Spiritual Groups

Spiritual practice on the independent spiritual path is one of the activities that has the potential to be most individual in its pursuit. This is because of an axiom of spiritual practice that runs contrary the usual human social tendency: the soul is one with God, and this has absolute importance, as opposed to the social bonds that make up the rest of life, which have only relative importance. However, even if the soul communes privately with God, or even if human contact has been cut to a minimum in a monastic setting, so long as the soul is alive on Earth, it is also in touch with Nature, the outside world. And while one is in touch with the outside world, it is best to try to arrange one’s circumstances so as to be most favorable to one’s spiritual quest. If there is a suitable ashram or monastery that meets the ideological requirements and life situation of the seeker, and is well suited to their personality, then they should feel lucky to be able to pursue that avenue. But most seekers in this world, especially at this time when traditional institutions are being questioned and are having their societal and material bases of support tested, do not have this opportunity. That doesn’t mean that the seeker has to do without the possibility of a supportive structure for the spiritual path, however. There is also the opportunity to have spiritual growth by finding a suitable spiritual group of independent spiritual practitioners. Ultimately there is no way to escape the fact that the individual must approach God alone on the spiritual path, but spiritual groups allow for fellowship, support, and faster advance.

A spiritual group brings together like-minded seekers in a way that supports their development. There are a few main components that make up the spiritual group. First, there must be a collection of individual seekers. These seekers could find each other via a bulletin board announcement, through an online organizing platform like meetup.com, by congregating around a the writings of an author that are disseminated in books or on the internet, or even by forming subgroup or splinter group from a larger organization; any way that human organizations form could be a viable method of bringing together a specifically spiritual organization. Most readers of this article will find that some of the work has been done already, as there are countless spiritual groups already formed and waiting for members. But if a suitable group does not yet exist, you can try to create one yourself. The group also need an activity to do together at regular intervals, as humans need structures through which they can interact to be productive and comfortable. Common activities include participating in a spiritual practice like hatha yoga or meditation, discussion sessions about spiritual topics or principles, and recreational activities like hiking.

The benefits of a spiritual group come from the mutual energetic interchange of members. Though individual spiritual practice is important, it can be stabilized and accelerated by interacting with others in a spiritual setting. As one negative benefit, group interactions provide the opportunity for members to check their egos. Interactions with others inevitably show us where we fall short by feeling irritation, jealousy, anger, superiority, inferiority, or any number of other psychological defects. In the group, these defects come up in a safe, spiritual setting that is somewhat removed from the world, providing an opportunity to deactivate and change the pattern more easily than in a setting that is harsh, competitive, or does not allow for spiritual understanding such as the normal work or family environments. On the positive side, the group setting allows opportunities for knowledge sharing, encouragement, and emotional bonding. This mutual feeling can raise to as high of a level as the individuals are willing to experience—even to that state of oneness which goes by the name of “love”. This is a loaded term in our culture, and it can be safer to think in terms that are less charged, like “fraternity” or “solidarity”. But one should not be blind to the fact that the sense of solidarity felt by fellow spiritual seekers can indeed go so far as to merit the stronger term “love”.

The other benefit of a spiritual group is the enhanced operation of the phenomenon of “projection”. Because of the complexity of our being, it can be hard to identify our own strengths, weaknesses, emotions, or characteristics. For instance, one may wonder if the anger one is feeling is really one’s own or is rather anger felt sympathetically on behalf of a family member; or one may wonder if one is really conscientious or only behaves that way because of the imposition of school teachers during childhood. It can be easier to identify traits and behaviors when we see them in others. In a spiritual group, there are many projections happening simultaneously, as each member contains a projections of all other members. This means that each utterance or interaction between people serves as a spiritual lesson for all the other members; the effect of each interaction is amplified so that it becomes much more powerful than it would otherwise be. The sum total of the effects of the interactions on all the projections that are present make it so that every interaction is a sort of spiritual revelation.

The benefits listed above could happen in principle in any human group, such as a school, bowling club, or corporation. But they are characteristically more powerful in a true spiritual group. This is because it is only in the spiritual group that many people are focusing together on their spiritual advancement; other organizations serve other aims that are not purely spiritual, so it is those aims and not the spiritual aim that is advanced in all the members. This is why it is important not just to accept just any group that forms. To create a true spiritual group, one must actively seek out spiritual harmony to forge a unified group marching in the same direction towards God, rather than just an ad-hoc collection of participants with many different aims. This can involve decisions like cutting out members who are disharmonious with the group’s energy or are not fully in line with the group’s principles. While this is difficult, the positive effects on group harmony will bear out the fact that this is ultimately for the best for the budding group.

Spiritual group work, like any type of spiritual work, tends in the direction of purity; as the group progresses, the group as well as its members will burn away all that holds them back from God. At the highest level of purity one ultimately sees one’s own soul and its qualities as one with the souls of the other group members and their qualities. We see how all the soul qualities of the group are present in us, and we also see and experience the spiritual difference of the soul qualities between all the members. In a true harmonious spiritual group, we see the very principle of the manifestation of the cosmos borne out: the group is one as God is one, but it has infinitely many refractions which are seen in the individual members.