15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 1 of 20 15.0: Spiritual Development - Introduction Development of our spirituality is crucial to our current and subsequent lives on earth. This has not always been realised. The English religious philosopher, Don Cupitt, expressed his view that: 1 Earlier generations of doubters - for example, many Victorians - roughly divided Christianity into two parts, the doctrine and the ethics. The doctrine, they said, is regrettably not true but we can and will retain the morality. But there is something else more important than either the doctrine or the ethics, and that is the spirituality. This, of course, presupposes some sort of description or definition of what spirituality means. We could take a very simplistic attitude, as did another theologian Peter Toon, and, with him, suggest that: 2 'Spirituality' is a word with many meanings in contemporary English. In fact what it means in any context is determined by the understanding or definition of 'spirit'. But this is far too limiting a starting point to uncover the whole gamut of what I believe is spirituality and spiritual development. Over the next few pages, I’ll try to put a few bones on that skeleton. From the internet I found: 3 One description of spirituality is the self's search for "ultimate meaning" through an independent comprehension of the sacred. Spiritual identity appears when the symbolic religious and spiritual value of a culture is found by individuals in the setting of their own life. There can be different types of spiritual self because it is determined on one's life and experiences. Another definition of spiritual identity is “a persistent sense of self that addresses ultimate questions about the nature, purpose, and meaning of life, resulting in behaviors that are consonant with the individual’s core values.” The Unitarian parish minister William Houff believed that each of us is in search of meaning to life and for God. In the introduction to his book ‘Infinity in Your Hand’ he expressed this as: 4 In his 'Speeches', Friedrich Schleiermacher wrote: 'Religion must be some intuition of the infinite in the finite.' This, I think, defines the task of the serious spiritual pilgrim. All of our theological systems, religious institutions, and spiritual practices are attempts - sometimes productive, too often otherwise - to facilitate that search. In my own terms, this spiritual search or spiritual development is an attempt to understand the God created Laws, both physical and spiritual, which govern our lives now and in the hereafter, and subsequently, then, to follow those Laws as best we can. Putting it another way, it is to develop our own Philosophy of Life and to make sure that this is enabled as our Philosophy for Life. Notice, that in all the above, there has been no mention of religion, God, the Spirit World or any of the other topics which need to be considered in order to form a rounded view of DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 2 of 20 spiritual development. One of the most comprehensive and stirring descriptions of what it means to be spiritual came from the pen of Rudyard Kipling in his poem ‘If’. IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! Not only a Man, but a Man on a spiritual pathway. This search for a rounded description of spirituality has been undertaken by many people. The Reverend Bill Houff provided us with three essential ‘rules’ which he believed describe a spiritual pilgrim; these are: 5 Attention to what is before us at this moment of time. A sense of inclusiveness (love) that rises above all separation, And a life of devotion unhampered by attachment. Colin Fry, a British television medium, recorded some of the points which he considers appropriate to a person’s spirituality: 6 DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 3 of 20 There are so many attempts to define what spirituality is or what it can do for us. Some of the ones I like are: • It is a general sense of peace and connectedness to others as well as to ourselves. • It is a source of strength in the presence of distress • It is at the heart of our well-being • It is an integral component of healing • It enriches all aspects of our physical, mental, emotional and community life • It is expressed in the attitudes, beliefs and practices that influence peoples lives • It enables us to experience the transcendent or higher power • It embraces fullness; meaning; love and hope in the journey of life • It is a life force that promotes hope, encourages healing, and helps us to embrace others and ourselves. Furthermore in the same book, Colin did re-state the problem when he wrote: 7 Spirituality is our attempt to make some sense of the world around us. In addition to this overall view of spirituality, a healing spirit, known as Dr. Letari described what he called ‘Divinity’ which somewhat expands the view of Colin Fry by adding a healing dimension. Divinity’s work, it is said, is threefold: 8 (1) to cure those in disease whether of mind or of body; (2) to reveal the hidden spirituality of man; (3) to achieve the unfoldment of the soul in man. Collectively these are not complete descriptions but are consequences of undertaking a spiritual journey. Summarily, Dr Letari also explained that: 9 Spirituality is the goodness of Man to Man. To achieve this goal, on our own spiritual journey, we should be trying to uncover and appreciate the Natural Laws which govern our total existence. It is forcing us to ask difficult questions about life now and how it continues when we die. Many other people take this one step further and seek to develop the same qualities which our God manifested when these Cosmic Laws were created. That is to see Love in all things and live in a ‘loving’ way. This was articulated by the Anglican priest Martin Israel in his book ‘Summons to Life’: 10 The quest for love and its final manifestation in the freedom of the spirit is the whole path of spiritual development. Although love has many facets, it seems to be the key which opens, and keeps open, the door which leads to spiritual development. Understanding, and then making part of our lives, each of these faces of ‘love’ not only makes life simpler but allows us to demonstrate it within our daily activities. According to the spiritual healer Alan Young, the legendary spiritual master St. Germain recognised this and conveyed the idea that: 11 The more we understand Life and Perfection, the simpler life becomes; and finally we need to do only one thing, which is constantly to fill our thoughts and feelings DAJ 07/11/2019 19:06:59 15.0 Spiritual Development - Introduction Page 4 of 20 with Divine Love. Other masters and mystics express this search for spirituality as a search for our ultimate ‘being’ – to try to capture the essence of what being a human is about. The mystical writer Evelyn Underhill, according to Brenda Blanch, was one such person. In describing what constitutes a spiritual life, Evelyn believed that most people spend their lives: 12 ...conjugating three verbs: to want, to have and to do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual - even on the religious plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except insofar as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verbal, to Be; and that Being, not wanting, having, and doing, is the essence of the spiritual life. In other words, if we can overcome our urge to place ‘self’ at the centre of everything we do, slowly but surely we become more focussed on service to others and the development of our spiritual nature.