The Levels of Spiritual Development

[bogeyman]

Our journey of spiritual development moves through stages and it can help us greatly in our journey, if we understand something of those stages and how they fit together.

I would like to look at the levels of physical, emotional, mental, soul and spirit. Other people may have different names for the levels, perhaps adding more or subtracting some, but these are sufficient to give us an overview.

As we grow in life, we progress through these five levels. We start at the physical. A new-born baby is only in touch with the physical world; touch, caressing, pain, warmth food, and drink. These are also our basic survival needs. Our life is most quickly threatened if food, water, warmth, or physical protection and safety are taken from us. There are adults for whom the mere struggle to stay alive is the central struggle in their lives.

No matter how spiritually developed we are, we still need to eat, drink and have a good share of physical resources to keep us alive. The new-born baby has not yet developed any memory. As we progress from one level to the next, the previous level does not become irrelevant. We move beyond that level, but incorporate it in the level we progress to.

So, when we proceed to the next level of emotions, we include our physical world within it. At the emotional level we have feelings. Feelings arise from our store of memory of what has happened in the past. The baby remembers it didn't like lying it wet nappies for an hour. An emotion, perhaps of fear or anger, develops and is linked to wet nappies. As adults our emotional responses form a complex web tied to many different experiences we have had. Now that we have memories, we become aware of having a past and that there is a self, continuous identity. We make a picture in our minds of what we think this identity of ourselves is.

This identity is our ego. It is not who we are, but who we think we are. For a baby in particular their sense of their identity will not match reality very well. Nonetheless, the baby uses this image to interact with the world. As we progress through life, our image improves as we adapt it based on new experiences.

Power is also associated with emotional level. Power and authority is absolutely essential in our lives if we are to achieve anything at all. Power only becomes a problem when we focus too much on power to gain our meaning in life or when we gain power at the expense of others. Greed results from the feeling that we will not get our needs met in this world. We feel we will only get our needs met if we have more than our share. We therefore put our energy into controlling other people and amassing money and resources beyond that which is necessary for a reasonable comfortable life.

We move on to the mental realm. Thoughts allow us to move into the future, which wasn't possible with emotions. We can now imagine what something might be. We use our mind to tell us if our instincts or emotions are off track. If something is illogical we will notice and not just act on the emotion, which might have been apporpriate at some time in the past, but formulate a rational response. We need to keep our mind in balance with the rest of our being or we become a detached bookworm, apart from the rest of the world. Science arises from the world of the mind and must be integrated back into the other levels of being, or we will just create technologies that lead us to our own extinction.

The level of the soul is where things really start to happen. It gives us an overview of all the levels we have passed through. We can see the strengths and weaknesses of the physical, emotional and intellectual realms and use them more wisely, knowing which to use when. Intuition emerges in the soul period.

At the soul level, we are able to understand others and where they are coming from. We no longer need to be right all the time. We can see other peoples' points of view and know love and forgiveness. We are prepared to sacrifice ourselves for others, knowing it is for the greater good. As at any level, we have access to all levels below and to none above. Rather than the soul level just being the soul level, we should really see it as the soul-mental-emotional-physical level because they are all present and potentially active.

There is one more level, the level of spirit, which goes even further and enfolds even more. This holds the pure essence of God. Our soul is still individual, my soul, your soul, now resting in spirit, we just find ourselves resting in God. The best pathway I know to the level of spirit is prayer and meditation. It is not the type of prayer that says, "please God, get me a new car, and make my foot better." It's not a prayer where we tell God what to do. These prayers do have their place, but they do not open the door to spirit. These prayers tell God what 'he' can be and not be. They stop God from being God and rather make 'him' into what we want a God to be. If we are on the emotional level, we will want someone to make us happy and not sad, or a God to fulfill our greed. No, we must rather rest in God, whatever God wants to be for us. Then and only then can will receive the fullness of God within us and be all that we truly can. Only when we let go of our personal wants and desires that are still with us at the soul level, can we come to know the boundless bliss that God, and God in us can be.

Throughout the day we find ourselves operating at a variety of differing levels, but unless we are making a breakthrough, we cannot operate above the highest level we have reached. We can have peak experiences where, usually for a short moment we become aware of much higher levels than usual. We can also have differing parts of our being progressing at differing rates. Although we may have passed through the emotional level long ago, we are often pulled back from much higher levels, perhaps to unplug a something that has been repressed at the emotional level.

