spiritual growth

Perhaps all these traditional ways are important things, but Spiritual Growth simply occurs when the Spirit grows and the ego shrinks. Any Spiritual Growth happens only in direct relationship to a shrinking ego: without a shrinking ego, there is no Spiritual Growth. Through continuous Meditation, eventually, we experience our Self in its natural pure state. It is then that we realize that our Self-awareness is never born and never dies. To find that Pure Existence is the purpose of all Spiritual Exercise and one of our best tools is Meditation.

For more information on meditation see: Meditation

Like many Spiritual concepts, Spiritual Growth is a misnomer. In reality, the Spirit does not grow or shrink: it is always the way it is. What is a Spirit anyway? It is that which knows that it exists. Other names for Spirit are Life-force, Soul, Awareness, or Beingness.

Examples for Spiritual Growth versus a growing ego:

  If we do a good deed selflessly without the slightest consideration of the rewards or fruits, as a result, we grow spiritually. If we do that good deed and feel proud or even simply good, we strengthen the ego. Tricky but logical, is it not?

  Likewise, if we meditate and reduce our thinking, we uncover more of the Spirit. But, again, if we feel proud of our accomplishments as a result of otherwise proper Meditation, we have not really accomplished anything at all.

Spiritual Growth has to continue until we rest without remaining wishes, attachments, dreaming, and thinking in pure Awareness. Pure Awareness (God) is where we rest in eternal peace and bliss. Once this is understood, the mind will still resist and state that it is not yet ready for such a permanent condition. That might be so, but such thinking is simply the result of having lost awareness of this superior condition of the Soul.

Spirituality: where to begin?

Why are we interested in Spiritual matters? Why do we bother to look for God? Why do some of us insist they love God when they do not know God nor that God even exists?

The answer, if we are honest, is that we are trying to survive, to save our Soul and, if possible, even our skin. Our first questions should then be: Does God exist? Is survival after death possible? If so, what is it that survives?

There are always those who insist they have all the answers and there are also always those who laugh at these statements without investing as much as a second thought. Is there any chance for us to find that needle of Truth in this huge hay stack of confusion?

Maybe the answer is closer than we think and already known by the only person we know we can trust - our Self. There is a way to unveil the Self in form of Pure Awareness. Once the Self is known, all else is known. Then we know the Truth about God and how we ultimately survive.

First let us take a look at Scripture and Religion. I claim that if we ignore the non-essential and look for the essential, the real meaning, then all religious scripture and all religions do more agree than disagree. To give a few examples:
All religions have followers who seem to be more concerned with external matters but there are always a few who go deeper; they are called the Mystics, Saints, Self-realized and so on. When we study their writings they all agree in the most essential points: There is a God, that God can be found at the Center of our Being and we can unite with God to become One.

Essentially, all scriptures agree in all the points the mystics and saints agree with. A comparison with two of the more popular scriptures the New Testament (NT) and the Bhagavad Gita (BG) will serve to make this point:

Can we gain knowledge of God and Heaven and do we have to wait until after we are dead to find out?
NT: Matt 6:33 "First seek the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness;"
BG: 7:5 "Know also my other higher nature the Spirit, through which the Universe is sustained."

Where can Heaven be found?
NT: Lk 17:20 The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; Because the Kingdom of God is WITHIN you."
BG: 6:5 "The supreme Reality exists WITHIN himself."
BG: 5:24 "The Yogi (seeker) who is happy WITHIN who rejoices WITHIN, and who is illumined WITHIN attains freedom in Brahman (God) himself becoming one with God."

What is the Nature of God and Heaven?
NT: Rom 14:17 "The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink (Material), but Righteousness and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit (Spiritual)."
BG: 15:16 "There are two beings in the world: The perishable and the imperishable. The perishable (Material) comprises all creatures, and the Imperishable (Spiritual) is said to be the Unchanging." 8:21 This Unmanifested is called the imperishable. That is my supreme Abode (Heaven)."

Can we really unite with God?
NT: John 17:21-23 "I pray that they may all be ONE. ..May they be in Us, just as you are in Me and I am in You. May they all be ONE...
BG: 6:31 "He who, having been established in ONENESS, worships me dwelling in all beings - that Yogi, in whatever way he leads his life, lives in Me."

How can we unveil our true Self and unite with God?
NT: Col 3:9 "For you have to put off the old self (ego) with its habits and have to put on the new Self. This is the new Being which God its Creator, is constantly renewing in His Image in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself."
BG: 6:6 "To him who has conquered himself by Himself, his own Self is a friend."

Or to make that more clear:
NT: Psalm 46:10 :BE STILL and recognize that I AM GOD." 4:4 "Commune with your own Heart (Center of Being - the Self)..., and BE STILL."
BG: 6:27 "Supreme Bliss comes to the seeker whose mind is COMPLETELY TRANQUIL and whose passions are QUIETED, who is free from stain (any thought) and who has become ONE with God."

What is God’s nature and what is consequently our real nature?
This question is best answered by the names given to God by the American Natives and the Jews in what some call the Old Testament (OT).
The Natives talk about the Great Spirit which not only gives God a name but hints about what God’s Nature is like: It is Spirit. This spirit is the same as Beingness, ultimate Existence, or Awareness.
OT: "I AM that I AM" (Ex. 3:14 JHVH or JAHWE), which is the perfect description for Pure Beingness.
BG: "By that devotion he who knows Me, knows what, in Truth, I AM and who I AM." On another occasion it says: "God is Spirit (Awareness)."

