A person is characterized by many qualities: caring, compassion, lack of conflict. He can be principled, conservative or liberal, soft or hard, soulful or spiritual. The word “spiritual” is now often used in different meanings: a believer, a representative of the clergy (clergy), simply an educated and cultured person.
No one will argue that the spirituality of a society depends on the people who make it up. When asking the question what is the spiritual essence of a person, you can hear many different opinions. Of course, everyone decides for themselves what degree of immersion in the spiritual to choose. Someone has just begun to follow the path to perfection, someone has already made significant progress along it, and for others this path seems so burdensome that they have turned away from it.
What is a spiritual person?
If you turn to dictionaries, you can see the emergence of the modern concept of “spiritual person”. At a time when there were few atheists, society was built on faith in God, and a divine spark was recognized in man. V.I. Dal did not include this concept in the dictionary at all (1863), and interpreted the word “spiritual” as “belonging to the spirit.” Regarding the use of the word “spiritual” in relation to a person, he gives the following interpretation: “Everything in him that relates to God, the soul, moral strength, mind and will.”
D. N. Ushakov also does not include the concept of “spiritual person” in the dictionary (1935-1940). He points to the colloquial use of the adjective in the combination “a person of clergy,” making a distinction between the spiritual and the secular. S.I. Ozhegov in 1949 described the word “spiritual” as relating to religion (music, academy, school).
S. A. Kuznetsov in 1998 distinguishes two understandings: the first - related to religion and the second - having a philosophical view of the world. It is interesting that the definition of a spiritually undeveloped person in the Dictionary of Synonyms looks more than unpresentable: redneck, backward, wretched.
Psychologists about spirituality
Since the end of the nineteenth century, psychology began to study spirituality as a psychological category. They found out the connections between the so-called spiritual activities, representing art and culture, and the human psyche. Afterwards there were more studies - collective spirituality, higher spirituality as a source of creative inspiration and others. As a result, it was established that human spirituality is something subjective. It cannot be explored through science.
It was determined that spirituality distinguishes a person from other forms of life and is of a social nature. A person can use spirituality, and from the extent to which he does this, he learns the meaning of his life and his role and place in it.
Now psychologists consider the physical, material nature of a person to be only part of him. The second part, no less important, is spirituality. That is, the totality of his moral and moral values. Considering man as a spiritual being, it became possible to talk about the psychology of spirituality.
Hell
Hell is, first of all, the state of the soul of the unsaved, but also a certain place where lost souls are located before the Last Judgment.
God and the saints embrace hell with their love and do everything to ensure that its inhabitants are saved.
Hell is a place where people cannot see each other. Everyone there seems to be alone and there is no one around. This is the ultimate projection and embodiment of human egoism. When we pray for those in hell, they get the opportunity to see its other inhabitants, that is, for the first time they see people in people.
Elder Paisios of Athonite said: contemplating hell, he noticed that only 30% of people in it are in a demonic state and blaspheme God, and the majority want to repent.
The Church’s prayers for the dead are based on the possibility of salvation from hell. On Pentecost, the church prays “for those in hell.” And they get help.
There is a certain antinomy here. The Holy Fathers (John of Damascus) say that repentance is impossible in hell.
But church prayers for those in hell can be effective not from the outside (after all, this is a state of soul, and then a place), but from the inside. And for salvation, only repentance is necessary. This means that you can still repent in hell. Obviously, it is the prayer for someone who has gone to hell that leads his soul to such an opportunity and such a desire, softens the soul, and gives it the strength to repent.
Definition of a Spiritual Man
Psychologists admit that nowadays it is impossible to meet an absolutely spiritual person in society. This is a utopia, but everyone must strive for perfection. Then society will change its focus on destruction. In other words, peace and harmony with nature, society and oneself is the goal of modern man.
A spiritual person is characterized by high moral standards, he exhibits excellent qualities that characterize him as a balanced person, capable of high deeds, ready to help his neighbor. He strives for the truth, knows it and lives in accordance with it.
Man, as a spiritual being, cannot be satisfied with material well-being alone. He can and is ready to sacrifice it for the sake of satisfying his spiritual needs. There are cases in history when a person, having lost the meaning of life, faded away and even died. And, on the contrary, having an important goal (usually much more valuable than his own life), a person survived in the most difficult conditions. All these facts indicate that we cannot simplify human nature and reduce it only to physical well-being.
Impact of the Spiritual World
It's constant. Before the Resurrection and Ascension, it was very difficult for Angels to help people.
The angel who appeared to the prophet Daniel says that he delayed for several weeks because the prince of Persia, that is, a demon operating in Persia, did not let him through. And only when Archangel Michael came to the rescue was the Angel able to come to Daniel.
After the Ascension, the enemy is deprived of its former power and cannot harm a Christian if he goes to God.
