Contents:
#1 Spirituality PDF
#2 Spiritual Family PDF
#3 Spiritual Nourishment PDF
#4 Spiritual Energy Centers PDF
#5 Spiritual Health Self Assessment PDF
#6 Spirit PDF
#7 Sensing Spirit PDF
#8 Spirit Exchange PDF
#9 Evolving the Spirit PDF
#10 Describe Your Spirit PDF
#11 New Species PDF
#12 Travel Tips on the Spiritual Path PDF
#1 Spirituality
Each of us has our own way of being spiritual, of expressing the life force that flows through us. To be human is to be spiritual. Our spirituality is expressed in the act of living. Whether we realize it or not, we bring spirituality into everything we do. Being spiritual is an inner search as well as an outer one. We use our resources and uncover the teachings spirit offers us.
Seek to foster an openness to what is spiritual by borrowing from any spiritual tradition. Continually ask, what is sacred to me? Discover for yourself, your brand of spirituality and then to offer it to the world.Express your individual spirit and merge your spirit with others.Cherish feeling bigger than yourself. Spirit is that quiet, reassuring voice that guides you.
Spirituality expresses itself through what you value and the virtuous way you live your life. Be in love with the universe, a reverence for life at the cosmic level. Balance spiritual solitude and then to be with other pathfinders.
Exploring your Spiritual Nature
Developed a holistic approach to your spirituality as an integral part of your daily life. Live life as a sacrament. Being spiritual involves doing that which nurtures the spirit and stopping that which harms. By living our truth, we bring our life into alignment.
The spiritual path is not really a path until many travelers have used it. Most of the time one needs to be a trail blazer. Even when the trail appears smooth the next minute, you might hit a paradoxical pot hole that will shake you up. These holes come in infinite varieties such as inconsistencies, contradictions, enigmas and mysteries. The classic signpost reads “you can’t get there form here.” Perplexed turn right. Puzzled turn left. Confusion is more prevalent than certainty. What a dilemma!
Any path that has been cleared will still be riddled with obstacles as you go around the next bent. A path that you have been led to believe to be straight will have dangerous twists and dips. Some of the holes you will be able to skirt and miss. While some you will see clearly and fall into any how. Yet, you will know you are on the right path because it is marked by paradoxical pot holes. Every adventure will have a certain amount of misery.
Being spiritual necessitates bold moves. Courage is frequently needed to be spiritual and to follow your own path. There always seems to be someone around telling you how you are supposed to be. It takes courage to put into action what you valve when you are being pulled in another direction. We will all be tested to see if we are loyal to our principles. Examine what you believe to be the truth on a regular basis and if necessary to make a course correction. Making spiritual growth our number one priority takes a fearless resolve. Being on a life long quest will require spiritual stamina.
The quest can begin by asking these questions:
How do you define your spirituality?
Who are your spiritual role models?
What are your sources of spiritual fulfillment?
What is sacred to you?
Who are holy the men and women in your life?
Review your spiritual path what is holy about you?
What your spiritual principles?
Who has been a spiritual guide for you and what you learned?
What is your spiritual essence?
#2 Spiritual Family
For most of human history, people have lived in tribes, clans or extended families. These were close-knit groups that gave members a sense of belonging and secured their physical survival. People worked together for the common good and taught each other the basic principles of life according to their culture. Generally, they shared similar spiritual beliefs and trusted their elders for the wisdom born of experience.
In our culture, the small nuclear family is the norm. This is a relatively modern social invention with its own strengths and weakness. As recent as it is, even this social institution is evolving with time. Over the past few decades, more and more people live outside of this nuclear family norm: many live alone and there are an increasing number of single-parent households.
In an ideal world, we are all born into a loving extended family and are surrounded by good role models in healthy relationships. Our spiritual growth is given the highest priority, and cultural institutions foster development of its citizens’ virtues.
Unfortunately, we do not live in such an ideal world. Families are often broken and scattered, good role models can be as much the exception as the rule, spiritual growth is frequently given a lower priority than the ethics of profit and our institutions aggrandize distorted relations based on power and politics. Given this bittersweet reality, the question must be asked: “What is best for the growth of the spirit?”
