Spiritual Growth

Aspects of a western esoteric approach to spirituality and spiritual growth are examined, including the Higher Self, spiritual evolution, and reincarnation. Based on the author's experience as a student and practitioner, some of the teachings of Djwhal Khul and Russell Schofield are presented.

There are many paths to transformation, yet each has a common thread of resulting in a clear, quiet, and healthy mind, peace, joy, and happiness, and the experience of total freedom. Indeed, your mind will be as fresh and crisp as a pure mountain spring, you’ll feel joy like the birth of a child, and be as free as an eagle soaring through America’s national parks. You’ll race ahead of humanity and know that you dwell in heaven on earth in this lifetime. You will do what you will and live your life simply as you are, with great trust and confidence.

The symbiosis between law and morality has played a major role in universities since their formation and is critical to our moral and legal future. Each is dependent on the other, and an attempt to separate the two will seal the fate of our society as a whole. The Catholic law school must ensure that this symbiosis is never broken, but is fulfilled by incorporating relevant new courses and by teaching present classes in light of the Catholic message. Further, Catholic defense clinics should be offered to enrich the lives of others, and priests and nuns should be made available to assist the spiritual growth of students.

However, the pervasive attitude in today's Catholic law schools not only ignores the Catholic heritage, but also rejects the religious reasoning underpinning the law. As a result, today's lawyers are robbed of a full understanding of the law and its origins. Nurturing young lawyers' moral development should be the business of Catholic law schools to ensure a future of fair, equitable, and just laws.

Brief paper done in a Spiritual Formation and Professional Ethics class in undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in Theology program that looks at spiritual formation and some Bible references that support spiritual formation. It differentiates the worldly concept of spiritualism and focuses on spiritual growth. Also some brief summaries of these concepts in selected passages of the Bible and also its implication upon believers.

It is often thought that Christianity keeps its adherents in a state of perpetual immaturity. As a sociological fact, this may be hard to argue against. Much that goes by the name Christianity looks quite near to what Ernest Becker described as a fearful “death denying ideology.” In theological terminology, such ways of being amount to self-salvation programs. The terror of death drives us to avoid all forms of death. Yet, at the heart of Christianity stands one who chose his own death and encouraged his followers to take up their own crosses and follow him. Such an act, apparently, has an important role to play in an understanding of Christian salvation. In this thesis, I make use of developmental stages theory to illuminate what that role is. I argue that Christian salvation is founded on a paradoxical death that is best made sense of in light of contemporary developmental stages theory, in particular, at the thresholds of developmental stage transition. To illuminate this claim I trace out the logic across the rational, desirous, and active dimensions of human being. These dimensions are explored, in order, by way of Paul Tillich’s philosophy of religion, Sebastian Moore’s spiritual Christology, and the practice of Centering prayer. Taken together, it is concluded that Christianity has tremendous resources for helping its adherents come to grips with their death denying strategies and therefore enlarge their capacity for psychological and spiritual maturity.

It is not altogether uncommon, in the aftermath of traumatic life events, for individuals and groups to report that they have had experiences and faced processes that have led to significant personal changes and positive psychological growth... This chapter offers a number of contributions to trauma theory, and specifically post-traumatic growth, that informs our fuller consideration of the role of psycho-spiritual transformation in the processes, outcomes, and management of trauma beginning with: Abraham Maslow's theory of peak experience and self-actualisation and Carl Rogers's organismic valuing process; Stanislav Grof's holotropic paradigm and formulation of psycho-spiritual transformation; the research conduted by Lawrence Calhoun and Richard Tedeschion post-traumatic growth: and, Martin Seligman and Stephen Joseph's conceptualisations of positive psychology. Together these interdisciplinary strands capture something of the a prevailing optimism and a shared understanding that the struggle of post-traumatic experience may, for some at least, offer the potential for personal growth.

This is an article in two parts. The first part discusses current research in psychoactive preparations of ergot in various religious systems with a particular emphasis on Persian, Greek, Jewish and Islamic sources. Certain poems, hadith, and scriptural writings suggest an entheogenic heritage to various ancient sects that exerted and received philosophical and ritual influences over large distances and over time. Particularly, some esoteric Shia and Sufi writings are highly suggestive of a "celestial botany" that employed psychoactive plants for initiatory and ritual purposes. The second part will address current research methods that render ergot alkaloids nontoxic and entheogenic, a most crucial part of the discussion in the absence of a modern bioassay. This is essential, as without a chemical reality to support that such a preparation of entheogenic ergot is possible, all ergot theories concerning mystery traditions would remain largely speculative.

Il percorso comprende tre parti. In primo luogo il dinamismo di crescita spirituale viene considerato a partire dal suo scopo, cioè, nella dicitura carmelitana, l’unione con Dio. Mi soffermerò poi in un secondo tempo sul punto di partenza, cioè l’unicità della persona umana. Si considererà, infine, il cammino di crescita nel senso di una vocazione. L’espressione “cammino di crescita” è utilizzata per significare la necessaria complementarietà tra la metafora della crescita e quella del cammino.