So, it is not so much how high we have progressed, but how balanced we are in our overall being. It is not a race a race to the top. We need to work to reveal all levels in our lives, or we will never become whole and complete. We can never move up a level in a sustained way until we honestly understand enough of the level we are on. If we race ahead, we will just be pulled back. However, there is a final destiny, a final unity of all that we can progress towards. That unity has always been there waiting and will always be there for us. It is for us to become aware of the spirit in ourselves which has always been there, waiting to be revealed.

Ref:

http://www.vmacgill.net/levels.htm

[another bob]

In one developmental model that some have found useful as a theoretical reference, the first three stages of life are representative of the stages of ordinary human growth from birth to adulthood. They are the stages of physical, emotional, and mental development, occurring in three periods of approximately seven years each (until approximately twenty-one years of age). Every individual who lives to an adult age inevitably adapts (although, in most cases, only partially) to the first three stages of life.

Stage One—Individuation: The first stage of life is the process of adapting to life as a separate individual no longer bound to the mother. Most important for the first stage child is the process of food-taking, and coming to accept sustenance from outside the mother’s body. In fact, this whole stage of life could be described as an ordeal of weaning, or individuation.

Tremendous physical growth occurs in the first stage of life (the first seven or so years) and an enormous amount of learning — one begins to manage bodily energies and begins to explore the physical world. Acquiring basic motor skills is a key aspect of the first stage of life—learning to hold a spoon and eat with it, learning to walk and talk and be responsible for excretion. If the first stage of life unfolds as it should, the separation from the mother completes itself in basic terms. But there is a tendency in us to struggle with this simple individuation, or to not accept the process fully. Every human being tends to associate individuation with a feeling of separation, a sense of disconnection from love and support. That reaction is the dramatization of egoity, or self-contraction, in its earliest form. And unless one enters profoundly into the process of liberation, that reaction characterizes every individual for his or her entire life.

In terms of eschatological orientation, one fixated at this early stage of life adaptation commonly hopes to be “saved” by an external Ultimate Parental Deity figure, who, it is believed, will somehow make everything good, interceding from His Abode in Divine Elsewhere to set perceived wrongs permanently right (based upon one’s conditional concept of rightness).

Stage Two — Socialization: Between the ages of five and eight years one begins to become aware of the emotional dimension of existence —how one feels and how others respond emotionally becomes of great importance. This is the beginning of the second stage of life, the stage of social adaptation and all that goes with it — a growing sense of sexual differentiation, awareness of the effects of one’s actions on others, a testing of whether one is loved. In the second stage of life children are naturally psychic and sensitive to etheric energy and should be encouraged to feel that “you are more than what you look like“, for the sake of their future spiritual growth. With the arising of greater emotional sensitivity, there is also the tendency to become locked in patterns of feeling rejected by others, and rejecting or punishing others for their presumed un-love. The drama of rejecting and feeling rejected is the primary sign of incomplete adaptation in the second stage of life.

Stage Three—Integration: In the early to mid teens, the third stage of life becomes established. The key development of this stage is the maturing of mental ability—the capacity to use mind and speech in abstract, conceptual ways—together with the power to use discrimination and to exercise the will. On the bodily level, puberty is continuing (having begun during the later years of the second stage of life) with all its attendant bodily and emotional changes.

The purpose of the third stage of life is the integration of the human character in body, emotion, and mind, so that the emerging adult becomes a fully differentiated, or autonomous, sexual and social human character. If the process of growth in the first and the second stages of life has proceeded unhindered, then this integration can take place naturally. If, however, there have been failures of adaptation in the earlier stages—a chronic feeling of being separate and unsustained or chronic feelings of being rejected or unloved, and consequent difficulties in relating happily to others—then the process of integration is disturbed.

In fact, in most individuals, the process of the third stage of life becomes an adolescent struggle between the conflicting motives to be dependent on others and to be independent of them. This adolescent drama tends to continue throughout adult life. It is one of the signs that growth has stopped, that the work of the third stage of life was never completed. The truly mature adult—someone who is characterized by equanimity, discriminative intelligence, heart-feeling, and the impulse to always continue to grow—tends never to develop, although a nominal adaptation to the first three stages of life is usually acknowledged by twenty-one years of age.

