TheOdyssey - Finding Your Spiritual Path
What is a "spiritual path?"
The word “spiritual” has a God-problem. Like the idea of “God,” the word spiritual is profoundly open to interpretation, and often comes with a lot of intellectual baggage. In the context of ChangeCrafting, “spiritual” refers to all questions of meaning and life purpose: Who am I? Why am I here? What gives my life meaning? To what am I dedicated? What is the nature of my love – for self, for others, for the world or Universe we share…
Do you have to believe in God?
With questions of spirituality, almost always comes the question of God. But what God (or gods)? People throughout the ages have had incredibly powerful and differing ideas of what they might mean when they say “God.” ChangeCrafting doesn’t presume a specific answer to this question….but it does encourage contemplation of it, and recognizes the lifechanging potential and soul-nourishing sustenance that can arise from a meaningful answer.
Beginner's Mind...ful Exploration
Throughout human history, we have been the creatures who long to find meaning in our experience; the ones who think beyond the borders of our own finite lives, reaching for the infinite. The practices of faith traditions often mark well-traveled paths to finding spiritual meaning, comfort, strength, and purpose. It is rare for any one religious or spiritual tradition to perfectly align with every belief or perspective we as individuals may hold, and yet, spiritual depth most often comes from a serious and sustained study and practice within a tradition that calls to us. The true student of spirituality takes the time to know and understand wisdom teachings before embracing or discarding any.
If you have no idea where to begin, this simple tool may help point you in a beginner’s direction. The Resources section of this website also has a wealth of places you might begin or begin to deepen your spiritual journey.
Rooted in Practice
There is one aspect that is common to every spiritual or religious tradition: practice. But what is spiritual practice? There are, quite literally, millions of spiritual practices, yet at the core, they share one simple intention: to help people develop enough inner quiet to hear the “still, small voice” within.
And there are spiritual practices which help us connect more deeply to what matters most in our experience — to other people, to love, service, truth, beauty, healing, compassion…
What is required of us in all cases is also simple, though not easy: persistence. Spiritual practice is just that — a practice, a process of showing up, again and again, to our practice, and to allow it to transform us along the way.
Ever Onward
Spiritual deepening is not a journey to a destination where learning ends, no march to some mountaintop rest. The true spiritual seeker is on a journey across a lifetime; one that proceeds ever onward. James Fowler suggested that there are stages of faith development through which one passes. Ken Wilber contends that we move in spirals, each stage transcending and including the previous stage. Joanna Macy also uses a spiral metaphor in her spiritual Work That Reconnects. The ChangeCrafting perspective holds that when we stop learning, we stagnate. The world changes, we want to help craft that change in a healing direction. Over time, our own motion may be through learning to teaching and back to learning again. Even spiritual masters understand themselves as students. There is always more to learn, more ways to deepen and to connect.