Are You Manifesting Authentic Integral Spirituality?

What if there was a set of community validity tests drawn from spiritual communities from every cultural and spiritual developmental level and from every era from pre-modern to postmodern by which you could measure your current spiritual state or stage and test if you are truly manifesting authentic spirituality. What if there were near universal standards that would clearly demonstrate that you are not just involved in some overly-heady exercise of glibly thinking about or discussing the many new and complex integral spirituality theological concepts as a spiritual dilettante, but that you have a spiritual practice that was producing in you what has been sought by every mystic and saint since the beginning of time. We invite you to examine the basic standards found on the following three validity tests and test yourself now. We think you will be quite surprised by your results…

The Authenticity Proof of Your Current Integral Spiritual Practices

The practice of an authentic Integral Spirituality in significant part includes and synthesizes the best of all previous spiritual wisdom while pruning out that which is no longer applicable. As such an integral spirituality would naturally include the single most time-tested and commonly accepted community validity test for spiritual authenticity from humanity’s trans-denominational religious history.

The single most commonly accepted trans-denominational community validity test for manifesting an authentic spiritual life is demonstrated by the quality of your current life relationships or if they are improving. This spiritual authenticity proof can be best seen or evaluated by how well you are doing living the virtues in a balanced way within your existing relationships.

If in your life and personal relationships you do not tangibly manifest an increased living of the virtues in a balanced way, then you are either incorrectly interpreting, practicing (or not practicing your spiritual beliefs) or, your current spiritual beliefs or practices are inherently incapable of producing a balanced living of the virtues and consequently improved relationships. (Yes, there are many pathological, ineffective, time or situation inappropriate or theoretical unworkable spiritual beliefs and practices inherently incapable of improving your life and relationships.)

In an authentic integral spirituality, effective spiritual theory, beliefs and spiritual practices are integrated, congruent, balanced and, most importantly actually spiritually effective and transforming. This complete combination is what then produces the core basics of an authentic spirituality — namely the improvement of your life relationships in ways that demonstrate a balanced application of the virtues.

No matter how much time you spend reading about, doing workshops, discussing integral concept-specific terminology or complex theories or doing the practices of your spirituality, if you find that your current relationships are still generally lacking, not regularly improving or even getting worse — and you are not experiencing the most basic proven spiritual authenticity proof of improved life quality through the balanced living of the virtues in your relationships, then it is definitely time to take a very hard look at your fundamentally non-delivering current spiritual beliefs and practices to find out exactly what is wrong. If your current, correctly applied spiritual beliefs and practices are not delivering the single most commonly agreed upon core result and proof of authentic spirituality (quality or improving relationships,) then they are neither working or authentic in the most spiritually fundamental and essential ways or they are directed toward producing the core results that do not deliver in real life — no matter how nice they sound or who is espousing them! So, be brave and read and take the following tests!

To help you evaluate quality of your current relationships please find below three virtue and spiritual qualities evaluation exercises. These exercises are helpful because if you can see exactly where you are weak in living a balanced application of the virtues, you can not only see where you can immediately improve your relationships — you will also have an indirect pointer to where your current spiritual beliefs or practices are sorely lacking. In the lists below you will find some new virtues and values from the:

modern, postmodern and integral worldviews

not specifically mentioned in many earlier classical or traditional lists of virtues and values. Look over the expanded virtues listed below and take the following test.

The Virtues Test Part One

Honestly ask yourself are you manifesting the virtues listed below in a balanced way in your current relationships and life. At the end of the first test you will find an additional test to evaluate and quantify how your current spiritual beliefs and practices are bearing the most valid and fundamental spiritual results of spiritual authenticity.

Keep in mind that the three virtues tests below not only signal an authentic and integral personal spirituality. They also can be used as a good indicator of what is and what is not an authentic spiritual organization. For instance, if a spiritual organization, its leaders or its staff do not manifest a balanced living of the virtues in their dealings with their visitors, members or with the world in significant and consistent ways, this would be a powerful indicator that this spiritual organization is itself inauthentic.

Accepting – tolerating without protest, on a deeper level recognizing the inherent and neutral truth/existence/”isness” of every occurrence

Adaptable – capable of adapting to varying conditions

Altruistic – unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others

Amiable – being friendly, sociable, and congenial

Appreciative – having or showing gratitude

Attentive – heedful of the comfort or condition of others

Authentic – true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character

Autonomous – existing or capable of existing independently

Aware – having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge

Balanced – mental, spiritual and emotional dynamic steadiness

Benevolent – disposed to doing good

Capable – having general efficiency and ability

Centered – emotionally stable and secure

Charitable – merciful or kind in judging others

Committed – able to act with deliberation

Communicative – able to transmit information, thought, or feeling so that it is satisfactorily received or understood

Compassionate – showing empathy

Competent – having requisite or adequate ability or qualities

Considerate – thoughtful of the rights and feelings of others

Consistent – marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity

Cooperative – a willingness and ability to work with others

Courageous – mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and
withstand danger, fear, or difficulty

Co-Responsible – being a co-responsible agent doing at least your approximately one six billionth fair share part to co-evolve our shared world toward the necessary improvements that you see and know need to be made.

