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.
Spiritual abilities and spiritual states
What characterizes a spiritual state? The spiritual state is characterized by the expansion of consciousness, the active inclusion of the subconscious in the process of comprehending the truth, the establishment of a communicative connection between the consciousness and the subconscious and thereby a sharp expansion of the information base for understanding the problem, energy activation, switching emotions from the mode of blocking information to the mode of energy replenishment.
The spiritual state is characterized by harmonization of the personality, elimination of contradictions with the environment or blocking of these contradictions, concentration on a cognizable problem, on comprehending the truth, internal balance, a positive outlook on life, high concentration of aspirations, strengthening of the will and its control by the individual, “I”.
The spiritual state is characterized by a transition to figurative thinking, which, in turn, contributes to the activation of information exchange with the subconscious, since the information of the personal subconscious is stored in figurative and sensory form[83]. Imagery helps to comprehend the situation holistically, reveal new relationships, and look at old ones at a new level of integration.
Spiritual states are characterized by high productivity of imagination, which, in turn, expands the information capacity of our consciousness.
In a spiritual state, words and concepts can be translated into images and feelings, thereby facilitating the inclusion of imagination processes.
The spiritual state, as we have already noted, is also a motivational state. But unlike biological motivations, this will be a spiritual motivation generated by the spiritual values of the individual. The most important among these values is faith: faith in God, faith in an idea, faith in goodness, faith in an idol, leader, hero. Another, no less significant determinant of spiritual state and spiritual motivation is love: love for God, love for a woman, love for the Fatherland. ‹…›
Since the spiritual state contributes to the expansion of the information base, connects the information resources of the subconscious, the spiritual state thereby contributes to the productivity of thinking.
The spiritual state is characterized by a feeling of internal activity, the unity of spiritual abilities and properties, feelings and emotions, the unity of mental, moral, spiritual qualities, and the desire for spiritual progress. Spiritual aspirations include: intellectual, moral and religious, as well as conscientiousness. An important role in determining the spiritual state is played by a feeling of moral and mental superiority, purity or guilt.
In a spiritual state is the secret of creativity. The spiritual state determines the selection of information, the nature of its processing, the establishment of relationships and the nature of generalizations. The spiritual state increases the directed insight of the individual’s mind, highlights those properties of objects that will resolve the problem and reveal the truth.
A spiritual state can arise both in cases of practical life, and in scientific research, in art. Spiritual state affects the intellect. By this we mean “the ability to judge, reflect and distract, which in practical life is called prudence, common sense, tact, cunning, intelligence, insight, in art - creativity and taste, in science - the ability to discover, generalize and grasp attitudes” (Ribot T., 1884). ‹…›
The clinical condition is characterized by fixation on an idea, one-sided thinking and emotional charge, and a narrowing of consciousness. These signs appear already in cases of “overvalued idea” and progress in paranoid states (para
- near;
noos
– thought, mind). The spiritual state seems to be opposed to the clinical state. It, as we have already noted, is characterized by expansion of consciousness, brightness and clarity of reflection of reality, integrity of this reflection, in-depth understanding of one’s own “I”, clarity of orientation in the past, present and future, deep penetration into the situation, balance in relationships, self-confidence , breadth and insight of thinking, positive mood. ‹…›
To further consider spiritual abilities, we will focus on three positions.
The first two were formulated by William James (1901):
– the worst thing a psychologist can do is to begin to interpret the nature of personal consciousnesses, depriving them of individual value. Thoughts are separated from each other by the barrier of personality;
– we in no way explain the nature of thought by establishing the dependence between the physical and the mental... It takes several generations of psychologists to work in order to establish with proper accuracy the hypothesis about the dependence of mental phenomena on bodily ones.
The third position is that a child, unlike an animal, is born with incomplete formation of functional systems of psychological activity. The formation of the brain as a functional system occurs during life, under the influence of the external cultural environment. And we can say that the functional systems of the brain are initially formed as cultivated ones.
Comparing these three provisions, we can note that human abilities are initially a property of a cultivated functional system; that they are not limited to the properties of the system itself; that the decisive moment in their development is their determination by individual values. It is these individual values that will determine the qualitative specificity of abilities; what a person will see and remember, what thought will appear, and what the nature of personal consciousness will be will depend on them. Spiritual abilities are determined and regulated by spiritual values. Thus, the problem is translated into the plane of values. You can say: “But this does not solve the problem, it only transfers it to another plane. Instead of one problem, another appears.” Yes it is. But, firstly, we see what spiritual abilities are, and secondly, it is easier to understand values. We can say that if activity is determined by faith or the desire to do good, we can talk about spiritual abilities.
