A spiritual person is... Concept, personal qualities, inner essence and influence on society

A person is characterized by many qualities: caring, compassion, lack of conflict. He can be principled, conservative or liberal, soft or hard, soulful or spiritual. The word “spiritual” is now often used in different meanings: a believer, a representative of the clergy (clergy), simply an educated and cultured person.

No one will argue that the spirituality of a society depends on the people who make it up. When asking the question what is the spiritual essence of a person, you can hear many different opinions. Of course, everyone decides for themselves what degree of immersion in the spiritual to choose. Someone has just begun to follow the path to perfection, someone has already made significant progress along it, and for others this path seems so burdensome that they have turned away from it.

What is a spiritual person?

If you turn to dictionaries, you can see the emergence of the modern concept of “spiritual person”. At a time when there were few atheists, society was built on faith in God, and a divine spark was recognized in man. V.I. Dal did not include this concept in the dictionary at all (1863), and interpreted the word “spiritual” as “belonging to the spirit.” Regarding the use of the word “spiritual” in relation to a person, he gives the following interpretation: “Everything in him that relates to God, the soul, moral strength, mind and will.”

D. N. Ushakov also does not include the concept of “spiritual person” in the dictionary (1935-1940). He points to the colloquial use of the adjective in the combination “a person of clergy,” making a distinction between the spiritual and the secular. S.I. Ozhegov in 1949 described the word “spiritual” as relating to religion (music, academy, school).

S. A. Kuznetsov in 1998 distinguishes two understandings: the first - related to religion and the second - having a philosophical view of the world. It is interesting that the definition of a spiritually undeveloped person in the Dictionary of Synonyms looks more than unpresentable: redneck, backward, wretched.

Psychologists about spirituality

Since the end of the nineteenth century, psychology began to study spirituality as a psychological category. They found out the connections between the so-called spiritual activities, representing art and culture, and the human psyche. Afterwards there were more studies - collective spirituality, higher spirituality as a source of creative inspiration and others. As a result, it was established that human spirituality is something subjective. It cannot be explored through science.

It was determined that spirituality distinguishes a person from other forms of life and is of a social nature. A person can use spirituality, and from the extent to which he does this, he learns the meaning of his life and his role and place in it.

Now psychologists consider the physical, material nature of a person to be only part of him. The second part, no less important, is spirituality. That is, the totality of his moral and moral values. Considering man as a spiritual being, it became possible to talk about the psychology of spirituality.

Spirituality is the basis of a harmonious life

Surrounded by each of us, there is probably a person who always radiates positivity. You know, there are such people: they are like the rays of the sun, in the light of their radiance everything seems to bloom. They are always positive. They never get angry, don’t judge anyone, don’t blame others for their problems, and most importantly, they see only the positive in everything, even where it can sometimes be very difficult to find it. Sometimes such people are even considered a little strange, and in modern society this is probably exactly what it looks like - strange.

When in the morning on a working day, in a crowd of gloomy, gloomy people tired of life, you see a person who, it would seem, is happy simply because the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and he himself receives pleasure only from the fact that he can breathe, walk, hear and to see, in fact, there is a feeling that this person is not himself. But when such a person is in your environment, a feeling of harmony arises, and with this feeling such a person infects everyone around him. In essence, this is spirituality.

Spirituality is not rituals, not commandments, not the desire to put someone into some kind of framework, to declare someone righteous, someone a sinner, someone’s faith correct, someone’s wrong, and so on. This is, rather, speculation on spirituality. It is important to separate these concepts. A spiritual person, a truly spiritual person, makes the world around him better and more harmonious. And if a person’s spirituality only leads to quarrels with loved ones, to labeling others, to condemning people, then this is pseudo-spirituality. A truly spiritual person knows the simple law by which this world lives. He knows that everything that happens in his life happens because of him and thanks to himself, and therefore judging someone is simply stupid. If we see someone's imperfection, then this imperfection originates in ourselves. This is important to understand.

A truly spiritual person will never judge or label anyone, because he knows that everything arises due to causes and conditions. And the external world only reflects the state of the internal world. If a person’s spiritual development leads to him becoming a religious fanatic and dogmatist and condemning everyone who lives differently from what is written in some clever book, this is not spirituality, but rather an attempt to hide some of his complexes behind a mask of morality, spirituality, religion and so on.

Today we can see a lot of examples of pseudo-spirituality. Starting from harmless grandmothers in the church, whose spiritual development lies in the fact that they condemn everyone who, in their understanding, acts immorally, to aggressive religious movements that do not even disdain violence and terrorist attacks. Such spirituality always has some kind of rottenness under the top layer of piety and morality. And if a person’s spirituality leads to someone suffering because of his actions, then such spirituality should be viewed with great doubt.

The meaning of the word "spirituality"

If you look up the meaning of the word “spirituality” in several dictionaries, the general meaning will be somewhere between religion and moral and ethical generally accepted norms. That is, spirituality can be both with an emphasis on religious rituals and some purely religious goals, and “secular”, that is, social spirituality, is when some generally accepted norms are promoted and cultivated. And here, too, everything will be quite conditional, since within the framework of a particular country, people, nation, tradition and, again, religion, spirituality will have certain shades. How, then, in such incredible diversity, can one grasp the essence? And in order to understand the deep essence of spirituality, you should pay attention to what unites, at first glance, different concepts, religions and movements?

