The Benefits of Spiritual Fulfillment

Spiritual fulfillment is important because of the contentment and satisfaction that it brings, but there are other benefits as well. Contentment brings with it the capacity for a peace of mind which allows for truly constructive creative thinking. Great works of art and invention, as well as intellectual and artistic discovery come from the creative thinking capacity brought about by peace of mind. Important matters being resolved, one can get down to the art of living.

But even more significant is the actual experience and recognition of true satisfaction. Recognizing true satisfaction is important because of its usefulness in determining the truth of any matter at hand because truth and reality bring true satisfaction. In other words, if you are looking for truth, then know that truth satisfies. But if we are incapable of experiencing or eve recognizing true satisfaction, then by what other means are we to determine truth? If however we have the experience of true satisfaction as determined by the completion of a quest - a course of investigation and learning designed to bring about the experience of true satisfaction through the experience of fulfillment gained by a complete spiritual realization - then we can recognize that satisfaction wherever and whenever we experience it. This is what some folks refer to as their ‘truth meter’. If something heard, thought or discovered resonates with an already determined experience of true satisfaction, then it meets the requirement and satisfies the curiosity or quest that brought it about. After all, satisfaction is the goal of every quest.

The discovery of a spiritual teacher, for example, let us say the acceptance of a spiritual teacher, is based upon the experience of satisfaction one receives upon being in his or her presence or listening to his or her speech. If such presence or speech is based upon promises to be fulfilled later then there is room for suspicion that one is being deceived, for the satisfaction is not complete in the moment but based in the future dependent upon actions or cooperation. But if one experiences direct satisfaction, and can recognize the feeling of true satisfaction, then one can surmise that what one is hearing is truth. So, understanding the experience of true satisfaction becomes the gauge, so to speak, of one's capacity to recognize truth. And this experience of true satisfaction can only be certified by the completion of a tried and true course of study aimed at bringing about that satisfaction. Hence the quest for spiritual realization.

If you are faced on a journey with a fork in the road and a decision must be made as to the left or the right fork, a contemplative experienced in the knowledge of satisfaction will simply 'feel' into it to see which thought, left or right, brings the desired continuation of satisfaction and will choose that. One choice will feel right and the other less so or completely wrong. But if one's life is based upon conjecture, speculation, imagination and guesswork, one will not have the tool of unerring guidance at one's disposal and the fork in the road becomes a fifty-fifty chance without any sense of certainty.

So the ability to recognize satisfaction is the experience that guides one to the truth of a matter, and the absence of that knowledge leaves one guessing.