I propose to examine the possibility that there are universal stages, states and/or peripatetic cycles involved in the process of becoming fully "enhumaned" (aka soul-making). These stages, states and cycles are found in the various mythologies of the world, but our focus in on the Greek Eros/Psyche story and the Judeo-Christian biblical narrative. While recognizing and sympathizing with the current trend to find differences in the various mythologies,  I will utilize an impenitent comparative approach.

The case of Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith is complex and rife with controversy. Any time the interests of the State are pitted against the interests and freedoms of the individual there is always an expectation of backlash from the losing side. This case exemplifies the clash between societal needs and individual rights. The State has a duty to prevent possible harm and provide for the general welfare of the public, while safeguarding the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority. This becomes increasingly difficult in a society that contains a multitude of political, religious, and intellectual persuasions. This difficulty is compounded when the parties involved have an intricate historical and political relationship with the State. The distinctive and multifaceted historical relationship between the Native American Peoples and the United States Government presents unique constitutional and legal questions in determining what constitutes a proper balance between the rights of the citizens and the powers of the State. Furthermore, in determining the extent of religious protections afforded by the First Amendment, this case illustrates that the line between religious belief and religious exercise may not be as obvious or clearly defined as many would suppose.

Diversity management, which is well established as a concept in many industrialised economies, has not been understood in its broadest sense within most African workplaces.  Additionally, an uncritical adoption of Westernized diversity management practices within Africa leaves it vulnerable to the further exploitation of human potential through maximum-extraction managerialist philosophies (April & Blass, 2010).  From the perspectives of spirituality and religion in the workplace such narrow, morally questionable and resource-leveraging ideologies rob the African worker of his/her relationship to the sacred, hindering the deeply meaningful possibilities that difference and diversity can potentially offer them and the workplace. Diversity, and its multiple manifestations, in the workplace are not problems to be solved by management, or pathologies (Costea & Introna, 2004) which need to be eradicated – but rather necessary conditions for allowing individual and communal spiritual growth.  It is for this reason that we will discuss diversity in its broader sense within the African workplace, citing three cases of lived experience that illustrate the complex intersections of spirituality and workplace diversity in, and for, Africa.  Spirituality, and notions of spiritual consciousness, permeate virtually every aspect of Africans lives, including their home lives, their interactions in families, communities, as well as in their workplaces – it affects how they think, what they value and how they are likely to behave (c.f., Forster, 2010b; Paris, 1995, Ngunjiri, 2016).

Finding no assessment of the holistic goals for Christian spiritual development in the context of Protestant private schools, the Growing Disciples Inventory (GDI) was constructed and validated using a mixed methods approach to educational design research. To assess the 21 factors within the four Growing Fruitful Disciples curriculum processes, the GDI was developed through iterative cycles of expert review and usability testing to a final 100-item online format. GDI and exit survey responses from 595 adolescents attending eight Seventh-day Adventist schools on three continents provided strong evidence for reliability and validity. A larger international sample is recommended for further research of improved and alternate versions of this formative curriculum-aligned self-assessment tool for Christian education.

When it comes to understanding Christian Spiritual Formation (CSF  as Chandler mentions), I believe Philippians 1:6 to be my “life verse” in understanding and walking CSF out in my own life.  In retrospective, I never really contemplated CSF as a term, just more of a natural part of the Christian Life and the spiritual growth that happens after Salvation until our bodily death.  Chandler really hits home in the first section, saying that CSF’s ultimate goal is to become more like Christ , which is what I wish to happen in my life.

La vida cristiana es un caminar hacia la perfección evangelica en Cristo con la ayuda del Espríritu Santo para la gloria de Dios Padre. Este camino se hace dificilmente por un mundo cada día más secularizado, pero si se puede progresar usando los 3 esfuerzos del Triple Via.

To the best of my knowledge, tennis is never mentioned in the gospels, nor has any theologian ever written a book on the parallels between tennis and the Christian life. Yet there is a connection. To be a good tennis player, or a good Christian, you have to know how to serve.

Background: The investigation of spiritual growth and its dimensions in the diabetic patients can help these individuals adjust to the stressful event of this disease. Regarding this, the present study aimed to explore the spiritual growth and its dimensions in the patients with type II diabetes mellitus.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted on the adult patients with a history of at least one year of type II diabetes mellitus, who referred to the Diabetes Clinic of the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ardabil, Iran, using an interpretive phenomenological approach. The sampling was performed using the purposive sampling and the data was collected through semi-structured interview. Each interview was transcribed verbatim and analyzed based on the Van Manen’s method.
Results: The data analysis led to the emergence of 237 codes, 3 main themes, and 7 subthemes. The basic themes included tendency to spirituality, God-centeredness, and moral growth.
Conclusion: As the findings of this study indicated, the diabetic patients had turned to spirituality more than ever and used it as a powerful tool to cope with their disease. The emerging new categories highlighted the new aspects of diabetes consequences that can help develop the concept of spirituality in the nursing science, and also have clinical applications in this discipline. The care providers can take advantage of these findings to enhance the patients’ spiritual growth and improve their compliance with the stressful events of diabetes.