And in most religions and philosophies you will come across such a concept as “compassion”. It can be expressed in other words or served, as they say, “under different sauces,” but the essence of most adequate ones (we do not take into account any shamanic teachings and peculiar rituals) is to cultivate compassion for others and strive for harmony with the outside world. In fact, all world religions teach this. Except, of course, in cases where religion is put at the service of someone's political or financial interests. And cases where, under the guise of spirituality, enterprising puppeteers carried out their business, unfortunately, are not uncommon.

Definition of a Spiritual Man

Psychologists admit that nowadays it is impossible to meet an absolutely spiritual person in society. This is a utopia, but everyone must strive for perfection. Then society will change its focus on destruction. In other words, peace and harmony with nature, society and oneself is the goal of modern man.

A spiritual person is characterized by high moral standards, he exhibits excellent qualities that characterize him as a balanced person, capable of high deeds, ready to help his neighbor. He strives for the truth, knows it and lives in accordance with it.

Man, as a spiritual being, cannot be satisfied with material well-being alone. He can and is ready to sacrifice it for the sake of satisfying his spiritual needs. There are cases in history when a person, having lost the meaning of life, faded away and even died. And, on the contrary, having an important goal (usually much more valuable than his own life), a person survived in the most difficult conditions. All these facts indicate that we cannot simplify human nature and reduce it only to physical well-being.

Basics of spiritual development

1. AdoptionAcceptance means that you do not fight with yourself or with others. You live and let live. You allow the world to be as it is, you accept that other people may not live up to your expectations.

2. Mindfulness When you are mindful, you live in the here and now. You don't miss the past or worry about the future. For you, only the present moment exists, you live it to the fullest possible extent. You are in touch with your emotions and understand why they are the way they are.
3. Peace of mind Peace of mind comes when your body, soul and spirit are in harmony and balance. They agree with each other, there is no conflict between them.
4. Unconditional love Unconditional love means that you love (a person, people or the whole world) without making demands or conditions, without trying to get something. You forget about your ego, your needs and just experience love.
5. Faith Faith comes to you when you learn a certain truth and accept it.

Freedom of the spiritual person

Lawyers have the concept of “the spirit and letter of the law.” Since everyone lives according to the laws that he has formed in his “I,” a spiritual and moral person will act according to the spirit of the law, and not according to the letter. Example: a work colleague offers an intimate meeting to a married man. My wife won't know about her. What choice will he make?

When a person is affected by any temptation, the unspiritual succumbs to it and loses his freedom - he becomes dependent on the temptation. A spiritual person will not lose freedom, will not be tempted. Psychiatrists say that the constant struggle with oneself to do what one does not want leads to neurosis. Therefore, spirituality preserves mental health - a person does what he wants, and he wants to follow moral ideals. He will stop respecting himself if he follows his desires.

Spirituality

In this dark world, consider only spiritual wealth as true, for it will never depreciate.

Omar Khayyam

We live in a very complex world, in which there is both material and non-material, there are laws according to which both exist, and there is a person who can interact with both in a certain way.
There are people who are more occupied with the material world, they want to succeed in material affairs, and there are those who are interested in the immaterial world and all of its known and mysterious laws. And although the material is in a certain way connected with the immaterial and vice versa, because people will not be able to live by one thing, nevertheless, in order to properly comprehend this or that direction, you need to devote yourself to only that one. A person can succeed either in the matter of material well-being or in spiritual development. If you combine these things, you can achieve harmonious personal development, but not absolute success in any of these areas. In this article we will talk about spirituality, what it is, what benefits it has and how to get there. And at the same time, we’ll find out whether everyone needs to become spiritually developed people or whether it may be enough for many just not to forget about the spiritual while living with material values. I decided to pay attention to this topic for the reason that, both from my own observations and from examples with other people who have embraced spirituality, I saw and understood how this direction can change a person’s life for the better and even save it. When the usual way of life brings nothing but pain and suffering to a person, spirituality can become his only salvation, both for the soul and mind, and for the body. Most modern people are individualists obsessed with the idea of ​​material success, or better said, people with high egoistic principles who are convinced that only material well-being and great influence in society, a high position in it will allow them to find full happiness in this world. I won’t say that this approach to life is wrong, but it is not as reasonable as many people think and certainly not complete. People want to get the maximum benefit in the form of simple and understandable things, preferably quickly. This is understandable, a world where there is a lot of bustle and little time, especially to think, where you constantly need to earn a living and often there is no opportunity to properly study all the latest news, let alone read a whole book, requires maximum practicality in everything. People do everything quickly, focusing on the simplest and most understandable things. Otherwise, you will not survive in such a highly competitive environment, or at least not succeed.

Therefore, such topics that do not have obvious benefits in the form of success in the material world and do not allow solving everyday problems of a material nature seem to people, if not completely useless, then in any case not paramount to pay enough attention to them. Why waste energy and time on something that you cannot touch, taste, that you cannot admire while looking at it, that you cannot show off to those who are able to appreciate only visible things. So people don’t go beyond material wealth and don’t even want to learn to go beyond them. But this is all until this game of material success, the desire for it, or some undesirable events for a person lead him to a state of complete despair, in which he will no longer want anything and may stop seeing the meaning in everything that he did and what surrounds him when he stops appreciating everything he lived for. And the fear of uncertainty, the unknown, and uncertainty can also bring a person to his knees, from which he will not be able to get up, guided by ideas that reflect the importance only of material values. That’s when he turns his attention to the other side of life – the spiritual.

