On Spiritual Growth

by Lee Duane FitzSimmons

There are many paths that an individual may pursue in order to develop one's spiritual essence. Such paths are numerous and varied; however, all true paths have one common and uniting thread. This connecting factor is the individual. The only real spiritual growth that is ever accomplished by any individual at any time is the growth that has been created by the individual for the individual. Although other entities may serve as guides or catalysts in the process, these external sources are merely supplementary and are never ever necessary for any real and substantive growth in these areas.

Therefore, in order to examine the process of spiritual growth with this connective thread as the primary foundation of analysis, one can perceive several concepts that deal with this particular issue. First, there is growth that is found in creating new things. This sort of human activity promotes energies that are very spiritual in nature. When an individual produces a new creation, the soul is enlightened and the mind is expanded. The complete spiritual essence is developed in a way that is not only beneficial to the individual but to all others who experience the individual's creation.

Another path that leads to spiritual growth is that of altruistic endeavors. Such activity is well known to help cleanse the soul and purge one's essence of fearful shortcomings. Such activity also shifts the mind from focusing on victim mentality and instead allows for the pursuit of active solution making. However, such pursuits must not only benefit the recipients of such gestures, they should also benefit those who are performing such gestures. The benefit MUST be mutual or else there is some flaw in the overall process.

Spiritual development also resides in the search for new paths of spiritual growth. In order to discover these new pathways of growth and development, a person must not only ask the right questions but also attain the correct state of mind in order to ask such questions. Therefore, in order to begin such a quest, one must prepare in such a way so that the search will be successful. Thus, spiritual development can be attained not only by the search itself but also by making the correct preparations for such a search. Oftentimes, great progress is made when these steps are undertaken by an individual that truly hungers for this sort of growth and development.

All of this having been said, if any type of spiritual growth is accomplished by an individual, then all that come into contact with that person may also benefit from this growth. Therefore, spiritual development is something that must be performed by an individual; however, it is something that will ultimately benefit many others as well.

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