Th energy that is us and all life is natural. If we look at that energy as starting whole then being poured or randomly distributed throughout the universe and earth and then understand that environment affects energies differently, we can grasp that we are not all meant to be the same due to nature. Evil is a necessary part of nature.
I think that the most important thing is to first be aware that ‘spiritual’ development encompasses the totality of the human being. Spiritual is not necessarily about becoming ‘holy’ except insofar as the term [holy] itself means to become whole as in holistic.
I tend to think that the answer to that question lies within the awareness of the [individual] him/her -self and where he/she is on their particular journey.
Aside from that, I would say that the most important thing is struggling and going against the grain, stretching one’s self to and beyond one’s own limits, struggling against entropy - unless one has a need to learn the opposite which would be “going with the flow” which would also encompass the same but in the opposite direction.
I’m reminded of the poem - The Road Not Taken - by Robert Frost. which speaks to the above…in a very poignant way…
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I do try my best to take care of my body, but it’s a part of my whole which I know I have to loose eventually. To me things like TV are almost meaningless, used to pass the time between resting from doing something more important. There is a reason why some people classify that all as “mundane”.
What do you think of the notion that spirituality consists in focusing one’s being on the ultimate goal? There are various types of spirituality, corresponding to the various ways in which the ultimate goal is conceived. But, the spiritual person in each case would be one who always thinks of the ultimate goal of the journey, who is influenced by that thought at all times and in all things and who bring his or her life into conformity with that ultimate goal however he or she conceives of it.
i wasn’t necessarily speaking only of the physical here. When I spoke of the spiritual totality of the human being, I also meant one’s emotional/psychic/intellectual side of life, which includes developing the capacity for playfulness and enjoyment, taking care of that so-called temple (the body) which some view as housing a soul, through exercise/rest/relaxation - developing a sense of wonder, an avid curiosity for things and knowledge, and above all, the quest to know one’s self…those things which give an experience of qualia to one’s life.
Many classes of goals, a hierarchy of goals, is a hierarchy of value. And value is one of the building blocks of spirituality, which is meaningful and the basis of meaning.