In light of the above, spiritual abilities are determined primarily by the internal nature of mental states and a sense of activity, manifested in the desire for activity in a certain direction.
In a narrow sense, spiritual abilities are associated with the desire to redeem the inner (sinful) nature of the soul, the desire to achieve its sinless purity. In a broad sense, spiritual abilities are manifested in the creation of works of art, which comprehend the essence and purpose of a person, his relationships in society and family, understanding of the social and spiritual personality, one’s “I” and “oneself as an individual.” ‹…›
Spiritual abilities are the abilities to understand, appreciate and portray other people in one's creativity. Spiritual abilities are an integral manifestation of the intellect and spirituality of the individual. In its highest manifestation, spiritual abilities characterize a genius...
The most important personal quality that allows you to penetrate into the spiritual world of Another person is empathy (from the Greek empatheia
– empathy). There are emotional, cognitive and predicative forms of empathy. Psychological research has shown that an individual's ability to empathize increases with the accumulation of life experience.
A person gets to know himself, his spiritual world through another person, while a spiritually rich person knows another person better than that person knows himself. To do this, it is necessary that a spiritually rich person contain within himself not only the spiritual qualities of the cognizable, but also something more - qualities that are opposite to it. ‹…›
Spirituality is manifested in the fact that reality is cognized not only rationally, but also emotionally, through experiences. For a spiritually rich person, everything is significant, everything finds a sensual response.
It should be noted that there are no completely unspiritual people and that spirituality is not directly related to abilities and intelligence. A person with average abilities can be spiritual, but a person with talent can be unspiritual.
Human spirituality in the mirror of psychological knowledge and religious faith[84]. V. V. Znakov
The problem of spirituality has attracted the attention of many major Russian psychologists, and interesting books and articles have been published. However, the question of the similarities and differences between scientific-psychological and theological approaches to the analysis of the problem of spirituality still essentially remains without a clear answer. The purpose of the article is to try to at least partially answer the question posed.
I believe that many difficulties in solving the problem will be eliminated if we initially recognize that the religious and scientific directions represent two fundamentally different (albeit inextricably linked) ways of understanding the phenomenon of spirituality. Firstly, this is manifested in the search for the main sources of the origin of the spirit: science looks for them in man (his consciousness, contemplation, products of activity), and religion - in divine revelation. The theologian has no doubt that spirituality comes from the Holy Spirit, while the atheist scientist has no doubt that spirituality comes from man and humanity. Secondly, the differences are visible in the different understanding of the category “knowledge” in science and theology.
Scientific knowledge is characterized primarily by the fact that the subject, interacting with an object, mentally reproducing it, reflects the characteristics of the object in his psyche. In rational scientific knowledge, things, phenomena, and processes are presented as they occur on their own, in their original existence, self-perfection, and interactions with other objective things, phenomena, and processes. Scientific knowledge of the objective world is objective; as a result, the subject experiences images that are similar to the cognitive objects themselves. Scientific knowledge is always an image, a model of the cognizable. For example, Ya. A. Ponomarev called knowledge a mental model that reflects all the events included in the course of interaction between the subject and the object. He wrote: “The term “knowledge” itself is selective, characterizing only the surface of the corresponding phenomenon, the analysis of the essence of which, as in all similar cases, can be multifaceted. In the epistemological aspect of such an analysis, knowledge appears as a reflection, ideal, as images of the objective world in a broad sense, or as sensory images, equivalent to sensations, perceptions, ideas, or as abstract images, equivalent to concepts, judgments, inferences, etc. In concrete terms -scientific, psychological aspect of knowledge acts as dynamic brain models of objects and phenomena, their properties, i.e. as elements that make up the psyche (1967).
However, it should be noted that not every scientific knowledge that a subject has mastered is directly related to his spiritual Self...
Unlike rational scientific knowledge, irrational religious knowledge is based on faith; it has two main features, which W. James called “emotionality” and “intuition.” As F. D. Schleiermacher (1994) brilliantly and convincingly showed, religious knowledge does not pretend to be knowledge in the scientific sense of the word. For theology, “knowledge” turns out to be inextricably linked with “faith” and “experience”, because it is not interested in the nature of things, but only in the impact of this nature on the original character of a person’s religious experience. As follows, for example, from works devoted to the analysis of the ascetic and mystical aspects of Orthodoxy, religious dogmas are descriptions of the content of the experience itself, and not theoretical truths about objects, considered outside the subject’s relationship to them. From the position of believers, it is absurd to apply any criteria of rationality to religious experience, because it is a spiritual process that rises above any intellectualistic criteria of objectivity and subjectivity. ‹…›
In the variety of modern approaches to the problem, at least four main directions can be distinguished.
