on. Even if a person has extraordinary strong-willed qualities, has managed to make a dizzying career, but does not really take into account the world around him, often contributing to the destruction of life not only within himself, but also outside himself, it is possible that he is not even standing at the doors of his inner temple . To tell the truth, there is no temple yet; perhaps even the foundation is missing. And even if he donates to some parish, but in his head there is self-interest with the intention of getting solid dividends from the investment - such a “believer” is difficult to rank even among the spiritually oriented.

The path of creation and deep awareness begins with the first step. Inner teachers can first allow a person to go down the road of passions and temptations, allowing him to commit crooked actions, perhaps even large-scale mistakes, and sometimes even crimes. After all, sometimes a person, in order to realize the level of his spiritual fall, needs to repent very deeply.

And sometimes it is with repentance that a gradual spiritual ascent begins for someone who has managed to become a person, but has not yet mastered even the basics of spiritual life.

In our materially oriented world, there are certain patterns for achieving personal growth that are not at all oriented towards spiritual values. And it is all the more valuable for the spiritual development of a person to follow true, enduring guidelines. For only thanks to them, a person will be able to get rid of the ballast that pulls him to the bottom with vicious attachments, destructive habits, obsessions and other burdens of excess materiality.

Where to start

You need to start by rethinking your life, accepting that we are not only the body.

It is necessary to recognize that in addition to our material being, there lives in us a spiritual person, who, perhaps, can become an entity of a spiritual order.

You must not be afraid to take a step forward - towards the unknown and the far shore that has not yet been discovered by you. When the winds of change begin to blow in your life, be prepared for the beginning of trials, because this is where your real development will begin.

Introduction

Sooner or later, every person, at least at certain moments in life, begins to think about the meaning of his existence and spiritual development.

In the spiritual sphere, the most important difference between man and other living beings—spirituality—is born and realized. Man, his spirit and his culture are the crown and goal of the universe... Man becomes fully human only in the process of culture, and only in it, at its peaks, do the highest aspirations and possibilities find expression.

The spiritual personality constitutes that invisible core, the core of our “I”, on which everything rests. These are internal mental states that reflect aspirations towards certain spiritual values and ideals. They may not be fully realized, but one way or another, caring for the “soul” is the quintessence of personal development.

The spiritual world of the individual expresses the inextricable connection between the individual and society. A person enters a society that has a certain spiritual fund, which he has to master in life. The path of spiritual development of a person is endless...

Thus, the relevance of the topic is beyond doubt.

The purpose of this a: a comprehensive study and characterization of the spiritual world of the individual.

The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references. The total volume of work is ____ pages.

How to develop spiritually

Personal growth of a person, as well as spiritual growth, does not happen on its own. You need to invest your strength, money and soul into them. What could this mean and how to develop in the direction of this very growth? Usually it is more or less clear to people when they talk about the spiritual formation of personality associated with religion or some other near-religious trend. It is even understandable when they talk about spirituality in philosophy, because philosophy is precisely concerned with the study of the laws of development of life in various forms of its manifestation: nature, society, understanding of existence. Despite the somewhat vague concept, you can find its definition, and more than one. But where to start this very development?

Everyone has their own idea of life, the path to follow it is different, and yet, there are some common ways through which a person moves along the path of spiritual growth. The following can be distinguished.

Finding meaning through books

Sooner or later, a person asks questions of meaning: why am I here, what is the purpose of my stay, why am I doing what I don’t like? He looks for smart books and collects wisdom in them bit by bit. For some, these are experiences of first contact with the unknown, while others find temporary oblivion in this, detachment from vain thoughts and alternating everyday problems. But from this moment, Providence begins to work with the seeker, throwing him catching literature and introducing unusual thoughts into his consciousness.

Self-knowledge

A person continues to be driven by interest - but who is he?

But, even after studying the basics of anatomy and physiology, reading a lot of spiritual and other literature, the interested person does not find answers to the questions that concern him:

what is thought;
where does it come from;
where emotions originate;
what the unactivated 95-97% of the brain hides;
how to come to God - preferably quickly.

Immersing himself in himself, he increasingly begins to understand that answers to the questions that concern him can be found not only in textbooks and the Internet. His activity moves into the area of internal search. He had already read about some spiritual practices and psychotechnics, sometimes even tried something. But there was no depth. It's time for a deeper dive.

Charity

When a person has enough vitality to move up the ladder of spiritual ascent, when he has accumulated a considerable potential of internal forces, and he feels that he is able to share them with others without loss to himself, a new qualitative leap occurs in his development. This is facilitated by what is called charity - creating good for others without selfish intent.

Prayers and Meditations

A person strives to meet the unknown in the depths of his essence in order to better understand himself. Resorting to prayer means trying to establish a connection between yourself and the power that, in its unconditional love for you, creates the necessary motives for you, bringing the moment of your conscious meeting closer.

