This article is part of my series on Personal Development for Smart People. If you are new here I recommend you to first read my introduction to the book.
What follows are my notes from the last chapter which takes about spirituality.
Spirituality
- intro
- spirituality : collection of beliefs about reality and your personal role in the universe
- highest ideal for your spiritual philosophy is intelligence
- if a spiritual philosophy succumbs to falsehood, disconnects you from life, weakens you it will only leas you astray
- & truth
- each believe system you consider provides another way of viewing the same underlying data
- view reality through multiple belief systems in order to seek the big picture
- spiritual sensory equipment
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd-person viewpoints
- subjective and objective viewpoints
- intuition and instincts
- logic and reason
- dreams and visions
- religious and philosophical beliefs
- cultural, social, political and economic beliefs
- functional beliefs
- personal beliefs
- learn to consider reality from multiple perspectives to overcome many of the limitations of individual belief systels
- & love
- gain spiritual lessons from your inner world and your outer world
- answers will come from stillness and from direct communication
- & power
- decouple your spiritual beliefs from your identity
- your beliefs can never define you
- a fixed belief system can only limit your ability to grow
- center your life around service to others in order to balance yourself financially, emotionally and spiritually
- find others with different belief systems that seem to empower them in some specific way, and learn from them
- whenever you close your mind to new ideas, you fall out of alignment with power
- & oneness
- our personal spirituality has a collective impact
- abandon beliefs that label other human beings as unworthy, damaged or evil
- your individual spiritual duty is to ensure that you harbor beliefs that are aligned with the principle of oneness
- & authority
- you must be the ultimate authority in your life, not God or some guru, master or teacher
- beliefs must satisfy the following criteria
- 1. accurate, consistent with your observations of reality
- 2. all-inclusive, collectively address your entire field of experience
- 3. flexible, adapts well to new circumstances
- 4. ethical, don't encourage violence or dishonesty
- 5. congruent, internally consistent with each other
- 6. consciously chosen
- 7. pleasure-increasing and/or pain-reducing, make you feel good, reduce fear by bringing truth to the unknown
- 8. empowering, should allow you to experience what is technically possible
- hidden falsehoods may be revealed by considering the alternatives
- & courage
- think for yourself
- & intelligence
- don't compartmentalize your spiritual practice
List of all posts in this series:
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