Continuing from yesterday, I wanted to share a framework for the maturation of the soul, that I apply to my teachings. 

Spiritual teachings offer a path where you through diligent practice can reach a form of enlightenment. What 'enlightenment' means differ from which path you choose, but most are centered around the idea that you reach an awareness of the awareness, a second attention as its called in some buddhist traditions, which leads us to see that we are at one with existence, a uni-consciousness, a higher mind. If we stay with it, we might even learn how to play around with energetic fields, or expand our seeing. But that is usually seen as the goal. To know you are 'it', and then bring back this awareness to your ordinary life.

The second stage of enlightenment is then focused around how to live this realization. Which is where most spiritual paths stumble. Because even if you know that you are 'it', and you can feel the universe coalesce within your spine, you might actually still be an a-hole. Enlightenment doesn't mature your soul. Integral philosopher Ken Wilber talks about the stages of Waking up, Growing Up and Showing up. Which could be applied to what I'm teaching as well; the Erotic Awakening, the Power Awakening and the Mystical Awakening. But how do we do that? Practically?

In the Diamond Approach (DA), which is my main spiritual path, besides my own teaching, we practice developing the soul, or the Pearl as it's also called. Which to my knowledge makes DA unique. It is the aim of the entire teaching, actually, where we don't try to get enlightened, but instead start with the shadow side of our psyche. We go as deep into the hole of that shadow that we are capable of, through tools such as inquiry and presence, to then get to experience a resolution on the other side. It's seldom pleasant in the beginning, but it changes us to the core. We mature and eventually we become more enlightened and 'whole'. 

In the way I teach, I support women not only to turn on, which is my focus in the Erotic Awakening, where we explore the exquisite playfulness of our sensual nature, but increasingly in the second and third level of awakening, the journey is to meet the shadow side of the feminine. So you can say I combine both paths. What's so fabulous with having Eros and the jewel force, and our primordial power unleashed, is that we actually are forced to deal with that which we avoid in a more direct way. Because Divine Eros is a pretty stern, while playful, Mistress. We can't avoid our issues in the same way as if we were to pursue a more traditional spiritual path. And the more we meet the shadow side of the feminine, in ourselves - and in society, while staying connected to our bodies, we get more access to the Divine Seductress and the Black Panther within. And it's highly contagious!:). Imagine an epidemic of playful turn-on across the globe!

What is your experience of maturation, personally and spiritually? What makes you a wiser person? And how is your connection to feminine maturity?