And spirituality can help many people get through difficult times, survive physically and mentally, and find peace of mind. Many people return to life after heavy blows of fate and regain self-confidence thanks to spirituality. And for some, it even becomes the only meaning of life. Spirituality can also help those who have achieved a certain material success, but are still not satisfied with their lives, because, as we know, man does not live by bread alone; people can have everything except a feeling of happiness. It also helps those who have nothing, or very little, and therefore do not see any joy in life, but only problems and difficulties, and the suffering associated with them. Interest in the spiritual takes people to a different level of awareness of reality, at which many things are perceived differently. Material well-being did not always help everyone. No matter how many people you feed, both literally and figuratively, you won’t teach them to enjoy higher values.

As I always say: does a modern person, living, even in a very prosperous country, even in a very backward one, live worse than people lived in the same countries a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago? Is the problem of hunger as acute in the modern world as it was in the past? Can’t people who have a roof over their heads, clothes, food, and the opportunity to receive high-quality information, including absolutely free information, enjoy life, because they have everything they need for it? So why are there so many dissatisfied people, why is there no less violence, aggression, hostility in the world, why do people commit suicide, as if they have no other way out of the situations in which they find themselves? Why, despite the full stomachs and the freedom that many people have, albeit relative in each specific case, but still quite noticeable, are they nevertheless dissatisfied with many people and suffer? And it’s all about values ​​and a person’s understanding of this world. If you live only by material values ​​and do not perceive spiritual ones, then everything will always be not enough for a person, because he lives a limited life, perceiving only one of its sides. And with this approach to life, he will never be so satisfied with it that he no longer worries about his material condition and in general about how he lives. Because material enrichment is only a part of life, but there are other parts of it that also need a person to comprehend them and live by them. One such part is spirituality, which allows a person to serve higher goals and adhere to higher values. Why higher? Therefore, in order to perceive and use them, we need to develop, without this they will not be available to us, because natural instincts alone are not enough to follow such values ​​and enjoy them. And thus, the more we know this world and the better we understand it, the more of what is in it we become able to enjoy. In particular, spiritual values ​​become available to us, living by which we receive complete satisfaction from life.

What is spirituality

I will give my own definition of spirituality as I understand it. It may not coincide with what other people think about this phenomenon. Spirituality is a state of mind that helps a person understand that he is part of a single whole, in such a state he rises above his personal interests and begins to think in the interests of this whole, which are higher and more significant than his own interests. A person’s spirituality is expressed in serving those values ​​that stand above his personal values. That is, he no longer thinks about his own interests and desires, but about the interests and goals of the whole of which he is a part. And we can also say that spirituality is a phenomenon that reflects the interests of the whole through the interests of each of us. To be a spiritually developed person means to rise above your animal essence and begin to serve higher values ​​and pursue more significant goals. These goals are creative and developmental in nature.

Spiritually developed people

Now let's look at who spiritually evolved people are and why we should value and learn from these people, unless we ourselves are one of them. Spiritually developed people are people who adhere to and disseminate ideas in society based on intangible higher values, on spiritual values ​​that are creative in nature. That is, such people call for goodness, mercy, love, freedom, justice, mutual respect, development, patience and the like. The value of these values ​​becomes more obvious the more a person suffers from their absence in his life. For example, people sometimes need to compare a life in which there is mercy with a life in which there is none, in order to understand how important this is, which is worth promoting and which is worth adhering to for the sake of the common good.

Spiritual people are not selfish or materialistic; they do not need wealth and luxury, because such things distract them from the spiritual, and therefore the highest good. For them, such things as love, freedom, justice, kindness, truth, knowledge are important, in a word, everything that has value for a person, but does not have direct material embodiment. You can’t touch such things with your hands, you can’t stuff them into your stomach, you can’t weigh them on a scale, but they exist and give us a lot. Spiritual people serve such values ​​because they believe that this corresponds to the plans of higher powers, the plans of the whole of which they are a part. They themselves adhere to these values, and they teach other people to value them. This is the benefit of spiritually developed people, they teach society to live according to new, more humane laws, and not according to bestial ones, not according to the laws of nature, which are quite harsh and merciless to any weakness. Take, for example, the same mercy that makes people’s lives much more comfortable, because thanks to it we can always count on the help of others when we have any difficulties, and we ourselves can provide such help when we have such an opportunity. If we had not done this, then many of us might not have survived if something bad happened to us. But mercy must be taught; even if it is given to us from birth, it is in a completely undeveloped form, and if a person is not taught to help other people, if it is not explained to him why this is necessary, what such help gives to society and why it is important, he will not be able to won't want to help anyone. Spiritual values ​​need to be instilled in people; one might say that sometimes they need to be implanted, long and diligently, until people realize their importance and begin to live by new rules that call on them to rise above their nature. Only spiritually developed people can do this, who themselves have perfectly comprehended the value of higher ideas and can convey important thoughts to most other people. The same religion is a vivid example of this. Once upon a time, she really helped make people more humane, teaching them to help each other and be more tolerant of each other. Although, of course, she always had and still has dark sides, but without this nothing can exist. Every medal has two sides.

