The Purpose of Going on a Spiritual Journey

Spirituality is not simply a topic to be discussed by those who want to know more about spiritual things. There is a practical purpose for discussing things related to spirituality.

And so also there is a practical purpose in going on a spiritual journey. What that purpose is will be made clear in this article.

Purpose Is Different from Destination

There is a physical journey, a journey to a physical destination, a place. And there is always a purpose in such a journey. The place is not the purpose. It is only a destination. Usually, one or a combination of these is the purpose of a physical journey: a business or work related transaction, a vacation, a bonding of a relationship.

A scientist wants to go to the south pole to record the temperature there. His purpose in going there is not the south pole but the recording of the temperature.

A tired worker wants to go to Australia to enjoy a vacation there. His purpose is not Australia, but the vacation, rest and excitement Australia can offer to him.

The same is true in a mental journey, going into the ideas of men and women who lived a long time ago or in other areas of the world. The purpose is not just to know these ideas. The purpose is to see how these ideas may be of help to the one reading these ideas. We read about the Greek tragedies in order to learn how tragedies are worked out in one’s life with the purpose of avoiding them.

In a spiritual journey our destination is the world of spirits and ultimately God Himself, but He is not the purpose of such a journey. He is only the destination, not the purpose of the journey. We want to go there because He has something to offer us which we cannot acquire by a physical or mental journey.

The Purpose of Our Spiritual Journey

The purpose of a spiritual journey may be curiosity, trying to know what lies in the realm of the spirits. But more than curiosity the person undergoing a spiritual journey wants to enjoy life to the fullest possible that he can attain.

One may say that the purpose of a spiritual journey is to enjoy God. But what is in God that we can enjoy?

Paradoxically, the one which we are searching when we go on a spiritual journey is our true self, the self which we have in God. Let me explain.

If you observe carefully, in any journey our purpose is something that is related to our self. The scientist goes on a journey to the south pole because of his desire to record the temperature there. He wants to satisfy his desire to measure such temperature and report it to the world. He wants his self to be recognized as the one who shall have measured and recorded such a temperature.

The tired worker wants to go on vacation in order to relax his self, find satisfaction in rest and excitement.

The reader goes into the ideas of other people because he or she wants to use these ideas for his or her self.

The self is always the reference of our purpose in a journey. The self is always the one who will benefit from a journey.

The same is true in a spiritual journey. We are looking for our true self. And this true self can only be found in the world of spirits, in God.

That is why we read that one time Jesus appeared to Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada and said to her, Seek your self in me.

We Are Searching for Our True Self in God

When we undertake a spiritual journey it is for the purpose of finding our true self, our real self. The self is always the focus of spirituality. We read more about this topic and learn more about it for the sake of our self, our true self.

Why, are there other selves that are not our true self? Yes, there are. The self that we present to other people is not really our true self, but the one that we want them to see. We want to appear diligent, therefore we busy ourselves with work, although deep inside we may want to be lazy. We want to appear righteous before others, and so we try to be religious and obey the rules and regulations of our church and society, but deep inside we know that we are just tired of pretending to be so before other people.

But when we get to God we cannot show to him a self that we want to show Him. He knows us in and out. And only in Him can we be most relaxed, most natural. Only in Him can we enjoy our true self.

The purpose of going on a spiritual journey is to find and enjoy our true self.

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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.

How to Start Your Spiritual Journey

Welcome aboard on a spiritual journey! You may be wondering what a spiritual journey is. Well, it is the most exciting of all journeys and it is better than all other journeys combined. I hope to tell you here how you can start your spiritual journey. But first let us know what a spiritual journey is.

A spiritual journey can be known by comparing it with other kinds of journeys. Let us compare it with physical and mental journeys.

Physical, Mental and Spiritual Journeys Compared

In a physical journey we have a physical destination. It does not matter how near or how far that destination is. There is a place, a physical destination where a journey will end. It may be the next town, or the next country, a city halfway around the globe, or the next planet, or even a far away star. No matter what it is, there is a physical destination.

In a mental journey there is also a destination. Our mind will come to dwell on something. It might be the ideas of wise men who lived centuries before us, like Socrates or Aristotle. Our mind will travel to the time when they had these ideas. It is a destination in time, back to the time of the men and women who produced the ideas that we want to dwell on.

In a physical journey we need to have a physical means to get to our destination. It may be our feet, a bicycle, a car, a train, a boat or an airplane, or a rocket plane or a combination of any of these. We include also the food while we are in this or that kind of transportation.