Meditation helps a person mastering the technique of spiritual ascent to expand the range of reality he perceives and the boundaries of his consciousness, concentrate on something important, touch the feeling of omnipresence and multidimensionality, and experience altered states of consciousness. A person begins to feel that the universal oceans of energies inside are incomparable compared to what he perceives with ordinary vision from the outside.

Environment selection

The spiritual evolution of a person, going through the stages of gradation of his personality, leads to significant changes not only inside, but also outside. A person changes in appearance. His eyes may begin to radiate a light of joy. Those around such a person begin to feel a surge of freshness, an influx of causeless joy.

A person’s environment can also change noticeably, because he himself favors communication with those who share his desire for the spiritual. And gradually the spiritually developing person chooses an environment that helps maintain the state in which his spiritual processes take place.

Just live, smile and give thanks

What we are talking about is not only pronouncing the sacred names of God, turning to him, trying to understand him, adhering to common spiritual truths, which are spelled out differently in each spiritual movement, but usually speak about one thing. The level of spiritual formation can be determined by how a person treats simple everyday duties and in what state he performs them. In other words, can a person simply live and enjoy life?

Try to smile more often, thanking God for the greatest miracle of life that he has given you.

This video is another look at where to start.

Development of personal spirituality

The development of personal spirituality involves cultivating qualities in oneself that will correspond to moral and ethical principles. A person must have certain highly spiritual qualities in order to be perfect.

A lot is said about self-development. This is a good aspiration for any person, since this process is most often perceived as some kind of fun action with positive consequences. But, despite this slightly exaggerated idea of self-development, it still contributes to a person’s personal growth if he follows all the rules of his development. Indeed, self-development promotes growth in mental, psychological and emotional terms, which over time is reflected in the physical and material world. And who would refuse such a process that would entail pleasant changes in life? But for some reason, not everyone develops themselves: some are afraid, others mark time, others start, but do not achieve the final result. What hinders self-development in such cases?

There are three main factors that cause a person to remain stagnant despite the desire to grow:

1 – False idea of self-development.

As mentioned above, many people imagine this process as something exciting and funny. And this is a really interesting activity, because it opens up many new opportunities and space for actions that he did not previously know or dream about. But at the same time, most beginners get stuck literally in the first stages of their transformation. Why? Because at the beginning it is a rather complex and unpleasant process, requiring a person to break down, undergo a crisis, and fight with himself. It is the destruction of habitual actions and thoughts that leads to “withdrawal”, which not everyone can endure. And this stage is required in order to clear space for a new habit, a new idea or action. Before you build, you must destroy! And not all people can resist the temptation to stop and return back to the familiar, comfortable and warm, not always effective, but quite familiar.

2 – You change, but not the world around you.

Many people expect unusual results at the end of their self-development: they hope that not only they, but also the people around them will begin to change. Indeed, there is a certain system that sets in motion changes in people (especially within the family between husband, wife and children), when one changes, everyone else changes too. However, this process may not occur simultaneously or gradually, but with a time delay. Therefore, if a person is engaged in self-development in the hope that people close to him will immediately begin to change, then he is faced with a reality where no one changes, not even himself. After all, how can you develop yourself not for your own sake, but for the sake of changes in other people? This is pure manipulation, and in this case there can be no talk of any development. Therefore, you need to change because you want to change something in yourself, and not in anticipation of changes in the world around you.

3 – Resentment towards the guilty.

Self-development cannot occur in cases where you are looking for someone to blame for the current situation. If you blame other people for your troubles and failures, which force you to change, then no development can occur. Why? If you blame others, and therefore become offended, then you absolve yourself of responsibility for what is happening. You subconsciously consider yourself innocent, then why would you change anything? And if you don't have clearly defined factors that tell you where you're going wrong, then no self-development will happen. As long as it’s not your fault, you don’t need to change, because you don’t take responsibility for what’s happening!

It is obvious that self-development can not only be beneficial, but also disappoint those people who have not achieved the results they expected from this process. And whose fault is this? Of course, the man himself, who initially chose the wrong path for his development. And everyone understands that the wrong path will only lead to the wrong result. Therefore, self-development is important for any person, but before you start your path, you need to correctly identify it.

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Stages of spiritual development

A spiritually developing person goes through several stages in his development.

The main ones:

Sleep mode.
Spiritual awakening.
Conscious creation.

Sleep mode

Everything starts somewhere. We make our first spiritual attempts when we begin to do this more or less consciously, but so far only in the mode of spiritual sleep. What is characteristic of this “sleep mode”? Let's take a look by simulating a hypothetical situation.