The first direction is the search for the roots of spirituality not so much in the person himself, the characteristics of his personality and propensity for reflection, but in the products of life: objectification of the highest manifestations of the human spirit, creativity, in ancient monuments, works of science and art. The spirituality of a subject is the result of his familiarization with universal human values, spiritual culture, and spirit is, first of all, a cultural, worldview category. From this position, spirit is an objective phenomenon that necessarily presupposes and potentially contains the activity of the subject. Activity is aimed at objectifying ideas, forming meanings that determine the semantic field of culture, the spiritual experience of humanity.
In sociology, a significant contribution to such an understanding of the spirit was made by M. Weber (1990). He used the concept of the “spirit of capitalism” to define a way of thinking of people, which is characterized by a systematic rational desire to obtain legal and ethically impeccable profit within the framework of their profession. As you know, the most important position of Christianity is a person’s faith in the salvation of the soul. In Protestant ethics, the tireless activity of the subject within the framework of his profession is considered as the best means for gaining inner confidence in salvation: it is aimed at the benefit of society, the rational transformation of the social universe and therefore is pleasing to God and increases His glory. The spirit of capitalism, its driving force is reflected in the totality of ethical standards that entrepreneurs adhere to and which are useful from the point of view of the effective increase in monetary resources. According to M. Weber, the ethical norms of the “ideal type” of a capitalist entrepreneur have nothing to do with a tendency to waste, ostentatious luxury, swagger, and intoxication with power. The character of a capitalist entrepreneur is characterized by modesty, responsibility, consciousness of a well-performed duty, and honesty.
In the USA, one of the great people filled with the “capitalist spirit” and preaching a utilitarian justification for ethical standards was B. Franklin. In particular, he believed that honesty is useful because it brings credit. The same is true with accuracy, moderation, and punctuality: all these qualities are virtues precisely because they ultimately, one way or another, lead to benefits in professional affairs. He wrote: “I was finally convinced that... truthfulness, honesty and sincerity are of enormous importance for the happiness of our lives; From that moment on, I decided to cultivate them within myself throughout my life and wrote this decision down in my diary. Revelation as such was not of decisive importance to me; I thought that although certain actions are not bad just because they are forbidden by doctrine, or good because they are prescribed, nevertheless, taking all the circumstances into account, it is likely that certain actions are forbidden precisely because they are inherently harmful , others are prescribed precisely because they are beneficial” (quoted in: Weber M., 1990).
Thus, an important source of a subject’s spirituality are the ethical norms that he is guided by in everyday life (including those determined not only by his idea of the proper, moral attitude towards another person, but also by practical, utilitarian considerations). The highest examples of human culture are enshrined in ethical, aesthetic, legal and other norms. And if the subject assimilates and experiences them as internally obligatory patterns of behavior, then he becomes familiar with the highest spiritual values of existence. A person’s spiritual wealth increases when spiritual values enshrined in social norms become an integral part of his spiritual world, subjective reality.
Norms and patterns of behavior are recorded in linguistic meanings, the origin and structure of which have long been of interest to linguists, philosophers, cultural scientists, and psychologists. In Russian psychology, ideas related to the formation of meanings as the semantic basis of culture, the spiritual experience of mankind, were developed by A. N. Leontyev. In our time, a concrete scientific analysis of the results of objectification of meanings in the public consciousness is carried out by V. F. Petrenko and his colleagues (1997). Based on their research, we can say that the spirituality of a person, of every member of society, is generated in the process of assimilation by him of meanings, objectified in the public consciousness, and the identification of “hidden” meanings behind the meanings. From a psychological point of view, the spiritual self of a subject who understands the world is formed precisely in the processes of meaning formation—the generation of both the meaning of specific social events and situations, and the meaning of life in general. Consequently, the sources of human spirituality must be sought not in meanings, but behind them - in the deep meaning of people’s actions, historical events, eras, etc.
The nature of the processes of meaning formation leading to the generation of the spiritual largely depends on the spiritual abilities of a person. There is reason to believe that important components of spiritual abilities are not only the orientation and value-semantic organization of the individual, but also his competence. Competence is manifested in a person’s ability to acquire new knowledge and skills, to cope with tasks that are significant either for his professional activity or for life in general. Competence reflects the general level of intellectual, moral and aesthetic development of the individual, including the experience of generating meanings of the cultural and historical heritage of different eras. ‹…›
The second direction of research is the study of situational and personal factors that contribute to the emergence of spiritual states in a person. A spiritual state is a psychological phenomenon characterized by the fact that a person temporarily “does not notice” the outside world, does not feel his organic functions, his physicality, but focuses on understanding and experiencing spiritual values, i.e. cognitive, ethical or aesthetic aspects of human existence . Relatively speaking, spiritual states are opposed to the material nature of man and the world: the subject rises to the heights of spiritual existence in rare moments of intellectual insight and resolution of morally difficult ethical conflicts. At such moments, in his personal knowledge, individual experience of self-development, something more appears than a “mundane” image, a model of external events: their internal meaning arises - the psychological basis for the formation of the spiritual essence of what has become the subject of the subject’s intellectual and moral reflection.
