What's spiritual purification?

[Magnanimous]

I was browsing some forum posts by Leo and I encountered him talking about spiritual purification causeed by meditating for 4-6 hours. I tried looking it up on the internet about what it was but all I got were some weird new agey answers. And I feel that I don't need new age stuff to understand what Leo was taling about. At least in this context.

So what is it? 

[Carl-Richard]

Either a spiritual high or growing spiritually. You tend to build up a lot of human drama and emotional impressions throughout the day, and meditating for a while can unwind some of that and cause a "high" for the rest of the day. Spiritual growth is just the gradual process of that over one's lifetime. Times where spiritual growth becomes particularly evident is when you untie particular knots that cause greater resistance (e.g. healing a traumatic wound, or letting go of a big attachment). In a sense, this is the real measure of growth. The highs may help untie the knots, but the highs are somewhat limited in themselves.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Cathal]

Spiritual purification is just the process of dissolving individuality. The sense of self is quite literally, a sense. There is a sense of I and other, of subject and object and puritifcation is to dissolve that, since it is conditioned, if what arises is subject to passing away - to purify. Meditation is purification, although you may notice in a retreat what you're able to achieve could be relative to years of a regular daily practice at home, we are highly highly ignorant to what we do moment to moment in ignorance, we are trying to become empty while filling up at the same time - this is karma. And at the same time, it can be instantaneous as we usually don't 'feel' like anything is happening a lot when we meditate but suddenly one day you're meditating and flashbacks come and things get poured out rapidly, we enter strange states and have weird experiences. There is no real structure to it

Emptying out the cup can be really felt if you strive for periods of time. I recommend reading on the Vishudimagga as it is termed the Path of Purification

[Breakingthewall]

purification is to dissolve attachment and fear to stop perceiving the reality filtered by your human bias.

[Jordan]

Purification is removing impurities like heating up ore and separating out the gold.  Spiritual purification is like burning away all of the lies about the nature of reality until what you are left with is the truth. it is a metaphor. 

[VictorB02]

@Magnanimous every lie you see and let go of, is spiritual purification.

every false perception you see and let go of, is spiritual purification.

every attachment you see and let go of, is spiritual purification.

every judgment you see and let go of, is spiritual purification.

every egoic reaction you see and let go of, is spiritual purification.

every dysfunctional behavior you see and let go of, is spiritual purification.

In other words: Love is spiritual purification.

[Salvijus]

Anything that obstructs the flow of life's energy really. It could be tension, fear, trauma, bad posture, wrong diet, toxic mind, fat ego etc.

When all obstructions are eliminated, infinite life force flows through u and we call that enlightenment. We become a singular infinite being like life itself.

[LastThursday]

On 22/01/2023 at 4:09 PM, Magnanimous said:

spiritual purification causeed by meditating for 4-6 hours

Meditation is about pulling yourself out of your normal "everyday" mode. By doing that you allow yourself to become aware that you're more than just that. It's a process of stepping outside your normal self (transcendence). By stepping outside yourself you can also become aware of your own behaviours and thoughts and gain insights. This process of transcendence purifies because you're always looking to go beyond who you are already.

[Thought Art]

A great book on this is called “Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a modern Taoist Wizard”

[Cass Cassini]

Spiritual purification refers to the process of cleaning or purging one's mind, body, and spirit of negative influences or impurities in order to achieve a higher level of spiritual understanding or enlightenment. The methods used for purification vary depending on the individual's beliefs and the spiritual tradition they follow. Examples include meditation, prayer, fasting, and rituals.

[Inliytened1]

On 1/22/2023 at 10:09 AM, Magnanimous said:

I was browsing some forum posts by Leo and I encountered him talking about spiritual purification causeed by meditating for 4-6 hours. I tried looking it up on the internet about what it was but all I got were some weird new agey answers. And I feel that I don't need new age stuff to understand what Leo was taling about. At least in this context.

So what is it? 

Pure and impure is a duality that must collapse.   What you deem is impure is relative.    But if you want God realization which is non-dual - then meditation can get you there.  

Edited January 24, 2023 by Inliytened1

[Breakingthewall]

impurity is the meaning. the meaning is not real. we do not remember what happened in the past, only very slightly. what we do remember perfectly is its meaning. It's something made up, a story we created. that is impurity. reality is pure, actual, direct, and meaningless

[Inliytened1]

4 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

impurity is the meaning. the meaning is not real. we do not remember what happened in the past, only very slightly. what we do remember perfectly is its meaning. It's something made up, a story we created. that is impurity. reality is pure, actual, direct, and meaningless

That is correct.  There is only Purity with a capital P.  That is an Absolute.   Thus, the strive for purification is but an illusion. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Inliytened1