Why is it that our collective spiritual evolution takes place so slowly and so painfully?

no such thing as Spiritual evolution.

That is the purpose and design of the creation, to express every possibility from the highest to the lowest, from the purest to the most vile, from the brightest to the darkest. Mankind is the link and the only link that fulfills that equation. We alone have the free will to choose our outlook, purpose, goals and ideals and to express them in world. That is the human condition and it will be always. What has been made has been made perfectly, works perfectly and always will. It is designed that way. One after another come to show us that, to speak of it, to live from that state of being and to show us the way to attain that state of awareness ourselves. But only one person at a time realizes the need to overcome the apparent and embrace the Substantial, giving up the attachments and desires of the world for the Reality that the world rests upon, the unseen. As science is starting to recognize, what can be seen and measured by the senses makes up only about three per cent of the mass of the Universe. The ninety seven per cent that cannot be seen or measured, what they are calling 'dark matter' is the greater mass of the Universe. What is that mass, more subtle than the apparent substantial part and yet the very substance upon which the whole rests? Jesus knows, Paramahansa Yogananda knows, Buddha knows, Neem Karoli Baba knows, Padre Pio knows,,,, and a thousand saints and sages of all ages. And one at a time souls awaken.

Even in the highest ages there will be those who are bound by worldly desires and ego/mind power trips and dark thought and dreadful fears. It is the nature of the world. Who desires to be free? Not so long as they are feeling fulfilled by this plane of existence. When the scientist is done with his science, the sex addict done with pleasure, the erudite done with his learning and the junkie done with the rush, then might they look deeper toward what may give lasting fulfillment. But even a little intraspection will reveal that whatever is gained in the world will be lost in the end. At some point in ones existence it will dawn that to gather worldly treasures is a waste of life, a waste of energy, a waste of time and begin to seek those lasting subtle treasures that are found only in that ninety seven per cent that lies beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond the ego. I call It Spirit but you call It what you will. It Is, nevertheless, whatever you choose to call It.

Or so It is in my experience. Namaste'

It is hard to the being to believe that he himself build the Universe around his invisible wings.

This is the reason life has been so dificult to us all.

People, not comprehending what they do, can not understand why they feel so attached to their constructions (and land) to the point of killing each other feeling offended because the other guy breaths the same air they exaled whitout asking them permission or ... paying a penalty or a bill.

As a never stoping growing up cell (my first cell is still me), I may tell you that my body already built 40 (fourty!) thousand kilograms (which by the way is around 100 thousand pounds) of living matter.

It is indeed a big mass, and widelly enough to be called wide, spread all around, but it all bellongs to me.

I already breath around billions of litters (hundreds of millions on gallons) of air. And I garantee you... all the molecules there vibrates on a frequence that I shared with them.... I forced ... actually... them to react in the same vibration of my body...

The individual spirit can not handle by himself his own real dimension.

This is why it is so important, on evolutionary words, societies to each of them.

We need the whole in order the be the individual and not many of us is capable to understand our actual sincere purposes on the existence. Nobody born to die, I suppose. We die because we do not know, yet, how to avoid it.

Without the society the individual fears ... fear. Feel lonelly.

He needs the society to protect him.

Why?

Well... since he born he knows people die.

He does not know how to avoid it, death, and desperatelly searches from others this information.

No inteligent living being wishes to die.

I know spiritually God is wonderfull, but... dead I'm not alive and I know, while alive, that living beings do not deal well with deads.

I, as a living being only when living, do not want to become spiritual, and miss the party here... at Paradise, as we wish.

What is slowly?

For forty thousand years, we wandered around the world as neolithic hunter/gathers. We refined that life-style to a great degree. The people living it were smart, skilled and centered. Their animistic and shamanistic spritualities were perfectly suited to the lives they were living. They produced Megalithic monuments, beautiful art, and complex cultures. But about ten thousand years ago, as the environment began to change, we also changed to a settled existence, to agriculture, and then more and more attendant technologies that came from leading a settled existence. We've had barely ten thousand years to wrap our minds our this transition, which hasn't even completed itself yet. I'd say, give us a five millennia, and well have caught up with ourselves, and refined our spirituality as fully as our neolithic ancestors had refined theirs. Five thousand years is the blink of an eye in the life of a species. Most species have life span millions of years. Be patient.