In a mental journey we need also to have mental means to get to our mental destination. This usually consists of our brain, our mind, our imagination, our emotions, the books around us, the men and women who knew the men whose ideas we want our mind to come to.

Furthermore in a physical and mental journey we need to have a purpose why we want to get there, even if it is just to satisfy our curiosity, just to see the place or feel the feelings of those men involved in a story or drama.

And when we embark upon a journey for the first time we need to have a guide, either a person from whom we can ask ideas about our destination and the means to get there, or one who will go with us like a tourist guide, or at least a map or written direction where to start, what transportation to take, the sign or signs that tell us we shall have reached our destination.

If you want to start your spiritual journey you need to know these: your destination, the means to get there, the purpose why you want to get there, a guide to help you get there. These are the elements of a journey and they are all present in a physical, mental, or spiritual journey.

The destination in a spiritual journey is the world of the spirits, and ultimately the Original Spirit himself. If the destination of a physical journey is a place, that of a mental journey ideas in time, the destination of a spiritual journey is a spiritual one, the world of the spirits and ultimately the Original Spirit from whom all came from.

The means to get to the world of the spirits and the Original Spirit consists of spiritual means. These are basically faith, hope and love that work in solitary prayer.

The purpose of a spiritual journey can also be curiosity, but more than this, it is to enjoy life to the fullest possible that we can attain.

The guide on a spiritual journey may be a spiritual person who himself has undertaken this journey or the written guides left by spiritual persons, like the Bible for Christians, the Qur’an for Muslims, the Trepitaka of Buddhism, or the Bhagavad Gita of the Hindus.

Are You Ready to Undertake a Spiritual Journey?

After learning something about the elements of this journey you need to ascertain whether you are ready to undertake this journey on your own. Children do not usually undertake a physical journey on their own. They need adults to accompany them. A certain level of maturity is needed to undertake even just a physical journey on one’s own.

So also you need to have a certain spiritual maturity in order to undertake the spiritual journey on your own. How do you know you have this maturity? In a physical journey usually the age and the educational background of a person are considered. In a spiritual journey, your spiritual age and knowledge of spiritual things are also to be considered. How do you know you have reached this spiritual age since it is not measured by years, unlike in physical age? You will know that you have reached this spiritual age if you have fallen in love with your God, just as in normal life falling in love with someone is an indication that you have reached a certain physical degree of maturity.

The Greatest of All Journeys

And why do I say that you are undergoing the greatest of all journeys when you start on a spiritual journey? It is because in a spiritual journey you are going to a place which is no place at all but a presence in all the places in the universe and you are going to a time which is not a time but an eternity which includes all time, from past to present to future. For the spirit is not bound by space and time, and you are going to that place of the spirit who transcends space and time. Briefly put, in a spiritual journey you are going to all places and to all times. This cannot be done in a physical journey because you only have one body. As a body you can be present only at one place in one time. But with the spirit you can be present to all places at the same time. An analogy may help clarify this if you have ridden a plane.

When you ride in a plane you begin by being present in the airport. When your plane goes up the air you leave the airport but you begin to look at the place surrounding the airport. Now you begin to see more places at once, not just the airport, a single place. By your vision you are present to all these places below you at the same time. So also by spirit you can be present to all of creation when you go beyond them.

Starting This Journey

And how do you start this journey? Assuming that you have fallen in love with the Original Spirit in whatever manifestation he has revealed himself to you, you take his personal guide or the written guides left by spiritual men and women of all ages. Each person will take a different kind according to his preference.

In my case my guides were the Christian Bible and the written works of Juan de Yepes Alvarez, a spiritual man who lived in the 16th century.

May I share with you the prescription of this man as you begin this journey. He said that if you want to reach your spiritual destination in a very short time you need to take these steps: 1. Desire to have pleasure in nothing; 2. Desire to possess nothing; 3. Desire to be nothing, and 4. Desire to know nothing.

If you have an acquaintance with Buddhism these prescriptions of Juan de Yepes Alvarez are like those in Buddhism, where we are urged not to desire anything because desire is the cause of suffering.

The most practical advice I can give you as you start your spiritual journey is to desire above all to reach and be united with the Original Spirit and to desire nothing that may hinder you in reaching this goal. Do not desire material goods, physical pleasure, mental enjoyment or any kind of pleasure if this will hinder you in reaching your goal, union with the Original Spirit.

Bon voyage on your spiritual journey.

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.