Spiritual Development

Dr. of Spiritual Development Essay How could I, myself, ever have hoped to counsel others with their spiritual development when I realized that I was carrying around a core of anger and spiritual wounds within me? What is that quote - physician, heal thyself? I knew that I could not be the source of spiritual solace for others until I came to terms with my own spiritual unrest. In short, I had to grow from the tantrummy little girl I saw in the mirror. The task and journey that were not evil for my avatar, took a long time in coming. I saw myself in so many ways and turned to my ULC readings. But a question lingered: why people don't heal?  I realized that there is no true healing until we heal ourselves. To carry around an imagined or real spiritual wound holds us back from the core of development. Confronting that inner pain is one of the most difficult tasks anyone could ever have, but once confronted, we can grieve over it, and then give it a proper burial. To me, that is step one on the path to spiritual development. The key lies in not holding grudges and also in determining if we ourselves played any part in the wounding process. Many times a wound lies in a perception of something said or done. As we put those wounds to their much-needed rest, we conquer another step to the inner meaning of our souls through our spiritualistic development. It starts from the beginning: we are all in essence children. And we grow, little by little. Every bit of enlightenment is another step in this development. Sometimes we have to gently confront a person who has been part of the problem. I say gently because an angry confrontation increases the damage and lets the original hurt fester. We must get past these things to continue treading the path of true spirituality. No matter how we worship - Catholic, Buddhist, Protestant, etc. - the light at the end of the tunnel is the great Spiritual Being we seek, in whose love we wish to bask. It is also our duty to help others around us come to this realization so that they too may reach that enlightened spiritual state. One thing that can impede us - our collective unconscious. It's a huge filing cabinet and it's filled with stored memories. This Collective Unconscious is so important to spiritual development because it contains the essence of many things that define each of us. I personally believe that the Collective Unconscious spurs a lot of spontaneous reactions that we cannot later explain, except by saying "I don't know why I said/did that, I just had this feeling about him/her/the situation." This is why it is essential that we confront our own spiritual weaknesses and pain, so that we can dissect them to their essence, deal with them, and heal ourselves. We can't help others to heal until we ourselves have confronted our own demons. Healing isn't always easy but we need to keep in mind that we are in a state of grace and it is that grace which is the balm for our souls. And once we confront these wounds and begin to heal, we can help others to begin their healing processes. And from there, to move on to developing the strong spirits they always had within them, but which were covered by their inner blanket of hurt. Rev. Rita S Milo ******************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free  and lasts for life, so use the button. As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. Many have been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and can attest to its ongoing growth and change. Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar