Are you wondering how to start a spiritual journey? To do that, we first must entertain a few definitions. First, let’s talk about the progress of our lives as humans on earth. Then, we can speak of types of spiritual journeys.
I think of life as being in three stages. You can start your spiritual journey at any point, but it’s generally accepted that you do the major work during Stage Three.
Stage One
First of all, you are born into a family and you are totally dependent. You then experience your growing knowledge and strength as the miracle it is. As a young person, you do not yet know your limits. The young person may expect that things will keep getting bigger and more exciting all through life, as they have through childhood. But when you reach adulthood, you begin to experience your limits.
It is true that children have a spirituality, and the potential to communicate with the infinite and the divine. I am not, however, in agreement with the idea of “children as saints.” The child’s spirituality is immature and would not be able to sustain them in adult problems and situations. For some, childhood spirituality will naturally develop into a workable adult one, but for many, particularly those whose development was shepherded by adults whose motives were corrupt, belief in the spiritual life will be completely lost. They will become materialists. Spiritual seeking will seem frivolous to such.
Stage Two
As an adult, you work on developing your place in the world. Competence is critical. Where will you fit in, socially and economically? Where is your mate, your tribe, your work? Can you exhibit a type of excellence in your activities? Do you maintain an appropriate place of residence? Can you connect with other adults without getting in trouble? Are you able to refrain from practices that are unhealthy or self destructive? And can you support the development of your offspring if you have them? Can you relate to your parents, younger family members, and peers?
Some adults are forced to start on a dedicated spiritual journey at this stage, because they face various difficulties with meeting their basic adult responsibilities. They may go seeking deeper knowledge from mystical traditions. Others will adapt to more mechanical spiritual practices including conventional religion. Some will find in religion a functional component of their spiritual journey. Others will practice religion only for a time, and only superficially.
Other adults will not undertake a wide gamut of adult responsibilities. This may be by choice or by circumstance. Some adults may delay or forego shouldering family life. Some may be affected by illness, career, or community-based problems. At the extreme, some experience cataclysmic events such as political crisis, economic unrest, and migration which prevent them from reaching what westerners would call “self actualization.” But regardless of their circumstance, all adults have within their unique gifts and difficulties the opportunity to respond with spiritual seeking. Some will do this, and others will stay in materialism.
Stage Three
This is the time of life for spiritual journeying. You have secured your place in the world, you have a residence and a trade, you have a social circle and very likely some family. If you had children, they are grown and able to support themselves. You have leisure, and knowledge. You are able to do things that weren’t possible before. At this time some former materialists, or some who had a formulaic or rudimentary spirituality, start on a deeper spiritual journey. No longer fettered with urgent responsibilities, they are still here and wonder: why? What am I supposed to be doing now? Are the people surrounding me supportive of my desire to truly know myself? What are the strictures that my society places on me, and are they fair? Can I escape from unreasonable or limiting expectations and people? Can I become more than I was, even as my physical powers are beginning to lessen?
It is at this stage that the individual is most poised to free themselves from structures that are no longer working for them. They can even become the wise man or woman in the community, the one who can use their knowledge and experience to support others and guide the society. But in order to do this, a person must have completed, at least partially, their spiritual journey as an individual in the world, into having a set of practices and beliefs that allow them to feel unified with the world as it is.
This Stage Three is the stage of life this blog is largely concerned with.
Spiritual Journey: the Meaning
If you are reading this post, perhaps you are poised to intensify whatever spiritual journey you’ve been on before. You may be asking yourself, why am I here? What is my purpose? How is it going, and should I change course? In these questions, you are normal. These are the natural kinds of questions you might be asking yourself at this point.
The problem, if there is one, is you have to answer them for yourself. As the Grateful Dead would have it, in their song “Ripple,” “No one can do this for you, the path is for your steps alone.” You can see the whole song in the notes at the bottom of the page.
I’m going to take a step out in front and tell you that you must look outside yourself as well as in in order to find spiritual growth. You cannot learn about eternal truth just from your own interior thinking. You have to start with your own interior condition and then reference what others are perceiving and saying. It’s kind of like measuring a tree using the Pythagorean theorem, as the illustration at the top shows.
Do You Have Questions About Life You’d Like Answered?