As V.A. Ponomarenko showed, the emergence of spiritual states is facilitated by special conditions of professional activity associated with a threat to life (1997). Here, for example, is how test pilot V. E. Ovcharov answers the question of whether he believes that the Spirit supported the wings of his plane: “I think so. But not some abstract “Holy Spirit,” but spirituality in the sense of high responsibility to people and society, elation of spirit above the nobility normative in society.” From the pilots’ self-observations it follows that, despite the wide range of interpretations of the concept of spirit, they associated it with psychological protection from the state of anticipation of death, latent fear, and the threat of mental exhaustion. The spiritual layer of reflexive consciousness “in the form of the joy of overcoming sublime feelings from a successfully completed flight, familiarization with Space as a factor on the threshold of the Spirit, apparently creates that spiritual dominant that keeps species-specific defensive reactions and instincts of self-preservation, premonitions, obsessive states “in the basements” of the subconscious , superstitions, fixed phobias, etc. Therefore, if the spirit is “grounded,” then it can be represented as a mental state that forms a reserve of endurance in a dangerous profession” (Ponomarenko V. A., 1997).
In psychology, the analysis of spiritual states is inextricably linked with the search for the roots of spirituality in the unreflective depths of a person’s unconscious self. According to V. Frankl, “human spirituality is not just unconscious, but inevitably unconscious. Indeed, the spirit turns out to be unreflective of itself, since it is blinded by any introspection that tries to capture it in its origin, in its source” (1990).
From S. Freud and C. Jung to modern psychologists the idea has passed that “mental life is for the most part unconscious, encompassing consciousness from all sides” (K. Jung, 1991). Naturally, an important direction in the search for the roots of spirituality is attempts to analyze the interaction between the peaks of a subject’s self-consciousness and the deep layers of his psyche (personal unconscious and archetypes of the collective unconscious). It is not surprising that as one of the empirical methods of comprehending spirituality, a dialogue between a person and the innermost depths of his soul is proposed, directing him to goodness, improvement and helping to hear the voice of eternity in earthly creatures.
Within the framework of the third direction, spirituality is considered as a principle of self-development and self-realization of a person, an appeal to the highest value authorities for constructing a personality. The development and self-realization of the subject’s spiritual self begins when he realizes the need to determine for himself how he specifically should understand universal spiritual values - truth, goodness, beauty. The appearance in a person of at least an approximate conscious idea of the latter indicates not only recognition of the subjective significance of spiritual values (intellectual, ethical and aesthetic, respectively), but also psychological readiness to assimilate and form them.
The motivational basis of psychological readiness is the spiritual inclinations of the subject. K. Jaspers called spiritual drives “the desire to comprehend a certain state of being and to devote oneself to this state, manifested in values - religious, aesthetic, ethical or related to the subject’s views on truth - experienced as absolute” (1997). Spiritual drives reflect a complex psychic reality, the existence of a fundamental experience “arising from a person’s devotion to spiritual values; it is an instinctive longing for them when they are missing, and an incomparable pleasure from its satisfaction” (ibid.).
The most important moment in the formation and development of spiritual values in the morally reflective consciousness of a subject who knows and understands the world is the emergence in him of a sense of “inner, personal freedom,” “freedom as a spiritual state, a person’s sense of self.” The development of spirituality as personal self-realization is impossible without a sense of freedom. “Spirituality is the ability to translate the universe of external existence into the inner universe of the individual on an ethical basis, the ability to create that inner world, thanks to which a person’s self-identity is realized, his freedom from rigid dependence on constantly changing situations” (Krymsky S. B., 1992) .
The spiritual state of personal freedom arises in a person when he realizes the presence of external possibilities of choice and the formed internal readiness to make this choice. However, this is not enough: we almost never act on the basis of a mechanical search of alternatives. We include them in the context of personal knowledge and meaning formation, create new semantic relationships, that is, we creatively transform and understand the situation of choice. This is the essence of personal freedom. In dialogic communication, it manifests itself in the “alternative thinking” of the interlocutors – in the awareness by each of them that fundamentally different interpretations of the same statements are possible and acceptable. ‹…›
The fourth, religious direction (historically it is the first) has clearly defined boundaries: in it the spiritual appears only as a divine revelation: God is spirit. And spiritual life is life with God and in God.
