There is basically just one approach to spirituality, however, for the benefit of the human units for whom this material is brand spanking new, we’ll break the approaches into two areas. The two areas are what we call the General Approach and the Specific Approach. We are not going to spend a whole lot of time on the General Approach because for one, it is not the main focus of this material and two, it is one of those ‘been there done that’ sort of things. Therefore, the few details of the general approach that we will provide are largely interwoven with the specific Approach.

Before we get started, lets jump right into the deep end of the pool and recap something we previously covered. Consider it a ‘warm up’ for our discussion on the specific approach for the simple reason that there is a specific objective to be seriously considered. In the ‘Spiritual Wisdom’ section of our class on ‘Spirituality,’ we shared with you the following piece of wisdom.

Since the intricacies of life and more important, death, are understood from an entirely new and awakened perspective, one finds themselves in a very realistic position of conquering death, the greatest mystery and fear there is. The previously held notion of life immortal and everlasting changes from being an unheard of impossibility to something possible and probable. We are referring here to attaining immortality in your physical body. Death is not an issue. Understanding makes for a world of difference. We wanted to share this once again and drive it home, so to speak, because the possibility of achieving immortality is more a fantasized projection and not even a realistic consideration for most people. Therefore, we’ll try and simplify things here.

During the process of tying your shoe laces and deciding whether or not begin walking the road to spirituality through the journey of self-discovery, consider this. There are basically two ways to approach the endeavor. There are the General Approach and the Specific Approach. The general approach is for those who fall into the category of a pure newcomer to the spiritual development process. These folks are brand spanking new babes to spirituality and are, in a realistic sense, heading back into kindergarten. We all begin once again in kindergarten, but the question is whether one is simply dabbling or holds the sincere desire of progressing to the higher grades. What do we learn in kindergarten? We play with toys. We draw in our coloring books. We learn to read. We learn to interact with the other children and we learn to respect and do as the teacher asks. Oh yeah, we also learn about basic meditation, prayer, health, diet and issues relating to karma and universal law.

The Specific Approach is for people who are familiar with spirituality and related concepts and have normally been involved with studies, meditation, groups and like practices. Experienced folks may want to investigate the University of Spirituality for various reasons of curiosity. They may want to see how the University of Spirituality course work compares with their knowledge, experiences and basically what they have learned thus far in their pursuit of self-discovery. Most people investigate subject material from various sources to see how closely it relates to their own point of view. This is a perfectly natural practice and we highly encourage students to investigate everything to which they are drawn. This is especially true concerning matters of spirituality because we want to relate our knowledge and experience with other sources to make sure they are not too ‘far out.’ Then again, deep metaphysical concepts are ‘way out there,’ at least initially, but with continued individual experience coupled with growing awareness, concepts become closer to potential reality. Anyway, the desire to learn specific information and new techniques enhances one’s inner focus, awareness, meditation, exercises or some other aspect of inner growth.

Though specific objectives are dependent upon the individual seeker, there is a specific objective associated with this course in self-mastery. The objective is overcoming the most feared enemy everyone faces. That enemy is death. We are not referring here to erasing the fear of death, but death itself. This is most certainly a far-fetched idea for both experienced and inexperienced seekers alike. The inexperienced seeker should not be primarily concerned with this possibility, at least initially, unless he or she feels strongly compelled to pursue such a life long quest. This usually happens only from an experience of conscious awakening, in some cases quite abruptly, already encountered.

The person new to the concepts of spirituality, like anything else in life, normally goes through a rather lengthy introductory period. Specific objectives may be established early on, however, such objectives will, in all likelihood, be redefined during the gestation period or change completely over the duration of the life cycle of the spiritual development process. This is a natural aspect of the spiritual development process because the deeper the bond with the all-powerful love of the soul the more the individual identity transforms. Therefore, changing priorities is commonplace.

The goal of conquering death is of course available to everyone who earnestly seeks it, however, since lessons are strict and many for the experienced seeker, the inexperienced seeker must take this into serious consideration. There are numerous lessons (many) of varying degree and intensity ahead that the experienced seeker is unaware of, let alone the novice. Therefore, the inexperienced seeker should engage in the general approach for at least a few years until the process of assimilating spiritual energies becomes routine and comfortable. In short, it is highly recommended to take things very slowly.