Now Angels and saints are constantly involved in the lives of many people. The goal is the salvation of people, the fulfillment of God’s desire: “so that everyone can be saved and come into the mind of truth.”
(Told by Archimandrite Cyprian, abbot of the monastery of St. Cyprian and Justina. Fili, Greece):
“About four years ago we received a call with a request to give the Holy Mysteries to an elderly woman, a widow living in the suburbs of Athens. She was an old calendarist and, being almost completely bedridden, could not go to church. Although we usually do not perform such services outside the monastery and direct people to the parish priest, nevertheless, in this case I had some feeling that I had to go, and, having prepared the Holy Gifts, I left the monastery.
I found a sick woman lying in a poor room: having no funds of her own, she depended on neighbors who brought her food and other necessary things.
I placed the Blessed Sacrament and asked her if she wanted to confess anything. She replied: “No, over the past three years there is nothing on my conscience that has not already been confessed, but there is one old sin that I would like to tell you about, although I have confessed it to many priests.” I replied that if she had already confessed it, she should not do it again. But she insisted, and this is what she told me.
When she was young and newly married, about 35 years old, she became pregnant at a time when her family was in a very difficult situation. The rest of the family insisted on an abortion, but she flatly refused. Nevertheless, in the end she succumbed to her mother-in-law’s threats, and the operation was performed.
The medical supervision of the underground operations was very primitive, as a result of which she suffered a serious infection and died a few days later, unable to confess her sin.
At the moment of death (and this was in the evening), she felt that her soul was being separated from her body in the way it is usually described: her soul remained nearby and watched as the body was washed, dressed and placed in a coffin. In the morning she followed the procession to the church, watched the funeral service and saw how the coffin was placed in a hearse to be taken to the cemetery. The soul seemed to be flying above the body at a low altitude.
Suddenly, two, as she described, “deacons” in shining surplices and orarions appeared on the road. One of them was reading a scroll. As the car approached, one of them raised his hand and the car froze. The driver got out to see what happened to the engine, and meanwhile the Angels began to talk among themselves. The one who held the scroll, which undoubtedly contained a list of her sins, looked up from reading and said: “It’s a pity, there is a very serious sin on her list, and she is destined for hell because she did not confess it.” “Yes,” said the second, “but it’s a pity that she has to be punished because she didn’t want to do it, but her family forced her.” “Very well,” replied the first, “the only thing that can be done is to send her back so that she can confess and repent of her sin.”
At these words, she felt that she was being dragged back into the body, for which she at that moment felt indescribable disgust and disgust. A moment later, she woke up and began knocking from inside the coffin, which was already closed. One can imagine the scene that followed. After listening to her story, which I outlined here briefly, I gave her Holy Communion and left, praising God, who gave me the gift of hearing this...” (Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose). The soul after death. St. Petersburg, 1994).
Saint Theophan the Recluse compares prayer to an electric wire that instantly transmits a current - a signal. This is, of course, an analogy, but the spiritual world continually influences the physical universe.
A girl of about 12 years old from a Sunday school of a certain church in Ukraine told me: when there was a fire in their house, she dreamed of her Guardian Angel and woke her up.
Why do most people not feel the spiritual world? Because people do not live spiritually and brightly. The sinner connects with the dark side of the spiritual world and feels depressed, despondent, and sad.
Freedom of the spiritual person
Lawyers have the concept of “the spirit and letter of the law.” Since everyone lives according to the laws that he has formed in his “I,” a spiritual and moral person will act according to the spirit of the law, and not according to the letter. Example: a work colleague offers an intimate meeting to a married man. My wife won't know about her. What choice will he make?
When a person is affected by any temptation, the unspiritual succumbs to it and loses his freedom - he becomes dependent on the temptation. A spiritual person will not lose freedom, will not be tempted. Psychiatrists say that the constant struggle with oneself to do what one does not want leads to neurosis. Therefore, spirituality preserves mental health - a person does what he wants, and he wants to follow moral ideals. He will stop respecting himself if he follows his desires.
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.
The right to choose
All people have the right to choose how to live, how to act. What moral values should you have? A person who strives to get what he wants cares only about himself. Having received what he wants, he does not find satisfaction. A spiritual person thinks not only about himself. He sees his place in society, his role in it. And he correlates his own desires with what is higher and more significant than himself.
For some it is serving God, for others it is serving science. Such people are happy in what they can give—“it is more blessed to give than to receive,” as Acts 20:35 states. This is how spiritual people are.
God and the spiritual world
God is the source of existence of the spiritual world. Compared to God as Spirit, both the souls of people and Angels consist of some created spiritual substance.
God does not dwell in the spiritual world and does not dwell in the physical, but penetrates both. And although He penetrates the world, the world does not penetrate Him. God existed before He created the spiritual world, since God Himself is the cause of His existence, and the spiritual world has a cause of appearance in God. God does not need a place for His existence. All other creatures are localized in space. He does not need a place for His existence, and it is impossible to name a specific place where
He exists, and there is no place where He is not.
