Spiritual development is among the most radical and radical journeys that a human being may pass through. Spiritual development takes place mostly in the invisible places of faith, belief, intuition, and inner world, as compared to material progress whose measurement can be done by material accomplishments like money, status, or physical prowess. It is a highly subjective process that can hardly be rationalized, certain, and authenticated by other people. The key to spiritual development is a strong struggle to learn to believe in the invisible. Such trust is not a naive belief or infidelity to reality, but rather a building of trust in forces, meanings, and truths which are not always provable or accessible to the senses. In a world of evidence, control and predictability, having faith in the invisible is an act of radicalism and spiritual evolution.
Learning about Spiritual Development.
The process of shifting the consciousness to a level beyond the ego and material self to a more profound level of engagement with meaning, purpose and the bigger whole of existence can be defined as spiritual development. To others, this expansion has its basis in religious practices, which are directed by religious books, practices, and corporate worship. To others, it is a more personalized experience determined through meditation, self-reflection, nature, creativity, or in case of transcendence, the personal experiences. Whichever the journey, spiritual development entails the inner journey, a search of values, beliefs, fears and hopes that characterize the relationship one has with the self, others and the universe.
This is hardly a linear process. The development of the spirit is usually observed in the times of confusion, skepticism, and even crisis. Individuals can challenge their old beliefs, lose touch with their purpose, or fail to find meaning in their hard times in life. But even these times of unease are usually the driving forces of further development. They make people touch boundaries of their knowledge and be ready to realize and perceive things in a new way and be. Spiritual development, in this context, does not mean approaching a final goal but never-ending learning, forgetting and widening the inner sphere of the world.
The Nature of the Unseen
The unseen is a phenomenon in the reality that cannot be physically measured or seen but it still influences significantly. This incorporates things like faith, intuition, love, hope, destiny and belief in some greater power or universal intelligence. It also includes the inner meaning, connection and transcendence experience that many people refer to as spiritual. Although these elements might not have a physical appearance, their influence on the lives and health of human beings cannot be ignored.
Scientifically speaking, the invisible is disturbing. In the contemporary society, the assumption that what is real has to be perceived, experimented, and predictable, is what the society is constructed. But, a lot of human experience cannot be conveniently categorized in this pattern. The degree of knowledge is not complete, as concerns emotions, moral values, creativity, and consciousness as well. This mystery has been long accepted through spiritual traditions in various cultures and states that not all that is important in our life can be comprehended only with the help of reason. To believe the invisible is, therefore, to believe that this is of a reality greater and more intricate than is possible to sense.
The importance of trust to spiritual growth.
One of the pillars of spiritual growth is trust since it enables people to proceed where there is no clarity. Devoid of trust, fear and doubt can freeze the inner journey. When individuals insist on knowing what to expect before they can take a step, they risk being stagnant and not able to develop beyond the established ways and the established beliefs. Spiritual development involves receptiveness, receptiveness to a newness, to the unexplored, to the fact that life has its own hidden meanings.
Believing in the invisible does not imply being anti-critical or irresponsible. Rather it involves the realization that there are certain truths that can be known through experience and not through demonstration. As an illustration, a person cannot know what the power of forgiveness is like until he tries it and cannot know the level of compassion until he can have compassion on other people. Such virtues are developed in the process of living through the influence of believing in values, which do not necessarily imply immediate payoffs. Such trust leads to the inner strength and intensification of a sense of connection over the course of time.
Fear, Power, and Fighting of the Imaginary.
Fear is one of the biggest hindrances to having faith in the invisible. Human beings have the tendency to want to have control in order to secure themselves against harm and uncertainties. Control offers the feeling of security, predictability and steadiness. Nonetheless, too much attachment to control may restrict the development of the spiritual life because it does not allow people to give up the experiences that they do not understand. By holding on to what they are familiar with, people might be resistant to change, reject vulnerability and stay unwilling to explore themselves further.
Fear usually is caused by disappointment, traumatic or loss experiences in the past. It may be unsafe to trust again when the trust has been betrayed, be it other people, be it the institutions, be it life itself that one has broken trust. However, spiritual development helps people to acquire the courage to look at these fears carefully without being ashamed that they are weak but an open door to change. Relinquishing control does not imply going inert, it also implies learning to go with life instead of always struggling against it.
Pure light and infinite love be with us!