On the other side of the coin, there are many experienced seekers to which the concept of conquering death remains a foreign and unrealizable goal. This is where the concepts of this course may differ from others which will compel the seeker to further investigate. Some experienced seekers of deep self-realization fall under the presumption that death of the physical body is inevitable, even for highly advanced spiritual aspirants. Death of the body is not the focus of this course. However, the potential loss of the physical body should not be a deterrent factor as to whether or not the ideas are incorporated. In other words, this course is designed for complete spiritual attainment, transformation and spiritualization of the physical body right here in the physical domain on the Earth.

The bottom line is that departure of the physical body is no longer necessary or required to achieve ascension and conscious awareness of the most high and alignment of the soul with God. You have the innate ability and potential to achieve alignment with the soul right here, right now, The process will take lots of time and patience, so don’t be hasty. Establish your spiritual awakening process as a life long goal because this is exactly what it is. Anything else would be unrealistic.

Some schools of thought advocate that the physical life is suffering and that heaven or some other more joyous form of life is to be had after the departure from the physical body. This is what you might refer to as ‘old school’ thought and no longer applicable. It really wasn’t applicable to begin with but we’ll leave that for later. There is considerable suffering in the physical life, however, suffering is only a part of reality because humanity has lost touch with its spiritual roots. Suffering is usually never surmounted quickly, but understanding from a deep and open-minded perspective why you are suffering can ease the effects. In other words, educational awareness as to the ‘why’ of suffering (karma) accelerates the process of healing.

The general approach to spirituality centers more around discovering yourself as a spiritual being and working to alleviate suffering in your life, but it does not include achieving immortality. This may sound hard to grasp, so we’ll put it to you another way. While pursuing spirituality under the premise of the general approach, your perception slowly changes from one of limited possibilities and greater potential, but barriers still remain embedded within your mind and as a result, you still believe and accept that death is inevitable for your future.

The specific approach advocates achieving complete transformation and spiritual enlightenment while in physical embodiment. While you may work to alleviate suffering under the general approach, you will not alleviate suffering under the specific approach. In fact, while all things are possible with God, it is impossible for you to actually achieve enlightenment into the full embodiment of the Christ Consciousness pursuing the specific approach without suffering and lots of it. It doesn’t matter what you think or what you believe because the path of self-realization entails many experiences and tests which you are not as yet aware. In fact, you ‘cannot’ be aware of them because memories of both the past and the future niched deep with your subconscious mind most be revealed very slowly.

You will be tested under the general approach as we all are through life experience, however, the tests are relatively minor as compared to the tests you will undergo should you decide to pursue the trek of immortality. In order to achieve immortality, you will face death through various scenarios and quite possibly numerous times. One of those ways is through traversing the nonphysical realms of life while you sleep at night. We call this arena the intangible training ground. It is wise to consider spending a lifetime in the pursuance of the goal. Consider the following according to the Upanishads:

One in one thousand people will seek me.
Out of the one thousand seekers that seek me,
only one will actually know me.

Translated: ‘One in one thousand people’ means that it is the rare individual who sets his or her foot upon the true path of spiritual enlightenment, otherwise referred as ‘self’ or ‘spiritual mastery’ as the ultimate objective. This individual is willing to set aside all things in life to achieve this objective.

'Only one will actually know me' means that out of one thousand of those rare individuals who are willing to set everything else aside in order to achieve the ultimate objective, one will actually achieve spiritual mastery and know God as fully as possible. Setting aside for one moment the difficulties involved with such a venture, our goal in developing this course is not only to assist those yearning to know truth, but set a precedent for the New Millennium and to also transform the above words of wisdom into something along the lines of the following.

Two hundred out of one thousand people will seek me.
Out of the two hundred seekers that seek me,
one hundred will actually know me.

