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Signs of an authentic spirituality
The quickest and simplest way to tell is looking at actions. If people are doing actions that mirror values like care, love, respect, integrity, and excellence, then they’re probably an awakened person (there are other values too).
If someone sounds spiritually enlightened based on what they say but do actions that aren’t in alignment with the values above, then they’re a hypocrite and definitely not spiritually enlightened. Unless they’re at the highest realization which is beyond “right” and “wrong” action (which is another topic).
The most important thing to remember though is that it doesn’t matter what people say or do, but what you do.
You could have a spiritual fraud who teaches valuable things but doesn’t do them. Think about religious leaders that teach from Jesus but do bad things like… rape kids. Those actions don’t mean that “love your neighbor like yourself” is wrong. It just means that they’re not practicing what they preach.
You can still practice what they preach, but just make sure you actually practice it.
Sometimes people argue about whether or no Jesus was real. In a spiritually pragmatic way, it doesn’t matter if he was real or not. What matters is that the ideas that make Jesus Jesus are real — and we can find those ideas valuable or not. If you find those…
