Building an Effective, Balanced and Integral and Evolutionary Spiritual Lifestyle and Spiritual Practice
If you are of a spiritual nature, there are many spiritual practices and forms of worship that one can use to build a congruent spiritual lifestyle that are far more effective, comprehensive and more fully demonstrative of loving and honoring the Ultimate Reality, others, self and life than just weekly group or individual worship in the form of traditional singing, praising, praying or ceremonial rituals. The most effective and authentic forms of spiritual practice and worship are really about creating a congruent everyday spiritual lifestyle that embraces loving union within all types of relationships and maintains the core "living worship" and practice of being present and grateful!
The key practices for creating an authentic Evolution Spirituality lifestyle often practiced by individuals who sometimes call themselves Evolutionaries, Planetary Citizens or Universe Citizens are constructed from many congruent practices and attitudes that both support and integrate a non-dualistic, Oneness consciousness and unity approach in relation to Ultimate Reality, other, self and life on each of the levels of being, doing and having. These spiritual lifestyle practices and attitudes fall into two main relationship perspectives:
a.) your direct spiritual experiences with the Ultimate Reality --- the Great Unity that interconnects us all.
b.) the quality of your day-to-day relationships --- how you relate to or are actually in loving union in the now with others, life and physical universe that we all share.
In the following list of practices for living a congruent spiritual lifestyle. These are what we recommend to our Evolution Spirituality practicioners here at Universe Spirit. Numbers 1-7 focus mostly on your relationship with and to the Infinite Oneness of Ultimate Reality. Numbers 8-20 focus mostly on your relationships to others and the physical universe (including how you relate to yourself spiritually.)
As you are reading each of these practices, be sure to ask yourself how much or how often are you currently using, doing or being each one of them. Make notes as you go along and have ideas about where your current spiritual practices can be strengthened or expanded. You can even give yourself a 1-10 rating on each item for how well you are doing it.
Keep in mind that this can be used as an effective design checklist for constructing or improving a personal spiritual lifestyle and practice!
The Key Practices for Building an Integral and Effective Evolutionary Spiritual Lifestyle are:
Part A: Your direct spiritual experiences and relationship with Ultimate Reality:
1.) holding a continual conscious loving union with your favorite and most empowering conception the highest Essence of Ultimate Reality, others and yourself! (Click here to learn about a simple meditation that will immediately help you do this.)
2.) maintaining present moment attentiveness to finding the truth, beauty, goodness and very Presence of Ultimate Reality unfolding in each moment and, in all things,
3.) being continually grateful to Ultimate Reality for your life and the great evolutionary adventure of the physical universe no matter what happens,
4.) becoming more like Ultimate Reality each day by authentically living the discernable purposes, values and natural physical and spiritual laws of Ultimate Reality most practically achieved by living the classical virtues in a balanced way,
5.) learning and thinking more about the nature, states, qualities, and purposes of Ultimate Reality/Universe Consciousness that connects us all in both its personal or impersonal forms using all of the life affirming wisdom from both the western and eastern spiritual heritage of humankind as well as the best of science and humanism as they deal with Ultimate Reality and our relationship to it.
6.) regular individual and/or group meditation or contemplation that spiritualizes your desires and honors admires, respects and contemplates, the many states, qualities and aspects of Ultimate Reality in its absolute personal, impersonal or holistic forms.
7.) bringing pleasure to Ultimate Reality by maintaining an appropriately trusting, authentic and growing direct relationship of service toward and with Ultimate Reality and its perceived physical universe and spiritual purposes and goals.
8.) continually fostering your own personal creativity while also welcoming Ultimate Reality to co-act with you in a co-creative partnership to evolve all of the universe and life toward greater truth, beauty, goodness and consciousness for itself, others and Ultimate Reality,
Part B: Your Relationships to Others and the Amazing Physical Universe:
9.) creating a comprehensive sustainable, prosperous and appropriate lifestyle and, holding an active stewardship for all of earth's eco systems! At the current time due to the growing environmental crisis and potential biocide that both we and all future generations will face, there is no greater more current, more relevant or embodied Great Spiritual Work and daily spiritual practice than that of learning and following the practical steps of living a sustainably prosperousness and actively stewarding the Earth's eco-systems for both ourselves and future generations. Due to this looming environmental crisis that can effect all of humanity, no religious or spiritual person who feels love or connection to the Ultimate Reality and others can any longer ignore their first and most immediate spiritual responsibility and necessary spiritual practice --- to live in a practical and prosperous sustainable harmony with the eco-systems of earth. (If you have not created the new prosperous sustainable, environmentally friendly lifestyle, start doing this spiritual practice and spiritual lifestyle necessity first. It IS that important!) Until we are collectively out of this deepening environmental challenge, living prosperous sustainability and educating ourselves and others on how to live sustainably prosperously is absolutely Job One for every person, corporation, government, organization and religion on the planet. This is simply because if we do not do Job One fast and well and protect the system that sustains all lives and activities, the lives and dreams every other person, organization and generation will be so drastically effected in unthinkable negative ways up to and including de facto planetary wide biocide. If you would like to see an amazing short video on the logic of why this has to be Job One for all of humanity, click here. (On our evolutionary spirituality courses you can learn all about the this issue, what to do about it and much more.)