A productive attempt to present the foundations of psychology as a science of the spirit, which is aimed at finding a way out of the opposition of materialistically and idealistically oriented psychological systems, is presented in the works of S. L. Frank. His philosophical psychology develops a position that is surprisingly consonant with modern science about the inextricable unity of the subjective and objective, man and the world. He wrote: “When analyzing objective consciousness, we also saw that the subjective unity of our mental life is the environment in which two objective infinities meet or come into contact - the infinity of the knowing mind or spirit and the infinity of objective existence. This makes it possible to say in advance that spiritual life, being the life of the “soul” in the spirit, the rootedness of the subjective unity of our “I” in the depths of the supra-individual light, is at the same time the life of the soul in objective existence, a certain organic fusion of it with the world of objects” (1997 ).
In our time, the traditions of Christian psychology continue in the works of B. S. Bratus. In particular, he analyzes the four stages of personality development and describes the highest, pro-social, humanistic stage as follows: “It can be called spiritual or eschatological. At this stage, a person begins to realize and look at himself and others not as finite and mortal beings, but as beings of a special kind, connected, similar, correlated with the spiritual world. As creatures whose life does not end with the end of earthly life. In other words, this is the level within which a person’s subjective relationship with God is resolved and a personal formula for communication with Him is established. If we talk about the Christian tradition, then the subject comes here to understand man as the image and likeness of God, therefore another person acquires in his eyes not only humanistic, reasonable, universal, but also a special sacred, divine value” (1994).
Despite the seemingly limited framework of this approach to the study of spirituality by religious dogmas, the ideas contained in many theological works and works on the psychology of religion provide rich food for thought not only for religious people, but also for non-believers.
Let us take, for example, the thesis coming from the teaching of Gregory Palamas that the action of grace, divine revelation is never spontaneous, “automatic.” It is always carried out through synergistic interaction with counter efforts (prayer) of the person himself, aimed at connecting with God. According to the dogmatic theory of synergism, a person himself must participate in his own salvation through good deeds and contribute to the descent of divine grace upon him. Palamas teaches that God is absolutely inaccessible, transcendental for us in its essence, but communicated to man through his actions, manifested in energies. The energies of God - the messages of the Holy Spirit - are addressed to the world and are therefore accessible to human perception.
It is obvious that the content of this thesis clearly echoes the thoughts of modern psychologists about the cognitive and contemplative activity of man as a subject of existence. In modern psychology of the subject, the problem of activity is, perhaps, the center around which heated debates are being waged about the specifics of subjective manifestations of personality and individuality. Reading Palamas today, a psychologist cannot help but recall P. Janet’s ideas about the psychological nature of action and the existence of psychic energy.
Another productive analogy is the religious doctrine of the transcendental Self, the “inner man.” Like those psychologists who search for spirituality in the unreflective depths of the unconscious Self, theologians emphasize the important role in the generation of spirituality of the orientation of the believer’s consciousness into the depths of his own Self, turning to the “inner man” [85]. Both psychologists and theologians aim to study the evolution of the inner life of man. The starting point of scientific analysis is the depths of the unconscious, in which there is still neither subject nor object, there is no distinction between the Self and the non-Self, but there is only a formless community of mental life. Then, through the separation of the contents of objective consciousness from mental life, an ascent to a higher spiritual state occurs. In it, the opposition between subject and object, Self and non-Self, internal and external being is already modified. And the subject begins to realize his spiritual Self as an elevation above the opposition between subject and object, on the one hand, and between different subjects, on the other.
So, the problem of spirituality occupies a significant place both in psychology and in theology. Believers and non-believers scientists decisively disagree on only one point - on the question of the primary source of the spiritual (God or man). In other respects, secular psychological and theological works are surprisingly similar: the main focus of their authors’ attention is the features of man’s inner world, his self-awareness and subjective paths of ascension to the spiritual heights of existence. Over the two-thousand-year history of Christianity, the best minds of mankind have been unable to provide convincing evidence of either the existence of God or his absence. Some people believe in it, others don't. And although I belong to the second category, I nevertheless believe that the only constructive way to study the problem of human spirituality is not confrontation, but the mutual complementation of the results of the searches and reflections of secular scientists and theologians.