In this new social context, there is an emerging trend in which people are taking the best attributes of the ancestral tribal environment and blending these with the best of our modern culture. One indication of this emerging trend is people creating an extended family for themselves, regardless of their marital status. People, with kids or without, need a sense of belonging to a larger social group, and children flourish when they are loved and supported by such a group. As adults, whether alone or in nuclear families, we yearn to belong to groups that assist not only with physical survival, but emotional and spiritual survival as well.
One of the purposes of a spiritual family is to raise healthy, happy kids. Likewise, adults have their varied needs met even as they are able to better meet the needs of the children. Each person in a new family has connections with others who participate in their own unique clusters. We are creating a loving web that is strong, light and open. Our connections spread, uniting us all into one community. We nurture and help each other to reach emotional and spiritual maturity. It is through connections like these that our consciousness matures, thus leading to a fuller and more interesting life.
Spiritual Kinship
Our kindred spirits are sacred. Beyond our skin, past our bloodline, we are united in spirit. Our quest is to seek the deepest relationship with self, then to make our love available to others. The essential part of this endeavor is to form several friendships and, where possible, link our friendships together. This is how we will create a critical mass of consciousness. Spiritual kinship is where all the virtues come into play.
Our kinship is with the light. The bonding begins as a brief flash, a mere glimpse, felt by our spirit. The sensation in our spirit is a kind of harmony, resonance, a brightness that guides us. We recognize the other as kin in spirit.
“Sangha” is an ancient Sanskrit term for fellowship, meaning a relationship between many individuals used to advance the human spirit of all. The spiritual family of kindred spirits is a new sangha. We are an unusual collection of people with differing beliefs yet we share a common spiritual path of friendship. Our devotion to our friendship transcends the variety of spiritual practices we follow. We share a reverence for each other’s enlightenment, celebrating each new revelation. The memories we create uplift the spirit. The quest for kindred spirits is a search for spirit.
Each of our lights is brighter for having known each other. Our consciousness expands and grows from the center in all directions. We are transformed by our love, full of tenderness and strength. We cherish and honor each other. We feel supported and embraced in warm, peaceful, uplifting love. Kindred spirits are necessary for our spiritual well-being. They are deep friendships that reach our spiritual core: spirit-centered relationships.
#3 Spiritual Nourishment
We grow up knowing that our survival depends upon others’ care. As adults, we tend to look to just one person, our mate or best friend, to provide for our needs. When that person leaves or is not there for us, we fear for our emotional or physical well-being. We might be tempted to project back to our childhood, to a time when our parent wasn’t there for us and we felt lost and helpless. But as adults, we know that relying too completely on ourselves or just one other person for everything we need can be dangerous. We need to fortify ourselves with several close friends who lend support.
Everybody needs spiritual nourishment. When we are spiritual omnivores we can derive energy from many sources. It can be as simple as two people smiling at each other. I nourish my spirit by intimacy, passion, joy, music, reading, animals, beauty, laughter, love, dance, adventures, exercise, time in nature, playing with kids and meaningful work.
Another way is to teach the care and feeding of our spirit to our friends. We can ask our friends to show us how they would like to have their spirits nurtured. A kindred spirit relationship is based on a mutual commitment to nurture each other’s spirits.
The path is simple: nurture the spirit.
Asking the question “Would you teach me how you would like me to nurture your spirit?” strikes a chord and may create intense, unexpected responses. Be open to receiving the other’s honest requests. Asking indicates intent to care for others in a meaningful way.
Embody your sacred, centered self. Find people, places and activities that fill you up and give you nourishment. Ask people what they do to brighten their spirit. In these ways we learn how to mutually assist each other.
In what ways do you like to be nurtured by others?
How do you enrich your spirit, nurture its growth and provide for its needs?
Guided by Virtues
Virtues form the path to understanding what spiritual being is. Our virtues manifest universal qualities and the full range of spirituality. Spirit, as well as love, can be defined by virtues. Virtues are the foundation for our spiritual journey. Virtues illuminate our path. Being spiritual is a virtue and acting in a virtuous way is spiritual.
