Waking Heart's Page

Human Potential, Human Development

We can all think of some of the most admirable and desirable qualities which human beings are sometimes capable of embodying.

Despite our personal ideals, hopes and intentions, we are capable of attaining our potentials for good only through supportive relationships with ourselves, our families, friends, and/or communities.

We need people who love us, expect the best from us, model fine qualities themselves and place limits on our acting in ways that harm ourselves, others and the world.

Traditional Ideals of Spiritual Development

Major world religions have for centuries taught the spiritual values of cultivating virtues.

Oft included are compassion, patience, generosity, honesty, respect, prudence, wisdom, justice, gratitude, temperance, fortitude, hope, diligence, humility, equanimity, forgiveness, and commitment.

These virtues are primarily practiced, needed and demonstrated within relationships, even those with other animals or aspects of one’s personal consciousness.

Core Quality of Human Potential and Spiritual Development

Lovingkindness is what we perceive as the quality of openheartedness leading to and proceding from most of the other virtues.

Whether it is cultivated indirectly through other virtues or directly, lovingkindness encompasses and enfolds the other virtues.

Lovingkindness is thus an overarching manifestation of our finest and most spiritual human maturation.

Through sufficiently supportive relationships, we can learn and model lovingkindness.

Gemstones for Spiritual Development

We understand natural gemstones as aids to help us in developing into our best potentials, which we now recognize as virtues.

Cultivating this ideal good may well be our human purpose, and the core of our spiritual path.

Energy work with natural gemstones can offer some of the help we all need to work on negating our harmful tendencies and on expanding our beneficent capacities in all our relationships.