Saint John of Damascus: “Everything is separated from God not by place, but by nature.”
“God is present everywhere and is fully present in every ray of His grace” (Gregory Palamas).
We know from Scripture that there are four places in the universe where God is present in a special way.
1. Heaven or spiritual world (Ps. 113:24). 2. Temple (1 Kings 9). 3. Man as the temple of God (Cor. 6:16). 4. Holy places as graves of ascetics. Relics, etc. Cross, icons.
After the Second Coming, the entire universe will be a place of God’s special presence, when “God will be all in all.”
Heaven and the spiritual world are traditionally viewed as what is above in relation to man, and hell is what is below in relation to man.
The famous Indian mystic Kabir once fell asleep in a mosque at night. The watchman began to reproach him for falling asleep with his feet towards the deity, to which Kabir replied in a completely Christian spirit: “Dear, show me a place where there is no God.”
“The laws by which the universe was created, the logoi of both worlds, exist in parallel, and God manifests himself equally in the spiritual world and in the physical universe” (St. Maximus the Confessor).
The biblical prophet says that he saw both worlds as a “Wheel within a Wheel,” that is, existing simultaneously and together, although these are two different dimensions of created existence.
Animals and plants belong entirely to the physical world, but can perceive grace through man, Angels belong entirely to the spiritual, although they are able to actively influence processes in the world of the physical universe, and man simultaneously belongs to two worlds and can fully function in them.
Both animals and people are able, under certain conditions, to see both worlds at the same time. Angels can always act in two worlds and see them. And the heavens are now closed from the fallen angels, and they act in certain approaches to the spiritual world, they act spiritually, but they relate to the world of the physical universe; they have no way to heaven.
After the Fall, God hid from man the possibility of direct contemplation of the realities of the spiritual world. There are two ways to overcome this barrier: false and true.
The wrong path is to turn to dark power or sin heavily.
For example, becoming an alcoholic. It is interesting that even alcoholics of ancient Babylon and Egypt saw demonic creatures at the moment of intoxication.
One priest told how demons appeared to his alcoholic father and persuaded him to kill his wife (the priest’s mother), and he answered them: “No, I won’t kill her, I love her.” And then he chased demons around the table with a fork.
Practicing witchcraft and the occult in general blurs the barrier, but a person becomes demon-faced and becomes involved in dark energies. And it ruins him.
The right path is the correct spiritual life in Orthodoxy. As passions are defeated and the soul becomes healthier, its cognitive abilities are restored and the person begins to see the spiritual world. This is the result of a person’s spiritual growth, but the craving for this appears quite early.
Let me give you a few examples.
Bishop Mitrofan Nikitin once sadly told parishioners that they were reading various brochures about the end of the world, but ignoring the works of Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and other holy fathers. Out of grief, he could not even give arguments in favor of reading the works of saints, he only lamented that no one reads them.
And one parishioner, shocked by his grief, came home and began to read the “Six Days” of St. Basil the Great. And when she reached the middle of the book, she suddenly realized that inside her, all the time she was reading, a light was burning, sending extraordinary joy and warmth to her entire being. They are born only when you are next to a person who completely and completely needs you and loves you.
One student was reading the life of St. Seraphim of Sarov and suddenly felt that she was being embraced with love by this beautiful saint.
Orthodoxy can explain such phenomena.
Saint Theophan the Recluse says: when we read an author with full attention, his spirit is transmitted to us. This applies to any author. One believer, having read the atheist Mark Twain’s harmless children’s book “The Prince and the Pauper,” felt a dryness of unbelief in himself, which he was able to drive away only with prayer.
But this book practically does not talk about faith, but the very spirit of the author acted this way.
All the more so does the spirit of the saint affect us.
As grace is acquired, correct access to the spiritual world opens.
Elder Vitaly Sidorenko noted that even the insight of the saints is only from love. Therefore, mothers are given a certain insight regarding their own children (Ioann Krestyankin).
There is also the ability to spiritually comprehend the world. This is not insight in its pure form, but the ability to comprehend the essence of what is happening from the point of view of Heaven. Adam could do this, a Christian ascetic could do this. As a special gift, “insight” is given to real poets and storytellers and, under certain circumstances, to those who have suffered. “To compose a meaningful word from the bitterness experienced” (Samuel Marshak). In heaven, this ability will be restored to all those saved, since everyone will look at everything correctly, in God’s way.