The idea of free causality in personality psychology[86]. V. A. Petrovsky
The idea of “free causality” (i.e., the ability to spontaneously begin a cause-and-effect series) in its historical “age” is the same age as philosophy itself, in which it defended itself with such persistence and passion. Regardless of whether philosophers tended to recognize freedom or declared it an illusion, whether they postulated its existence or deduced it, whether they “felt” it as a given or saw it as an ideal, it is fair to say that the idea of “free causality” invariably realizes itself in philosophy; the presence of this idea in the space and time of philosophical culture has long acquired – and here we will use Heidegger’s term – a necessary character.
Does something real in psychology correspond to the philosophical idea of “free causality”? Is the pessimism of I. Kant, who considered the possibility of free causality unprovable (however, accepting this possibility as a necessary condition for resolving the contradictions of pure reason) justified? Is it true that the nature of “free causation” is psychologically unknowable? In a word, is the introduction of this idea from philosophy into psychology justified, and what is the meaning of such an action (and not only for psychology, but also for philosophy)?
Discussing these issues, we rely on Aristotle’s doctrine of four causes, the concept of “free cause” by I. Kant, the Hegelian interpretation of causa sui, the concept of “duration” by A. Bergson, etc.; we also use psychological developments (in particular, those carried out by the author himself), which are presented here in academic and practical directions; finally, we proceed from a certain model of the relationship between philosophical and psychological knowledge.
Let us consider in more detail the philosophical and psychological aspects of the problem, as well as the ways of their desired synthesis.
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.
Spiritual world
We use the word “spirituality” when exploring various aspects of human life. This is probably the reason for some confusion with terminology. I'm sure many of you are wondering right now, "What do Mark and Jack mean by 'spirituality'?"
We would like to tell you a story about a wealthy lady from San Francisco. One day she stayed in a luxurious room at the luxurious Fairmont Hotel. The cost of such rooms, as is known, exceeds even the wildest expectations, so in the end the woman began to be tormented by a feeling of guilt due to the fact that she was spending such astronomical sums on herself. Once, at the entrance to the hotel, she noticed a disheveled, unshaven tramp and, obeying the voice of her conscience, handed him a hundred dollar bill. With a sense of accomplishment, she told him: “God help me, my son.”
The next day, leaving the hotel, she met a well-dressed and clean-shaven young man who handed her five hundred dollars with the words: “God helps us with the return of debts and returns with interest!”
We believe that this story is the best confirmation that spirituality is a concept that everyone understands in their own way. Therefore, before moving on, let's finally clearly define what exactly we mean by this word.
In our understanding, spirituality is a person’s desire for eternal values, which presupposes the presence of not only intellect, but also, first of all, a soul. Spirituality is a way of life. When performing a spiritual, moral act, a person certainly obeys the desire of his soul. We in no way equate spirituality and religiosity, since the latter represents only one aspect of human spiritual activity.
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.
Spiritual development of personality
A person who has managed to become an individual is not immune from the fact that, thanks to willpower and the ability to “step over the line,” he chooses the path of a destroyer rather than a creator.
Even if a person is an individual, his willpower is very great, allowing him to implement large-scale business projects with fabulous profits, but his egoism pushes his mind into the far corner, clearing the territory for the activity of a strong mind; this person is still fast asleep spiritually. And perhaps he will break more than one someone’s life before the law of retribution and justice knocks on his contaminated window of the soul with the most difficult trials, pushing a strong personality to the beginning of a spiritual search, and it does not matter whether he is a man or a woman.
We will try to answer what the spiritual development of the individual consists of.
Why does a person need this?
First of all, in order to evolve and move on. Even if a person has extraordinary strong-willed qualities, has managed to make a dizzying career, but does not really take into account the world around him, often contributing to the destruction of life not only within himself, but also outside himself, it is possible that he is not even standing at the doors of his inner temple . To tell the truth, there is no temple yet; perhaps even the foundation is missing. And even if he donates to some parish, but in his head there is self-interest with the intention of getting solid dividends from the investment - such a “believer” is difficult to rank even among the spiritually oriented.
The path of creation and deep awareness begins with the first step. Inner teachers can first allow a person to go down the road of passions and temptations, allowing him to commit crooked actions, perhaps even large-scale mistakes, and sometimes even crimes. After all, sometimes a person, in order to realize the level of his spiritual fall, needs to repent very deeply.
And sometimes it is with repentance that a gradual spiritual ascent begins for someone who has managed to become a person, but has not yet mastered even the basics of spiritual life.
In our materially oriented world, there are certain patterns for achieving personal growth that are not at all oriented towards spiritual values. And it is all the more valuable for the spiritual development of a person to follow true, enduring guidelines. For only thanks to them, a person will be able to get rid of the ballast that pulls him to the bottom with vicious attachments, destructive habits, obsessions and other burdens of excess materiality.
