Spiritual Development

We can define "spiritual" more precisely at this point. The spiritual dimension of the self is its ontological Presence, its essential nature. In fact, what we have termed Essence is what the various philosophies, religions, and spiritual teachings have called "spirit." So we see that spirit is not something otherworldly and ephemeral; it is actually our fundamental nature, the ground and ultimate truth of ourselves. Spiritual development means, then, the discovery and integration of our essential Presence in our experience of ourselves. And since this Presence is ultimately nondual and forms the ground of our wholeness, spiritual development can also be seen as the movement towards wholeness. (The Point of Existence, pg 498)

Spiritual development, being and personal life

The process of spiritual development, which is the maturation of the human being, can be divided into two complementary facets. One is the self-realization of Being in its various aspects and manifestations, and the other is the integration of this self-realization in the everyday life of a human person. The latter is a progressive process of maturation of the self in which the unfoldment of Being expresses itself in an individuated personal life with other human beings in a real world. Self-realization connects the person to his true identity, which is his Being, and this makes it possible for him to mature in everyday life and to fulfill his humanness. Human life becomes then that personal expression of one's realization in the context of normal life situations. (The Point of Existence, pg 565)

Planning and unfoldment

Planning is nothing but creating direction for your future actions. It implies the absence of trust that there is already an inherent plan that is oriented toward the actualization of your potential. This plan is already present in your inherent nature, and all you need to do for it to unfold is to be yourself in the present. You don't need to, nor in fact can you, plan your enlightenment. You just need to be true to who you are at the moment, and your unfoldment will happen on its own ... planning indicates that you have an idea in mind of how you should be and how you should live and what should happen within yourself and in your life. This means that your orientation is coming from your mind, and that it is determined by a goal that you are attempting to arrive at in the future ... your plan is bound to be based on your past experience and therefore, it cannot have the freshness that arises from the organic intelligence of Being, which, as we have seen, is a continuously new creation. A plan cannot be creative in an essential way. It is bound to be based on comparative judgment of your experience, and hence, cannot have the perfection that is inherent in the reality of Being. (Facets of Unity, pg 182)