The Three Steps Of Study, Prayer, And Realization

The book is divided into seven parts. The book focuses spiritual growth and it is a manual for building a Spirit-filled life in a world where perfection can only be found in God’s loving vision. Ortberg helps us gauge your spiritual health and measure the gap between where you are now and where God intends you to be. As the author emphasizes on

3. Cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and to others, becomes: "Cultivation of one’s own spiritual practices and transpersonal self, going beyond ego self" (p. 468).

Henri J. M. Nouwen’s book, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, examines three aspects of spiritual movement in which he unveils how humanity relates to self, others, and God to achieve true spirituality. The first movement revealed is the movement from loneliness to solitude, second is the movement from hostility to hospitality, and finally, is the movement from illusion to prayer.

Another, aspect, spirituality is not as much a prearranged system, it is a quest and a prolongation of one’s development.

Often many times we wonder what it is like to understand the mind and its functions, yet to understand it we have to have the knowledge to go forth with it. The mind is a complex figure to understand; furthermore the mind is something you must understand on your own. The philosophical meaning of the mind is, the nature of mental phenomena, and their behavior, nonetheless the brain. The mind is not something easy to make sense of, its like reading a hundred pages of Spanish writings and being able to tell the whole story to someone who doesn't speak the same language as you. Things like reality, computers, conciseness, reactions, response, etc, come into factor when figuring out the mind.

In the beginning, I felt Anderson’s heart when he wrote, “there is no replacement for a deep and abiding experiential relationship with God when it comes to authentic spirituality” (pg. 51). God is always available at the surface level, but it is down deep into the soil of one’s heart where the authentic growth and development will blossom. One must invite and permit God to come in and began that relationship that cultivates authentic encounters that transforms life from dark to light.

Spiritual disciplines will prepare us for our journey in Christ. I feel if understanding correctly, the classical Christian Pilgrimage remind us that we all have issues requiring regular examination. In chapter eight, the classical Christian Pilgrimage tells us we are at different stages on the path of wholeness in Christ. However, in my thoughts some areas of our Christian journey we may be doing well, but in other areas we have not touched at all. Not to mention, these are the place we are not ready or capable of handling yet, however, as we mature in God and He knows what we can handle, then we are awakened. God awakens us to our true selves which have not been completely revealed. In reality, once we reach maturity to God, he reveals all that is hidden deep inside of us (the real us/you). By the same token, he let us see the inner behaviors, attitudes, desires, in fact how we measure up in them being Christ-like. I feel the awakening stage deals with the comfort of being set free of these issues that are holding us back also causing detours on our path to wholeness in Christ. Equally, the threat is being afraid to see who we really are; also how far from Christ-like we really are. We must first be awakened from our separation also alienation from God (Mulholland 79-82).

I believe that ultimate reality is based on Christianity or the claim that there is a god and we are not god. According to Christianity, 2000 years ago the son of God came to the earth to reveal the Father to us. He was sent to die for our sins, in which he was crucified. After the third day of his death, he resurrected and ascended into the heavens.

The mind, body and soul are connected therefore the soul must die with the body, therefore the soul must be mortal, therefore one will experience nothing after death, therefore one should not fear death. That is the Super Sparknotes version of Book III of Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things. It looks so tidy on the page laid out like that, but when broken down and considered with respect to human nature and existence, it becomes far more complex, as many things often do when taken out of the context of academic theory and applied to, for lack of a better term, real life.

The problem of other minds, in philosophy, addresses the issue of finding justification for the existence of minds other than one’s own. The issue is one that logically and chronologically follows the resolution of whether the individual mind truly exists, for if an individual admits to being, or at least having, a mind, then the question of whether consciousness exists in other beings shortly follows. Put simply, the problem states: if one can only observe the behavior of others, and if one cannot prove the actuality of any thoughts other than one’s own, then how can one know that others have minds? That is, the presence of complex behavior does not provide proof of mentality. While the answer seems simple if examined superficially, the proof and reasoning remains difficult to articulate. It is reasonable to assume that because I have a thinking mind—that which reasons, feels, remembers, and is self-aware—then the human beings surrounding me must surely have the same; however, philosophy calls in to question the reality of “ingenious automata,” or mechanical computers made to imitate a human beings (Russell 248). Could the beings surround one’s self be humans with similar human minds, or could they be humanoid robots created to act and react as humans would? This possible, although admittedly improbable, suggestion forces one to contemplate and legitimize the idea of personhood as it applies to beings other than one’s self.

Personal and/or religious experience is particularly revealing for developing a fuller understanding or ourselves and/God? (35)

same basic infinite divine reality lies at the experiential roots of all religions. However, they

…And you have to realize that your experience begins from within. And your joyful thoughts bring joy, and your abundant thoughts bring abundance and thoughts of limitation ring limitation.

Just as a prior-detailed house plan is the only medium, which facilitates ‘the realization or measurement of whatever rate of progress is achieved or not achieved’ in the coarse of the houses construction. So is every person 's prior-projected daily life faith walk and one’s respective relating to God, also the only medium. Which facilitates ‘the realization or measurement of whatever progress’ the person achieves or does not achieve, in the coarse of one 's daily life faith walk and respective relating to God.

I will explore a few of unique approaches as outlined in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. I will describe my experience of integrating some of the concepts of spiritual direction into my practice.