Reviewing Spiritualism, Development And Spiritual Growth

I will start my essay by 1st stating that I’ve never been big on reading, let alone a person who seeks out learning information from books. All that I know in regards to my own understanding of spiritual truth, are things that I learned through my own experiences. What I feel is that we can only understand information that our soul is ready for- if we’re not ready for it, then we will not be able to absorb it in this particular lifetime.

Everything about our new incarnated life was predesigned – who our parents would be (genetic makeup), where we live, astrological alignment, etc. From that design, we would be assured of experiencing things that would help us learn whatever lesson(s) our soul decided to learn during the next lifetime.

Yet, within each new incarnation, we are still connected to the experiences of our previous lifetimes. While we may not readily remember them while incarnated, we still have a ‘sense’ of the past.

ARmed with this information, I began the Defining Spiritualism course.

Upon completion, I came away with mixed feelings about the course, mainly because of disagreements with the author. While he says at the end that he never tried to be objective, it truly showed through several comments he makes throughout the course.

I think the background information and the different schools of thought were well done. I didn't aree with some of the author’s personal conclusions.

Here are some of those disagreements that I discovered during the Universal Life Church Seminary course, which is based upon my own perception of what was written – right or wrong.

· The author believes that ‘thought’ can never answer the question regarding spiritual truth.

I feel this is wrong based upon my own personal experiences. There are many ways to reach insight and truths, and if you’re ready to understand something, then you’ll be lead to that information through whatever means you’re ready for.

Many things have come to me during what I call, “thought meditation”. A question will appear in my mind, something profound that I want to understand… and as I sat pondering the idea, an answer or understanding would be shared with me. Simply, you have to be open to finding guidance and truths through any means available- emotional, mental, and intuitive..

When he described the Buddhist idea of nirvana and how western people have a problem with that.

The human ego causes us to believe that we are special, we’re perfect, we deserve to live forever, and that ceasing to exist means everything about our life was pointless. However, if people understood death as I do, they would realize the mistakes of such thinking. Would they want a heaven or afterlife with the same judgmental, prejudice people they currently walk the earth with? For myself, I can say, unquestionably, that I wouldn’t want my human life’s “personality” to be immortal. I would not want to think, act, or react with this faulty human-ego process. I know that beyond this skin, my consciousness is void of such fallibility, so why would I want to see it tarnished forever by human ego?

In closing my review of this ULC course, I’d like to add my favorite Buddhist quote, “Don’t believe something, only because I have said it.” I tell this to everyone I talk to about what I have learned. Therefore, I tell you now, do not believe what I’ve told you and do not believe what you read or hear, believe -- only that which you experience yourself, directly. The answers lie within, not outside of you.