Creative – an ability to create beauty and or art in one’s life as well as bringing increased levels of creativity or co-creativity to solving the problems of life

Decisive – to find out or come to a decision about by investigation, reasoning, or calculation

Devoted – consecrated to a purpose

Direct – free from evasiveness or obscurity

Discerning – showing discriminating insight and understanding

Eco-Friendly – displaying environmental co-responsibility and sustainability

Ethical – guided by that which is morally good

Evolving – moving oneself forward physically, mentally and spiritually

Fair – characterized by frankness, honesty, impartiality, or candor;
open; upright; free from suspicion or bias; equitable; just

Flexible – characterized by a ready capability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements

Forgiving – allowing room for error or weakness and to give up resentment

Generous – showing or suggesting nobility of feeling and generosity of mind

Good – possessing moral excellence or virtue

Grounded – having a firm foundation

Honest – free from fraud or deception. Marked by integrity. Marked by free, forthright, and sincere expression

Hopeful – desiring some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable

Humane – compassionate, sympathetic, or considerate towards humans or animals

Humble – not proud or haughty: not arrogant or inappropriately assertive

Inclusive – broad in orientation or scope

Integrative – forming, coordinating, blending or integrating parts into a functioning or unified whole

Interconnected – to be or become or understand our mutually connectedness in the web of life

Interdependent – understanding that both or many independent parties are needed to be successful

Just – rendering or disposed to render to each one his due; equitable; fair; impartial

Loving – feeling or showing affection

Loyal – true to any person or persons to whom one owes fidelity, especially as a wife to her husband, lovers to each other, and friend to friend; constant; faithful to a cause or a principle.

Ministering – to supply or to things needful; esp., to supply consolation or remedies

Open-minded – ready to entertain new ideas

Patient – good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence

Peaceful – peacefully resistant in response to injustice

Productive – producing, or able to produce, in large measure; fertile; profitable, also creating or maintaining productive, equitable and ethical relationships of exchange with others, society and world

Responsible – to be reliable; to be trustworthy

Self-Disciplined – correcting or regulating oneself for the sake of improvement

Sufficiency – the quality or state of being sufficient, or adequate to
the end proposed, knowing when “enough is enough” particularly in relation to
the excesses of materialism

Tolerant – showing respect for the rights or opinions or practices of others

Trustworthy – taking responsibility for one’s conduct and obligations. Worthy of trust or belief

Truthful – conformity to reality or actuality

Willing – voluntarily disposed or inclined towards

What do you do if you have discovered that you are lacking in some or many of the virtues or that you find that you do not apply the virtues in a balanced way? Read more about how the Integrative Spirituality organization can help you expand your personal spirituality by clicking the What’s Next link.

The Virtues Test Part Two

Click here to use the following online tool to rate your relationship and life application of the virtues from 1-10. This will make it easier to see just how balanced your application of them actually is.

For more recently added information on the inclusive and integrated developmental (meme,) values of an integral spiritual citizen in the integral age, click here.

What do you do if you have discovered that you are lacking in some or many of the virtues or that you find that you do not apply the virtues in a balanced way? Read more about how the Integrative Spirituality organization can help you expand your personal spirituality by clicking the What’s Next link.

The Virtues Test Part Three

In addition to improving relationships manifesting the virtues in a balanced way there are other qualities that are manifested at increasing levels in an authentic spirituality and from authentic spiritual practice. Read the list below and ask yourself if you are experiencing these things in your life. If you are, its a good sign if not, maybe its time to take another look at your current beliefs and practices.

1. A more fulfilling personal spirituality, which includes experiencing a new and expanded sense of:
   • Ever-Present Origin connection
   • delight (a conscious celebration of the adventure of life in the here and now)
   • one’s most authentic identity (Essence, spirit, soul, consciousness, Atman etc.)
   • life purpose and meaning
   • autonomy, freedom and dignity
   • awareness
   • compassion, empathy, and peace
   • emotional and mental balance
   • renewed or expanded hope in or about life
   • physical well being
   • personal re-vitalization, (paradoxically feeling younger in heart and energy as you get older)
   • a natural inclination to serve the needs of the world in effective, life-affirming and balanced ways

Something About Inauthentic Spirituality

If you would like to know more about the specific unhealthy spiritual practices or values that can hinder your manifesting an authentic integral spirituality or your living the virtues in a balanced way click here to review more community validity tests and spiritual safeguards for authentic spiritual practices and authentic spiritual organizations.

Posted originally on Integrative Spirituality (www.IntegrativeSpirituality.org) …forwarding an Integral and (R)evolutionary Spirituality that transforms individuals, relationships, and communities that transform the world.

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Photo Credit: Modern Day Meditation by heavenhated on Flickr. Creative Commons license.