Virtues represent our core self, our spiritual center. One way to imagine this concept is humanity as part human, part angel. Virtues are the link between the two: humanity’s link to divinity. Each virtue is a facet of our spirit and together, virtues are spirit-making. The virtues are a system and language that can help see your personal and our global evolution.
Virtues are spiritual assets.
We need our kindred spirits to help us fully develop our spiritual virtues. Empathy is a true spirit-to-spirit connection, one’s spirit welcoming the spirit of another. Kindred spirits help co-create a critical mass of virtue-centered consciousness.
Each of us was imbued with a spirit at birth carrying different propensities for good and evil. Our spiritual development is promoted through the practice of reducing our vices and increasing our virtues. Our virtues and vices reveal the current state of our spirit. In this life, we have the free will to ignore our inner guidance, or we can choose to call on the wisdom of those around us. Our spirit will guide us unerringly if we let it.
What is one of your spiritual assets?
#4 Spiritual Energy Centers
Among the best tools to evolve the spirit are the energy centers known as chakras. Chakra, an ancient sanskrit term meaning “wheel of light,” describes a complex human energy system of awareness. The seven chakra centers are associated with specific areas of the physical body. These are: Survival, located at the base of the spine and extending down the legs to the feet; Sensation, in the genitalia; Power, in the region of the navel; Love, around the heart and radiating out the arms to the hands; Self expression, located in the throat area; Wisdom, located at the forehead and the Spiritual center, which is located at the top of the head.
Our chakra energies extend out from our bodies, with the first and seventh expanding to connect top with bottom, bottom with top. Each chakra is equally important to our energy flow and vitality, and each affects all the others. The individual chakras are not actually separate at all; rather, they collectively represent seven aspects of the whole self. They combine with each other individually, opening and closing as we encounter other energies and situations in the course of our lives. Issues that reside in each center are accumulated or released as we become aware of their presence. When we are in relationship to another, our chakras and the chakras of the other person can combine and compound feelings in a relationship.
Development of the chakras means focusing on the emotional, spiritual and physical concepts each represents. Developing one chakra while neglecting others only creates an imbalance, weakening overall strength. The goal is to have all seven chakras open, balanced and integrated. An open chakra indicates growth and understanding represented by that center. Our higher needs are realized as the lower chakras are actualizing. Each of the centers is a kind of virtue; the seven together are a system of deepening our understanding of ourselves and our relationships. The chakras are the virtues of our spirit.
The following descriptions provide some attributes of each chakra center. Please recognize that this is only a brief synopsis. The saints and sages of the past spent lifetimes studying these seven energy centers.
Spiritual Energy Centers
Spiritual Center
I believe… Location: above the head
cosmic consciousness, prayer, meditation, faith, sense of oneness, higher self, centered, universal truths, make a difference, guidance, reverence
Thinking Center
I understand… Location: brain
wisdom, self-understanding, integrity & discernment, enlightened self-interest, solving problems, intuition, perception, inspiration, creativity, concentration, vision, intelligence
Communication Center
I speak… Location: throat
speaking the truth, being honest with self, turning inward, self-expression, openness, inner voice, sound, exchanging information, feedback
Emotional Center
I care… Location: chest, arms & hands
self-esteem, sympathy, compassion, empathy, acceptance, caring, romance, love, intimacy, respect, belonging, sense of humor
Power Center
I act… Location: belly & spine
self-confidence, strength, empowerment, courage, leadership, responsibility, assertiveness, discipline, livelihood, money, possessions, control, mastery
Sensation Center
I feel… Location: senses & pelvis
smell, sight, taste, touch & hearing, pleasure, fun, play, desires, movement, procreation, pregnancy, sensuality, sexuality, elimination, passions
Survival Center
I live… Location: legs & base of spine
will to live, protection, sustainability, fear, stability, instinct to avoid pain, safety, health, illness, hunting, gathering, putting down roots, home, earth, nature, air, water, food, sleep, shelter, warmth
#5 Spiritual Health Self Assessment
1. I have a spiritual belief that is a vital life force.
2. I find meaning and joy in my everyday world.
3. I feel thankful for the abundance in my life.
4. I feel optimistic about my future.
5. I get support for my spirituality from my family/friends.
6. I spend time reflecting on the meaning of my life.
7. I have a sense of purpose in life.
8. I feel a direct connection with other people, nature, the earth and the universe.
9. I enjoy my spiritual nature.
10. I make efforts to improve my spirituality.
11. I believe each day is a gift to be treasured.
12. I learn and grow from each new experience.
13. I give myself and others the respect and the freedom to choose a spiritual path.
14. I have a strong will to live.
How can you improve your spiritual health?
