Spiritual Health: Understanding the Key to Spiritual Growth and the Function of Religion

By Robert Baynes

This book is a guide for living a happier and healthier life. The insights shared can help you to enhance your physical health, mental health, and especially your spiritual health.

Topics discussed include: how to purify the mind, the key to spiritual growth, the evolution of consciousness, the history of religion, the relationship between science and religion, and the function of religion in the 21st century.

If you are interested in growing spiritually and tapping into your full potential this book provides a framework for the awakening of your true self. You will have a map to help you on your journey, and to live a life filled with meaning and purpose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Mar 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780228813101

Robert Baynes

Rob Baynes has spent the past thirty years dedicated to the pursuit of spiritual growth and becoming closer to God. Many of the insights shared in this book are the result of his direct experience.He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from the University of Alberta. He is grateful for everything in his life, and enjoys living in the Edmonton, Alberta area with his wife and two children.

Book preview

SPIRITUAL

HEALTH

UNDERSTANDING THE KEY TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND THE FUNCTION OF RELIGION

ROBERT M. BAYNES

Spiritual Health

Copyright © 2019 by Robert M. Baynes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-22881-309-5 (Hardcover)

978-0-22881-308-8 (Paperback)

978-0-22881-310-1 (eBook)

Contents

Introduction

Part 1   A Spiritual Journey

Thirst for Knowledge

The Perennial Philosophy

Higher Learning

Darkness then Light

Part 2   The Evolution of Consciousness

Archaic Consciousness

Magical Consciousness

Mythic Consciousness

Rational Consciousness

Vision-Logic Consciousness

Psychic Consciousness

Subtle Consciousness

Causal Consciousness

Nondual Consciousness

The Circle of Life

Part 3   The Function of Religion

Right Understanding

Right Thought

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness

Right Meditation

The Power of Prayer

Peace and Love

Afterword

Endnotes

Bibliography

Introduction

This book is the result of more than thirty years of spiritual study and practice. The topics discussed include: how to purify the mind, the key to spiritual growth, the evolution of consciousness, the history of religion, the relationship between science and religion, and the function of religion in the 21st century.

My hope is that this writing will be helpful to anyone interested in spirituality or religion. My intention was to write in a concise, clear manner so that it would also be accessible to people with limited knowledge of religious teachings. My prayer is that the readers of this book will be inspired in some way to lead a more spiritual life.

The book consists of three sections. Part 1 is structured around brief accounts of experiences in my life, and covers a wide range of fascinating topics that impacted me throughout a twenty year period of intense study and practice. I have included some of my own spiritual experiences, and this section culminates with descriptions of two particularly powerful experiences.

Part 2 discusses a theory of consciousness development that attempts to integrate the stages of development outlined by modern developmental psychologists and the stages of spiritual development revealed in the writings of spiritual adepts from many traditions. This section is greatly indebted to the work of Ken Wilber and Jim Marion. It provides an excellent framework to take a look at our evolutionary history and the role religion has played in that process.

The final section is a presentation of spiritual teachings that I believe can have transformative effects and help a person make spiritual progress. It explains the key to spiritual growth and reveals the three most important functions of religion. For the most part this section is inspired by what I perceive to be the core teachings of the Buddha and Jesus. It is also influenced by my own experiences, Jim Marion, Lama Surya Das, Eckhart Tolle, and Irmansyah Effendi.

For the sake of clarity I would like to make clear how I define four words used often in this book. The first two words are religion and spirituality. Using our bones and the marrow within our bones as an analogy…I see religion as the rigid, outer shell similar to bone while spirituality is like marrow in that it is the flexible, inner core of religious expression.

A person can be religious and not spiritual, but their faith will be hollow and lack vitality. Likewise, the growing numbers of people who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious may have a vibrant spiritual life but it can lack direction and consistency.

The other two words are soul and spirit. The analogy of bone and marrow also works well in understanding the difference between these two very important parts of our being. In fact, there is a verse in the New Testament that uses this analogy. It is found in that unusual document called The Letter to the Hebrews, where it says that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow… (4:12).

Our soul is a vehicle for our spirit (which has no form) to experience both physical and non-physical dimensions just like our physical body is a vehicle for our soul and spirit to experience life on Earth. The seat of the soul is the center/front part of our head and is related to the pineal gland and our third eye. Truly, our eyes are the windows to our soul.

