The desire to support and strengthen our personal evolution with spirituality is inherent in all of us. But we rarely set aside the time to examine where we currently stand on our spiritual pathway. This pathway is not about discovering or exploring religion, although religion can certainly enhance it. It is about looking deeply within and clearly seeing every aspect of self.
Our personal world, with its physical and mental aspects, offers us a continuous stream of thoughts and sensations. Most of our time is dedicated to finding what pleasure and happiness we can, while the rest is spent avoiding and repressing those parts of our lives that are painful and filled with suffering. We just don’t have the time or energy to explore below the level of our experiences to understand ourselves. So our most profound aspects are hidden from us by the flow of our daily lives.
Developing and strengthening our spirituality can interrupt the habitual flow that is the basis of our day to day experience. It can increase awareness of our addictive nature and help us to see how desires are the roots of our pain and suffering. As our spiritual insight deepens, we begin to see that true peace and joy can only occur when we are free from the grip of our habits and addictions.
Our spirituality requires attention and dedication in order to develop into a significant and meaningful contribution to our lives. Rather than habitually following a religious pathway to satisfy our inherent needs, we must actively dedicate time and energy to our spiritual development. These investments are enough to stimulate spiritual growth and produce change that will touch every aspect of our daily existence.
Even though spirituality is a natural part of us, the starting point of a conscious spiritual pathway requires a shift in our view of self. We must see that our every thought and action affects who we will become. Then we must commit to thinking and doing all the wholesome things we can to support ourselves. As we invest time and energy in awareness, our spiritual understanding expands to include a greater part of our lives.
There are two distinct components to the spiritual pathway. The first is to establish and maintain a spiritual practice. The second is to allow our spirituality to permeate our lives on a moment to moment basis. Although we can experience spiritual growth by doing either the first or the second, the combination of the two is really the key to significant spiritual progress. Just like with most of our life activities, we must go through the steps of practice and integration to really become accomplished at anything we do.
Although spiritual practice can take any number of forms, there are some aspects that must always be present. We must make a commitment to ourselves to continue our practice, regardless of the pressures we’re experiencing in our personal lives. Our practice must be disciplined and support the development of our concentration and focus. During our spiritual practice we must be willing to let go of all the issues, distractions, pains and pleasures that reflect our daily experiences. And we must be willing to look into ourselves to gain insight into those parts of us that are currently hidden from view. Finally we must open the doorway to discovering who we really are and where our spiritual pathway will lead.
Allowing our spirituality to permeate our lives is far more difficult than maintaining a spiritual practice. But to really progress on our pathway, we must manifest our spiritual awareness continuously. Without this moment to moment manifestation, we end up with the perception that spirituality is little more than a diversion occupying the time we are willing to make available to it. This view weakens us by strengthening our habitual behavior and supporting our continued pain and suffering. Just remember that spiritual awareness really doesn’t require our time, but does require our attention. In return it gives us the opportunity to experience the present moment.
Practicing moral restraint offers great support for our spiritual growth. By defining a set of healthful moral rules by which to live, we make a spiritual commitment to ourselves and to the world around us. This commitment helps us to master the negative tendencies that are so much a part of our lives and serves as a guide for making good decisions about our actions.
We can also use our basic nature to support our spiritual growth by maintaining a healthful perspective. We must strive to perform every thought and action with mindfulness (awareness and focus). With time, viewing everything from this perspective will become a habit and we will change a potential adversary into a supportive companion for part of our journey along the spiritual pathway. Mindfulness is the basis for insight. Insight supports our moral restraint and increases our wisdom.
Sustaining mindfulness in our lives leads to an increased understanding of who we are and how we connect to everything else that is. This understanding is called wisdom, and wisdom is the truth that liberates us from the bonds of desire and suffering. By developing and strengthening the two components of the spiritual pathway, spiritual practice and allowing spirituality to grow in our lives, we find our way to wisdom, freedom and joy.
Benjamin