Why is the path so difficult? The balancing of one’s individually incurred karma, an extremely arduous and painstaking task itself, is the major “universal” requirement, but there is more involved. We humans have been shuffling in and out of physical existence for tens of thousands of years. Such prolonged exposure to materialistic forces has produced extremely powerful and seemingly inescapable conditioning at ground level. The perspective of the ego and to some extend, the spirit (auric energy field) itself is saturated to the nth degree to the vibrational reality of the earthbound plane. Elevating ones perceptual awareness above the vibrational frequencies of the physical realm is a process that must, by nature of vibrational law itself, occur slowly. Oh, did we say slowly? Molasses in January might seem like light speed. Otherwise referred to as ascension, the process, and we emphasize ‘process,’ must occur gradually. There are many, many experiences that you must go through as part of the process of acclimating one’s existing energies with higher energies. Becoming aware of the goal and whether or not you actually decide to undertake the process is a mere basic first step, and we emphasize, FIRST STEP, on what might be metaphorically described as a TEN-THOUSAND STEP PATH. We take a few steps each day, more or less. To make matters even more complex, you may not even complete the trek during your present lifetime. You may only make it half way, so to speak, and be required to return to the physical embodiment one more time to complete the process, But, that is very good news!

If you decide to undertake the path of spiritual development, there is one word with which you ought to become thoroughly familiar, even saturated. That word is energy. All life, in its basic pure essence, is energy. The energy or life force is referred to in various ways with Chi, Prana and Kundalini, to name a few. Life force energy can also be referred to as God, the Holy Spirit, Spirit, Love or Light. We at the University of Spirituality are preferable to the latter, but please refer to it in whatever way works for you.

The following is a synopsis of the two approaches.

General approach; you are not overly serious and are considered a part timer. You are not willing to give up anything, including most important, much of your personal time for purposes of self-education, prayer and meditation. In short, you are not overly willing to enter your closet, shut the door and seek a long-lasting friendship with your spirit and soul. You are also not overly willing to go anywhere to perform necessary service work. You are not open-minded to change. There are also many distractions that fall under the theme of pseudo spirituality, which we'll discuss momentarily.

OK so you’ve read about the two approaches to spirituality. We just provided a brief synopsis of the general approach which, from our position, is the sugar coated approach. It’s time for the real deal. So if you are adamant, sincere and serious about wanting to know God more fully, please prepare yourself for a number of variables according to the following brief outline. The outline is divided into two stages of three sets of variables.

Be prepared to regularly engage in prayer, meditation, spirituality related exercises and studying various text materials. These activities should be engaged in daily for at least a few hours. These activities should become a priority in your life and not a part time experiment.

Be prepared for changes coming into your life. Usually, you are not going to know what those changes will be, only they will come, many of them, and accept them as they do come. You cannot be resistant to change when it is in your best interest.

Be prepared for a host of fluctuating emotions, feelings and modes of thinking entering into your reality. Confusion, anxiety, mood swings and irritability are common examples.

OK, we’ve laid out the first set of three variables. Not too bad right? Seems doable and things you can easily handle? OK, now it’s time for the second set of three variables.

Be prepared for negativity, darkness and downright suffering to be a regular part of your mind set. We have separated these particular negative emotions and feelings from the previous set because they fall into a category all their own. In other words, there is a difference between a mild emotional flux and negativity to the nth degree. Anger and hatred may also become a daily part of your thinking process. You may find yourself engaged in battle with yourself and possibly with others. Hopefully, the battlefield will remain an illusive scenario within the mind and not actually be carried out physically.

Be prepared for a host of what you might call ‘bad luck’ scenarios to come your way. In all likelihood, you will experience accidents and injuries resulting in pain and trauma to your body. Even if you are fortunate enough to not experience an accident(s) or injury(s), you may become ill for no apparent reason. Illness can be anything, ranging from allergies to cancer, to just plain not feeling right for any apparent reason. All accidents, injuries and illness that result in suffering is a result of karma returning to you. Although you may perceive these things as misfortune, they are a result of things you did in the past resurfacing and coming back to haunt you. This is the law of karma, of cause and effect. Whatever you did in your past lives and your current life that is not in accordance with universal principle of love will return to you in like measure.

Be prepared for sleep patterns to become frequently interrupted and change radically. Sleep may become convoluted and restless. You may find difficulty falling asleep and you may awaken more often than normal during the course of the night. Dream experiences will become much more regular, vivid and realistic. You may find your reality being thrust from one situation to another in rapid succession. You may also encounter people that you know, such as relatives, friends, past acquaintances, and co-workers. The people that you encounter may be presently living or have past over from the physical existence. You may also have dark nightmares where you have been harassed by satan and his allies. Overall, you may awaken in the morning feeling exhausted, even traumatized and wonder what has been happening to you during the night. Overall, you will remember some experiences and some you will not remember.

