Spiritual development starts with overcoming prejudice

   I was going to write about how evolution is really two processes: evolution and involution, and given that we understand evolution the mystery of involution is now of greater importance because it first takes hold in the fifth, the blue fifth. But I wont.
   Instead, spiritual development: Each one of us has to find their own unique path into the spiritual worlds. Yet given this freedom how are we to tell the false from the true paths? You can focus on the development of all sorts of capacities: psychic clairvoyance, hypnotism, enlivening dreaming, connecting with the body's energy patterns, ritualism, etc. and you can become better at them. Is this a good focus for spiritual development? If we take a common capacity, intellectualism, we soon see it is just like any other capacity: That is, it can be used to really help others, medical advancements, or it can be entirely destructive, nuclear weapons. The capacity itself is of less importance than what you are going to do with it. This is the real focus of spiritual development, the development and application of intent. Capacities will of necessity become available to the spiritual seeker and to focus on them is to take the secondary as the primary. The real focus should be on the wisdom that allows you to use them for the greatest benefit.
   The focus of development always starts with wisdom or else there is just a blind jumping in. Above the temple at Delphi was written: "Oh man, KNOW thou thyself." Today, knowledge has to be the starting point. How do you know if what you are doing is worthwhile? We often, unwittingly deceive ourselves because we all have prejudice: sympathy and antipathy towards the world and others. We like some things more than others and this has its place but that place is nowhere near thinking. Real knowledge can only arise when we have freed ourselves from our own desires and passions. Freed ourselves in thinking only. Our daily lives, of necessity, need desire and passion if they are not to become colourless and boring. Knowledge on the other hand demands that we overcome ourselves.
   Any path into the spiritual worlds that doesn't start with understanding yourself so that you can overcome your own prejudice is a false path. This is becoming more and more important as we move into the future because humanity's prejudice as a whole is increasing. Increasing of necessity as we become more and more sensitive towards the world and others around us, because there is a greater amount of things to be prejudiced about. Humanity as a whole is becoming more aware of its inner and outer surroundings (because the fifth is the age of communication and communication technologies) and this has opened up two paths for us: we can remain who we are or we can start the process of transforming the evil in us. If we subtlety hate those around us (ex. nationalism = projection of all the bad onto others) or we can develop an awareness of the bad within us and star to deal with it = transformation.