Interesting Ways to Develop Spiritually – Part 1

Spiritual Growth

We are all aware of the “normal” ways in which to advance our spiritual development, such as with the practice of yoga, meditation, prayer etc, but these are not the only ways to help us with our spiritual evolution.  In this series, I am going to share with you unusual ways to help you on this journey to awakening and also, hope that you too will share with the rest of us, your ideas and experiences as to what has been helpful to you.  I know I know, I need to create a Forum on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga, to help us better discuss such topics and share ideas and that is certainly on the planning board for later this year as well.

Some of the ways I am going to propose to help you with your spiritual growth might actually appear quite “unspiritual” in nature, while others will be techniques that you might not have been aware of or simply not have thought of applying in this way.

In the first 2 parts of the series, I am going to discuss one of these “unspiritual” ways to help you with your spiritual development and that is with the use of technology!  Yes, all those unnatural gizmos and devices that are driving our society to forget nature and become gadgetized.  They too can be smartly used to help you with your spiritual development and below I will start by giving you some ways to use all this new technology to help you grow.

Before I jump into my ideas though, let me mention how this thinking came about.  In the beginning of this year, my wife and I sat down and brain stormed ways in which technology could help us live better and advance spiritually.  I also suggest you try this.  You might be surprised at some of the good ideas that come up.  Just think of ways you can leverage technology to help you develop spiritually.  Think “outside the box” so to speak, and I am sure you will come up with some interesting and helpful ways in which to advance yourself spiritually, using these material advancements.  Now onto my ideas.

Using Technology to Promote Spiritual Development

1. Using Your iPhone or Other Device as a Reminder to Witness:

Many enlightened masters have pointed out repeatedly that the only thing you need to do for enlightenment is observe carefully what is taking place within and without.  Just be a witness to all that is happening.  This has been discussed in many articles previously and here is one such article Osho Quote on Enlightenment.  This watching has been called by many different names, Choice-less Awareness, Double Arrowed Attention, Witnessing Consciousness, Mindfulness, etc, etc.  But if you have tried this you know how easy is it to lose your awareness and get caught up in thoughts and the drama of your life.  So here is a smart way technology and help you out.

These days most of us have some type of electronic device attached to us in some way.  Some of us carry around more battery power than a jet airplane .  Many of these devices are quite sophisticated and have a calendar or other notification mechanism.  So use that cleverly to help you develop your moment to moment awareness.

Program your device to go ahead and remind you every hour or less to remain a witness.  This is a great way to constantly remember to return to your Witnessing nature, which IS the Infinite, Timeless aspect of your being and to live from that dimension.

In the past there was a Zen master who would constantly yell at himself and pound his chest.  This was his way of reminding himself to stay alert, we can do the same thing, but by using a “Marimba” ringtone instead .

Tomorrow I will continue with this series and give you more ideas on how technology can be used to help you with your spiritual growth and development.