Spiritual development

But why should each of us develop spiritually, why move in this direction if, for example, we recognize the importance of spiritual values, partly adhere to them, but are not going to serve them? This is necessary in order to discover new horizons of this world for yourself, to learn things that are simply incomprehensible in ordinary life, and thus come to peace and harmony, and perhaps to a new meaning in life, giving up everything that we are all lived this time. How do any of us know that the life we ​​are living is right or that it is the best option for us? Well, yes, there is some kind of satisfaction that we can experience from our deeds, from various achievements, from the joys that are available to us, from the pleasure that we know about. But why not learn something new that can add new joys, new pleasure to life, make it more interesting, show us new goals that we can strive for in order to live life with meaning? If you are well-fed, clothed, shod, you have a roof over your head, some kind of stability in business and confidence in the future, and you also have free time from all the fuss that allowed you to achieve all of the above, then There is nothing stopping you from trying to learn something new, from discovering other aspects of life that may turn out to be more interesting and meaningful than what you currently know. Otherwise, are you going to live your whole life according to just one scenario, are you going to work, accumulate material wealth, and then pass them on to inheritance? Or how? And if the heirs turn out to be unlucky, if, due to their lack of the necessary ideas about life, they will not see any point in continuing your business and will simply squander everything that you have created and saved all your life, then is it worth it to do everything just like that? do? Yes, even if you live only for yourself, how long can you do this and what is the point? There may be many questions here that encourage a person to think about the need to somehow change something in his life or add something to it, so that it becomes more meaningful, so that there is a new interest in something, in some idea, some significant goal has appeared. You can also delve into spirituality, which we are talking about here. People turn to spirituality for various reasons, and one of them is the desire to live a more interesting, rich and full life.

How to develop spiritually

To develop spiritually, a person needs to abandon the way of life that is familiar to most people. And the more perfection he wants to achieve in this, the more he will have to give up. If he simply wants to supplement his life with spiritual values, then he must first show interest in spirituality, communicate with spiritually developed people, understand what values ​​they profess, what goals they pursue, what ideas they offer. Spirituality can take many forms, depending on who spreads it in society and what teaching he offers. The main sign of spirituality is the common good, and not the interests of an individual person or group of people. In order to take the path of spiritual development, you also need to begin to observe certain restrictions, be moderate in many things, do good deeds, help people and thus become involved in spiritual life. I repeat, it is not necessary to completely abandon your lifestyle, in which material values ​​and selfish interests predominate. You can complement your life with spirituality, but it does not have to replace your life. It is clear that less conventionally bad and evil deeds need to be done, otherwise there will be no talk of any spiritual development. While serving the highest ideals, one cannot harm society and specific people, who are the embodiment of the whole of which we are all a part. It is better to abandon bad deeds altogether, replacing them with deeds that should be based on love for one’s neighbor and care for him. Not in all cases it is possible to solve problems with the help of kindness and love, then a spiritual person gives way to those who know how to speak the language of power. His mission is to awaken the humanity in every person, and talking to people in the language of violence is not his task. There are other people for this.

Those who want to achieve a high level of spirituality must renounce worldly goods and begin to be content with only the most necessary, delving into the comprehension of spiritual values, without being distracted by material values. And, of course, such a person needs to follow his chosen spiritual ideals, and not just learn and talk about them. And only then, when he rises above his nature, when he learns to live a very simple life, without any luxury and abundance, doing things useful to society, can he begin to spread high ideals in the form of practical ideas in society, showing other people how they can live by adhering to the highest values. In other words, you need to start moving away from your natural nature, from your animal psyche, from your instinctive urges in order to make decisions based on high ideals and common sense, and show everyone by personal example how to live such a reasonable and moderate life. Personal example is very important here, because in our society there are a lot of people who call themselves spiritual, but at the same time live by worldly values, chase material success, do not observe any, including their own rules of spiritual behavior, which imply human limitations in his desires caused by natural instincts. Such people call for higher values, but they themselves live in lower joys. They can call for good, but at the same time they themselves do evil from time to time. They promote non-violence, but at the same time allow themselves to commit it against those who are defenseless in front of them. Then this is either hypocrisy on their part, or simply a lack of understanding of what true spirituality is and what it is needed for.

You cannot be an avid materialist and at the same time a spiritually developed person; you need to choose one thing if you want to achieve really high results in this. More precisely, you can combine both values; you can complement your life with spiritual values, thus expanding your understanding of the world. But if you want to achieve high spirituality, then you will have to give up material wealth that clogs your mind. It is not necessary to profess asceticism for this; this is an extreme measure, as I believe, one can do without it. But you definitely need to become a minimalist in order to have only everything you need for life, without any excesses. Otherwise, you will not be able to appreciate the spiritual in order to understand all its beauty, if at the same time you enjoy your existing comfort and material well-being. It is impossible to realize higher values ​​while enjoying lower values, at least in their entirety. For spiritual development, you need to begin to move away from your animal essence, from all those urges that are inherent in us by nature. And this means that there should be no desire for wealth, in which a person turns into an automaton for extracting money and other material values ​​and has no time to think about lofty things. You cannot follow your instincts, you cannot be what nature made us, you need to become someone who rises above your nature, thanks to high ideals and the voice of reason. It is impossible to get rid of innate qualities, but you can take control of them. Only in this case will a new understanding of life open to a person, when he moves from the direct perception of reality to a perception of it in which his consciousness will guide him, and not his instincts. This is difficult, which is why there are so few spiritually developed people in our society. Some people give up spirituality because of all sorts of temptations, some because of fear of restrictions, and some simply think that they are a spiritual person, but at the same time they want everything that ordinary people want and are drawn to it. Therefore, this path is not for everyone.

