What's Your Spiritual Type?

In our biodata or resume we usually include religion as an item of information about ourselves. And in many government forms, as in that for the census, religion is also put as an item.

We usually put in this item of information the religion we are affiliated with. Some put Roman Catholic, others put Protestant, still others just put Christian, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist or other terms like agnostic or atheist or none.

But today where more and more no longer enter the church or practice their religion or who prefer to be called “the unchurched”, it seems that it will become useless to ask their religion because it does not describe them as to their religious beliefs.

Religion or Spiritual Type?

A better term to put in this item might be “spiritual type”. But since this term is rather new to most people, it will take some time before this item will be put in our biodata or on government forms, if it will be put at all.

The term “religion” refers to what religious group a person belongs to. But the term “spiritual type” refers to his or her spiritual orientation.

Quizzes on Spiritual Types

There are quizzes on spiritual types. Some are serious. Others are just for entertainment. I took one for entertainment. After completing the test I was rated as confident believer. There are eight categories in the results of this quiz, from hardcore skeptic to candidate for clergy.

Another quiz has these categories in the results: sage, prophet, lover, mystic.

How about you? What is your spiritual type?

There are many ways of classifying spiritual types. Here are some of them and you may rate yourself accordingly.

Western Oriented or Eastern Oriented or Both

Your spiritual type is either western oriented or eastern oriented or a combination of both. You are western oriented if you subscribe to the writings in the Western part of the world, like the Christian Bible or the Muslim Qur’an. You are eastern oriented if you prefer to get ideas from the writings in the Eastern part of the world, like the Bhagavad Gita of the Hindus or the Tripitaka of the Buddhists. It is possible that you combine both types, believing in all these sacred writings. After all it is not impossible to be a Christian and yet believe also in reincarnation or practice yoga. Some Christians think that this is impossible to combine, Christianity and belief in reincarnation. But Jesus himself said that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah the prophet.

Theistic or Atheistic or Agnostic

Your spiritual type may be theistic or atheistic or agnostic. It is theistic if you believe in God, atheistic if you do not believe in God, or agnostic if you do not care about this belief or profess that you cannot know anything about God.

Beginner or Proficient or Perfect

In the classical treatment of western spirituality there were basically three spiritual types which were really stages in prayer. These were the beginners, the proficient, and the perfect. The beginners were those who have decided to renounce the world and made a resolve to practice the discipline of prayer. The proficient was one who was already practicing the discipline of prayer and is already progressing in this exercise. The perfect was the one who attained already the contemplative level in prayer, where he or she no longer prays with words or ideas but only with a loving desire focused on God. I want to add here a fourth level, the non-beginners, those who have not yet resolve anything as regards their spiritual life.

A More Useful Classification of Spiritual Types

Perhaps a more useful classification of spiritual types would be: a) The non-conscious seeker of the Spirit; b) The purposeful seeker of the Spirit; c) The finder of the Spirit; d) The sharer of the Spirit.

a. The non-conscious seeker of the Spirit is one who has no idea yet of the spiritual life or spirituality. The majority of people would fall under this category.

b. The purposeful seeker is one who has already begun his or her search for the things of the spirit in a conscious manner. He or she knows that he or she is in pursuit of the things of the spirit and wants to continue.

c. The finder of the Spirit is one who has already found the connection with the Spirit and has a constant communication with him. The spiritual life is not a continuous search for what we cannot find. It has to end in a “eureka”.

d. The sharer of the Spirit is one who leads others to the Spirit. We have here the spiritual teachers who guide others safely to the things of the spirit.

My question is: What is your spiritual type? If you are reading this most probably you are a seeker. Or you may be a finder already. Think about your spiritual type and if you are not yet a sharer of the Spirit, learn more about him. He will guide you to share him with others.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

What Are the Spiritual Qualities That Make Up Our True Identities?

It is strange that when a person is looking for something that will bring him or her true and lasting happiness, the question that will always bother him or her is: “Who am I?” It is a question of his or her identity. He or she wants to know who he or she really is. It is because his or her happiness ultimately depends on the knowledge of his or her true identity. If a person knows who he or she really is, he or she would be satisfied and would find true and lasting happiness.

We Have Different Identities

But this leads us to a fundamental truth of our identities. Each of us is different from one another. If the question were “What am I?” we could answer it in the same way: “I am a human being with flesh and blood and a bundle of needs and desires.”

But the question is not “What am I?” but “Who am I?” And each one of us has to answer differently just as each of us has a different name with a distinct thumb mark.

In other words we have different identities.

Imitation or Cultivation of Our Unique Identity

It is a waste of time imitating the identities of other people. But when we were children we tended to do this. We imitated our father, our mother, our teacher, our mayor in town, our village chief, or anyone we admired.

But now as we grow older we have a life of our own and we have our own identity. Or rather we form our own identity.

