7 STAGES IN THE SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT

[KHEM]

Religion and spirituality, most fundamentally, are one's own personal way of expressing one's self with that which one calls God. 80% of people on the planet profess to have some relationship with God. When we inspect this further, what we find are that individuals have different kinds of expressions, concepts and ideals about God that is reflected in their religious and spiritual behavior.

As with other development stages, cognitive, aesthetic and kinesthetic, arrested development can occur inside religious and spiritual practices.Still occurring today, religious and spiritual levels of arrested development are evident in viewing the millions slaughtered in the name of Jesus, Allah and other religious figures.

Where are you in your development?

IGNORANCE-BASED

Ignorance-Based religion/ spirituality is the lowest level of religion/ spirituality one can "obtain", it is rooted ignorance. Just "believe" without any investigation, it is more often than not inherited from one's culture like the color of their eyes.  These individuals do not have a clue about what their own religion is professing to represent. They're just going along with it to protect their ignorance because they don't know Truth nor care to do the work to seek and find.  To publicly address that the individual does not understand his/her own religion would be damaging to one's ego. They simply hide ignorance with "belief", substituting belief for knowledge. {The belief in this context is not same as Faith, whereas in this context, "belief" is a way of covering up Ignorance.} "I believe.... I believe",a bit like sheep.

Everyone else is wrong, I am right. {And this is worth starting wars and dying over}. To reinforce their "beliefs", they look for more individuals to join in their battle so they can feel right.  Belief is a cover over ignorance.  Millions upon millions of people are involved and stuck at this level. They are arrested in spiritual development at the level of belief



FEAR-BASED
Fear-based religion/ spirituality is the second lowest of level of religion/ spirituality one can obtain, it is rooted in fear through ignorance. At this level, individuals seek God for the Sake of being protected. As life is too much to cope with, too hostile, too dangerous, too much of a threat, at this level, one seeks God through the need to be protected against vicissitudes of life... against "the bad things". Much like a child does, running to mommy and daddy when they're scared, seeking solace and protection. God the Father "Save me, don't let me be hurt, make life easy, remove my struggles, please let nothing bad happen".  This is nothing more than prayer of petition and intercession.  "Don't let me get cancer, watch over my kids, keep me safe".  This is the individual's entire relationship with God.   These individuals are also afraid to interact with anyone else outside of their religion: anyone outside of their religion is an enemy or a threat and must be converted or pushed far away, even killed.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4.18

GREED-BASED

Prosperity-Based religion/spirituality is the third lowest level of religion/ spirituality one can obtain, it is rooted in greed through ignorance and fear.  They want more stuff. They are materialists, not always good at entrepreneurial-ship, so they turn to God.


"Let me win the Lottery, please God and I'll turn to you". Nothing to do with doing God's Will, the individual instructs and begs God to do their will.   "Please increase my salary, Please let me win the big game, please send me a husband/wife. please just let me get this house and car".

_Please do this, I want that.... so that I can do my will.  Sadly, 90% of all people in religion/spirituality have become stuck a this level.

Note: these first 3 groups are to protect from fear, from harm and to receive things.



INTELLECTUAL/THEOLOGICAL LEVEL

Intellectual-Base religion/ spirituality is the forth level of religion/spirituality one can obtain.  This level is all about logic and reason, where the individual does religion with his/ her head, mastering apologetics and coming up with all kinds of theories, explanations, what God is and what God is not.


Smart people make up this category, but continuously try to intellectualize God through the increased accumulation of information. Crafting dogmas, doctrines, building organizations. Fundamentally cowards, disguise cowardice in form of scholarship. They are unwilling to make sacrifices and won't be moved beyond their comfort zone.  There is no submission. They love talking about religion and confuse talk with action. They talk meditation but won't do it. They love the theory of compassion, not compassion itself. The "Relationship" is at the level of the head, the heart isn't in it. if I read my Bible I will become like Jesus.

INTELLIGENCE- BASED

Intelligence-based religion/spirituality is the fifth level of religion/ spirituality one can obtain. Intelligence is use as the ability to discern what is real and what is unreal, what is important from what is unimportant.


These individuals see things the way things really are, and have ability to live Life dualism, free from pain. They're not trying to keep their body from dying, they know the body will die, They aren't trying to avoid loss, they know that this would is loss. They live on the basis of this reality , not spiritual fantasy. They are beyond, I'm not going to get sick, I'm not going to die {I have 50 more years}, nothing bad is going to happen to anyone in my family, since I pray every night".  There is a higher level of spiritual and religious maturity based on sheer intelligence, No fantasy driving their involvement in religion.  They see and accept thing the way  they are and respond appropriately, passing judgment on reality, "We should all be ONE, world paradise, no unfair treatment of others, "Although" intellectually" prepared however, spiritually they are still weak, thus when real tragedy strikes, their worlds crumble. A CEO looses his/ her jobs only to go home and blow his/her brains out. An individual's spouse seeks a divorce, sending the individual into a physically abusive rage driven only through fear.  Intellectually they are prepared, however they still lack in spiritual Truth through sincere communion with God.

MEDITATION/PRAYER-BASED

Meditation-Based religion/spirituality is the sixth level of religion/ spirituality one can obtain. Based upon a level of higher awareness, this is a vertical movement strictly as a result of meditation.

Please note that meditation is not prayer, it is being in union with God. The term "Prayer" is most of the time misunderstood;

When "Prayer" means "being in union with God" and not begging the attention of a "despotic god" as described in the levels above, then Prayer and Meditation have the same meaning; that of expansion towards the Divine.


Meditation/Prayer-Based religion / Spirituality is grounded on actual expansion of awareness, which follows from Intelligence. When you see things the way things are to be, this is Intelligence.

Meditation is a trait. It is principle interactivity without compulsive thinking on the past or future. Meditation/Prayer- Based religion/ spirituality is more than sitting in the corner of a room for a quarter of an hour or more, it is an all day state of being as a result of inner Spiritual activity. The individual radiates a sense of peace and calmness, positively affecting those around.

BLISS-BASED

Bliss-Based religion/ spirituality is the seventh and the highest level of religion/ spirituality one can obtain. Bliss-Based religion/spirituality is practiced out of sheer joy, no other motive. It isn't fear or greed based, it simple fills you with Bliss. Your worship with God is rooted in bliss. Joy. There is no unhappiness to get in the way. No other motive. "God, I don't want anything, as long as I have you"!  

God is no longer placed on a contract, all that ends. You are simply absorbed in the bliss of God's presence, with the gladness to be here, to feel God, to have ecstasy { to stand outside of oneself, outside of ego.}  The Psalmist and Rumi are prime examples.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

[gsryoga]

I thought this was an awesome post and have passed it on to friends from around the country. I also saved it in my files.

This is clearly a terrific guide and road map to higher consciousness.[/b

[KHEM]

Thanks gsryoga!!

I really like the pic! That's AWESOME!!
Thanks for sharing!

[atime2heal]

The map of consciousness is what I use a lot. It is a great tool to check where something is & if it for you.