This can be continued and other scriptures may be added, the point is: different types of Scripture and different religions are not so different when properly understood.

What is the Best Attitude towards Spiritual Growth and when attempting to approach God?

Even so it appears to be a remnant of the dark ages, we still hear occasionally about the necessity to fear God with the usual quotes out of the Bible following. However, this must be taken out of context and is mostly used by people who already fear God because of their perceptions about God and a general fear of the unknown. There is no need to go into a lengthy theological argument either because the first commandment clearly says that one should: "Love God with all your heart, mind and soul." You don't really fear anything you truly love and there is no need for it. Moreover, since God can only be found at the center of our being (within), God and our own Pure Being relate in quality like the drop of water relates to the quality of the lake. In that sense, any fear of God would amount to nothing less than fearing one's own Self.
The right attitude should rather be a curiosity that can only be satisfied when the result of its inquiries are found. Other qualities include patients, persistence, harmlessness, and in general following the rules and laws set out in scriptures followed by Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and others. The most important attitude, of course, remains to be interest and curiosity, because whatever we treasure most finds usually all of our interest (Luke 12:34 "For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.")

Is there any spiritual comfort for the aged, the terminally ill, or anyone facing or fearing death?

1. We may draw strength from our systems of belief. Why? Because all religions including all natural belief systems agree that life goes on. They also agree on the existence of God. Even if some mention three (Trinity) or more Gods than these Gods are still to be understood as aspects of one and the same God.

2. We may draw strength from science. According to science, we cannot really say that we are able to destroy something (anything) so completely that it fades into non-existence. We can only change the objects shape and condition. Even if we burn something and 'destroy' its ashes, the object still continues as energy. If we destroy ourselves, the material part of our bodies continues as energy and the Awareness continues as Awareness. The reason that Awareness continues is that it did not develop out of dead matter or lifeless energy. Those materialistic scientists who laughed and promised proof that awareness is nothing but a byproduct of biological processes failed to do so. Other scientists are now confirming the wisdom of ancient philosophers, saints and sages.

3. We may draw strength from personal experience of others. People have never come back from the dead. Did you hear that expression? It is not true. There are more than a few people who have returned from the clinically dead to tell us about it. There are also more than a few people who had out-of-body experiences and even the government has admitted to research in this area for obvious reasons.

4. We may draw strength from the real witnesses: The Saints, Sages, Rishis, Self-realized persons, Mystics, Avatars, advanced Yogis etc.

5. There is convincing evidence for reincarnation.

6. We may draw strength from our spiritual exercises and personal experience. Try to become one with your object of devotion, concentrate fully on God, or simply love your inner Self to a point that only pure Awareness continues to exist. When you experience the inner Bliss and Beingness you will be filled with more comfort than you thought you were in need for. Let us not fear a genuine spiritual experience more than we fear death.

From time to time, I will work on this page. The point in the meantime is that life goes on even after this one expires. Fear is the result of our identification with body and mind. Both will, eventually, cease to exist and are not needed for our well-being.

The fastest Path to God:

All Religions and Traditions teach that knowledge of God may be gained. Most religious people believe that such knowledge can only be gained after death as a reward by following a set of rules. Jews and Christians call their set of rules the "Commandments". The rules laid out by other religions are very similar, if not the same. And, in contrast to the more popular belief, all Religions agree that God can be found now as opposed to later. They even make it our most important task (see Matt 6:33 "First seek the Kingdom of God....")

The commandments may in fact be much more than a set of rules. When we look past ceremonies and symbols, it turns out that, at least in the approach to finding God, Religions are not so different after all. Thus, the path to God can be summarized in one sentence: "Love God with all you Heart, with all your Soul, and with all your mind." This is called the greatest and most important commandment and is shared by Jews, Christians, Moslems, Hindus, and Others. An equivalent 'commandment' from the Bhagavad Gita might be:"Regarding Me (God \ Brahman) as the Supreme Goal, practise steadiness of mind and fix your Heart constantly on Him."

The word commandment can be misleading since it implies following a rule and evokes terms like reward and punishment. However, when we compare the Gita and the Bible, we find that the rules and the essential meaning are more or less exactly the same, and because of slight differences in wording we are able to gain a more precise understanding. As a result, we realize that following the first commandment is rather self-rewarding and self-punishing, and not the system of reward and punishment imposed by God.

All major Religions agree in essence, but only when we bother to look deeper for the real essence and the real meaning. If God, as omnipresent Awareness, is at the Heart of our Soul, then it stands to reason that we may stand a better chance of discovering this pure Awareness through an act of pure Concentration than by bothering with the all too important outer acts including: wearing hats, caps, turbans, deggers and ceremonial swords, or cutting of foreskins or woman's pleasure centers.

Concentration is required if we follow the first commandment. Loving God with all our Heart, Mind, and Soul really leaves very little room for any other thoughts. And it is only during these moments of steady tranquillity that God, who is our very own Self at the Center of our Soul, reveals Himself. During such a condition there are no questions like: Did you cut off your finger?  -or-  Did you grow a beard? For confirmation of these statements see the following selections.
Psalm 46:10 "Be Still and recognize that I'm God. 4:4 "Commune with your own Heart (Center of Being)..., and Be Still."
Gita 6:27 "Supreme Bliss comes to the seeker whose mind is completely Tranquil and whose passions are Quieted, who is free from stain (thoughts) and who has become One with God."