#6 Spirit
Spirit is the source of life, the vital principle, the animating force, the essential nature.
Many cultures have a word for spirit: Indian-prana, Egyptian-ankh, Greek-pneuma, Chinese-chi, Tibetan-lung, Hebrew-ruach and Japanese-ki. Indigenous people often have a term like Great Spirit. Scientists today make references to spirit as “subtle energy” and “the electric flow of life”. The movie Star Wars coined the phase “May the force be with you.” Animals, plants, rocks, solar systems are life forces. Spirit is essence, cosmic energy, divine influence. Everything is alive with spirit and must be revered.
No explanation of spirit will ever be complete enough, so each person need to find what spirit means to them. Defining spirit is like the dilemma of attempting to teach meditation or explaining the Tao. I refrain from using soul because religions seem to have their various ways they prefer to define it. Whereas the term spirit belongs to no one group.
Spirit can be only partly be grasped by the linear mind. Until you have experienced spirit directly, it will just be another interesting idea or abstract theory. When you do experience spirit, be prepared to be pulled out of your normal frame of reference. If you are not mouth-dropped-open-awestruck by life regularly, you’re missing the greatest show on Earth. Understand spirit and at the same time savor the mystery of never knowing the whole picture.
Spirit Beings
When two people mate, they can create a new being. Their progeny exhibits qualities of each of the parents. Similarly, through a spirit exchange, a new being is created, representing the spirit of the relationship. Our energy fields connect and an unexplored aspect of spirit emerges. A fresh life is born.
When we bond in friendship, we create such a new spirit. This light-being grows as our relationship grows. We feel mutual responsibility to feed this new life with our virtues. When we nourish our relationship, it nourishes each of us. We depend upon each other’s strengths without losing individuality. Our combined forces result in interdependence.
Embrace the spirit.
#7 Sensing Spirit
Learn to tune into your vibration and energy. Your whole body is needed for awareness of spirit. The body is an organ designed to sense spirit. It may take a few attempts to feel your own spirit, but with practice, you will can very familiar with it. Spend quiet time and see into yourself with a sense of wonder and an open mind.
Sense the spiritual essence of your friends.
When sensing your spirit, what words, emotions or images come to mind?
Discover Your Spirit
Consider the task of eating a simple strawberry. Focusing all your senses on the luscious fruit will heighten your awareness of your experience. If your mind is preoccupied with something else, you will miss its tart taste, scent, smooth feel and early-summer sheen. Similarly, cultivate a focused presence when you want to feel spirit. Slow down and pay attention. You will gradually understand your spirit’s texture and beauty.
Developing an understanding of your spirit allows you to share a special form of intimacy with your friends. You may rediscover your ability for sensing spirit in each other. Become fully present in the moment. While you are in this human form, learn to bring forth your living spirit and experience this oneness.
My spirit senses your spirit.
Go beyond your five senses and transcend the mind. We are all able to sense more than we think. Foster a sense of self, a sense of community and a sense of oneness that extends to the infinite universe.
We sense spirit with our known five senses, and spirit to spirit. Notice the spirit of those around you. Observe their flavor and fragrance, see their brightness, hear their vibration, feel the effect as their spirit touches your skin, muscles, bones and organs. Sense another’s spirit with your spirit. Learn the rhythms of spirit: opening and closing, expanding and contracting, absorbing or repelling, centered or unbalanced, hurting or healed.
Be open to what the spirit of another truly wants to communicate to you as you sense each other and communicate spirit to spirit. One of the best times to sense another’s spirit is when he or she is still. The window of intimacy is also often wide open when people are laughing, dancing, loving or grieving. Become aware of the movement, vibration, pulse and breath of spirit.