Our spirit or true self resides in our spiritual heart which is located in the area of the center of our chest. Life is a facility for spiritual growth - the growth of our spirit - so we can remember again about our Source and how we have always been Loved completely, to choose Love and rely on True Source Love in every situation, and to then be closer to God. Every moment of our lives is an opportunity for spiritual growth when we prioritize God and God’s Love above everything else.

Life is not about developing our soul, it is not about becoming a powerful being that can manifest their wants and desires. In fact this impulse to build up our soul…to be somebody important and special…even if our intentions are good…is detrimental to spiritual growth and is very much related to why we left Home and became separated from our Source in the first place.

I was not brought up within a religious tradition as a child and did not become interested in religion/spirituality until around the age of 21. Like increasing numbers of people these days my spirituality and spiritual experiences have come outside of organized religion, and have been influenced by many different traditions and teachings. That said, I do consider myself a Christian and for several years now have enjoyed attending services with my wife at our local Catholic Church.

My mother is a loving, spiritual person from a Catholic background. Shortly after my birth she began practicing yoga and learning about more eastern forms of spirituality. My father is an extremely intelligent and hard-working individual who has always been a wonderful role model for my brother and I. The two of us were raised in a loving and disciplined environment where we were taught to treat others the way we would want to be treated and to be respectful of our elders.

Every loving parent wants their child to be happy and healthy. This book is for my children Ryan James and Megan Rose. Hopefully it will be a resource for them that has a positive impact on their physical health, mental health, and especially their spiritual health.

This book is dedicated to my parents, whose love and support made its production possible.

Part 1

A Spiritual Journey

It’s important to live life with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of its mystery and of your own mystery. This gives life a new radiance, a new harmony, a new splendor. Thinking in mythological terms helps to put you in accord with the inevitables of this vale of tears. You learn to recognize the positive values in what appear to be the negative moments and aspects of your life. The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.

— Joseph Campbell

My mother tells me that I was reluctant to come into this world. Or at least that is the sense she had while enduring a difficult pregnancy. You would wonder why considering the loving family I was born into and the wonderful childhood I experienced growing up in a small town in Canada.

One of my strongest childhood memories may provide a clue. I distinctly remember standing in front of a mirror around the age of seven and while looking at the reflection of my physical form thinking: That is not who I am. This realization would foreshadow a later tendency to be drawn to spirit rather than the flesh, and to identify with the spiritual much more than the physical.

It was also around this age that I would have an unusual experience. This incident took place during major renovations to our home which included a new basement. One day while walking down the newly constructed stairs to the basement I fell (almost as if I was pushed from the side), and after reaching for a yet to be built railing my body turned and plummeted face up towards the cement floor below.

It felt like I was falling in slow motion and when I reached the floor it was as if I landed on a cloud. I remember being flat on my back on the cold concrete floor and thinking: I should be hurt, how can this be? This experience would quickly fade from memory, however; it would come into my mind many times in later years when learning of similar experiences by other people.

Sports were a major part of my life at this time and throughout my teen years, particularly hockey and golf. Schoolwork came easily and I was blessed to have many friends, in addition to having a very good relationship with my intellectually gifted younger brother. Like many people around my age I was influenced by the first Star Wars trilogy of movies as well as E.T. I would have seen these movies sometime between the ages of nine and sixteen, and recall feeling blown away by all of them when leaving the theatres.

I also became increasingly interested in health and fitness during my teen years. Around the age of thirteen I read a negative article regarding the effects of drinking coffee and made up my mind I would not drink coffee. I began working out regularly, including periods of intense weight lifting with several of my friends. I never even considered smoking or taking drugs, and was fortunate to have always been repulsed by the taste of alcohol. By my late teens I became convinced it was underrated how unhealthy soda pop was and eliminated it from my diet.

My late teens were also a somewhat difficult time in that I finally accepted the reality that becoming a professional athlete of some kind was not going to happen, and that I had no clue what else I would want to do with my life. My choices were limited by the fact that I was very introverted with poor people skills. I remember taking several long walks to think about my situation and feeling like something was missing in my life but I did not know what. Eventually I decided to enrol in a business administration program at a nearby community college and upon graduation did not enjoy a very brief career in banking.

So I scratched banker off the list of possible career options and returned home confident I would soon find my path in life. It was during this time that a family friend who was a Christian dropped off a movie about the life of Jesus for my family to watch. I felt a powerful connection with Jesus while watching this movie and at its conclusion had something of a conversion experience. Knowing my mother was spiritual and from a Catholic background I went to