Spirituality in the 21st Century

Frank P Daversa

• Publisher: Best Books Media
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781638210528
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The book enhances the reader's knowledge of spirituality, life, and the world. It details steps necessary to advance the reader's spiritual understanding leading up to enlightenment. It guides the reader through the growth process, providing key insights along the way. Inside find a down-to-earth approach for understanding the human spirit, the soul, and spiritual consciousness. Explore what are the five principles of spiritual enlightenment. Discover the three spiritual lessons that Earth needs to learn in the 21st century. Learn about default spiritual paths and what they mean to you. This book offers a vision of faith, hope, compassion, understanding and clarity. It is a transformative work that enhances the reader's ability to shape his/her own destiny. It is packed with insight and inspiration. After reading this book, readers should have a sound understanding of spirituality in the 21st century.

Chapter 1 – Spiritual Growth: A Synopsis

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
Ideas have endurance without death.”
—John F. Kennedy

Spirituality means different things to different people, but I define it as having a close and personal relationship with God and the universe. Enlightenment, on the other hand, represents a deep understanding of spirituality, ourselves, the needs of others, life, and nature.

I have a genuine interest in spirituality, and I try to embrace it in my personal life. Since 1997 I have been engaged in a spiritual journey that has inspired me to fully develop my faith in God. I originally conceived my thesis, in rudimentary form, almost three years prior to writing this book. After a good degree of soul searching, my initial quest for spiritual truth resulted in the passage which follows.

We Are Born with Default Paths

Based on my own experience and my observations of other people and different faiths, I sincerely believe that we all begin life with a default destiny, a spiritual path that God has chosen for us as only He sees fit. This path will guide us in a general direction, much like a leaf floating down a stream. Unlike the leaf, however, we possess the ability to think and the gift of free will, which enables us to change our default paths for better or worse during the course of our lifetimes, in turn creating new paths for ourselves.

Sometimes our default paths are especially good, but sometimes they’re just mediocre or especially hard; for example, the families into which we’re born could be nurturing or neglectful, loving or abusive. The best way to rise above our default paths is to grow spiritually. The more we grow, the greater our rewards, either in this life or in the life beyond.

God loves His children and wants us to grow closer to Him. A very effective way for us to grow is to become more aware of ourselves and the world around us. One person who greatly exemplified this idea was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was keenly aware of the needs of others in society, and he fought for those needs his whole life. Given his faith in God and his message of peace and love, Dr. King was most certainly rewarded with a special place in the afterlife.

There are many problems in the world today. Naturally, the most effective means of eradicating a problem is to eliminate its cause or source. For example, illegal drugs are a dilemma in our society; the best approach for solving this problem is to stop the demand for drugs through education and interdiction. On a personal level, many problems arise because people have dysfunctions in their lives, often resulting in a void—something is missing. One important factor commonly missing in our society today is a cohesive family structure. Problem families create voids in both adults’ and children’s lives, in turn affecting children developmentally. These developmental difficulties often multiply into adulthood.

Five Fundamental Principles of Spiritual Enlightenment

While family counseling begins to correct the problem, an excellent way to fill such a void is through spiritual enlightenment. Spiritual enlightenment helps people to build moral character and become more complete individuals, which leads to better relationships, stronger families, and more fulfilling lives. There is more than one path toward enlightenment, but a very effective way is to become spiritually one with God, ourselves, and the world around us through love and devotion for Him. Oneness, a union of mind, body, and spirit into a greater celestial whole, is a unique and unparalleled experience. To achieve both, thoughtfully practice these five principles:

1. 1. Accept God into your life and Jesus Christ as your savior;
2. 2. Complete your formal education;
3. 3. Learn more about yourself, your health and your mental well-being;
4. 4. Learn more about the needs of others;
5. 5. Learn more about the natural environment in which we live.

This kind of understanding will help us attain a greater degree of wisdom and inner peace, giving us guidance to make responsible choices in life. This is especially true for young children, since they generally embrace faith and spirituality naturally. Once we fill the void in this manner, the problem will most likely be solved.

Rising Above Our Default Paths

There exists an absolute truth in life, and only God knows it. The more we grow spiritually, the more we begin to comprehend that truth. Earth is merely a learning ground for humanity to evolve spiritually before moving on to the afterlife. As with any form of education, learning involves lessons. We can either learn our spiritual lessons proactively or passively—either way, God will see to it that those lessons will be learned. If together we learn proactively, we will rise above our default spiritual paths and have the chance to lead happy, fulfilling lives. If we learn passively, we rely instead on our default paths, and we will then be destined to either repeat the lessons or learn them the hard way.

World Wars I and II are two 20th-century examples of how we learned lessons the hard way. In both wars, world powers didn’t heed the threats of tyranny, appeasement, and imperialism far enough in advance, so many nations had to pay a heavy price to defeat these threats after the fact. An example of learning proactively is the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which the global community mobilized its military forces against a tyrant before it was too late. The result was a war that lasted only a few months with far fewer casualties than other wars.

Three very important spiritual challenges to overcome in this century are global warming, overpopulation, and environmental degradation. Unless we reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and undo the damage we have done to the environment, the world will become a fairly inhospitable place and millions of people will suffer needlessly as a result. Together, we can prevail over these challenges if we act now rather than later.

This synopsis summarizes most of the major concepts I believe about spirituality. It is safe to say that if you like what you have read, then you will like what follows. The inverse is also true. The five principles are provided for your personal enlightenment. If followed as intended, they should guide you toward new spiritual heights. The remainder of this book is dedicated to explaining these and other concepts in greater detail. I hope it is as rewarding for you to read as it was for me to write. So let the journey begin…

Chapter 2 – In the Beginning…

“Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.”
—Anthony J. D’Angelo

What makes people who they are? Genetic and environmental influences shape us from the day we are born, factors over which we have limited control until we reach puberty. But one other factor is sometimes overlooked in secular society: our souls.

Our souls contribute toward shaping the people we are, thus influencing our paths in life, namely the default spiritual path God assigned each of us at birth. Sometimes this default path is especially beneficial; other times it’s just mediocre; sometimes it’s plain bad. Our spiritual goals in life should be to make the most of our paths if they are good ones and to strive to rise above them and define new ones if they are not.

My Obstacles to Spiritual Living

Over time, my default path has become apparent to me: I realized that I have been different emotionally from others since the day I was born. Emotions make up such a large part of our personalities, it’s no wonder being challenged in this way caused me to stand out from most people.

My family was dysfunctional in many ways, which undoubtedly shaped me at an early age. To start with, everything I know emotionally I had to learn on my own—I received little guidance from them. I had to pull myself up by my own bootstraps in this regard. My family’s emotional behavior tended to be erratic, which led me to respond in the same way, something which I had to overcome in later years. At times, their behavior was like a roller coaster, which made leading a normal life a real challenge. Second, there was often little patience between family members, frequently resulting in short tempers and semi-intolerant behavior. Third, they typically failed to validate each other’s feelings...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 – Spiritual Growth: A Synopsis
• Chapter 2 – In the Beginning…
• Chapter 3 – Karma and Paths
• Chapter 4 – Spiritual Growth
• Chapter 5 – Understanding Enlightenment
• Chapter 6 – Achieving Enlightenment
• Chapter 7 – Three Lessons
• Chapter 8 – Wants vs. Needs
• Chapter 9 – The Relative Value of Success
• Chapter 10 – Love Relationships
• Chapter 11 – Sins and Virtues, Religion and Death
• Chapter 12 – Truth and Growth
• Chapter 13 – Intolerance
• Chapter 14 – Levels and Learning
• Chapter 15 – Conclusion
• Recommended Reading