Personal identity is not something that is given to us. Nor is it something that we discover as we stumble along life’s way. It is something that we form by ourselves with the help of other people. And this brings us to our most relevant question: What are the spiritual qualities that make up our true identities?

Implicit in this question is the principle that if we want to know who we are and if we are the ones who form our identities, then we have to cultivate certain qualities which make up our true identities. Let us look for those qualities. Cultivate them. In so doing we shall discover who we really are.

Portland psychiatrist Dr. Philip Shapiro, M.D. has a list of 100 spiritual qualities in alphabetical order. The list is of course not exhaustive. For example he does not have anything under the letter z. He ends with the letter w. The list I suggest here is different from his list. For one thing my list is much, very much shorter.

I suggest that the following are the spiritual qualities that make up our true identities. Cultivating them will lead us to form and consequently “discover” our true identities.

Passionate Love for the Truth

This is first, a passionate love for the truth. Because of this passionate love we search for the truth of our self, of our neighbors, of our world. This involves study, not the study that we experienced in schools which was mostly memorizing, but a search for the causes and effects of what is happening around us and in us.

Courage to Take Risks

Second is the courage to take risks in our life projects. We all want to do something important in our life, whether it is in our personal life, our family, our community or even country and the world. And we dare to do the un-attempted yet in order to blaze a new trail. We subscribe to the motto “Nothing dared, nothing done.”

Willingness to Admit Mistakes and Correct Ourselves

Third is the willingness to admit mistakes and correct ourselves. In our endeavors sometimes we succeed, at other times we fail. We commit mistakes. The mistakes if accepted will lead us to where there are no mistakes.

Willingness to Listen to the Spirit

The fourth quality I suggest is the willingness and ability (which will come about if there is first the willingness) to just be still, silent and listen to the Spirit who created this world and fills this world with himself. With the unerring guidance of this Spirit we will truly form our identities.

Perseverance

And the fifth is perseverance. Nothing happens to the man who does not persevere. Many have been an inch away from the fortune they were seeking if only they persevered. We go on cultivating these spiritual qualities in our lives and sooner than later we shall form, find, discover and enjoy our true identities.

Passionate love for the truth, courage to take risks, willingness to admit mistakes and correct them, willingness and ability to be still, silent and listen to the Spirit, and perseverance: these are the spiritual qualities that make up our true identities. Cultivating them will help us to form our true identities and consequently lead us to true and lasting happiness.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Is Your Spirituality an Ultimate Reality?

Everywhere people seem to search for that which is ultimate: ultimate gadget, ultimate happiness, ultimate enjoyment. The other day I saw an advertisement for the ultimate straightened hair. There is an advertisement for the ultimate guitar. Sooner or later everything has to come to an ultimate end.

And the search goes on for the ultimate reality. That is why the book OUR ULTIMATE REALITY by Adrian Cooper is so popular. Since its release in 2005 it has attracted more and more readers.

The question I want to ask and answer is: Is your spirituality an ultimate reality?

It would seem that your spirituality is an ultimate reality because spirituality has to do with things of the spirit, the things which last, which have no end, the things which cannot be seen but which control our material universe and anything beyond it.

But on deeper reflection we know that your spirituality as well as mine cannot be an ultimate reality.

Many Spiritualities But Only One Spirit

Spirituality is only a stance, an attitude toward the things of the Spirit. As such, every one has a spirituality, even those who deny the existence of the spiritual.

Throughout the centuries there have been many spiritualities. In the Western tradition we have the spirituality of the desert fathers, the hermits and monks of Egypt in the third and fourth centuries. Then there was the Benedictine spirituality. This was followed by many more.

In the Eastern world we have in the main Hindu and Buddhists spiritualities. These in turn are subdivided into different spiritualities. We have the Brahmanic spirituality. We have the Hinayanic spirituality. We can even speak of a Confucian spirituality, how Confucius and his followers regarded the things of the spirit.

As the world has now become global and the demarcation between East and West is blurred more and more people are searching for a spirituality that they can benefit from, one that will not only give them enlightenment on spiritual matters but one that will fulfill their deepest yearnings.

There are signs of spiritual hunger all around us. Some have satisfied their spiritual hunger and are spiritually awakened. As more and more people are spiritually awakened, we will discover more and more kinds of spirituality. We have already the word “Cooperian” associated with spirituality, referring to the ideas of Adrian Cooper, the author of the book Our Ultimate Reality.

But not one of these spiritualities is ultimate in the sense that it is the one, last way (since ultimate means last) to the knowledge and enjoyment of the things of the spirit. They are all attempts to capture the ultimate reality of the spirit.

Only the Spirit is the ultimate reality. Spiritualities, yours and mine and anybody else’s, are only ways to approach this ultimate reality. They are only gateways, as it were, to the ultimate reality.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.