What Are The Characteristics Of A True Spiritual Person?
Many people claim to be spiritual but are either fooling themselves or fooling others and this can be extremely damaging to someone who is honestly trying to find serious answers to their most important questions. This is a collection of the characteristics of a true spiritual person which will make it easier for you to check your best intuitions and make sure you aren’t being fooled by someone who is really just out to serve their own ego.
One of the first things you can look for in a spiritual person is whether they are saying something that has always been true from the beginning or whether they are giving you a version of truth that is dependant upon certain conditions and circumstances in their own life. What they are saying should be something that includes everyone and not just a certain “sect” of people. Their ideas should be open to all people and there need not be any “secrets” or “mysteries” about what they are trying to convey to you.
The next important characteristic to look for in a true spiritual person is the willingness that they have to offer their ideas free to others, at least in part. Although teachers often have to charge their students for book printing, advertisements and travel expenses, it should become apparent if they have something to gain besides the simple joy of spreading their message. Oftentimes, truly spiritual people will charge for some of their lectures but they will also offer some free sessions as well.
Another characteristic to look for is that they should not be seeking power for power’s sake. Oftentimes, a person who appears to be fighting a particular ‘cause’ is actually caught in a power struggle with their supposed “enemies” and this actually represents a limited position in life. True spirituality recognizes the dominion of peace over all other forms of power. A spiritual person does not need to ‘fight for a cause’ because peace is its own end and its own reward. Peace does not have any needs or desires except in as much as it seeks to share itself with others who seek its same sovereignty. This does not require ‘fighting’ for anything exte
al.
A true spiritual person places no demands, requirements or controlling rules and regulations on anyone else and only offers suggestions to those who wish to find that same peace within themselves. Peace is an inside job and others should be free to come and go around a spiritual person and do not need to be persuaded, coerced or intimidated into believing what someone else says. Spiritual people already are total and complete in and of themselves and don’t need to gain ‘followers’ or adherents to their truth, although this may happen of its own. Spiritual people remain non-involved in world affairs and, even when the world seeks to pull them into its theatrical, glamorized arena, they remain non-attached and peaceful.
The characteristics of a true spiritual person are that they have no need to change the world and see all of life as deserving of absolute reverence. This is God’s world, although the ego may sometimes tell us otherwise. Spiritual people seek to avoid the things which are unhealthy rather than trying to oppose those things. They see the simple beauty and perfection of all that exists and feel a compassion for all life rather than an emotional involvement.
Although a true spiritual person is often respected by others around them, they reject any special treatment and remain humble. They do not depend on the authority of any other person, place, institution or historical document in order to maintain their spiritual qualities but merely espouse certain teachings or teachers as a way of affirming the truth which they are already know within themselves. Truth is the same no matter who speaks it or at what time or place in history. If it is true that a person should ‘love his mother’ then it is true regardless of whether anyone says it or not. Spiritual people know what is true and don’t require the need to ‘prove’ their awareness to others. They are content with merely knowing that truth and then living it according to the way it has worked for them. These are what the characteristics of a true spiritual person are. n
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