Despite the progress that has been made over the past 60 years, relationships between members of different faith communities can be tenuous. The purpose of this study is to explore how challenging circumstances related to Jewish–Christian relations can be opportunities for spiritual transformation. Using autoethnography, the author reflects upon and interprets her experiences as a Jewish student in Christian higher education through the lens of her spirituality. There are three significant findings: (1) being a Jew who converted from Christianity and had prior interactions with Christian institutions prepared the author to engage with difference; (2) context, openness to dialogue, and empathy can influence the interpretation of interfaith interactions; and (3) spiritual growth can develop through adverse experiences. The results demonstrate that searching for belonging and connection are spiritual practices, illustrate that spiritual meaning can be revealed over time as adverse experiences are contemplated, and suggest opportunities for practicing spiritual leadership.

The paper undertakes the analysis of the methods of spiritual growth, called the paths of Yoga, presented in Bhagavadgītā, a philosophical episode of the greatest Indian epos Mahābhārata. It starts with a short characteristics of two most popular methodological strategies used to analyse the Sanskrit text, namely diachronic and synchronic. The researchers who accept the first method stress the incoherence of the work caused by its multilayer structure and many historical interpolations being included in the course of the prolonged editorial process. Whereas the supporters of the synchronic strategy strongly point to the arguments in favour of the coherence of the philosophical conception of development discussed in Bhagavadgītā. The author of the present paper, who argues for the later method, aims to interpret the question of multiplicity of the yogic paths. In the subsequent points, she explains some specific methods suggested by Kṛṣṇa, like Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Karmayoga, Jñāyoga, Dhyānayoga and Bhaktiyoga. While doing so she tries to justify the belief about the existence of a complex multistage method of Self-development, which combines all other, seemingly optional and rival, yogic methods that are ultimately subordinated to the highest instance: a cognitive insight (jñāna) or spiritual wisdom (sthitaprajñā).

Would you like a deeper connection with God in your prayer life? Why not give prayer journaling a try? This article shares a simple 5-step process for how to begin the habit of a daily prayer journal and the transformational impact it can have on you, your family, your church and your community.

"One of the most life-changing things I have ever done is start a daily prayer journal. What started out as a few minutes a day has grown into often more than an hour. I used to think I didn’t have time to spend in prayer in the morning. But after I tried it, I began to realize how much more I can accomplish when I take the time to start my day right. The God of the universe lovingly invites us to connect with Him in prayer every morning. Our moments in prayer become Jesus’ greatest treasures, and ours as well."

The intersection of spirituality and diversity management in the workplace forms a rich location for an investigation into individual and social identity as it relates to the flourishing of human persons and social structures (such as economic entities). In this chapter the authors engage this intersectional space from the perspective of African spirituality and the complexity of diversity for Africa and Africans. The notion of spirituality in the workplace is engaged through a literature review that identifies three categories of spirituality; palliative spirituality, via media spirituality and transformative spirituality. Three case studies are provided to explicate a nuanced and textured understanding of the characteristics of these categories of spirituality for Africans and the African context. The article concludes with a discussion of three organizational models within which spirituality and diversity management intersect (enabling organizations on the one hand, directing org...

AMAZON.COM:  "LINK," an adventuresome, formless entity from a non-physical realm, Altura, gets obsessed with understanding why humans have forgotten their place in the larger universe. He trades his non-physical state in order to have the full human experience and to help humanity re-member into the larger whole.                                                                                                                                                Dax, a curious, lovable 12-year old boy, and his village favorite, comes upon Link (the new human) naked and overwhelmed as he discovers his physical state. The first of many conversations unfolds in which Dax, along with the reader, gets acquainted with the higher consciousness of Link’s non-physical, timeless world – that original place that humans have long forgotten, caught up as they are in the distractions and conflicts of life on Planet Earth.  Through Dax and his grandmother, Link is introduced to the village, and begins his journey of understanding the complicated nuances of the human condition, while attempting to LINK Earthlings to that other world that they have long left behind.

Finding no assessment of the holistic goals for Christian spiritual development in the context of Protestant private schools, the Growing Disciples Inventory (GDI) was constructed and validated using a mixed methods approach to educational design research. To assess the 21 factors within the four Growing Fruitful Disciples curriculum processes, the GDI was developed through iterative cycles of expert review and usability testing to a final 100-item online format. GDI and exit survey responses from 595 adolescents attending eight Seventh-day Adventist schools on three continents provided strong evidence for reliability and validity. A larger international sample is recommended for further research of improved and alternate versions of this formative curriculum-aligned self-assessment tool for Christian education.

Comment faire coïncider les lois de notre nature humaine avec celles de Dieu ? Comment prendre en compte la réalité de notre être pécheur pour progresser vers la sainteté ? Dans cet ouvrage, des chemins privilégiés nous sont proposés : la contemplation de la Vierge Marie, modèle de sainteté ; le lien entre foi et raison, le sens de la simplicité ; l'abandon à Dieu...