Without spiritual tension we would not have the spiritual insight. The spiritual insight which we have we probably think comes from books or from hearing people speak. This we call our spiritual ideas and ideals. We live our life in relation to these, but pay not too much heed to the idea of spiritual tension. How do we know that these spiritual ideas and ideals are not themselves simply illusion? We can only recognize illusion from the spiritual insight which comes as a result of building up a spiritual tension. Spiritual tension is not continuous in most people throughout their lives. It is not something we are given and once we have it, we have it. It is like a clock which constantly needs winding up... The spiritual batteries have likewise to be wound up and this is the value of meditation...

The spiritual batteries are charged by spiritual thoughts and spiritual thoughts are creativity. It is not thinking nice thoughts; it is being creative in whatever manner one is creative. That builds up spiritual tension. Meditation builds up spiritual tension, especially Transmission Meditation. It is action of a spiritual nature, and I do not mean that as what is normally called ‘good’ action – of course it will be good if it is spiritual action. But it does not have to be self-consciously good or ‘spiritual’. It is action for the good of the world. Whatever transforms the world into a better state; every such action is spiritual whether it is on the physical, emotional, mental, or soul plane. Whatever brings the person or humanity as a whole to a higher level is fundamentally spiritual. p. 191

I think it's inevitable in any religion that some people are psychologically and emotionally attached to past tradition, while others have one foot in the past and want to take that next step into the future. Does this produce tension? Of course it does, and that tension is healthy. It is a sign of life. The same is true of American democracy. Where would the radicals be without conservatives, and vice versa? We push and pull at each other, we call each other bad names, and somehow we move forward. In spite of tragedy.

Tension means you want to be something else which you are not.

Spirituality becomes suspect if it is merely an anaesthetic to still one's spiritual hunger. Such spirituality is driven by the fear of loneliness. If you bring courage to you solitude, you learn that you do not need to be afraid.

The priest lives in constant spiritual tension, but the scenario in which he lives is anything but exhilarating. If he is unable to defend himself, he stumbles in the mud.

"The spiritual life depends on self-recollection and detachment from the rush of life; it depends on facing frankly the thought of death; it is signalized, especially, by the identification of self with others, even of the guiltless with the guilty. Spirituality is sometimes spoken of as if it were a kind of moral luxury, a work of supererogation, a token of fastidiousness and over-refinement. It is nothing of the sort. Spirituality is simply morality carried to its farthest bounds; it is not an airy bauble of the fancy, it is of "the tough fibre of the human heart.

Spiritual depression presents itself in much the same way as clinical depression — but not quite. The marks of distinction are crucial, yet hard for the untrained to recognize. They make the difference between interpreting the source of depression as a problem that may require medication or as a process of transformation that is best served by reflection, discussion of the stages of the dark night, and understanding the nature of mystical prayer. I have met many people who have been treated for depression and other conditions when they were, in fact, in the deep stages of a spiritual crisis. Without the proper support, that crisis becomes misdirected into a problem with relationships, a problem with one’s childhood, or a chronic malaise. Spiritual crises are now a very real part of our spectrum of health challenges and we need to acknowledge them with the same authority as we do clinical depression.

This is stressful — and spiritual life is a process of gradually unraveling our confusion and bringing this stress to an end. According to the Buddhist view, by seeing things as they are, we cease to suffer in the usual ways, and our minds can open to states of well-being that are intrinsic to the nature of consciousness.

The spiritual is whatever allows us to notice the miraculous nature of life, how it keeps coming back, asserting itself in the midst of destruction. Whatever allows us to notice that life is in fact bigger than all the mean-spirited cruelties and brutalities of unjust societies. Something large enough to entrust our sense of future to, so that we don't become mired in struggle.

PARTICULAR CAUSES OF DISEASE That straitness of spirit is a state near desperation, may be manifest from this consideration, that they who are in a state near desperation have an external anxiety, and in such case are actually in straitness of spirit. Straitness of spirit, in the external sense, is a compression of the breast, and thence as it were a difficulty of respiration. In the internal sense it is an anxiety by reason of the deprivation of the truth which is of faith, and of the good which is of charity, and thence a state near desperation. A state of compression as to respiration, and anxiety on account of the deprivation of the truth of faith and the good of charity, correspond to each other, as a natural effect in the body grounded in a spiritual cause in the mind. That the deprivation of spiritual truth and good produces such anxiety, and consequently such straitness, cannot be believed by those who are not in faith and charity, for these imagine that to be tormented on such account is weakness and sickliness of mind.

when I say spiritual, I am talking about you beginning to experience that which is not physical. Once this spiritual dimension is alive, once you start experiencing yourself beyond the limitations of the physical and the mental, only then there’s no such thing as fear. Fear is just the creation of an overactive and out-of-control mind.

As for the vice of lust - aside from what it means for spiritual persons to fall into this vice, since my intent is to treat of the imperfections that have to be purged by means of the dark night - spiritual persons have numerous imperfections, many of which can be called spiritual lust, not because the lust is spiritual but because it proceeds from spiritual things. It happens frequently that in a person's spiritual exercises themselves, without the person being able to avoid it, impure movements will be experienced in the sensory part of the soul, and even
sometimes when the spirit is deep in prayer or when receiving the sacraments of Penance or the Eucharist. These impure feelings arise from any of three causes outside one's control.

First, they often proceed from the pleasure human nature finds in spiritual exercises. Since both the spiritual and the sensory part of the soul receive gratification from that refreshment, each part experiences delight according to its own nature and properties. The spirit, the superior part of the soul, experiences renewal and satisfaction in God; and the sense, the lower part, feels sensory gratification and delight because it is ignorant of how to get anything else, and hence takes whatever is nearest, which is the impure sensory satisfaction. It may happen that while a soul is with God in deep spiritual prayer, it will conversely passively experience sensual rebellions, movements, and acts in the senses, not without its own great displeasure.

This frequently happens at the time of Communion. Since the soul receives joy and gladness in this act of love - for the Lord grants the grace and gives himself for this reason - the sensory part also takes its share, as we said, according to its mode. Since, after all, these two parts form one individual, each one usually shares according to its mode in what the other receives. As the Philosopher says: Whatever is received, is received according to the mode of the receiver. Because in th

People on the spiritual path are people of unquenchable discontent. It is being propagated that spirituality means contentment. Contentment means you have contented yourself with what you have. A spiritual person means he is unwilling to settle for anything less than the Ultimate.