Where to start
You need to start by rethinking your life, accepting that we are not only the body.
It is necessary to recognize that in addition to our material being, there lives in us a spiritual person, who, perhaps, can become an entity of a spiritual order.
You must not be afraid to take a step forward - towards the unknown and the far shore that has not yet been discovered by you. When the winds of change begin to blow in your life, be prepared for the beginning of trials, because this is where your real development will begin.
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.
From Alcoholic to Millionaire
Usually in the world it is customary to degrade rather than develop. Especially with today's modern gadgets. But there is a real story of a person that Norbekov talked about. As far as I remember back in the 90s. There was one alcoholic working in the assembly hall, I don’t remember who. Well, I worked and worked. It’s just in this hall that Norbekov often held seminars.
The man became interested and began to do this to everyone from his closet. So I finished it and became a millionaire. It’s hard to believe, of course, but such cases do happen. But, unfortunately, they usually tend to deteriorate. But what can you do, such is 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.
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.
Guide to Changing Yourself.pdf
Happiness, relationships, friends, travel. Even if you are alone, you do not feel discomfort. You are comfortable where everything is and is here.
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.
Stages of spiritual development
A spiritually developing person goes through several stages in his development.
The main ones:
- Sleep mode.
- Spiritual awakening.
- Conscious creation.
Sleep mode
Everything starts somewhere. We make our first spiritual attempts when we begin to do this more or less consciously, but so far only in the mode of spiritual sleep. What is characteristic of this “sleep mode”? Let's take a look by simulating a hypothetical situation.
In our life, everything seems to be set up: a house with all the amenities, a good car, a dacha in a picturesque place, a good job, which I don’t really like, but it pays better here than in other similar institutions. The family is also okay: a pretty wife, two preschool-age children. And it seems like, why grieve, live and be happy. But there is no happiness. Following your mother’s advice, you even went to church a couple of times and tried your best to turn to God. In vain! You begin to blame fate for depriving you of something. Good work begins to bother the boss, who just yesterday looked through you as through glass in an interior door. Something happened to the wife, it was as if she had been replaced, reproaches were pouring in like from a cornucopia, the children began to get sick more often. Life clearly wants something from you, but what?
This means that you have come to the line, and in order to cross it, you need to change somehow. It is necessary to begin to reconsider your life, your attitude towards it, to determine what is a priority in this hectic flow. You are still sleeping, but from now on you have taken the first step along the path of spiritual development.
This wise organism of our material universe is designed in such a way that when some system comes into balance, a force appears that strives to bring it out of this state, thereby pushing it towards its further development.
The same thing happened to you. Life, using the people around you, rocks you, mired in the routine of everyday life, for further spiritual growth. You, reconsidering your attitude towards life, suddenly understand that it is necessary and possible to live differently, greeting every day with a smile, rejoicing in the fact that life has gifted you immeasurably, because there are so many examples of crippled, unhappy destinies nearby. And also - you begin to accept people as they are.
This is the first step, after overcoming which you will reach a new level of awareness, temporarily bringing the shaken system into balance.
Good morning (spiritual awakening)
And so - step by step, step by step, one climbs the ladder of spiritual ascent. At each of the new steps, you will have to discover something new and unusual in yourself for yesterday’s you, because you will begin to turn inside yourself more often - to your soul, to your Spirit.
You will move under the constant guidance of your teachers and assistants assigned from above. In this upward movement, a feeling will gradually awaken within you - what methods are more acceptable for you in knowing the inexplicable and original, knowing yourself, and through the soul and Spirit - God in yourself. Somehow, by itself, your humanity will expand to the size of a family, a street, a residential area, and maybe further. The world will begin to be perceived as it exists, and you will have no complaints about the world, suddenly beginning not only to understand the word “humility”, but also to feel it with all your heart. War in all forms of its manifestation will leave the heart, giving way to love.
But you need to remember that every step is serious work on yourself, your egoism. You will have to make efforts, but believe me, they will pay off with interest, replenishing the treasury of imperishable spiritual wealth.
The pursuit of self-knowledge is a direct path to spiritual awakening. The work of the Spirit in this state changes the scale of human values.
Conscious Creation
So, you have come to yourself, your spiritual awakening has occurred. Now you consciously stand in the service of life and the One who sent you to this world, giving you the opportunity to make your main choice, approaching the imperishable. The door is open. You can enter the worlds of universal harmony.
Continuing to live in this world, but having moved to a new spiritual level, a spiritually transformed person begins conscious creation, continuing to learn wisdom, discovering a source of unconditional love in his heart, pouring out this love on others, contributing to their spiritual growth.
