An Evolutionary Spiritual Path

    "Evolutionary spirituality" seems - for me & many others - to be the most advanced way of experiencing & promoting a meaningful, peaceful, joyous life.
    Steve McIntosh “The Presence of the Infinite – The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.” Theosophical Publishing House, 2015. https://www.stevemcintosh.com/

     There's an obvious difference between feeling ENERGIZED by bright, warm, loving zest to explore, connect with & serve life versus feeling TRAPPED, STIFF, RATTLED by dark, cold, anxiety / anger driven to resist / fight / grab.
    Moment-by-moment we DO CHOOSE between Heaven and Hell to live in. But amazingly, some of us take a lifetime to finally start consciously choosing Heaven, and thus start voting decent evolved human beings into leadership positions. http://www.johnlovas.com/2024/01/seriously.html

    "Spiritual experience … can be understood as an encounter with the presence of the infinite within our finite universe of time & space. 

    … spirit is the ‘presence of the infinite’.

    Everyone who has felt the power of truth, the kindness of goodness, or the loveliness of beauty has had an experience of spirit. The only reason such common yet profound experiences are not universally identified as spiritual is that our collective understanding of spiritual experience remains underdeveloped.
    (The recent democratic election of several dysfunctional primitives around the world, imho, is evidence of the spiritual immaturity of a majority of the voting population.)

    … deepening our understanding of what spiritual experience is and how it can be fostered in ourselves & others is one of the most direct ways we can make the world a better place.

    … the experience & creation of that which is spiritually real – that which is beautiful, true, and good – is ultimately how we make things genuinely better. In other words, we become direct participants in evolution’s unfolding – the process by which something more keeps coming from something less – as we work to increasingly perfect ourselves & our world. Thus those who are on an evolutionary spiritual path recognize that their purpose in life is to participate in the gradual perfection of the evolving universe of nature, culture & self."
    Steve McIntosh “The Presence of the Infinite – The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.” Theosophical Publishing House, 2015. https://www.stevemcintosh.com/

    "The seeker is one who devotes her/himself, ultimately through love, to the labors of discovery." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 

     “The true function of religion is to sustain & spur on the progress of life – to nurture the ‘human zest for life.’" Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
    (NOTE Pierre Teilhard de Chardin used the word 'religion' in much the same way we now use the word 'spirituality.')

     "Religion is part of the energy of cosmic personalization & unification.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

     “Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete & fulfill them, for it alone takes them & joins them by what is deepest in themselves.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
            Above quotes from: Ilia Delio “Does Evolution Have Direction?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koYGt9BWe1Y

    “The Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin claimed that love exists on the fundamental levels of life. Some might think this idea absurd and ask, do quarks fall in love? Teilhard was pointing to the fact that the characteristics of human love such as attraction, irresistibility and union, can be found on the most fundamental levels of physical life.
    Love is a passionate force at the heart of the universe, according to Teilhard, a core energy of cosmic life, a unitive principle and a cosmological force. He wrote, ‘love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces.’ By declaring love a cosmological force, Teilhard indicated that love is an energy ‘present from the Big Bang onwards, though indistinguishable from molecular forces.’ In his poem ‘The Eternal Feminine,’ he speaks of cosmic love in the voice of wisdom:
    'I am embedded in the force field that is driving the cosmos towards greater novelty, towards greater integrity, and eventually towards greater consciousness. From within the fragments of matter, I encourage all possible combinations since I know that not every combination will be productive. I am the principle of union, the soul of the world. I am the magnetic and unitive force that brings the disparate matter together and urges each newly created form to multiply, to beautify, and to bear fruit. I nurture & release spirit from among the crude & complex elements. Each step towards union moves my creation towards greater spontaneity & freedom.’
    This irresistible energy of love, present in the universe, led Teilhard to claim that ‘the physical structure of the universe is love.’ The universe is created not only by the interaction of space-time-matter; it is created from the ubiquitous energy of love embedded in the fabric of the universe. All levels of life are governed by principles of attraction and union. Love is a cosmic force before it is a human one.”
    Ilia Delio. “The Primacy of Love.” Fortress Press, 2022.

    “Einstein did not believe in a personal God, but he did maintain that mystery permeated the universe. Reportedly he said to one of his skeptical acquaintances, ‘Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws & connections, there remains something subtle, intangible & inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.’ … Scientists may treat mystery is mere data, but if we believe in matter as God’s beloved dwelling place then we should trust nature completely because God is in the (gravitational) waves.”
    Ilia Delio. “The Hours of the Universe. Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey.” Orbis Books, 2021.

from: Ilia Delio “Does Evolution Have Direction?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koYGt9BWe1Y