Growing Up Spiritually is a Great Obstacle in The Modern Times Maze
by Tom Om
Growing up spiritually in a world, which is modeled around a
material lifestyle including the latest equipment on
electronics and gadgets, as well joining the entertainment
and media world, is a real challenge. Even the Internet is
full of distractions towards physical needs and wants. As a
result, our perspectives and concepts of self-realization
are buried under the soil of material desires and illusions.
So the question arises on how can we balance the material
and spiritual aspects of our lives?
Growing up spiritually results in looking inward
Observing or reflecting things during a day, week or month
is not sufficient. We need a more closer look to our entire
perception. This includes our thoughts, beliefs, feelings
and motivations. So, the challenge is to periodically
examine our experience, our decisions, and relationships.
What we experience in the outer world is a mirror of our
inner world. So the things you engage in provide useful
insights on your life goals, on the good traits you must
sustain and the bad traits you have to discard. Moreover, it
gives you clues on how to act, react, and conduct yourself
in the midst of any situation. Like any skill, introspection
can be learned; all it takes is the courage and willingness
to seek the truths that lie within you. I give you some
pointers for your introspection: be objective, be forgiving
of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.
Growing up spiritually is to increase your potentials
Religion and science have differing views on matters of the
human spirit. Religion views people as spiritual beings
temporarily living on Earth, while science views the spirit
as just one dimension of an individual. Mastery of the self
is a recurring theme in both Christian (Western) and Islamic
(Eastern) teachings. The needs of the body are recognized
but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values,
morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the
blueprint to ensure the growth of the spiritual being. In
Psychology, realizing ones full potential is to
self-actualize. We can verify several human needs:
physiological, security, belongingness, self-esteem,
cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and
self-transcendence. We can also categorize these needs into
the three main: material, emotional, and spiritual. When you
have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs,
spiritual or existential needs come next. Achieving each
need leads to the total development of the individual.
Perhaps the difference between these two religions and
psychology is the end of self-development: Christianity and
Islam see that self-development is a means toward serving
God, while psychology view that self-development is an end
by itself.
Growing up spiritually is to search for meaning
There are religions that believe in the existence of God
and see the purpose of the human life as to serve the God.
In contrary, there theories among psychology that propose we
ultimately give meaning to our lives by ourselves. I doesn’t
matter if we believe that lifes meaning is pre-determined or
self-directed. The main reason to grow in spirit is to
realize that we do not merely exist. There is more to it.
Even we do not know the meaning of our lives at birth, but
over the course of our development we gain knowledge and
wisdom from our interactions with people. Development comes
through our actions and reactions to the situations we are
in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs
and values that we reject and affirm. So we realize that our
lives have purpose. That puts all our physical, emotional,
and intellectual potentials into use and sustains us during
trying times. Ultimately it and gives us something to look
forward to achieve, a goal and a destination to reach. A
person without purpose or meaning is like a drifting ship at
ocean.
Growing up spiritually is to explore interconnections
Religions mostly have the concept that we are related to
all creation, live and inanimate. Thus we call other people
in believe brothers and sisters even if there are no direct
blood relations. Also, religions such as Christianity and
Islam, which are deity-centered, mention the relationship
between humans and a higher being. Science, on the other
hand expounds on our link, to other living things through
the evolution theory. Obviously, this relatedness is clearly
seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between
living and non-living things. In psychology, the highest
human need is connectedness, which is a characteristic of
self-transcendence. Clearly, if you recognize your
connection with all things makes you more humble and
respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in nature.
As a result, you appreciate everything around you and moves
you to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to other
people,animals and plants. In this higher purpose you become
stewards of all other things around you.
Growing up spiritually is the result of an expanding
spiritual consciousness on a day-to-day basis. We are here
in this incarnation to learn from experiences, bad and good,
and to build the results of these learning experiences in
our Being as a whole. Only through this inner awareness,
spiritual growth will occur and most important, further
consciousness expansion will be possible.
