How do you measure spiritual progress?

Progress is a movement toward a goal or an assumed higher stage.  Progress is perceived or not perceived, measurable or immeasurable to the human mind.  Instant progress is illusion to the mind yet, this does not mean instant evolution or awakening is impossible.  If what you seek is already here, then the revelation can be instantaneous and you need not go anywhere.

For the mind, no short-cuts  exist to self-mastery. It is all about effort and struggle.   Consider the phrase, ‘As the elevator to your destination is out of order, you are encouraged to take the stairs.’

From another perspective, life is spirit, not matter. The spiritual is not quantifiable. You feel the way.   Any sense of movement is more than spatial. It is successive in its own way.   So, you become what you perceive yourself to be by way of your choices. That is universal law of polarity. Imagine a magnet. How does it feel? Notice conditions and relations you attract. Each thought has implications.

Reflect on school days.  You may think of courses you wished were over before they started. Your mind may still continue this trend as it wanders to job prospects and thinks about promotion before you get the skills. The mind focuses on the future.  It hijacks your attention, triggers stress and impatience.   

On another level, speed has nothing to do with spiritual progress.  As you step outside conditioning, you realize the universe shapes your conditions based on how it feels the vibration of your progress.

The time sensed in the heart is only about one thing: how long it takes to be a vibrational match with what you desire.  This reality is all about energy.  As you evolve to be more open to receiving of the flow and go with it, you raise awareness, sense conditions and inner power differently. The universe resonates as you reach milestones.  What manifests tells its own story. Read between the chapters.

In essence, the human mind judges progress based on physical aspects and its logic.  The human mind is unaware of spiritual considerations or does not ascertain energy flow within. Where is your focus of attention? Notice how more than one thing is going on and you choose how and what to see. 

Comments

[Bruno LoGreco]

Brilliantly written liara - you touched on a few points. Life is one big learning lesson. I often preach that when you stop learning you are either dead or stuck in life. It is also true about the speed in which we want to achieve life - Just yesterday I learned that I write too fast in the interest of posting each morning. We all have our own behaviors to learn from - the trick is knowing what to look for.

Thank you!

[Mark]

These are good thoughts. We are so conditioned to measure progress in terms of earth time that it is difficult not to apply time measurment to our spiritiual growth. Time is an illusion which becomes very limiting. We are eternal beings and our growth therefore is eternal. There is no time associated with our growth.

[Liara Covert]

Bruno, human beings are constantly doing things about which they are unaware. That is part of being human. To begin to discern new levels of your own behaviour is the first step to being in a position to evaluate and change what no longer works for you. In the Modern Age, people often think, faster is better. Yet, this ignores that learning curves are not all measured this way or measured at all by us. The instinct to evaluate and measure in human terms is a human trait. As you move beyond this apparent impulse, you realize it is conditioned. What you think you know and must measure is not necessary.

[Liara Covert]

Mark, growth and expansion are certainly relative terms. Humans devise words to describe sensations and perceptions which are not always adequate or appropriate. When you eat or drink something new, your human impulse is to compare new sensations with what you have tasted before. You might say, a new delicacy reminds you of chicken when that really does not describe the taste in your senses. At a given moment, you do the best you can. As you evolve, you cease to explain your experiences as a human being would because you realize the energy being within you has a different way or sensing and understanding. Spiritual growth is like the bridge that connects the physical being you believe you know, to the energy being within you are in the process of rediscovering.

[soulMerlin]

Thanks Liara for a beautifully written post. The very last sentence:

"In essence, the human mind judges progress based on physical aspects and its logic. The human mind is unaware of spiritual considerations and does not ascertain energy flow within."

Is that what is considered to be the unawareness of human beings that can be surmounted by increasing spiritual awareness through meditation and focus on spirituality generally?

henry

[Liara Covert]

Henry, the mind judges and interprets. This is not the only existing point of view. From another perspective, right and wrong answers do not exist. The core state of being is awake and enlightened. The human mind is invited to let go of its beliefs and attitudes that stand in the way of what you are taught to pursue that is here.