It is a good question to ask, how do we “measure” these kinds of things? How do we know that we are “getting anywhere?” Gopi Krishna came up with a fairly good answer to that. As with everything, I took what he said and transformed it to suit myself. So, now, I would “measure” the existence and progress of spiritual growth with five, six or more criteria.
The first three would be living a personally satisfying level of genius, ecstasy and truth. The next two would be, first, some form of “multi-dimensional awareness” i.e. transcendent vision, hearing, feeling, speaking etc. and, second, providing inspirational leadership at some level however many or few people it may effect. The sixth one would be living a Joyfully Empowered life that you love living in all of the details. That includes everything from free time and enough space to “money, sex and success.” Arguably, the most important one is health and longevity because if you aren’t physically here and you don’t physically feel well none of the others matter much.
There are more, of course. I would also add the need to experience and be completely at peace with what people generally mean when they refer to God-presence, Self-realisation, Enlightenment or “I am.” That essentially means to answer the questions, for yourself, “Who or what am I?” And, “Why am I here?”
Further, understanding each “fragment of spiritual gold” in all of the many “spiritual paths” such that understanding dawns and you experience “Oh, I see!” Which finishes forever any need to compare.
It also helps to have a somewhat “scientific” overview of things like Kundalini energy and the psychology of “spiritual transformation” whereby one goes from “self leading Self” to “Self leading self.”
It is also much fun to watch as all of the “dualities, paradoxes and polarities” vanish one-by-one. My personal favourite is integrating “Megalomania and Self-love!”
The last criteria is perhaps the ability to share all that you have gained with a sincere listener such that he or she can have similar results.
And so if I asked myself whether or not I, my self, would pass most or all of these self-devised tests I would just say “Yeah. I think so.”

---

Edited on 2007-01-27 21:16:13 by GregEhmka

Additions:
It is quite interesting to me that I have never had a personal Shaman, Guru, Master or Spiritual Teacher of any kind.

Books and “off the shelf” technology in terms of seminars that anyone could attend were the beginning, middle and end of all that I received from others. Additionally, except for one notable exception, I never met the authors or most seminar leaders.
And so as a consequence, there has been no heritage or “lineage” of any kind. I’ve managed to arrive at my current level of joy, power and spiritual growth through the tradition of the self-taught. Although that is not uncommon in virtually any human endeavour, it did not really occur to me for many decades that I was, in fact, a self-taught spiritual student!
The “bad news” is that I felt “on the outside looking in” for almost a lifetime.
The “good news” is that I have been “on the outside looking in” for almost a lifetime! Because, the overwhelming advantage of the self-taught is simply that there are no rules! And, given that the spiritual heritage of the world is about as fragmented as is possible with humanity, having no rules whatsoever relative to spiritual matters now appears to have been quite a gift.

---

Edited on 2007-01-27 21:15:21 by GregEhmka

No differences.

---

Edited on 2007-01-27 21:12:35 by GregEhmka

Deletions:

---

Edited on 2007-01-27 21:11:03 by GregEhmka

Additions:

---

Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2007-01-27 20:56:23 by GregEhmka []

It is quite interesting to me that I have never had a personal Shaman, Guru, Master or Spiritual Teacher of any kind.
Books and “off the shelf” technology in terms of seminars that anyone could attend were the beginning, middle and end of all that I received from others. Additionally, except for one notable exception, I never met the authors or most seminar leaders.
And so as a consequence, there has been no heritage or “lineage” of any kind. I’ve managed to arrive at my current level of joy, power and spiritual growth through the tradition of the self-taught. Although that is not uncommon in virtually any human endeavour, it did not really occur to me for many decades that I was, in fact, a self-taught spiritual student!
The “bad news” is that I felt “on the outside looking in” for almost a lifetime.
The “good news” is that I have been “on the outside looking in” for almost a lifetime! Because, the overwhelming advantage of the self-taught is simply that there are no rules! And, given that the spiritual heritage of the world is about as fragmented as is possible with humanity, having no rules whatsoever relative to spiritual matters now appears to have been quite a gift.
And so, aside from a few roots, familiar to many, all that I have to offer truly comes from “within.” It also is exactly and precisely the way that I myself live my own life. This makes it both something I am going to do anyway and also something that I love to share.
It is a good question to ask, how do we “measure” these kinds of things? How do we know that we are “getting anywhere?” Gopi Krishna came up with a fairly good answer to that. As with everything, I took what he said and transformed it to suit myself. So, now, I would “measure” the existence and progress of spiritual growth with five, six or more criteria.
The first three would be living a personally satisfying level of genius, ecstasy and truth. The next two would be, first, some form of “multi-dimensional awareness” i.e. transcendent vision, hearing, feeling, speaking etc. and, second, providing inspirational leadership at some level however many or few people it may effect. The sixth one would be living a Joyfully Empowered life that you love living in all of the details. That includes everything from free time and enough space to “money, sex and success.” Arguably, the most important one is health and longevity because if you aren’t physically here and you don’t physically feel well none of the others matter much.
There are more, of course. I would also add the need to experience and be completely at peace with what people generally mean when they refer to God-presence, Self-realisation, Enlightenment or “I am.” That essentially means to answer the questions, for yourself, “Who or what am I?” And, “Why am I here?”
Further, understanding each “fragment of spiritual gold” in all of the many “spiritual paths” such that understanding dawns and you experience “Oh, I see!” Which finishes forever any need to compare.
It also helps to have a somewhat “scientific” overview of things like Kundalini energy and the psychology of “spiritual transformation” whereby one goes from “self leading Self” to “Self leading self.”
It is also much fun to watch as all of the “dualities, paradoxes and polarities” vanish one-by-one. My personal favourite is integrating “Megalomania and Self-love!”
The last criteria is perhaps the ability to share all that you have gained with a sincere listener such that he or she can have similar results.
And so if I asked myself whether or not I, my self, would pass most or all of these self-devised tests I would just say “Yeah. I think so.”