Spirit as Light
Just for fun, let us pretend that our spirits follow natural laws. Think of spirit as light. Modern physics tells us that light is both particle and wave. In this metaphor, spirit, like light, is both particle (matter) and wave (energy).
Now consider the following theory of spiritual relativity. Simply stated, “Spirit creates reality.” Thus spirit and matter are interchangeable. Began to imagine spirit with both physical mass and the properties of energy, my thinking opened up. Spirit can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change form.
Spiritual energy is in every cubic inch of the universe. The empty space between atoms is spirit. Spirit is the cosmic glue that holds us together. Our bodies are not solid, mostly water and space. We are a fluid dance of atoms in constant motion.
Spirit is the divine spark that gives life. We are spirit, being conscious. The power to alter consciousness arises from spirit. Spirit eternally expands and evolves as the physical universe expands and evolves.
Let Your Light Shine
Each of us is gem-like. When the clear light pours through us, we impart our unique color and vibration onto spirit. We have many facets that bend and color this light as it passes through us. Consciousness is refracted light.
Relationships are like two colors mixing to create a new color. You have your spiritual colors and your friend has hers. The wavelengths of both of you combine and amplify each other to create an “us.” As we shine our colors onto each other, light to light, a rainbow of colors appears.
The light in me sees the light in you.
Time to show your true colors! We see the light in each other and our own inner radiance is reflected back. Become a full spectrum being and let your light shine through. Know your spirit as you recognize what nurtures and strengthens your light. Use the presence of the sun as a daily reminder of spirit.
#8 Spirit Exchange
A spirit exchange is the transmission of energy when we open our spirits to another. A spiritual conception occurs when two or more people exchange their spirit. A new spirit is birthed with each encounter.
Exchanging spirit is as natural as breathing. Think of spirit as the air you breathe. Feel your breath, maybe for the first time. Is the air dry or moist, cool or warm? Notice the energy as the spirit enters and the nerve endings in your nose are stimulated. Hear the soft sound as the life-giving breath rushes in. Be thankful to all the plant beings that gave their spirit to the air now in your lungs. Sense the spirit breath flowing into every cell in your body. Breath invigorates the spirit. The fact that you are alive and breathing is proof that you absorb spirit. Hold your breath as a reminder of just how long you can live without a fresh supply of this spiritual nutrient. Each breath is a miracle.
During all human encounters there is an exchange of spirit. The quality of the spirit exchanged is affected by the virtues that the individuals bring to the relationship.
Exchanges are mutual; energy flows both ways. When you transfer spirit with another, you both feel bigger and brighter. When you share your passions, you share your spirits. The more you give to your friends, the more flows into you. The quality of spirit energy is enhanced and strengthened with each exchange. The spiritual mass of both individuals increases.
Be alert for those moments when the spirit of a person opens to you. The opportunity for a spirit exchange may pass if you hesitate or hold back. Make an effort to match their openness at a split-second’s notice. Be intentional and synchronize with the spirit exchange. Follow through. Who knows whether an encounter may develop into a lifelong friendship. Seek your kinship through bonding, spirit to spirit.
Your spirit naturally seeks to expand to a higher level of consciousness through a spirit exchange. To grow spiritually, you need to deepen your spiritual exchanges. Seek them from a variety of sources. We can only go so far on our own. Spiritual exchanges create spiritual intimacy. When you exchange with another, you nurture each other’s spirit. We form spiritual families for the expressed intent of being involved in each other’s growth. We need each other to evolve spiritually, with love, to evoLove.
Who do you exchange spirit with?
Resonate
Sense the resonance between you and another, the movement and the vibration of your combined energies. Feel your growing love for this person.
Seek those with whom you feel a mutual recognition of spirit. It might be a humming, a pulsing, an echo, a kind of inner heat or smile. You will not be able to form a bond at this deep level with just anybody. They must resonate with who you are, as you do with them.
Our spirit resonates with certain people like neighboring strings on a sitar. They are like a note of music we harmonize with. Our life forces are energized when we are together. Even when we are apart, we are connected despite distance. We feel the love we hold for each other whenever we recall their name.
