Udja,
Level 1 Lesson 8 Audio Lecture on the Topic of Practices for Spiritual Development.
–In your own words what were the main teachings?
The main teachings were as follows:
The ego-self can dominate one’s perceptions and entangle the personality in a duality focused existence.
The correct practice of Egyptian Yoga supports a transformational recognition of the difference between ego-self and higher-self.
Truth is relative and requires wisdom in it’s application.
Spiritualizing conduct, for example as reflected in Maatian Principles such as feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, should be viewed internally as allowing God to work through you.
The path to spiritual enlightenment has a self-discipline aspect that involves establishing control over strongly gratifying behavior. When the personality does not wish to surrender gratifying behavior to self-control it can rationalize gratifying actions to itself such that it appears to be consistent with self-discipline and control objectives. Maintaining good associations is a technique that can help recognize this form of self-deception.
Practices that aid in spiritual development are:
moderation, consistency, reinforcement through association with similarly focused individuals, and maintaining confidence that spiritual goals are obtainable. Also the importance of formal and informal practice was mentioned along with the feedback effect they have upon each other. The formal scheduled practices guides our informal day-to-day practice of the teachings into the conduct of our life. The experiential knowledge gained by daily informal practice should reinforce the understanding that the formal practice informs and sustains.
The benefits of disciplined spiritual practice include a more concentrated and focused mind as well as allowing one to overcome distracted and agitated states of mind.
The portions of the audio presented by Seba Dja that I could discern were as follows:
The movement towards spiritual growth should not be delayed.
Maintain progress through the struggle that a spiritual regime necessarily entails.
The overall purpose in life is to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
End of Summary
–Which teachings are you currently implementing?
I am working on activities to support mindful awareness in day-to-day activities. The reading materials and other formats are assisting in this process.
–Respond to student post interaction.
The post by DamasAlexis level 1 lesson 8 on 2/21/17 #7516 was responded to by Sebai Maa and is my choice for comment.
I thought the markers of spiritual progress were significant as given by Sebai Maa in response to the post by DamasAlexis. The markers were:
less anger, deeper level of inner peace, better feeling of who you are, a more expansive and balance personality, less distracted / more detached and in touch with inner processes.
The significance of these markers is that they are experienced internally and thus are verifiable within.
HTP
