Spiritual Development

Spiritual development is the process of becoming fit for a higher level in the spirit world.There arethree areas of spiritual learning: skills, beliefs, and evolution.

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Spiritualists believe that a person incarnates in order to learn.Christianity, or more correctly, the words of Jesus, teach that what youare here to learn is: to love God and other people. Buddhism, teachesthat to be able to love you must become unselfish or in other wordslessen the grip your ego holds over your thoughts and deeds. Buddhismgives practical techniques (meditation and mindfulness) that can helpyou to become unselfish.

Therefore, humility is the sign of a highly evolved soul. One shouldlook for this characteristic when seeking a spiritual teacher.

For humans living on earth, spiritual evolution is the most important aspect of spiritual development. This is because in the afterlife you will have spiritual skills. In fact, spiritual skills will be the only skills you will have at that point. Also, in the afterlife, you will have the right beliefs because you will be able to see for yourself what the afterlife is like. However, unless you use your time on earth correctly and learn to love and to eliminate selfishness, you will not have that ability when you move into the afterlife.

While the great religions of the world teach that developing love forothers is the primary objective of spiritual development, it is notenough to say this without some instruction on how to develop love. Ourbiological nature puts up many obstacles against love. People hear thebeautiful words of the great teachers and then find that it isimpossible to live according to their beliefs. This damages peoplepsychologically and brings disrepute to preachers and followers alike.

Therefore it is important for humankind to have an explanation of how todevelop love. Love arises spontaneously when hatred and anger and otherforms of selfish and negative thought are absent.

The way to eliminate selfishness through meditation can be found in thepage on meditation. If you practicemeditation daily, then gradually over the years, without straining to beperfect, you will become less and less self centered and a natural lovefor others will arise within you. The chapter on Short Topicshas more On The Purpose of Life.

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For more information on spiritual beliefs see the page on The Principles of Spiritualism.

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A person's beliefs have a strong influence on his ability to developspiritual skills. If he is skeptical and continually attributesanomalous experiences to coincidence and "natural explanations", he willweaken his abilities through negative reinforcement. This will alsodiscourage spirit guides that may be trying to help him. Each person isborn having spiritual skills, but our societal attitudes result, in thisway, in most people losing awareness of their natural abilities as theymature. Therefore it is necessary to undo the effects of living in anunbelieving society.

To develop spiritual skills, a person must be accepting of the phenomenaand must continually look for spiritual influence in his life in theform of coincidences, hunches, and other unusual phenomena. In this wayhe will increase his awareness of spiritual influence in his life andnotice more and more the activity of his spiritual skills. Thispositive feedback will lead to improvement and enhancement of hisspiritual skills. Therefore it is necessary to err on the side ofcredulity rather than skepticism.

There is the risk of incorrectly attributing coincidence to spiritualinfluence, however this risk must be borne. One must always maintain anawareness of this risk and never take rash or unwise actions based onsupposed spiritual influence and never allow belief in infallibility totake hold.

The regular practice of meditation and relaxationis also helpful in the development of spiritual skills. These practicescalm the mind and allow one to notice subtle thoughts, impressions,and sensations that may be associated with spiritual phenomena.

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