Spirituality may include belief in supernatural powers, as in religion, but the emphasis is on experience. What is referred to as "religion" and what is referred to as "spirituality" are often the same. In recent years, "spirituality" has often carried connotations of the believer's faith being more personal, less dogmatic, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the faiths of established religions. Those given to speaking of "spirituality" rather than "religion" are apt to believe that there are many "spiritual paths" and that there is no objective truth about which is the best path to follow. Others hold that spirituality is not religion, per se, but the active and vital connection to a force, power, or sense of the deep self. Some proponents of spirituality believe that the goal of 'being spiritual' is to simultaneously improve one's wisdom, willpower and communion with God/universe, which necessitates the removal of illusions at the sensory, feeling and thinking aspectes of a person. The 'Plato's cave' analogy in book VII of The Republic is one of the most well known descriptions of the spiritual development process. Other spiritual proponents point out that that spirituality is a two-stroke process. The upward stroke relates to inner growth and the downward stroke relates towards manifesting improvements in the world/reality around us as a result of the inward change. The rule of thumb when evaluating any spiritual approach is that six months of dilligent, proper practice should manifest noticeable improvement in one's life. If not, then the usual advice is to pick an approach that is more likely to assist you in achieving your specific goals. Some spiritual communities who might be considered to be more spiritual than religious include New Age, Neopaganism, Feminism, Subud,Unitarian Universalism, The Dances of Universal Peace

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>home:chezmax.com >keywords: soul, spiritual, spirituality, exploration, holistic, healing, jung, lugano, switzerland, virtual, swisspresence, vrway, venue, exhibit >submit by: Massimo D'Onofrio [Max's log: the ultimate spiritual exploration linksite.]
12:59:17 AM    

It is hard to write about my personal experience on this sensible subject, but if I want to start an open and constructive discussion I have to expose myself. Our dark side is evolving with ourself, therefore, I can start talking about my past only, but keep in mind it is a neverending exercise. But let me start with some basics. How to recognize our dark side? It is quiet simple: it represent all what we hate and dispise on other's behaviour (the psy term is "what we project out"). How to recognize if someone has a long or a short road ahead to walk in order to reach a precarius balance between dark&light sides? The less tolerant we are, the longer our road is! When the dark side start to build up on us? As soon as we define our carachter, we naturally tend to push our dark side away from us, starting believing in an hypotetical perfection to reach as soon as possible. In my case, I can say during my puberty I started developping a sense of repulsion to some of my friends that look very snob and materialistic to me. Now I know that the hate I felt was towards myself, and that I can be very much like them. In fact, as soon as I realized that, I started to play with my dark-side in a way that makes me strong and energetic attending formal parties and events. I play my role so good I am amazed by my own performance during the act itself! The same happens in competitive sports, like Tennis. An entire hour of Mr. Ego at top push me to fight like a lion... and when I loose... it makes me laugh! How comes?! It must be a mistake (not by me of course) maybe the court is not so flat, or the ball is bad, or the sun is too strong ... well, you see. Another similar example are business transactions: I am so bold that sometimes, when I laugh (about me) during a meeting, my opponent thinks I must be so convinced of my position that I take him/her not so seriously... I can read their body & facial expressions so well: they start to hate my self-esteem, but soon they start ask themself why they are not so bold and start to doubt their position. You can imagine the closure of the deal! I feel so good playing that "shark" role because I know myself and I have learned how to take energy from it without losing control (and without harming no-one) but it is not something I suggest to anyone starting the inner process! Ok, enough for tonight. I look forward for some comment and/or your experiences!

bye, max ;-)
>home:chezmax.com >keywords: soul, spiritual, spirituality, exploration, holistic, healing, jung, lugano, switzerland, virtual, swisspresence, vrway, venue, exhibit >submit by: Massimo D'Onofrio [Max's log: the ultimate spiritual exploration linksite.]
12:51:20 AM