[Uma]

Originally Posted by rajathss

New Age Spirituality... Spiritual growth is the process of inner awakening, and becoming conscious our inner being. It means the rising of the consciousness beyond the ordinary existence, and awakening to some Universal truths. It means going beyond the mind and the ego and realizing who you are.

new-age-spiritual-masters.blogspot.com

Hi Rajathss, I like your definition of spiritual growth. That idea of "realizing who you are" is a HUGE process, a journey of lifetimes. Most of it involves getting rid of "what you are not", getting it out of the way so to speak, so that the real you can shine through the embodied you.

I'm sure you're going to get a lot of posts here. Usually people compartmentalize spirituality, as though it's a subcategory of something greater - but my definition (my teacher's) is simpler, makes more sense (to me) and I continually experience its truth - on every level of being. He has a lot to add to this but this is basically it:

"What do I mean by “spiritual”? I mean “goodness” I mean “love,” I mean “peace,” I mean “compassion,” I mean “tolerance,” I mean the qualities that create harmony, progress and I mean by “spiritual” that there is something within us and within the Universe that is greater than us. It is the Source from which all possibilities come. Some call it “God”, some may have other names for it…science may call it “the realm of all possibilities”. We are part of “That”. . . .

. . . . Spirituality is about the essence of life itself. It is the essence of your being. It is what connects you to the Universe. It is what brings out the Light within you. It is what brings out the Love within you. It is what brings out the Peace within you. It is what makes you compassionate, kind, selfless… That is the spiritual part of you. The Spirit of the human being is that part of us where all the beautiful values (such as kindness, compassion, sensitivity and equality) are. The Source of goodness in the human being lies in the Spirit. " (Sri Vasudeva)

Everything else that gets said about spirituality is really (usually) about the "how to" part - how to realize that spiritual consciousness, to express that spiritual consciousness, to connect with that, to disconnect with whatever distracts from that etc. etc. etc. Everything else is troubleshooting (or it's splitting hairs or describing it from a non-emotional space). But our spiritual reality is so simple yet so hard to express because we carry so much baggage.