Spiritual practice - how does one realize God, or at least get closer?  Should I stand on my head.  Give my soul to Jesus?  What works, and how does it work?  What are the benefits and problems with various spiritual practices?  From my limited experience, in those areas of touching spirit that I have "practiced" in, it seems to me that there are four or five basic areas of spiritual practice.

One:  awareness enhancement - getting out of/by the chattering mind.  Usually, this is done through something very basic, some form of sitting practice.  However, there may be other forms of this, such as Gurdieff exercises.

Two:  Devotional/heart opening practices.  These are practicies that let divine love in, and surrender of the heart.  Drenched with the divine love, is the goal here.

Three:  Realization of non-duality - this is often tied together with sitting, such as with Zen, and with Tibetan Buddhism, and even with certain Catholic contemplative practices.  But it isn't always associated as such.  This is demonstrated by Vipassana, which does not emphasize the realization of non-dulaity.

Four:  Energetic practices - this can go along with two, as emotiona/heart practices can release a lot of energy, but this can also be separate.  A couple of examples of this.  Energetic breathing, opening to the guru's energetic force, chi, "chakras", etc.

Five - the attitude of "sibmission" or "surrender" to the will of God/will of the Guru.  This can have the effect of attuning the will center to god, or opening the will center to god, instead of to selfish desires.  NOTE:  This particular opening is very controversial in today's culture, for many many reasons.

Any serious practictioner will need to engage these 5 points of practice, but certain points will be more conducive than others, based on the personality of the practitioner.

It's important to note that the main type of practice participated in colors the viewpoint of the practictioner. 

I hope to put some polls up in a bit, as well as some reviews of various teachers and communities, based on these five areas.