The ideal option for the existence of a spiritually developed person is to live at the expense of gifts and donations, thanks to which he will have the minimum necessary for life and will be able to study higher values, reflect on them, indulge in them, in order to then give society new ideas that will help people build a more perfect humane and humane world. Such a person should not earn in the usual way, especially a lot, since ordinary work and a lot of money will change his mind, returning him from the spiritual world to the material one, in which he must constantly spin around, count money, solve everyday issues, compete with people, and so on. . Such a life can completely absorb a person and he simply will not have the strength and time left for spiritual development. If consciousness is distracted by such things as everyday life, then a person simply will not be able to study anything more that exists in this world. Therefore, spiritual development requires, if not absolute asceticism, then at least a very modest life, for which small donations and gifts from grateful people who understand the importance of spiritual development are quite enough. People give a spiritual person the material resources necessary for life, and in return he enlightens them on the issue of higher values ​​and gives this world new ideas that will help change it for the better. Therefore, a truly spiritual person cannot have any wealth and luxury, because he shouldn’t. Even if people shower him with material values, including donations in the form of money, he must refuse the excess. Such a person can donate everything unnecessary to those who need it, especially children.

Truly spiritual people should have a simple life from a material point of view. Just as one cannot think purely and sharply with a full stomach, it is impossible to comprehend and carry spiritual values ​​while living in luxury and abundance. This is very important to understand. You also cannot constantly think about how to earn money for living; a spiritually developed person should be helped with money and other resources, thus allowing him to do his work, which not everyone is ready to do and not everyone is able to do. The mind must be in one state, either worldly or spiritual, for a person to succeed in one or the other activity. I repeat, these things can be combined to make life complete, but in order to greatly succeed in this matter, you only need to devote yourself to it.

Spiritual people need to be helped and supported. Society and every single member of it needs this. Just as society supports science, art, and philosophy, it should also support spirituality. Giving gifts to spiritually developed people means serving God, society, the world and, ultimately, oneself. After all, each of us wants to live in a society in which everyone will be happy, because in such a society there will be many times more good than evil, from which everyone can suffer. And who, if not spiritually developed people, can teach people to live in peace and harmony, to be satisfied with life and enjoy it, regardless of whether they have enough material wealth or not. It turns out that you feed the body of such people so that it lives, and in return they will feed your soul and mind so that you live well and happily. A completely normal, reasonable, necessary division of labor, in which everyone does what is closest to him.

Spirituality is the future

To think about the highest, about the eternal, about the bright, and therefore about the spiritual - think about the future. And for his sake we do a lot in the present. Our children will live in the future that we are building today. The spiritual exists for a reason, but as a reward to people for comprehending the highest values. All these values ​​require sacrifice from a person in the form of renunciation of available worldly goods, for the sake of which we are ready to destroy a lot here and now. But if we move away from our selfishness, we can build a simply fabulous future for our children. Today people lie, steal, kill, rob, use each other, manipulate each other, and tomorrow some spiritual person may appear who has nothing but his teaching and will change society with the help of this teaching so that all these vile things causing pain and suffering will be many times less. And each of us will be able to live in a world in which you can trust other people, in which no one will steal anything from you, in which you will not be subjected to violence just because someone has the opportunity to use it on you, in which you they will extend their hand if you stumble, and will not finish you off for selfish purposes, believing that this is how it should be. Well, maybe it’s not we who will live in such a world, but our children, but it’s possible. Would you say this is a utopia? But hasn’t the same religion made people kinder and more tolerant of each other, haven’t the spiritual values ​​it promotes made many of us more humane? And even though no religious teaching is ideal, we still received something good from each of these teachings, thanks to which life in society became better and people became kinder. Right? Well, here's a manifestation of spiritual values. And there may be a lot more of them, such manifestations, because there can be a great many ideas based on high spiritual ideals. The world will never become ideal, perfect, flawless in every sense, but it can become better. It is already better here, compared to the wild world in which people once lived who had no idea about some kind of intangible spiritual values. The one who survived was simply stronger, more cunning, faster, more dexterous than others. But then people, with the help of ideas preaching good deeds, made the world a little better.

Everything that we have achieved in spiritual, moral, cultural development is not the limit. There are many ideas, concepts, teachings aimed at helping a person rise above his natural essence and live not according to the laws of the jungle, but according to the laws of the highest ideals, according to the laws of justice, freedom, love, respect and other values ​​that are great in their meaning. Let us still live in not the best society, from the point of view of people’s attitude towards each other. Even though the problem of wars has not been solved, the problem of social inequality has not been solved, in which people suppress and use each other, having such opportunities, there are many things that are still not arranged in our society so that we can be completely satisfied with it. But our children can live in a better world than ours, they can achieve great success in this matter if we today make our contribution to the development of spirituality, both our own and public. We invest in material well-being, both for ourselves and for our children; we want to pass on some material assets by inheritance, so that the life of our descendants will be at least as good as ours. Well, what will all these values ​​mean in a world where man is a wolf to man, where everyone is ready to deceive, betray, kill for the sake of some things, resources? All this can be lost by some due to the aggression of others. But if everyone is happy with everything, then people will have nothing to worry about, they will live in peace and harmony with each other. If we think about the future of our children, passing on our material values ​​to them, we must also think about the shell in which all these values ​​will exist and bring them joy. And this is an ideological shell based on spiritual values.

Ultimately, all people want to be happy. That is, constantly experience joy, satisfaction and peace. We just need to create conditions so that such a state arises and does not disappear. For example, one of these conditions is freedom, or more precisely, a person’s feeling of his freedom, without which true happiness is impossible. And freedom is a spiritual value that needs to be disseminated in society in the form of a reasonable and implementable idea that will allow people to feel free and at the same time not slide into permissiveness and anarchy, which will no longer be good for people. And spiritually developed people come up with ideas that help to correctly instill such values ​​in people, creating an important condition for happiness and eliminating the possibility of abuse of such values.