Hey go look up the word catholic in the dictionary---MAKE SURE YOU READ THE DEFINITION WITH THE LOWER CASE "C" !!

In this inference one sees that the spiritual nature is closely tied to the definitions,traditions,mores,codes, and so forth that have been preserved if for no other purpose than to merely preserve them !

Another version is the reverence we hold for our elders----as children we were forced into submission by them as parents etc. which is what we in turn exercise over subsequent generations.

There is something to be said in the cliché:"If it worked for grandfather it is good enough for me !"

Our knowledge is fed by reiterating what has preceded us in the world, this equips us to interpret understand (and yes, of course to"obey !) the world before us.

Were your child to be born into the world without tutelage how might he/she end up as an adult should he/she happen to survive that long ? I would venture that that child might indeed survive however as an uneducated and possibly even mute individual their ability to cope/progress would be intensely limited !

What is imparted to our youth comes from the past, there is no way to escape it. As the source of our knowledge it becomes scary for us to step outside this natural limit into brand new ideals.

Our nature does however include a degree of curiosity which carefully applied leads us in the direction of progress scientifically as well as culturally/spiritually. Unfortunately such progresss is tertiary to food/clothing/shelter so its prominence among our motivations varies enormously,depending on an individual's status.

I love this question as it tells me that there actually are people out there who are thinking and searching.

Very NICE!

The answer is that it takes so long for us to collectively evolve into our True Spiritual Selves because of our collective choices.

I will say this much... if we all "chose" to follow just the first 2 commandments, all at the same exact time "NOW", we would instantly change and become infinitely aware of being one with God and many things would begin to change that same instance.

I have no Quranic verse to quote. But your spiritual self is your own consciousness. Knowledge that was unfolded is where you advance farther. To realize and understand need some intense study of your own self. The more you know the better you become as a person. Everything was already inside us. We just need to unfold it to realize the knowledge in our life energy to understand our surrounding. Your "desire" and your "believe" are the two energy that kept you going in every step you made. Whatever you do in reality will be that spiritual person you are. Practical of biological body become the consciousness of your soul.

The answer to this question lies within us all. From the moment of birth our perception is directed outward to that which implies a shared reality, and we are "spoon fed" answers to unformed questions before our curiosity begins to drive our desire to know "why we exist". We are led to seek answers to any question outside of ourselves and taught that the system of knowledge available to us is based upon eons of experiential data gathered from the life experiences of those who have gone before us, who sought these answers. We are made to feel that unless something is grounded in physical evidence that we are "abnormal" to assume answers based on insubstantial or abstract data, such as personal experience, and "religion" is a "catch all" answer, limiting our resources to those deemed acceptable by the powers that be, for whatever reason... Few and far between are those of us who dare to venture upon a journey leading to self discovery and self actualization, as these truths are individual and are a deterent to the acceptance of answers that lead to our exploitation and manipulation by those that would otherwise benefit from this ability to control what we think...

A quick survey of human nature shows that change on an individual basis is extremely painful and difficult. Most people aren't willing to go through it. On a collective level change proceeds at a glacial pace at best.

Well first off , you portray yourself as ," not better than any of these folks" , while yet you refer to everybody but yourself as unevolved. The most common mistake people make is to think they are holier than thou. The ancient book of the bible is valid. It's not very modern or cool to rely on it but it has been around for 5000 years. It is true

Hello; it's all right? You're welcome! ♥

But well: don't have many people evolute and civilized the necessary, possible and sufficient, unfortunately and really, do you understand me?

And a purpose: I observe you like may Questions about languages, I make a Question about this theme recently (in English), if you by a chance find it...

It's same, answered!

Countrymen and Brazilian greetings for you!