The Spiritual Side of Life. Part 2.

There are three basic stages in the life of a person engaged in spiritual development.
The first is characterized by the transition from "normal consciousness" to a "spiritual consciousness".
(NB. I really dislike the word "spiritual" because I find it horribly unspecific, and there are a lot of weird connotations behind it. I'm using it however, because it's instantly recognizable and it's simple. I would like to make it a little more clear what I mean here though. For me a spiritual state is one where the functions of normal consciousness are replaced with the functions of a conscious capable of expanded awareness and appreciation of singularities. I think that's fair enough. If you'd like to contest it, or if you think it's insufficient in anyway please let me know and we can discuss it.)

This shift usually takes the form of what Crowley called "the lesser trance of sorrow". I don't think this is a necessary step in a spiritually minded person's progress but it does seem common. This state is characterized by a realization of the futility of all "earthly" endeavors.
I personally went through this when I was about 13. I started thinking a lot about what I wanted to be when I was older and I just couldn't justify anything to myself. I just kept thinking that no matter what I choose it won't make any difference after I die. Even if I left behind something great, like a work of art, or a great idea, there would come a time when even that would dissolve and the people who new about the idea would die. This trance is often accompanied by an acute depressive state that subsides by realizing that the "earthly" pursuits are in fact futile but that there is another way. I quickly realized that if I were in "heaven" (the only concept in my vocabulary at the time that even approximated an enlightened state) I would be past all that, I wouldn't need these trivial ideas anymore. I just wouldn't care because I'd be past all that.
This left me with a deep calm for a while until I found my true path. I had found the reason and once I had found the way I was off running.
I think the important thing to remember with spirituality is that some people want it and others don't. There comes a point in spiritual development when you really can't force it anymore. You come to see that everything you know must be left behind and either you're compelled or you aren't. It's in your blood. No amount of philosophizing can change this (see ! & ?).
The true fulfillment of the spiritual path seems to lie in a state of consciousness that is entirely enigmatic to the mundane consciousness. Once you've reached a certain point it seems, you are no longer willing to admit that you've ever done anything at all. Like Crowley says "In fact, the man in Kether is out of all relation to these boots and hats." The enlightened mind is no longer willing to abide on the material plane. But it goes even further than that I think, he's out of all relation to the material.
He is out of all relation.
This also implies that he would be unwilling to affect anything so distant from "himself" or affect anything at all for that matter.
This is where my point lies. As Crowley says:

"But (you will doubtless say) I pith your ? itself with another ?: Why question life at all? Why not remain "a clean-living Irish gentleman" content with his handicap, and contemptuous of card and pencil? Is not the Buddha's goad "Everything is sorrow" little better than a currish whine? What do I care for old age, disease, and death? I'm a man, and a Celt at that. I spit on your sniveling Hindu prince, emasculate with debauchery in the first place, and asceticism in the second. A weak, dirty, paltry cur, sir, your Gautama!

"Yes, I think I have no answer to that. The sudden apprehension of some vital catastrophe may have been the exciting cause of my conscious devotion to the attainment of Adeptship --- but surely the capacity was there, inborn. Mere despair and desire can do little; anyway, the first impulse of {132} fear was the passing spasm of an hour; the magnetism of the path itself was the true lure. It is as foolish to ask me "Why do you adep?" as to ask God "Why do you pardon?" C'est son métier. "

What's the point if it's not good for your poor health, or won't bring you more money?
The answer is that the path of wisdom is innate in some people and not in others.
I was born to Adept, c'est mon metier.

I've already said a bit about the third stage (what little I know of it) but tomorrow I'll go over it again in a bit more detail along with the second stage.
For now read ! & ?.