Both a materialist and a spiritually developed person can be happy. But everyone will have their own happiness. Everyone will experience it differently. As I believe, given my life experience, in which there was a place for material success, and then there were certain achievements in spiritual development, spirituality gives a more lasting feeling of happiness than material success. Because in this case, happiness depends on much fewer conditions. I will not call such happiness unconditional, because, nevertheless, some conditions must be met for spirituality to bring satisfaction. Let's say that everyone needs the same opportunity to feed themselves; a person lives in the physical world and you will not be satisfied with spirituality alone. But still, such happiness requires much less from people for its existence; it is, let’s say, less demanding of a person than the happiness experienced by a person who has achieved material success. A person only needs to think about the highest values, realize them, adhere to these values, serve them, and he will have a great meaning in life, thanks to which he will feel his importance, regardless of how much material wealth he has.

Spirituality and spiritual development are not entertainment, not a game, not some activity for those who are bored - this is service to higher values, this is work for the benefit of all humanity, this is an investment in the future of our children, this is, in some cases, salvation for a person who is confused in life and does not know what to live for. Spirituality invites us all to live for the sake of the interests of the whole, for the sake of the interests of being, and not just for the sake of our personal interests. Whether to devote oneself to this activity or not, and how to devote oneself, completely surrendering to spirituality or partially devoting one’s attention to it, each person decides for himself. In this matter, people should have complete freedom of choice. You can adhere to spiritual values, or you can serve them. In both cases, a person will gain a lot. But in the second case, he will have to give up much that is valuable to most people. Only then will he be able to achieve the highest results in spiritual development.

The right to choose

All people have the right to choose how to live, how to act. What moral values ​​should you have? A person who strives to get what he wants cares only about himself. Having received what he wants, he does not find satisfaction. A spiritual person thinks not only about himself. He sees his place in society, his role in it. And he correlates his own desires with what is higher and more significant than himself.

For some it is serving God, for others it is serving science. Such people are happy in what they can give—“it is more blessed to give than to receive,” as Acts 20:35 states. This is how spiritual people are.

What does the highest spiritual level of human development mean?

The spiritual level reflects the degree of a person’s involvement in spiritual life, the extent to which he perceives himself as a soul and acts as a soul. The highest spiritual level of development of a person means that he completely identifies himself with the soul and behaves accordingly, drawing happiness from within himself. The activity acquires a spiritual character, as the motives become spiritual. If previously a person acted to satisfy his feelings, then at the highest spiritual level a person acts in a certain way because he feels like a soul. It becomes common for him to behave like a soul. The eternal soul, filled with happiness and possessing the fullness of consciousness, is not attached to the material world as a way to enjoy or suffer. At the highest spiritual level, a person ceases to live in concepts: pleasure/suffering, good/bad, right/wrong; for him, life becomes a continuation of his nature, because he cannot behave differently. This is self-evident.

So, the highest spiritual level of human development is manifested in the fact that he lives as a soul, which, in essence, he is. In such a manifestation, the mind, mind, feelings, body, motives, goals, activities and relationships all become spiritual .

What does it mean to live as a soul? The soul is eternal, happy and self-conscious, belonging to the spiritual world. Living as a soul means having no attachments to the material world, acting based on spiritual motives, and also seeing not only yourself as a soul, but also every living being. It is important, however, to understand what the soul is. The soul is a particle of God, separated, but eternally connected with Him. Each soul has its own uniqueness, and the purpose of each soul is to serve God. Serving God is the highest spiritual motive and value. But such service does not always mean some ceremonial action. Serving God can be manifested in daily activities that we dedicate to the Almighty. We should wake up, work, go to sleep, act and speak with the awareness that we are doing this for God. Being thus in union with the Almighty. The natural nature of the soul is to serve God, not as a slave, but as a servant who does this out of loyalty and love for the master, and not simply out of fear. To realize oneself as a soul means to serve God out of a feeling of love. And to serve God means dedicating everything to Him and realizing that God is the highest goal and value of human life.

Spirituality Brings Responsibility

A spiritually mature person realizes that along with the freedom to do what he considers right comes responsibility for the use of this freedom. Regarding this, there is the following example: an airplane can roll on the ground, but that is not what makes it an airplane. When it is already in the sky, then it becomes obvious that it is an airplane. Likewise with spirituality, there is still no situation in which a person’s spiritual qualities will manifest themselves; it is not visible. But when the decisive moment comes, his high moral essence becomes obvious to everyone - it manifests itself in this situation.

Psychology considers spirituality, freedom and responsibility as the most important components of personality. They are closely related. An unspiritual person will not want to take responsibility for his actions and will begin to look for someone to blame. A spiritual person, having made a mistake, admits it.

Perfection of Spirituality

The highest spiritual level of human development means a complete perception of oneself as a soul . This also means that a person perceives others as souls. Knowing that every soul is a servant of God makes it possible to experience the harmony of realizing that all living beings are connected by their nature as servants of God. Failure to see this indicates a lack of immersion in the spiritual life. But when a person realizes himself as a soul, all doubts, hatred, anger and conceit are absent in him, only his inherent nature remains. Because man by nature is the soul and servant of God, like all living beings. The ability to perceive life in this way means the highest spiritual level of human development.

The spiritual sphere of social life

Human society is divided into spiritual and material spheres. Of course, the material sphere is important - it ensures physical existence. But in order to manifest himself as a spiritual person, he also needs a corresponding sphere.

The spiritual sphere of man includes religion, science, morality, culture, art, and law. Pedagogy has established that instilling the foundations of culture from an early age makes it possible to raise a harmonious, responsible personality. Doctors have found that the connections in the brain that are formed when playing musical instruments expand a person’s mathematical abilities. The development of creative abilities that art provides expands the scope of freedom and teaches you to make innovative decisions.