In our life, everything seems to be set up: a house with all the amenities, a good car, a dacha in a picturesque place, a good job, which I don’t really like, but it pays better here than in other similar institutions. The family is also okay: a pretty wife, two preschool-age children. And it seems like, why grieve, live and be happy. But there is no happiness. Following your mother’s advice, you even went to church a couple of times and tried your best to turn to God. In vain! You begin to blame fate for depriving you of something. Good work begins to bother the boss, who just yesterday looked through you as through glass in an interior door. Something happened to the wife, it was as if she had been replaced, reproaches were pouring in like from a cornucopia, the children began to get sick more often. Life clearly wants something from you, but what?

This means that you have come to the line, and in order to cross it, you need to change somehow. It is necessary to begin to reconsider your life, your attitude towards it, to determine what is a priority in this hectic flow. You are still sleeping, but from now on you have taken the first step along the path of spiritual development.

This wise organism of our material universe is designed in such a way that when some system comes into balance, a force appears that strives to bring it out of this state, thereby pushing it towards its further development.

The same thing happened to you. Life, using the people around you, rocks you, mired in the routine of everyday life, for further spiritual growth. You, reconsidering your attitude towards life, suddenly understand that it is necessary and possible to live differently, greeting every day with a smile, rejoicing in the fact that life has gifted you immeasurably, because there are so many examples of crippled, unhappy destinies nearby. And also - you begin to accept people as they are.

This is the first step, after overcoming which you will reach a new level of awareness, temporarily bringing the shaken system into balance.

Good morning (spiritual awakening)

And so - step by step, step by step, one climbs the ladder of spiritual ascent. At each of the new steps, you will have to discover something new and unusual in yourself for yesterday’s you, because you will begin to turn inside yourself more often - to your soul, to your Spirit.

You will move under the constant guidance of your teachers and assistants assigned from above. In this upward movement, a feeling will gradually awaken within you - what methods are more acceptable for you in knowing the inexplicable and original, knowing yourself, and through the soul and Spirit - God in yourself. Somehow, by itself, your humanity will expand to the size of a family, a street, a residential area, and maybe further. The world will begin to be perceived as it exists, and you will have no complaints about the world, suddenly beginning not only to understand the word “humility”, but also to feel it with all your heart. War in all forms of its manifestation will leave the heart, giving way to love.

But you need to remember that every step is serious work on yourself, your egoism. You will have to make efforts, but believe me, they will pay off with interest, replenishing the treasury of imperishable spiritual wealth.

The pursuit of self-knowledge is a direct path to spiritual awakening. The work of the Spirit in this state changes the scale of human values.

Conscious Creation

So, you have come to yourself, your spiritual awakening has occurred. Now you consciously stand in the service of life and the One who sent you to this world, giving you the opportunity to make your main choice, approaching the imperishable. The door is open. You can enter the worlds of universal harmony.

Continuing to live in this world, but having moved to a new spiritual level, a spiritually transformed person begins conscious creation, continuing to learn wisdom, discovering a source of unconditional love in his heart, pouring out this love on others, contributing to their spiritual growth.

Conscious creation lies in the fact that a person awakened by the Spirit, seeing the causes of the phenomena of this world, which he discovers, coming into contact with their consequences, can bring something amazing into the world with his creativity. This can be that great gift that will contribute to the spiritual leap of a group of people or even humanity, having a beneficial impact on the life of the entire planet. Perhaps, thanks to his great creativity, the priorities leading to the decline of civilization will gradually change to new, creative ones, enlightened by the light of his unconditional love for this world. And people will gradually begin to appreciate what is truly incorruptible.

Criteria for spiritual wealth

Let's figure out what it means to be a spiritually rich person. Even the word rich makes it clear that truly rich is the one in whom there is a lot of God. What can be classified as real spiritual wealth, some of which will remain with a person even after his physical death?

This:

humanity;
education;
history of the family and homeland;
faith;
awareness;
unconditional love;
inner peace.

Humanity

Expressed in a humane attitude towards living beings. Humanism often acts as a lifeline when public opinion reaches a dead end. Continue the war until a victorious end or stop, thereby saving thousands of lives. Even if it means sacrificing something, taking control of your ambitions.

Education and sophistication

A truly educated person already has the necessary qualities for spiritual development: hard work, responsibility for his actions, a broad outlook that will help him not to become a slave, but also not to be a slave owner. And, of course, the desire to create through constant improvement of oneself as an individual and acquiring true knowledge that strengthens and improves not only his life.

History of the family and homeland

Not only the desire to understand oneself, but also the awareness of oneself as part of something larger: a race, a people, humanity. Careful attitude towards the heritage of ancestors, the history of one’s family and the Motherland as a whole. Understanding that we are connected to our ancestors by a long chain of continuity, and that the mistakes of the past can be eliminated not by condemning those who made them, but by not repeating these mistakes in the present and preventing them in the future.

