Quality of Life Improvement

[Nicholas]

A question was recently asked in another thread about: "What is the goal of Spiritual Development?".

I would say, in my own response, that the seeking that comes through the spiritual lens is about completing an understanding of the Self.  And through those understandings, a certain measure of "quality of life improvement" can result.

That is not to say that the Dark Night of the Soul cannot plunge in at any time.  I can honestly say that in the first 18 years of my life, as hard as some of the circumstances were, that I never really experienced Depression. 

While I was scrolling down some old posts I came across this link that zenmaster shared. Here is an excerpt that relates to what Plenum is expressing.

True spirituality is not a high, not a rush, not an altered state. It has been fine to romance it for a while, but our times call for something far more real, grounded, and responsible; something radically alive and naturally integral; something that shakes us to our very core until we stop treating spiritual deepening as a something to dabble in here and there. Authentic spirituality is not some little flicker or buzz of knowingness, not a psychedelic blast-through or a mellow hanging-out on some exalted plane of consciousness, not a bubble of immunity, but a vast fire of liberation, an exquisitely fitting crucible and sanctuary, providing both heat and light for what must be done.

Most of the time when we’re immersed in spiritual bypassing, we like the light but not the heat, doing whatever we can to distance ourselves from the flames.

http://robertmasters.com/writings/spiritual-bypassing/

Lower down the text I found a really good quote that I can personally relate to given my own history of repressing, or bypassing painful inner truths, one way or another.  "What gives light must endure burning." - Victor Frankl.