Spiritual Formation

[qos]

Thanks to those who responded to my question the other day.

"Spiritual formation" is the process whereby one's spiritual character is developed. It may be undertaken as a conscious, deliberate process, but it doesn't have to be. We all experience spiritual formation through our experiences in life, both the explicitly spiritual and otherwise.

Deliberate spiritual formation takes place in religious education programs (from Sunday Schools to seminaries), in spiritual direction, in personal spiritual practices, in participating in community religious practices, in reflecting, journaling, and reading about spiritual and theological topics.

However, "spiritual formation" occurs whenever something happens to us that shapes our perception of and/or relationship to the Divine, the spiritual, the eternal -- whether in a positive or negative way. The gang member who kills because he or she believes that's the only way sie hirself can survive and have the closest thing sie knows to "a good life" has been spiritually formed as much as the most devout priest or priestess.

The Divine itself also plays a part, as I know most of my friends here can attest.

The question comes up for me because "spiritual formation" in the monotheisms and Buddhism, when engaged in consciously, does so within the very specific contexts of their doctrines and holy books. Christian spiritual formation very often has the goal of "becoming like Christ" (however that is interpreted by a particular community). These faiths have doctrines to adhere to, laws to follow, and doing so shapes the soul. Wrestling with them or being in opposition to them shapes it as well, of course.

These explicit shaping standards are less present in many forms of modern Paganism. I'm curious about the experiences and perceptions of my friends here, and their opinions as to whether this is beneficial/desired or not.


Writing in haste, early in the morning, so I hope this hangs together. . .

Comments

[morgwensraven.livejournal.com]

yes, it hangs together.

Much of our spiritual formation was through our early experiences.. some of which you know about I think... it's sorta like we've spent the last twenty years unraveling/making sense out of the first ten. Developing our own ideas of Deity, and getting comfortable with the idea that deity takes an active role in our lives.and sorting out what role spirituality will have in our lives.

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

I suppose my biggest spiritual formation is questioning. I wonder at how things work, so I ask. I say, "If both A and Z are true, then how are they connected," and usually they explain in a way that I can comprehend, or they tell me that it would defy the way my brain needs to understand things. Through thinking and asking, my beliefs and relationships are fine-tuned.

The only problem with this method of spiritual formation is that it's very one-sided in that it's all thought and very little physical practice. Through it I have become more open to doing the meditations and journeys to discuss things, but I still do not do daily routines. In a way, this is crippling because I know that my work would greatly flourish if I did. What I'm being told would come alive and I would see Spirit in the world even more than I do now. However, a part of me fears this, and a part of me strongly resists the change to my daily routine. The best way I know to do this, since I can't seem to force myself, is to examine why. Examination alone is very small and slow learning, the erosion of the stone of my blockages to make a river for the Gods, but it works, and it's a lot more gentle and less anxious than strip-mining.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I think most spiritual formation is going to be due to childhood experiences. Beyond that, I'm honestly rather suspicious of deliberate doctrine-based spiritual formation within a spiritual practice. From my PoV, I can see two alternatives that seem to me to be positive - either the goal of the practice is to allow the person to shape themselves as they wish and not according to any external standards, or the goal is to allow the person to directly confront the divine and let what happens then happen with no attempt by teachers or books to force or direct this interaction.

I had never previously thought about this issue (or in fact heard this term before), but the concept of a spiritual practice or religion attempting to direct people's personal relation to the divine bothers me quite a bit. Of course, my own rather odd view on spirituality is that the purpose of spirituality is to make direct and personal contact with the divine and that any religion (ie most of them) that don't do this are institutions that I'm generally not comfortable with.

I find it very strange, but it's clear to me that most people are not interested in having direct contact with the divine, and thus my idea of view of spirituality resembles what seems to be happening in most of the rest of the first world - most people are atheists or agnostics and religion is most common among fringe people who have a strong interest in personal spirituality.