The spiritual realm has a powerful influence on the individual. The conclusion is obvious: man, as a social being, cannot fully develop without society.

Lack of spiritual harmony

People in whom the spiritual component is poorly developed are in the sleep mode stage. Such people are not used to enjoying life; for them there are no moral boundaries. They are completely subordinate to their base instincts and suffer from their own powerlessness.

A person who lacks spirituality simply exists without any meaning; the life of such people is filled with grief and pain. They don’t want to change anything in their lives; they are closed to themselves and others. This state of mind leads humanity to the most vile actions and deeds.

It is necessary to develop your spirit and body throughout your life. Such harmony within us allows us to achieve the highest results.

To achieve a spiritual state, you need to work long and carefully on your mistakes and go through the entire path of spiritual development. This is a huge amount of work on yourself.

Spiritual guidelines

Society has always had accepted norms that were considered spiritual guidelines. The Holy Scripture played a huge role in their formation. The two largest religions based on it - Christianity and Islam - are professed by 33% and 23% of the world population, respectively. Social, economic and criminal laws and the Constitutions of many countries are drawn up on the basis of the Ten Commandments.

The Golden Rule, found in Matthew 7:12, encourages people to do as they would like to be treated. This is not just maintaining neutrality according to the formula “do no harm to anyone, so that no harm will be done to you” and not a common saying calling for retribution “as you do to me, so I will to you.” This was taught by many ancient philosophers. Christ taught to actively do good, so that you yourself would be rewarded with good. And he added that this is the whole law and the prophets.

A person's spiritual orientation as an individual is even more closely tied to Scripture, even if he has never read it. Thanks to public morality, the concepts of good or bad, decent or dishonest, acceptable or unacceptable keep the individual within certain limits. Literature is built on the basis of public morality - a powerful means of cultivating spirituality. The author’s detailed description of the deep motives of the hero’s actions makes it possible to gain one’s own experience. Among the great writers who indicated spiritual guidelines are L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov, C. Dickens, E. M. Remarque.

How to achieve peace of mind

If we blindly follow everything that is stated in the scriptures, we are unlikely to be able to achieve the desired result that each of us strives for. The path to ideal spiritual enlightenment lies through overcoming your own concerns and fears. The road to independent awareness is very long, but, nevertheless, every person can go through this difficult path in a short period of time. When others will not be able to comprehend the simple truth in their entire lives.

Of all the teachings about human spirituality, choose only the most valuable information. Under no circumstances follow everything that is written thoughtlessly, because you may lose your mind.

The idea of ​​spiritual enlightenment is that every person himself must realize the seriousness and significance of righteous deeds. After all, it is much more pleasant to bring goodness, good intentions and thoughts into our beautiful world. It becomes especially pleasant in those moments when you feel the return on your efforts. Then new abilities open up in us, our soul becomes much wider.

We begin to notice all the beauty and tenderness of our nature. The main achievement in such aspirations is complete dedication and a sense of significance. When our actions bear fruit, then endless possibilities open up for us. A flame begins to “burn up” within us. There is an interest in further self-development.

Once you begin to feel that you have reached the maximum level of awareness, do not rush to stop and give up. After all, it is impossible to achieve absolute knowledge, because everyone chooses the criteria by which they begin to evaluate their actions and thoughts. However, basic knowledge is enough to get closer to self-improvement.

You shouldn't stop halfway to self-improvement. As soon as you feel that you have reached the maximum point of development of your inner world. Think a little and you will find many more errors and shortcomings that need to be corrected

To get started, all you need is a basic understanding of spirituality, as well as a little patience and perseverance. Further actions will be much more productive. Thoughts and actions will give results that until recently may have seemed unattainable to you.

However, you should not relax, since working on yourself is a long process that requires special attention. Then you need to go deeper and deeper, and there are no certain boundaries in self-development. We ourselves must choose at what stage we can stop. Or move on without stopping to get the most effective return on your efforts.

Spiritual hero in literature

The purpose of the writer was expressed by A. S. Pushkin in the work “The Prophet”. It echoes the biblical account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah. In the book bearing the name of the prophet, chapter 6 is devoted to this. With a verb, that is, with a word, to burn the hearts of people - this is the task of a prophet and writer who is gifted with talent.

Daniel Defoe described the life of Robinson Crusoe far from civilization. With the moral values ​​from the Bible, he created a beautiful world on the island. He did not go wild, but was melted down in a difficult ordeal.

Jonathan Swift endowed his Gulliver with moral qualities. Some of his actions have become household names.

The Little Prince Exupery amazes with the wisdom of simple logic based on love.

The heroes of Jane Eyre, A.I. Kuprin, Jack London, V. Kataev have accompanied many since childhood. They go through life's difficulties, their character qualities are worthy of emulation.

What to do when you have developed spiritually?

No answer. In spiritual development, life becomes simpler. You are already happier, you accept life as it is. Even the universe fulfills the wishes you make faster. Money is coming. By the way, money is the most important catalyst for spiritual development. When a person experiences problems with money, first of all he goes to spiritual development.

Psychologists would NOT want you to know these secrets about yourself

—Imagine this situation...
What if, instead of paying for years for useless consultations with a psychologist, in 21 days you can work with yourself? Get rid of negative thoughts and states forever. And instead live a calm and happy life? Stop living in stress due to relationships or constant lack of money?

Tell me this is impossible?