How can you increase your spiritual intimacy?
#9 Evolving the Spirit
Researchers have measured and recorded increases in human brain size over the past. More difficult is the measurement of growth in our individual and collective spirit.
The human spirit is expanding in every direction. Our current position is not the highest possible stage of evolution for humans … we’ve got a ways to go yet. Even as breakthroughs in science astound us, we have created problems and conflicts that will require the best of us working together to remedy.
Our whole species is moving forward, despite what the evening news may tell you. The essential question is: How do we create the optimum environment for consciousness and spirit to continue blossoming? A powerful force is created when individuals take personal responsibility for their own conscious evolution.
In the past, monks reprinted words of wisdom by hand. Later, the printing press speeded up the process. Today, one person’s moment of self-reflection and awakening can instantly be spread around the world via the Internet. And what of tomorrow?
The enhancement of human consciousness, once the private reserve of sages and saints, is now accessible to any human beings who choose it. As kindred spirits, we must develop reverence for all life. Our mission is to evolve the human spirit.
Our quest is the evolution of the human spirit.
To evolve is to do that which has never been done before. Body, mind and spirit can be discussed separately but they are not separate. The evolution of consciousness and that of spirit are the same. As the spirit evolves, the body follows. We are powered by our spirit. It seeks to grow, expand and to fill the universe. Our destiny is linked to the evolution of spirit.
There are millions of individuals working to change their inner and outer worlds. Today there are vast resources available to help us grow. Ancient texts provide time-tested principles, and modern writings abound from which to learn. A life-long quest provides many opportunities to explore a combination of methods and to find out what works best for each of us.
Sanctification, at one point on the path, may involve being more understanding and less rigid. Living life to the fullest, as a spiritual practice, may be used as a form of purification. Positive or negative interactions with everyone we encounter are opportunities to grow. Even the most ordinary of experiences has potential to expand the spirit. Refinement is asking, “What will I do today, to contribute my part?” Time spent fostering inner peace always advances the cause. Humanity has the power to transform from within.
Love evolves the spirit.
Just as Charles Darwin put forth his theory of evolution, a new theory is that humans evolve as the spirit evolves, in a symbiotic relationship. We humans have the uncanny capacity to consciously evolve our spirit, and one of the primary ways we do that is by loving with intention. As energy and spirit evolve, our own capacity for enlightenment is enhanced.
Observe for yourself the evolution of your own spirit.
#10 Describe Your Spirit
What words would you use to talk about your spirit? Asking this simple question of yourself and others can produced some amazing insights.
Some people have no idea how to describe their spirit, while others discuss it freely at length. Not everyone has an instant glowing response. Some seem troubled and have difficulty accessing a description. “I’ve never thought about my spirit before,” is a common comment. Others struggle to verbalize a description of their spirit because they don’t feel that they are doing it correctly. There is no right or wrong answer.
Describe your own spirit by writing it down, drawing it, telling a story, dancing or singing. Notice what you feel as you describe your spirit. Your virtues will provide insights into your spirit. Accept all you see, including your weaknesses. The clearer you consciously describe your spirit, the easier it is for others to see the real you.
Ask a friend to describe his or her spirit. By listening attentively to your friends, you give them a great gift. When they finish, ask questions to deepen your understanding. Since words are a scant ten percent or less of communication, consciously focus the other ninety percent of your attention on this conversation. Be present. Now is the perfect time to practice empathy.
Be as a pond. Be still. Be clear. Look deep.
Additionally you may wish to ask a friend to describe your spirit. “When you see into me,
what do you see?” Try not to immediately evaluate what they are saying. Show them you are really willing to hear what comes up. Accept what they say and allow quiet reflection. Tell your friends what you sense about their spirits.
How would you describe your spirit?
What was your childhood spirit like, and how has your spirit grown and changed over time?
What does your spirit want?
How will you invest spirit today?
How does your spirit express itself in the daily choices you make?
What brightens your spirit?
When is your spirit the brightest?
What drains your spirit?
How does Spirit guide you?