Spirituality Brings Responsibility
A spiritually mature person realizes that along with the freedom to do what he considers right comes responsibility for the use of this freedom. Regarding this, there is the following example: an airplane can roll on the ground, but that is not what makes it an airplane. When it is already in the sky, then it becomes obvious that it is an airplane. Likewise with spirituality, there is still no situation in which a person’s spiritual qualities will manifest themselves; it is not visible. But when the decisive moment comes, his high moral essence becomes obvious to everyone - it manifests itself in this situation.
Psychology considers spirituality, freedom and responsibility as the most important components of personality. They are closely related. An unspiritual person will not want to take responsibility for his actions and will begin to look for someone to blame. A spiritual person, having made a mistake, admits it.
The spiritual sphere of social life
Human society is divided into spiritual and material spheres. Of course, the material sphere is important - it ensures physical existence. But in order to manifest himself as a spiritual person, he also needs a corresponding sphere.
The spiritual sphere of man includes religion, science, morality, culture, art, and law. Pedagogy has established that instilling the foundations of culture from an early age makes it possible to raise a harmonious, responsible personality. Doctors have found that the connections in the brain that are formed when playing musical instruments expand a person’s mathematical abilities. The development of creative abilities that art provides expands the scope of freedom and teaches you to make innovative decisions.
The spiritual realm has a powerful influence on the individual. The conclusion is obvious: man, as a social being, cannot fully develop without society.
Spiritual guidelines
Society has always had accepted norms that were considered spiritual guidelines. The Holy Scripture played a huge role in their formation. The two largest religions based on it - Christianity and Islam - are professed by 33% and 23% of the world population, respectively. Social, economic and criminal laws and the Constitutions of many countries are drawn up on the basis of the Ten Commandments.
The Golden Rule, found in Matthew 7:12, encourages people to do as they would like to be treated. This is not just maintaining neutrality according to the formula “do no harm to anyone, so that no harm will be done to you” and not a common saying calling for retribution “as you do to me, so I will to you.” This was taught by many ancient philosophers. Christ taught to actively do good, so that you yourself would be rewarded with good. And he added that this is the whole law and the prophets.
A person's spiritual orientation as an individual is even more closely tied to Scripture, even if he has never read it. Thanks to public morality, the concepts of good or bad, decent or dishonest, acceptable or unacceptable keep the individual within certain limits. Literature is built on the basis of public morality - a powerful means of cultivating spirituality. The author’s detailed description of the deep motives of the hero’s actions makes it possible to gain one’s own experience. Among the great writers who indicated spiritual guidelines are L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov, C. Dickens, E. M. Remarque.
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.
Spiritual hero in literature
The purpose of the writer was expressed by A. S. Pushkin in the work “The Prophet”. It echoes the biblical account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah. In the book bearing the name of the prophet, chapter 6 is devoted to this. With a verb, that is, with a word, to burn the hearts of people - this is the task of a prophet and writer who is gifted with talent.
Daniel Defoe described the life of Robinson Crusoe far from civilization. With the moral values from the Bible, he created a beautiful world on the island. He did not go wild, but was melted down in a difficult ordeal.
Jonathan Swift endowed his Gulliver with moral qualities. Some of his actions have become household names.
The Little Prince Exupery amazes with the wisdom of simple logic based on love.
The heroes of Jane Eyre, A.I. Kuprin, Jack London, V. Kataev have accompanied many since childhood. They go through life's difficulties, their character qualities are worthy of emulation.
Personal qualities
In pedagogy, qualities are distinguished that are cultivated for the formation of a spiritual personality. This is the ability to take responsibility for one’s actions, understanding their impact on others. A spiritual person is, first of all, a moral person. He is characterized by honesty, decency, inner purity, nobility. He despises lies and theft. He is characterized by tolerance towards everyone, respect for people of the opposite sex, mutual assistance, caring for those in need, and self-control.
The behavior of such a person is not limited to the above qualities. He constantly works on himself to achieve even higher ideals. This is ensured by internal freedom - personal autonomy. He does not violate the laws of society not because of fear of punishment, but because they are the laws of his personality.
The influence of a socially spiritual person on society
No man has influenced history more than Jesus Christ. He taught his followers to spread what they learned. How many times have they been tried to destroy them, like Christ himself! But they still brought the truth to the world. The religion is named after their teacher, and the beginning of a new era is considered to be from his birth.
John Gutenberg invented the printing press to disseminate the Holy Scriptures, and it had a huge impact on culture around the world. Books became much cheaper and everyone could afford to buy them. Cyril and Methodius, Greek missionaries, created the Slavic alphabet for translating the Holy Scriptures and this enriched our language. Many Russian proverbs are actually taken from the Bible.
Leo Tolstoy highly valued the Word of God and in his works comprehensively considered good and evil. His novels were highly appreciated by M. Gandhi, who led the struggle for the liberation of India. He spoke about the importance of Christian teaching, that all the world's problems would be solved if people actually adhered to it.
As can be seen from these examples, even one spiritual person is an undoubted benefit to society.
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.