Faith

Not to be confused with religiosity. Faith is not a set of ritual techniques and techniques, it is true knowledge that lives in the heart of everyone. The knowledge that there is something greater than this world itself is all-wise, all-loving, capable of containing everyone, comforting and warming in times of serious trials, guiding one to goodness. And it doesn’t matter what church a person attends, what philosophy he professes, what worldview he is guided by.

The main thing is that he knows: this power can be turned to. She will guide you and advise you, reward you according to your deeds and show you the right path. And here the main thing is not in a person’s faith, but in his trust in this powerful force. Trust arises from knowledge, personal experience of interaction with this force, tested by time.

Mindfulness

Awareness of all your actions and deeds, constant observation of yourself: behavior, emotions, reactions to external stimuli, comparison of yourself yesterday with those who we are today. A deep understanding that we are beings of a spiritual order, a desire for our own internal improvement.

Unconditional love

Love that does not require anything in return, love that does not take, but gives. Not affection, not falling in love, but great unselfish love. This world is influenced by powerful light forces; it penetrates our window with the sun's rays, with which the Sun absolutely disinterestedly warms us.

Inner peace

This is expressed in internal balance or balance of all its internal opposites. A person consists of a complex of mutually opposite energies (anger - kindness, generosity - stinginess, hard work - laziness). If in our life we come at least in some way closer to our internal balance, we will take these achievements, albeit very modest, into the unknown.

Perhaps now it has become clearer to us what true enrichment is.

The problem of spirituality

Spirituality has many problems that lead to the fact that modern man does not become as developed as he would like.

The first problem with spirituality is the lack of a clear understanding among people of what it is. Elementary examples are religious people, who for the most part are very cruel and aggressive towards those who do not belong to their religion, compared to ordinary representatives. The lack of a clear and reasonable understanding of what spirituality is leads to the fact that people simply consider themselves right and judges of others only based on the fact of their belonging to some religion.
The second problem of spirituality is the lack of a moral understanding of life and the presence of values. If a person does not understand what values he must possess in order to become highly spiritual, then he will not develop them in himself. The modern world is progressing at the technological level. However, spirituality does not have time to become in the minds of people. Therefore, many people focus on success and the desire to possess material things, forgetting about their spiritual component.

Spirituality is often a specific religion that has strict boundaries, conditions and restrictions for those who begin to enter it. Other people seem to be opponents and enemies. This position already makes people unspiritual and undeveloped.

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And what's the end result?

What can happen to us if we are diligent in mastering the lessons of our three teachers and develop ourselves comprehensively?

This should lead us to the following results:

health promotion;
personal growth;
happiness;
the emergence of meaning in life;
reconciliation;
self-realization.

Health promotion

Naturally, we will gain good health by learning to put ourselves in excellent physical condition, thanks to the practices and exercises that the teacher-body will tell us. He will help us learn to enjoy our body without any damage to it.

Personal growth

The second teacher will reveal to us the real wealth of the soul, the true diamonds of the inner world, and will teach us to feel more subtly about ourselves and our surroundings. After some time, we will suddenly notice obvious changes in ourselves, thanks to which our personal growth has occurred.

We, figuratively speaking, have become head and shoulders above our former selves. We learn about this from the mirror. It is our immediate environment. It will also be revealed that these changes in ourselves are important not only for us, but also for our neighbors, because their lives have also become better. This may mean that we are learning lessons.

Happiness

When we finally learn to understand our third teacher, turning to him every day - with prayer or just a word, having clearly felt the feedback, we will learn that there is always a place for happiness in this world. We are deeply aware that it can be real, independent of material enrichment: the thickness of a wallet and the brand of a car, the presence of real estate and connections in the government. That it also does not depend on our social status or ideological predisposition. After all, in reality, it is a subtle spiritual state of the presence of inner light.

Meaning of life

Our life will open up to us with other amazing meanings, and our word will become truly alive. In life, a deep understanding of its essence will appear for us, perhaps even our spiritual program of the earthly path will be revealed to us.

Reconciliation

Our heart will become open to the world, there will be no place in it for war and aggressiveness, hatred and malice in any form. We accept him as he is and find our true location with him, in other words: “we reconcile.”

Self-realization

Now we understand what we are truly capable of. The most rational and competent application of our physical and spiritual forces is revealed to us. Our self-realization is the result of painstaking hard work on ourselves. We realize ourselves not so much for our own sake, but for something greater and joyful for everyone.

A conscientious student of the school of life will be able to find his inner balance, without highlighting any of his deepest natures, finding reconciliation with everything and humility in everything. New paths of creation and co-creation will open up for him with those who walk alongside, filling the space with a single rhythm of joy, bringing joy to the One who looks at the world he created from the unknown, as well as from every awakened heart.