The first three stages of life are the “foundation stages”, because the ordeal of growth into human maturity is mere preparation for something far greater — for Spiritual awakening, and, ultimately, for Liberation. This greater process begins to flower in the fourth stage of life on the basis of a profound conversion to love.

Stage Four — Spiritualization: Even while still maturing in the first three stages of life, many people devote themselves to religious practices, submitting to an ordered life of discipline and devotion. This is the beginning of establishing the disposition of the fourth stage of life, but it is only the beginning. The real leap involved in the fourth stage of life is a transition that very few ever make. It is nothing less than the breakthrough into a spiritually-illumined life of Divine contemplation and selfless service. How does such a life become possible? Only on the basis of a heart-awakening so profound that the common human goals — to be fulfilled through bodily and mental pleasures — lose their force and attraction.

The purpose of existence for one established in the fourth stage of life is devotion—moment to moment intimacy with the Spiritual Reality, an intimacy that is real and ecstatic, and which changes one’s vision of the world. Everything that appears, everything that occurs is now seen as a process full of Spirit-Presence. The full-hearted and Spiritually Awakened devotion characteristic of the fourth stage of life is generally the summit of Realization achieved in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and much of Hinduism, and even then, it is most uncommon.

The fourth stage of life, though it represents a profound and auspicious advance beyond the foundation stages, is only the beginning of truly Spiritual growth. The primary error of one in the fourth stage of life is to presume that God and the individual personality are inherently separate from one another. Real God is the Sublime “Other” with Whom one communes and in Whom one may become ecstatically absorbed at times, even to the point of apparent union. Nevertheless, such raptures pass, and one is left with the continuing urge for union with the Divine Beloved. The individual being is still a separate ego, still searching, even though the goal of seeking is Spiritual in nature.


Stage Five — Higher Spiritual Development: The fifth stage of life could be described as the domain of accomplished Yogis — individuals involved in the pursuit of Enlightenment through mystical experience, and through the attainment of psychic powers. But it is important to note that just as exceedingly few religious practitioners fully Awaken to the Spiritual Reality in the fourth stage of life, exceedingly few would-be Yogis become fifth stage Realizers.

The important difference between the fifth stage of life and all the stages of life that precede it is that awareness on the gross physical plane is no longer the normal mode of existence. Rather, attention is constantly attracted into subtle realms—dreamlike or visionary regions of mind.

The phenomena of the fifth stage of life arise as a result of the further movement of the Spirit-Current, now in the higher regions of the brain. In the fifth stage of life the Spirit-Current moves from the ajna chakra through and beyond the crown of the head. At its point of highest ascent, the Spirit-Current triggers the Yogic meditative state traditionally called “Nirvikalpa Samadhi” (“formless ecstasy”) in which all awareness of body and mind is temporarily dissolved in the absolute Bliss of the Divine Self-Condition. This profoundly ecstatic state is regarded as the summit of Realization in the Hindu schools of Yoga, for example, and has its counterpart in Sufism.

This dissolution of body and mind is a direct demonstration that the apparently separate self has no eternal existence or significance, and that only the Divine Condition of absolute Freedom and Happiness truly exists.

Even so, a limit remains. This great Samadhi, the culminating achievement of the fifth stage of life, is fleeting. At some point bodily consciousness returns, and so does the ache to renew that boundless, disembodied Bliss. Fifth stage conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi, for all its profundity, is achieved on the basis of a subtle stress. It is the ultimate fruit of the Yogic strategy to escape the body by directing one’s awareness upward into infinite Light.

When this Sublime Infusion has completed its Work, a great conversion has occurred in the body-mind. One is not susceptible to the fascinations of visionary experience, even when such experiences arise. Neither is one moved to direct one’s attention up and out of the body into the infinitely ascended state of “formless ecstasy”. Rather, the “tour” of mystical experience is revealed to be simply more of the futile search to be completely Happy and fulfilled. And so that whole pursuit of mystical satisfaction relaxes, and the aspirant may be easily drawn beyond all habits of identification with bodily states and even beyond the subtle mind states of the fifth stage of life into a pristine understanding of Reality as Consciousness Itself.

