Reflections on Authentic Spiritual Growth - Issue #1 August 1, 2007

The metaphor of a river is often used when referring to spirituality and authentic spiritual growth. Authentic spiritual growth is like a river. It calls us to a process of ongoing growth and the need to embracing change. We are always in a state of becoming. Authentic spiritual growth says that today we are the same person we were yesterday, but we are also a new person today. We see the world through the lens of a new consciousness.

When we are growing spiritually, this paradox makes sense to us because we are evolving into deeper complexity and greater simplicity. We become more comfortable with the silence. We find ourselves not "knowing" as much today as we did yesterday. Yesterday we had the answers. Today we find ourselves sitting with the questions. We are becoming more comfortable with mystery, the unknown, and with emptiness.

Authentic spiritual growth is learning to blow on the tiny spark or ember of the divine within us until it bursts into flame and we become the person we were created to become. We become more authentic. We become more self-aware, and as our self-awareness grows, we become more compassionate.

Our spiritual growth is authentic because to we are more comfortable with diversity and inclusiveness. We are less judgmental. We do less harm to the earth and to others. We create less conflict and violence in the world. The beliefs we held to so tightly yesterday are softer and less certain today. We are more enlightened than we were yesterday.

We take delight in showing others what compassion "feels" like. We spend less time telling them how to "be" more compassionate. I used to have the answers.

I don't know how to create peace in the world. But today I know how to create less conflict and pain than I did yesterday because I see the world through the lens of a new consciousness today.
As I grow spiritually and become more self-aware, I am beginning to see the beam in my own eye much more clearly. I find myself less concerned with the speck in my neighbor's eye.
I am growing spiritually. I am becoming more authentic.

Personal Thoughts
The New York Times ran an interview with ex-president Jimmy Carter recently in which he commented on the presidency of George W. Bush. For any ex-president to comment on a President still in office is unusual. What Carter had to say about Bush was very telling. He essentially said that the Bush presidency is the worst administration in American history in the area of international relations and human rights. I have never heard a more scathing comment on a sitting president by a past president.

Those who know me know that I am deeply disappointed with our current administration. As an American, I am ashamed and embarrassed at the lack of moral and ethical leadership in Washington.

I bring Carter’s comments to your attention, not to politically bash George W., but rather to point out the contrast between the ego driven “spirituality” of our current president and the egoless characteristics and qualities of an “authentic spirituality” discussed above.

I am by nature a hopeful and optimistic person. I try to see the positive in people and situations because I know that the only thing I really have any spiritual control over is my own attitude. I can choose to see the positive, or I can choose to see the negative.

I find it very challenging trying to find the positive in the spiritual foundation of the current President and his administration. I read a lot about his ego’s “religious beliefs” but I find very little evidence of an authentic spirituality in the President or his administration. President Bush appears to be unaware of the beam in his own eye.