Spirituality: RH'L7

The Story so Far

The Quest for Pleasure-RH'L1 is self-centric and demands the discovery of what gives most pleasure.

So there is a preoccupation with wishes and wants.

The Quest for Meaning-RH'L2 is socio-centric and demands the development of purposes and projects that feel personally worthwhile.

So there is a preoccupation with social ideals.

The Quest for Enlightenment-RH'L3 is self-centric and demands the discovery of reality in a way that benefits all who take heed.

So there is a preoccupation with existential mysteries.

The Quest for Salvation-RH'L4 is socio-centric and demands the development of ways to rescue those in dire need.

So there is a preoccupation with human suffering.

The Quest for Creation-RH'L5 is self-centric and demands the discovery of what should be willed into existence and how.

So there is a preoccupation with tools/resources, the medium used, & social context.

The Quest for Obedience-RH'L6 is socio-centric and demands the development of personal duties and obligations.

So there is a preoccupation with roles, rules, procedures & authorities.

Spirituality: The Quest of Quests

Function: To connect with ultimate or absolute reality—taken to be divine.
i.e. happiness depends on perceiving and reaching «God» or «Absolute Reality» or «Nothing» or «The All» or «Oneness»; achieving «Moksha» or «Nirvana».

So there is a preoccupation with full transcendence of reality via [divine] union.

In this way of being aware, mind and body are one, and that one encompasses everything i.e. «consciousness». This oneness is also referred to as non-duality. It is sometimes viewed as salvation (from the self and its suffering) or liberation (from the self and its suffering).

However the spiritual realm may be conceived (and there are many ways not relevant here), the focus in the Quest is on a sacred «otherness» found around us and within us. This absolutely essential support for our mundane life, and the profane everyday world, is understood and interpreted within a particular religious tradition (or via more recent New Age conceptions of spirituality). At the extreme all is Spirit.

So: The purpose of life is «to become one with the divine» in oneself or in a God-equivalent.

In its purest state, Spirituality-RH'L7 is non-dual being. However, as listed below, the Quest is commonly found in a combined state.

Why is Spirituality a Quest?

Correspondence to Root Hierarchy: The Spiritual Quest depends on Willingness-RHL7 because the spiritual realm is a matter of imaginative awareness. Without a positive willingness to see beneath or beyond or through everyday reality, the spiritual realm is forever concealed. Personal inner states like faith, hope and love that characterize the spiritual realm are maintained purely through willingness.

Jump to how the Spirituality Quest works in practice.

The lower Quests can all be harnessed as part of Spirituality and even become the prime focus:►

See this analysis applied to all the Quests.

There are no higher levels of Will and no more Primal Quests. In describing these, only the surface has been scratched.

There is enough for an initial review.
After that, I will focus on the differing practical implications that flow from taking each Primal Quest seriously.
That provides sufficient understanding to enable simultaneous comparisons of all Quests in this framework.

Originally posted: 8-Jun-2012. Last updated 29-Apr-2015.

All posted material is part of a scientific project and should be regarded as provisional. Visitors are encouraged to think through the topics and propositions for themselves. Copyright © Warren Kinston 2009-2016.
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