Conscious creation lies in the fact that a person awakened by the Spirit, seeing the causes of the phenomena of this world, which he discovers, coming into contact with their consequences, can bring something amazing into the world with his creativity. This can be that great gift that will contribute to the spiritual leap of a group of people or even humanity, having a beneficial impact on the life of the entire planet. Perhaps, thanks to his great creativity, the priorities leading to the decline of civilization will gradually change to new, creative ones, enlightened by the light of his unconditional love for this world. And people will gradually begin to appreciate what is truly incorruptible.
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.
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.
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.
What is spirituality
Whether we like it or not, our life is always a path under the influence of two mutually opposing forces: creation and destruction. Our future, and perhaps not only ours, depends on which of them we give preference to or even choose as travel companions. Each of us has a life-giving source inside, only for some it has completely withered away and is overgrown with tall, impassable grass, for others it gushes with the purest springs, flowing from mysterious unexplored depths.
This source is the most important part of each of us. This is our Spirit - the divine inner flame that gives us the strength to live and realize life in its many colors and forms. The answer to the question of this subtitle is our interaction with him: how much we are able to take from him, having drunk the life-giving moisture of wisdom and love of life, and also what we are able to give him in return with our love, caring attitude towards him and caring for the path , through which not only we can come to his living water. Let's talk about this interaction, and also how we can develop in it.
Depending on the life priorities and moral preferences of people, the concept of interaction with our Spirit that we examine is considered by everyone through his subjective internal prisms. But whatever they may be: adherence to certain religions, philosophies, ideological positions, this concept is universal. It contains the essence of the inner nature of man, since man is initially the essence of the spiritual order, because he is the bearer of the Spirit kindled in him by the one who created him.
This powerful Someone not only produced, but also invested in a person a program according to which both the individual and humanity as a whole moves in the direction of the vector of a comprehensive goal given from above. The All-Wise gave his child the right to choose the path forward. But in order to open new horizons and create radiant worlds, the child must reveal in himself the capabilities and functions of his Creator, returning his original image of the magnificent likeness of the Father.
In other words, a person must come to himself, becoming truly spiritual.
Teachers who are always with us
Are there signs by which one can determine the degree of spiritual level? Of course.
But before we start talking about them, I would like to mention three teachers who are always with us:
- body;
- soul;
- Spirit.
Teacher-body
It teaches us to be careful with ourselves, to value our health, and not to get carried away by what can destroy it. A person always has the right to free choice, including his own destruction.
In this world there are three qualities of matter that bring us:
- true good;
- seduced by passions;
- plunge into ignorance.
Through the last two, the forces of destruction act, and at different speeds, making us realize the harmfulness of the chosen path and return to goodness. Our first teacher knows everything about the body and will help you become a universal master—a connoisseur of yourself and your health. To do this, we need to learn to understand him, because both at the initial level of training and at a more advanced level, he often addresses us precisely through bodily pain.
Teacher-soul
Expands the boundaries of understanding of both our internal and external worlds, teaches us to feel the soul of our neighbor. The soul knows everything about our life program and helps us interact with those with whom we have to intersect in our reality. When we have learned the lessons of the first teacher, the second gradually, if we are ready, begins to reveal to us the tools of subtle sensitivity, resorting to resources of a more subtle plan.
By turning to our soul, we can discover in ourselves what has been dormant until now, sometimes surfacing to the surface of consciousness.
We begin to experience insights more often: big and small. Sometimes we discover the ability to understand people at a glance, sometimes feeling what they want to tell us. Gradually, we acquire the ability not only to feel subtly, but also to sincerely sympathize and empathize, and not only with words. Students of this level are sometimes said to be a sincere person.
The soul is a repository of enormous information about all our incarnations, and sometimes it gives an advanced student valuable hints on how to realize oneself more fully and correctly in this life.
Spirit Teacher
This is the most important teacher in our school of life. He knows everything about life. He knows about everything and everyone. It is he who has counted the number of hairs on every head of any inhabitant of the planet, and not just ours, for he is the spark of the Great Flame of Love, which warms countless souls of an unimaginable number of worlds.
This mentor can be called the Voice of Silence, because he can be heard by those who:
- calmed my mind;
- subdued passions;
- opened my soul to the unknown and what is difficult to express in words.
He is like a light breeze, akin to the rustle of grass by a clear stream, like the subtle movement of springs in a source, to which he leaned to drink the living water of knowledge.
What is the spiritual development of a person? We will try to understand this by determining the signs of his spiritual level and how to develop in this direction, going through a number of important stages.
