The acts of study, contemplation, and so on are important for one’s own spiritual satisfaction and growth. This is not to say that they must make certain discoveries in order to achieve some level of spiritual achievement- but it is very important to satisfy one’s own intellectual demands. At least in the Christian tradition, salvation is for everyone- so, think to your ability to think, and to the extent that the convenience and free time in your life allows, and to the extent that you feel you’ve been called to be a thinker. No doubt, though, there will be plenty of children and retarded people in heaven.
Wisdom is a virtue, and the greatest religious figures will always be remembered, and their teachings will help people indefinitely. But it’s not the only virtue, and there’s many other ways to do great things.
My concern would be this term ‘spiritual growth’. Is there a good way to define it that doesn’t mean ‘understanding’. If we can’t get past that, then it’s sort of a loaded question.
Well first I’d say I’m far from enlightened. I have some general ideas is all. If I’m enlightened at all, I would say that I now can see how much I do not know.
Yes, I would say that pursuing spirituality intellectually still has a big place for me. Reading how others have experienced God can resonate greatly, for example. The examples from history, examples both of spiritual experience and living one’s life in a spiritual way, from Christ and Paul to philosophers and kings and warrior poets, move me. So for me it’s valuable. Kind of an enhancement. Is it necessary? Probably not and your grandmother provides a good example of a spiritual life with no need for intellectualism.
I would imagine in much the same way your grandmother found it.
Ned,
No small part of any such discussion is the dilemma of having to use words. Jerry has suggested intellect,but connects it closely to emotion, as does LA, and probably as your grandmother.
After all the signs and symbols, one may arrive at that which is God, or “oneness”, or whatever term you would choose. Facing the void really isn’t facing nothingness, but letting go all the knowing, and just being. Was your grandmother in ‘grace’? Very possible and even likely. It sounds very much as if she lived her faith, it was her life experience. That she may not have had any formal instruction in theology or philosophy was perhaps an advantage. In such a situation, she had less intellectual garbage to divest in order to use her native intelligence to guide her life.
I agree that too much of religious and philosophical discussion revolves around a futile attempt to know the unknowable. We can never deny or separate our spiritual nature from ourselves, but all the posturing of knowing is an intellectual (ego) exercise that in most cases, leads one away from understanding instead of toward it. I’d much rather take the inspiration of your grandmother than the grand theologian.
Hi Ned
You keep bringing up these tough questions. 
I don’t think it is the hard manual job itself but what its effect is. I think this effect eventually increases ones faith. This effect I call hitting bottom. It is a kind of grounding. Do you remember in John 13 where Jesus is washing feet:
In the esoteric language of the Bible the feet represent our contact with external life. Peter did not understand the ritual in which Jesus placed this truth so objected on respectful grounds. He was embarrassed. Jesus replied that he was clean on the “inside.” All that needed help was at this contact with external life in which our corrupted ego asserts itself. This is also experienced when a person hits bottom and the corrupt ego has no more influence.
But another profound point in this extraordinary passage reveals our normal tendency to discount the good of manual labor. In our society it is often considered low class. But any sort of work that stimulates our ego’s objection in the face of our connection with the higher is very healing. It increases our faith since our false pride is seen for what it is and how it dominates us. This same idea is in the parable of the wayward son
This is true experiential learning. We are like the wayward son having forgotten our origin. The wayward son hit bottom. Now do we need a manual job to learn? I believe yes unless an experience comes through an act of grace where we experience our nothingness such as release from alcohol or drug addiction. The person has touched bottom and experienced their nothingness. This can also provide authentic humility natural to sustain faith and come into contact with higher influences…
As you can see it is a complex question.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.”
There is ‘self’-consciousness, and there is ‘ego’-consciousness. I think the poor in spirit are immune to the error of ego-consciousness. Self-consciousness requires balance, which was lost to the cultures of western europe when alexander eclipsed the cynic. It can be regained, if the intelligent are humble and the poor in spirit are forgiving.
Intelligence is but one of the many beautiful mechanisms of justice; as i see it.