I do. And even at this current day, I still don’t have complete control over answering them. Generally, the way to get answers to big questions, such as “why did they have to leave and/or die” and “where do I fit in this universe” or even “who is running this place and what do they want from me?” is to go on truth seeking — another word for spiritual journey.
Just last week, at yoga, I told one of the teachers, “I want answers! I know that’s a sign of spiritual poor health, but I’m sorry!”
He smiled quietly and said “You may just have to wait and see.”
That’s Not Bad News
Nevertheless, one thing is for sure, we love to go on a trip. Even from babyhood, even just around the block or around town, people like to get out and see new things. We forget, sometimes, because we’re distracted by people we live with or the internet, but making journeys is a lot of what life is about. So at any time during life, but perhaps most of all during this Third Stage, we get ready to go on a Spiritual Journey. Because, now more than ever, we have questions.
Usually, when I get restless, I start planning another geographical spiritual journey. I won’t say that they don’t help, they do. Just look at all the stuff I learned from my spiritual journey to California over spring break.
But a geographical spiritual journey is only one kind. There are actually many types of spiritual journeys.
Ways to Start a Spiritual Journey
- One way to begin a spiritual journey is by journaling. Loner Wolf has a good beginning offered for free on their blog here.
- Another way is seeking a spiritual teacher. This is, of course, one of the most fraught methods, since spiritual teachers have often exploited their position. It is, on the other hand, one of the most common and effective methods. I’ll give you one hint: real gurus and spirit guides, generally, will not consent to take money for spiritual guidance.
- Or go on a meditation journey, join with Buddhists or Catholics or other monks or religious for a silent retreat for days. Possibly.
- Ask the same question to everyone you can find. Until you find an answer that feels right.
- Join a spiritual support group or 12 step group and work on your spirituality there.
- Pray at home in the dark, confident that as you pray the God of your understanding hears you. And after you pray, sit quietly and listen. And see if you get any good ideas.
- Read great philosophical books. I’ve begun a list below.
- Try all of these things, one at a time or, if you’re not already busy with Real Life, several of them at once.
- Or do the geographical spiritual journey. Go on a driving trip, or a walking trip, even, into unknown territory, by yourself, seeking how you really feel about stuff.
Have I Done All Those Things?
Yes, I have. Do I recommend all these steps? Yes, though you have to be a little careful with those that involve working with gurus, priests, or other religious authorities. They’re not God and you can’t give them your soul, even if you and they wish you could. That’s no how it works. Everyone’s journey is fundamentally between them and God, or if you like more inclusive language, them and the universe.
As my own first spiritual guide, Nedra, told me long ago: “Don’t have a God who puts his pants on one leg at a time.” That was her telling me not to treat the man in my life as if he was In Charge of Everything. No, I’m not saying I literally worshiped him, I’m saying that I gave him too much power. I should have been looking to, lets say, a more universally reliable entity. But I digress.
Many Spiritual Journeys to Make Through Life
IThis week, back at Day One of Spiritual Journey again, my life has gotten away from me again. But that’s okay. The secret of course is that we’re all on a spiritual journey from the beginning of life to the end. That’s why they say, “you’re not a physical being having a spiritual experience, you’re a spiritual being having a physical experience.”
Please comment below if you have a favorite spiritual book or a type of spiritual journey that works for you. My lists are only just begun, by no means complete.
Annotated Bibliography– Online Materials
57 years on a Spiritual Journey –– an everyday soul writes about what they have learned about the spiritual journey called life. 19 maxims.
The Seven Stages of Spiritual Development: This short essay from Chopra, an online spiritual education platform (you’ve been warned) considers the spiritual journey from the standpoint of eastern philosophy and a yogic perspective. Which chakra are you working on?
Spirituality for Beginners — from Bernadette Logue, Spiritual Life Coach. “For many people, spirituality and purpose are not something that just happens – they need to be actively pursued and cultivated. And that’s what a spiritual journey is all about.”
32 Spiritual Awakening Symbols. From Out of Stress. Many options here.
Ripple, by the Grateful Dead: A song about our mystical journey through life, and source of quote “that path is for your steps alone.”
Spiritual Journey Books
Siddartha, by Hermann Hesse. The biography of the Buddha for western readers.
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The stoic classic. This is probably the most-noted book on spiritual life for non-Christians.
Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous by Bill W. This is the greatest work in the 20th century for dealing with modern addictions and realities. If you want what they have and are willing o go to any lengths to get it, you will be willing to take certain steps …