#11 A New Species
Paleoanthropologists have classified the humans of the past 40,000 years as homo sapiens. Homo sapien, translated from Latin, means “wise man.” Wise is fine as far as it goes, but wisdom is only one of the virtues we need to make the evolutionary leap to a virtuous and sustainable society based on loving principles. A change in the name of the species can occur only when advances are profound. We live during a great transformation of the spirit.
The entire human species is evolving spiritually, a shift that is sensed by many people. As this new spirit is conceived, a new species emerges. In time, we will no longer be homo sapiens.
Groups of people are working hard on every substantive issue, in every corner of the world. Signs of change everywhere. The good news is that the new species is flourishing. And we are growing in strength.
Today, we humans must make changes equivalent to those made long ago by ancient animals that left the water and learned to live on land. We have come a long way from gills to lungs, cold blooded to warm, on all fours to upright, from animals of limited consciousness to human beings who comprehend and cherish infinity and divinity. When early primates banded together, learned to use tools and cared for their offspring, intelligence flourished and so did the species. The next major shift will be from survival of the fittest to mutual nurturing. We have to evolve into a new spiritually-oriented species to live and flourish.
Life evolves through a variety of forces: natural selection, mutations, genetic drift and chance. During human evolution, our bodies have changed; we are taller, we live longer. Compared to virtually all other animals, our brains have increased to a massive size and capacity compared to our body size. This capacity for consciousness and intention gives us some choices that will affect our future. This element of choice is as profound as the evolution of our own species, a uniquely human characteristic, and is a miracle, when you think about it.
Advancements in science and technology must be combined with greater advances in consciousness. The continuing existence of our species relies on the evolution of the spirit. Whereas it takes the human body many generations to change, the spirit evolves in the space of each breath. As the spirit evolves, the body follows.
The rate of spiritual evolution greatly increases when we collectively nurture each other. The spirituality we manifest in our lives unquestionably betters us as individuals; but perhaps more importantly it is a gift to humanity, for it raises the consciousness of the world. Kindred spirits are a forum for the evolution of consciousness, ensuring a future of our own choosing. The continuation and evolution of our species is dependent on our ability to love ourselves, each other and the Earth.
Kindred spirits are a vehicle for spiritual transformation.
We have a higher destiny to seek, for ourselves and our species. The principles that guide our relationships differentiate us from the species out of which we evolved. Being virtuous raises our consciousness. Our spirits are growing bigger and brighter. Our purpose for existence is the evolution of the spirit. The spirit evolves as our virtues grow.
We are totally responsible for the future. Only a change in the collective human spirit will be enough to transform the world. It is only our power to alter consciousness that can affect the course of evolution.
Our community of integrated awareness is spiritually evolving to a more sustainable, ecological way of being. We must find our individual passions, focus our vision and then help each other on the path. Our synergistic strength is the power that can transform the species and lead to the next evolution of humanity. Each of us has a part to play as we form spiritual communities to be of service to our larger community and the world.
Gather to foster spiritual evolution. As spiritual explorers, our task is to become masters at evolving a new spirit. Become the new species.
A new global spirit is emerging.
Probe these questions:
What qualities would you like them to have?
In what areas do we want the human species to evolve?
What is next after homo sapiens?
Can humans achieve a higher level of consciousness of love and kindness?
#12 Travel Tips On the Spiritual Path
Love and loneliness are choices.
If you ask the right question you will likely get the right answer.
Love will involve suffering. Learn to suffer well, so as not to fear love.
Fear = past pain preventing present pleasure.
If you do not take a risk, you risk everything.
Treat everyone you encounter as a spiritual master.
Magic happens when you ask for what you want.
Kindred Spirits make a mutual commitment to nurture each other’s spirit.
Virtues are acts of love.
We can make a world of difference … one act of love at a time.
We must know our weaknesses to be strong.
The more you understand about yourself, the more there is to love.
Love evolves the spirit.
Travel light.
Friendship is the greatest gift we give.
Our friendships are a reflection of our self-love.
You deserve an abundance of love and laughter.
We all have more to give.
Set your life on fire! Seek those who fan you flame.