Application of Spiritual Wisdom Part 2
September 3, 2025
Application of Spiritual Wisdom Part 2
When I think I have reached a certain level of awareness, something can happen, and my reaction to it throws me back into the first grade of spiritual growth. Feeling my clay feet is not a pleasant experience, but those times remind me of my limitations and the need to keep growing.
In the journey of spiritual consciousness, we can expect setbacks and failures. All humans are subject to feeling stress and vulnerability. Under these circumstances, we have less self-control and less ability to see things from others’ perspectives. Our defenses are up because we have gone into self-protection mode and may not be as open to the spirit.
When driven by an unhealthy ego, our self-concept and self-importance tend to over-inflate. When we are inflated about our spiritual life, we feel invincible and sure of our connection to spirit. But something happens, and our fixation appears, and hypnotizes us to believe we are spiritually superior to others. We may be spiritually mature, but because in this case our unhealthy ego is conflated with our spiritual self-concept, we are caught in our fixation and do not progress. If we are fortunate, we awaken from the hypnotic trance and see ourselves and our susceptibility to our fixation more realistically.
In these instances of spiritual setback and the stagnation that usually follows, we may judge ourselves unfavorably. We may even belabor our remorse and feel we have not progressed. Sadly, self-flagellation sets us back even more.
But this is the very time we can take heart and extend to ourselves the grace we deserve. If we cannot give ourselves the grace need, we ask the Higher Power. The mere act of extending grace to ourselves is evidence that we see ourselves not as superior, but in need of reconnection with our soul and the Divine.
Spiritual practice: Have you had a spiritual setback in which you felt negative feelings toward yourself? If so, reflect on how you have applied spiritual wisdom to this issue.
Self-inquiry: Why would you not forgive yourself as readily as someone else?
We can pray,
Dear God, I come to you as your child. My trap, passion, avoidance, and fixation have prevented me from handling things in the highest light of consciousness. I pray for consciousness and grace. Amen