10.) maintaining an embodied, fully attentive, creative engagement of being present in and fully aware of each present NOW moment, (Being fully present in the now, letting go of fear and fully accepting the "isness" of all things as they occur may be the greatest form of worship and trust in the Infinite oneness of all!)
11.) regularly re-experiencing in the awe, wonder and beauty and pleasures of the body, nature, life and the sciences,
12.) bringing delight to both yourself, the universe and Ultimate Reality by living an artful, creative life that appropriately enjoys life's many appropriate pleasures while you are participating in the great educational "university" and great spiritual co-adventure of progressive evolutionary existence in the universe,
13.) ongoing informed and wise decision making that effectively supports your partnership with Ultimate Reality in co-evolving the universe toward greater truth, beauty and goodness and a greater shared awareness and consciousness of Ultimate Reality itself,
14.) being conscious of and living from your highest spiritual self, dignity and true identity in relation to the Ultimate Reality, appropriately loving yourself as that, and then, living from that consciousness of love, beauty, goodness and truth,
15.) living a daily life that authentically demonstrates loving others and being compassionate as well as being conscious of the highest spiritual self, dignity and true identity of others in relation to Ultimate Reality,
16.) building and living a life of affirming, balanced and sharing authentic relationships, partnerships and unions that reflect increasing truth, beauty and goodness and Infinite oneness consciousness because of your presence and the vital spiritual value of being in and creating loving relationship itself i.e. family, marriage, team, community, company, (Authentic relationship is a place where people share their experiences at a heart to heart level and help each other in reciprocal ways. It is a place where they can get completely honest about who they actually are and what is going on in their lives. It is a space where they can reveal their feelings, hurts, doubts, fears, and weaknesses as well as find mercy, be forgiven and ask for help. It is a space where acceptance and allowances are made for their imperfections. It is the initial place of willingness truth and healing where everything is first embraced and fully accepted as it actually is without resistance, denial or judgment!) Click here for integral relationship meditations to help you do this.
17.) serving and contributing to the needs of others and life in balance with caring for your own needs,
18.) sharing your subjective spiritual experiences and successes with Ultimate Reality with others individually and in spiritual community,
19.) almost anything you can do or experience with an embodied attitude of love, present attentiveness, willingness, acceptance, spiritual consciousness and gratitude, and finally,
20.) gathering in spiritual community for traditional singing, praying and other worship or ceremonial rituals. (These 3 forms of traditional worship are not recommended to be used just by themselves or substituted for using most if not all of the usually deeper and more effective forms of building a spiritual lifestyle listed above. What you see above are most of the real daily practices of living like the greatest spiritual saints, founders and mystics of the great religions of the world.)
Well, How did you do? Do you have some new ideas on practices or attitudes on how to improve your current spiritual lifestyle? Authentic empowered spiritual practice is not building a ritual, a formal prayer or a dogma. It is the intention, the how and the result that you live in each now moment of your daily and often mundane relationships.
We highly recommend that you print out this 20 point list and use it as a checklist reminder. This way you can review it regularly to remind yourself how well you are doing or, how much you are improving your spiritual lifestyle. In improving your spiritual practices this checklist can become an effective support tool for keeping you focused on being in loving union by regularly honoring the Infinite Oneness that interconnects us all, your truest self, others and all of life.
Take the 30 Day Improve Your Spiritual Lifestyle Test
To help you attain much of what is listed below we have created a special 1 minute meditation. Try doing this meditation for 30 days 3 times a day and tell us how your life has changed. Click here to learn about this meditation. After 30 days email us at manage@universespirit.org .
To help you deepen your spiritual practice a new action and attitudes section has been added here for all students doing this as part of their course work and for all curious individuals who want to know more about The Universe’s Attitude and Action Success Principles or, What Every Individual Should Know About the New Progressive Evolutionary Universe Science to Evolve an Intentional, Integral and Successful Life on All Levels.