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4) Spirituality is an attitude, or process, one can have at any stage of development. But, what is the attitude, or process? Love? Many say so.
We can love at any level of development. But, is pre-conventional love spiritual? Or, is post-conventional love spiritual? Can a person who hates persons of other races, political viewpoints, or of other sexual orientations be said to be loving and, thus, spiritual? Or not?
So, can we say that Love itself is spiritual, regardless of the embrace of that Love? Or, is some Love more spiritual than other Love, as in, cosmic-centric Love is more spiritual than group-centric Love, which is more spiritual than ego-centric Love? Or, is Love not the defining process of spirituality? If not, what?
5) Spirituality primarily means peak experiences. Spirituality entails temporary transpersonal, or unitive, experiences. These so-termed altered states pertain to anything post-conventional. However, they are only states, not structures.
Structures of consciousness, or Spirit, are stable patterns at which one is living consistently, has evolved to: as in, when one is consistently, spontaneously living at post-conventional morality, rather than pre or conventional morality.
Jesus Christ demonstrated, consistently, a post-conventional~trans-personal affect. His, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” shows Christ able to Love those killing His body unjustly, even while they were doing so. There is only one level to do that from: post-conventional, and, then, world-centric to cosmic-centric.
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But, this fifth theory speaks of states, which are temporary. In this theory, Jesus could have had a peak experience of affect on the cross, but, afterward, that could have passed away. The next moment Christ could have screamed wrathfully, “You scoundrels, go to hell!” In this theory one is never spiritual as adjective, but only has spiritual experiences.
We return to the beginning story. Jesus, as we see in the Gospel, lived and taught spirituality that can comport with the following definition:
Spirituality is the ongoing process, initiated by Grace and confirmed in response to Grace, of growing with our whole being into the Fullness of Christ, which is what it means to be human beings shaped in the image of the Christ, and to embody the God-Fullness as a means of birthing through oneself true love, joy, and peace within all creation and as an expression of genuine personhood.
So, spirituality is the emerging of a being-consciousness enfolding and unfolding all life aspects, not some separate or special developmental line or religious state or structure.
Matthew 5.48:
“You are to be whole, as
your Source in Eternity is Whole.”
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Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
See next page for Invitation to writer's contemplative village, purpose of OneLife, data on ordering author's book and upcoming devotionals 2008, and material on citations.
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