I thought so too, until I started working with myself

LIVING HAPPY IS EASY

My name is Ivan, I am 35 years old, and I have been practicing psychology for 15 years. I have studied all the basic methods and techniques through which I help people find happiness. NLP, hypnosis, body-image therapy. I was invited on television as an expert.

And it was... just a nightmare!

I lived in a state of depression for 7 years (constant stress exhausted me). I had a lot of low self-confidence (my self-esteem was below 0). I could not calmly communicate with people, it seemed to me that I was not worthy of them.

The relationship did not work out (because I was very negative, jealous, a doormat). I’m generally silent about decent earnings; I earned 15,000 rubles a month and thought that was the limit. I didn’t want to live... Envy.

The worst thing is, I thought I would have to live like this forever, and I don’t deserve love and happiness.

But it only got worse, negative states fell on me like a snowball. It felt like I was sitting in a deep, black hole from which there was no way out. Hopelessness, despair, pain, resentment.

My life has turned into endless torture. But then a miracle happened...

I FOUND THE KEY... EVERYONE HAS IT...

One day my father came home from work, a little drunk, although he never drank much.

He came into the kitchen..., looked at me with a dissatisfied expression and began to say with anger how worthless I was, how I couldn’t do anything, and in general, how sorry he was that he was my father.

At first I felt severe mental pain (this is very painful to hear from my family). Then I got offended (does that mean I’m not a favorite son?!) And then an insight came to me...

I received that magical kick that I had been waiting for all my life. It changed my thinking, my life and my relationships with my environment.

I had already forgiven my father simply because he told me the truth and I was happy about it!

But then the most interesting thing began...

Literally 5 minutes later I was already sitting at the computer and writing out all the psychological (!) methods of working with myself.

I was even confused, because my plans were to continue to suffer all my life.

It was such an incredible feeling of freedom and desire to do something that I burst into tears of happiness.

THE MAIN SECRET OF HAPPINESS

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Happiness, relationships, friends, travel. Even if you are alone, you do not feel discomfort. You are comfortable where everything is and is here.

Personal qualities

In pedagogy, qualities are distinguished that are cultivated for the formation of a spiritual personality. This is the ability to take responsibility for one’s actions, understanding their impact on others. A spiritual person is, first of all, a moral person. He is characterized by honesty, decency, inner purity, nobility. He despises lies and theft. He is characterized by tolerance towards everyone, respect for people of the opposite sex, mutual assistance, caring for those in need, and self-control.

The behavior of such a person is not limited to the above qualities. He constantly works on himself to achieve even higher ideals. This is ensured by internal freedom - personal autonomy. He does not violate the laws of society not because of fear of punishment, but because they are the laws of his personality.

What does it mean to be decent?

Decency implies doing good deeds, the ability to follow divine commandments. Decent people act honestly and fairly in any situation, even unfavorable ones. They help others, but do not expect gratitude in return.

Signs of decent people:

1. Politeness with others. They show respect to everyone, regardless of age, social status and wealth. This is not an attempt to appear perfect, but a sincere desire to be polite.
2. Kindness and responsiveness. Decent people do selfless things.
3. Caring for others. It's easy to be selfish and do everything only for yourself. Good citizens care about others. They think about the consequences of their actions and how they will affect others.
4. Compliance with ethical and moral standards. From decent people you will not hear swear words, insults towards others or gossip. They hide irritation, suppress aggression and resolve conflicts peacefully.
5. Sincerity. Having integrity means expressing your thoughts sincerely, being open and honest.
6. Admitting your mistakes. Such people do not look for excuses for mistakes; they admit they are wrong.

Become a better person, enrich your inner world, strive to be highly moral with the help of the guidelines reflected in the article.

The influence of a socially spiritual person on society

No man has influenced history more than Jesus Christ. He taught his followers to spread what they learned. How many times have they been tried to destroy them, like Christ himself! But they still brought the truth to the world. The religion is named after their teacher, and the beginning of a new era is considered to be from his birth.

John Gutenberg invented the printing press to disseminate the Holy Scriptures, and it had a huge impact on culture around the world. Books became much cheaper and everyone could afford to buy them. Cyril and Methodius, Greek missionaries, created the Slavic alphabet for translating the Holy Scriptures and this enriched our language. Many Russian proverbs are actually taken from the Bible.

Leo Tolstoy highly valued the Word of God and in his works comprehensively considered good and evil. His novels were highly appreciated by M. Gandhi, who led the struggle for the liberation of India. He spoke about the importance of Christian teaching, that all the world's problems would be solved if people actually adhered to it.

As can be seen from these examples, even one spiritual person is an undoubted benefit to society.

Who is a cultured person

No one is born immediately cultured. Culture is instilled through education and upbringing. Its objective and symbolic forms are not introduced by themselves. They are offered to us as a subject of study, and we study throughout our lives.

We learn our first cultural concepts at a young age. Relatives teach the child the basic concepts of good and evil. By their example, they demonstrate a model of behavior that the baby adopts.

As a person grows up, he acquires new cultural values: education, art; learns to observe moral and ethical standards. You cannot call someone uncultured. The level of culture consists of many traits. In order to draw conclusions about him, you need to get to know the person better and evaluate his actions.

Signs of a cultural personality:

• politeness;
• education;
• tolerance;
• restraint;
• responsibility;
• respect for oneself, others, work, nature;
• grammatically correct speech;
• cleanliness and neat appearance;
• self confidence;
• self-development;
• devotion to the homeland.

Culturally developed people will not be rude, rude, or insult others, even if they are wrong. In order to develop such qualities in yourself, you will need to work hard on your education. Books, works of great philosophers, fiction and scientific literature will help with this.