A Word About Pseudo Spirituality

Lastly, we wish to apprise you of another area of primary concern. We previously provided a brief synopsis regarding the topic of ‘dimensional awareness’ and pursuing heightened consciousness. An attentive state of mind or ‘spiritually oriented mature consciousness’ requires being able to discern between ‘truth and appearance.’ In this particular respect, it is wise for us to be able to differentiate between the genuine path of spirituality and what is otherwise referred to as the pseudo path of spirituality. Pseudo, by definition, is fake, pretentious and resembles or imitates something.

There is a world of difference between the genuine path to spirituality and what we mean by pseudo spirituality. The inner path to truth is not about reading a few books on spirituality and declaring yourself ready for mastery. In other words, the path does not entail seeking information about truth, but focuses on bringing out the truth that is already within you. Seeking information about truth is without a doubt a step in the right direction, but it is really only a warm up to a much deeper understanding. The path to self-mastery brings to the surface of your being the master who lies hidden within you. The spirit abounding within you is the true master and teacher. It is impossible to bring about the Master Within solely by reading books because while spirit is “in back of everything,” and most certainly provides limitless inspiration for books, the pure essence of spirit is well beyond words and material concepts and this is for what we strive. Books only serve as guidance and a genuine source will direct the reader inward. You can read all the books you like, though that will do little more than stimulate your intellectual mind to formulate for you a picture of what it is all about. Even the most potent words of truth are only symbols of the truth, they are not the truth itself.

Genuine spirituality is less talk and more action. The type of action required consists of inner action and stimulating the soul. Genuine spirituality does not mean consistently talking about spiritual matters, but delving into the silent depths of one’s being and bringing out the internal spirit. Bringing forth the spirit can’t be accomplished unless all of the internal rubbish is first dispensed with, hence the process of renovation. It is impossible to build your new house in light without first cleansing and renovating your existing inner dwelling with the Love of the Holy Spirit.

Neither is the genuine path for one who dabbles here and there trying to get a taste of the endless workshops and other spiritual faucets out there today. Genuine spirituality entails little emphasis on ruin stones, tarot cards, psychic readings, crystals, pendulums, astrology, pyramids, UFOs and like phenomena. Some believe there is healing power within crystals. There is no healing power within a crystal, or any ‘object’ unless the object is given power and believed in by the person(s) focusing on it. The object is a diversion because it serves to divert or distract the focus of our attention on it instead the genuine source of healing. At any rate, whatever means one feels they are healed by, the source of that healing is God. God is within each of us. The only power utilized for healing is the Power of God. That Power comes from the source of one’s being. There is of course energy in crystals and rocks, but such energy is governed by the mineral kingdom and is therefore limited to a certain level of vibration. For the most part, these are pseudo, or false spiritual activities and serve as distractions.

The seeker of spiritual maturity must learn to differentiate between
those things that represent spirituality and spirituality itself.

Crystals, tarot cards, pyramids and the like are material objects that represent or symbolize spirituality. They are not spirit in and of itself. This certainly does not mean not to have crystals and other nick-knacks in your house. It means to see and understand that these things are not going to do magic for you. In short, we do not want to overly dabble in activities which resemble what we think to be spiritual. We want to involve ourselves solely in bringing forth the spirit within ourselves. We alert you to these pseudo activities because you may find difficulty discerning between what constitutes the genuine spiritual path and what appears to be a genuine path. Pseudo activities are largely distractions, but that’s OK because you may find yourself involved with them along your travels. It is expected, but the bottom line is everything in moderation. We’ll say that again.

everything in moderation

The genuine path is not dabbling in part-time weekend prayer, meditation and communing with God only when it is convenient. The genuine path entails putting in quality time with yourself. As an example, the more quality time that is spent with a child, the less problems the child experiences later in life because quality time between parents and children produces a closer bond and a more loving relationship between them. This instills a higher degree of confidence and trust between parent and child and, as a result, guidance is more readily accepted by the younger party. In the pursuit of self-mastery, we are all children of One, Father/Mother God, and the more quality time we spend with our Divine Parent, the more closely knit the relationship becomes and the higher the degree of confidence and trust is assured. We are children of the Lord, growing, learning and coming into full maturity of our true selves. In light of this, let us consider the following:

God is Always there for us, we must take the time to be there for God.
In taking time for God in Holy Communion, we take time and are
there for ourselves, for God is within us always.