Stage Six — Awakening to the Transcendental Self or Essence of Mind: In the sixth stage of life, one is no longer perceiving and interpreting everything from the point of view of the individuated body-mind with its desires and goals. Rather, one assumes the detached position of “Witness” to all that arises, even while continuing to participate in the play of life.
The sixth stage of life may include the experience of Jnana Samadhi, which, like fifth stage conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi, is a form of temporary and conditional Realization of the Divine Self. However, fifth stage conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi comes about through the strategy of ascent, the urge to move attention up and beyond the body-mind; while in Jnana Samadhi, on the other hand, awareness of gross and subtle states is excluded by concentration in Transcendental Self-Consciousness.

The Awakening to Consciousness Itself in the sixth stage of life is the pinnacle of Realization achieved by the greatest (and exceedingly rare) Realizers in certain schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as Jainism and Taoism. Such Realizers eschewed the fascinations of experience from the beginning, turning away from the enticements of “money, food, and sex” in the first three stages of life, as well as from the attractions of devotional (fourth stage) rapture and of Yogic (fifth stage) mysticism. Instead, the Sages of the sixth stage of life have traditionally contemplated the freedom and purity of Consciousness to the degree of Realizing that Consciousness Itself, eternal and prior to any mortal form or temporary experience, is our True Condition, or True Self.

But even deep resting in the freedom of Transcendental Consciousness is not Perfect Enlightenment. Why not? Because there is still a stress involved, still one last barrier to total liberation. Sixth stage practice and Realization is expressed by turning within, away from all conditional objects and experiences (including the energies and the movements of attention of one’s own body-mind), in order to concentrate upon the Source of individual consciousness. Thus, the root of egoity, the core story, is still alive. The search still remains, in its most primitive form, because consciousness itself is stress. The sixth stage of life still involves a subtle search to identify with Pure Consciousness prior to and exclusive of phenomena.

Stage Seven—Liberation: It is release from all the egoic limitations of the previous stages of life. Remarkably, the seventh stage Awakening is not an experience at all. The true nature of everything is simply obvious and indivisible. This simple Awakeness has been called “Open Eyes”, or “Sahaj Samadhi” – the natural state. No longer is there any need to seek meditative seclusion in order to realize perpetual identification with Reality, or Union. Reality and you are not two. There had never been any separation to begin with. The recognition that pertains here is that all arising phenomena are nothing but a projected manifestation or expression of one’s own mind, and consequently,

“with the ending, fading out, cessation, renunciation, & relinquishment of all construings, all excogitations, all I-making & mine-making and obsession with conceit, one is, through lack of clinging/sustenance, released."

~ Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta


:yo:

[Zampano]

Wow thanks for that Bob...this is a great summary about The Levels of Spiritual Development
Actually the best written and explained one I came across!

[sirdipswitch]

I took a different course, and just went to Source for Enlightenment. Cuz I is too lazy, to sit on a pillow for 40 years. hehehehe.

Now me and Source, just have, Fun, Fun, Fun, till Daddy takes my T Bird away... oh wait... that's a difernt song... chuckle chuckle chuckle.

Love, Peace, HUMOR
sirdipswitch

[another bob]

I took a different course, and just went to Source for Enlightenment. Cuz I is too lazy, to sit on a pillow for 40 years. hehehehe.

Now me and Source, just have, Fun, Fun, Fun. . .


Yes Brother, as mentioned, full adaptation at the Fouth Stage is a rare human attainment, though as George might say, "not yet half way done". :-)

Blessings!

[sirdipswitch]

hehehehehe. Got so carried awy with my cute little post, that I almost forgot why I wanted to post in the first place. chucklechuckle.

bogeyman.. you do find some interesting suff. However, had you put the link at the top of your post, instead of the bottom, I would not have had to read the whole thing. I fact I didn't read the whole thing. When I got down to where I could see the link, and go investigate that site for myself, I found a site that I am quite familiar with, and do not agree with his teaching, and thusly, would not have bothered reading your post. I do not choose to put their thinking into my head. I have finally become free, from all of the religeous dogmatic philosophies, and choose to remain so.

I thought, that I was reading your words, and was trying to better understand you. But...

I do still Love you anyway though. Just keep traveling YOUR path, and one day you will arrive, where YOU need to be.

sirdipswitch