Getting better spiritually over time… what does that entail? Innumerable religious organizations attempt to help you to get better spiritually over time. And there are plenty of blogs on the internet written by people who act like they can help you to get better spiritually over time. In this regard, many practices, procedures, and methods are given. It’s quite a circus! A lot of gullible people swallow these practices up, in the hopes of achieving enlightenment (for example). Enlightenment is not an achievement anyhow; it is a visitation into you by that eternal, immeasurable, ineffable, timeless, profound sacredness. Greedy, calculated, robotic practices and methods never lead to it. One can try, ad infinitum, to get it, but one can never purposefully cause it to happen. It is not merely an effect in a chain of cause-and-effect manifestations.
In wanting to get better spiritually, time is a factor. Getting better spiritually seems to depend upon time. One can never receive the timeless by grasping for it through practices involving time. (You might as well try to catch and bottle up the wind.) Wanting to get better spiritually, in the future, may be very childish, very crass. What is “now” will never be what the future is… so such wanting may be a waste of time that reinforces an illusory ego. Besides, the space that separates you from others is very much like the space that you are in (apart from what the future will be). Effortlessly existing, with self-less-awareness, in the “now” may be prudent and wise… whereas struggling to achieve spiritual results (for some image one has of the future) likely will cause the mind to mindlessly grope where insight and deep understanding never fully take place.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Indeed! We must seek higher ground in faith. God Bless ❤️💯🙏
Thanks, M.T.! Take care and be aware, my friend. 😉
You’re very welcome my dear friend! Always!
Love the image.
We humans are burdened by brains that calculate, control.
Thank you, Jazz! 😊 We think we control… but it’s largely delusory.
People are gullible sometimes, like falling prey to the snake oil salesman back in the day. I am a little afraid to look to the future, as it may not be too rosy.
I think I’d rather savor the past i.e. the good old days when I looked forward to my retirement years, the “golden years” where I would enjoy the fruits of my labor. Now I wonder why I wanted to hurry along my life when now, one year from turning 70, I would rather reverse course and time travel to simpler times. That’s a beautiful shot of the Great Blue Heron with his breeding feathers, standing like a statue on the stark dead branch – a very powerful image Tom.
Yes, people are often very gullible. They don’t want to truly inquire and think for themselves; they want to be told what to do. And then we get all these separative religions and governments that cause division and havoc in the world.
At 73, i am very happy in retirement. But it saddens me about how disorderly and indifferent the world is now. We have to be an oasis in all of the idiotic chaos.
Thanks about the Heron photo. They say that bird species are going extinct in large numbers nationally and worldwide.
Lots of things going on in the world right now and thankfully we are old enough to sort things out for ourselves. I am happy to be retired too. Years ago when I traveled a lot, I intended to travel again when retired. But I don’t feel comfortable doing that now … that’s okay too. Times change and people change. That was a striking photo Tom. That’s sad about the birds going extinct eventually – the joy that bring with their song to be lost makes me sad.
“Effortlessly existing… ” does have a soothing sound to it. Thanks, Tom. 🪷
Yes, Michele, which doesn’t mean being lackadaisical. It has more to do with intelligently perceiving the cause/effect nature of things and how a false center seems to take credit for initiating thoughts and desires. A central “controller” is the result of thinking, not the other way around. A smart dog may stop chasing its tail when the falsity of things is realized. Thinking need not perpetually reinforce a false center.
Thank you for the added information. ✨
The beautiful heron looks very much in the ‘now’ Tom.
I find the eternal chase for something just beyond reach boring and the following was meaningful to me when I read it some time ago:
“The most important spiritual growth doesn’t happen when meditating or on a yoga mat. It happens in the midst of conflict…
when you’re frustrated, angry or scared and doing the same old thing, and then you suddenly realise that you have a choice to do it differently.”
Yes, the eternal chase for something beyond reach is childish. (No offense to children.)
I’m not a fan of the word spiritual, but I’m more than eager to be a better human being. Anything that let’s me be kinder, more inquisitive, less judgmental and love more, I’m all for it. Loved the image! 🙂