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Spiritual growth is a spontaneous journey. At any given time we may be unaware of what we need, where we are going, and how our awakening will unfold.
There is nothing wrong with such unknowing. In fact it’s ideal.
Treating spiritual growth like some sort of personal development hobby is fine, but for the true seeker there are enjoyable projects in the realm of personal improvement and there is the ultimate process of walking one’s spiritual truth. The latter is of a more profound nature than the former, and hence not bound by such concepts as timelines, goal setting, and clearly defined direction.
I humbly submit that teachers who insist you hold specific timelines and objective lists for your spiritual growth are missing the point.
Goals and dates are great for things like making money, losing weight, moving into a new home, filling all the seats in your networking group, or even learning the basics of a new skill. And it can be rightly said that all of these things are spiritual pursuits.
For isn’t everything spiritual in nature to the person who has one foot on the ground and the other in the dimension of spiritual awareness?
Certainly yes. Physical, intellectual, emotional, and energetic experiences and concepts are all manifestations of the universe and are therefore spiritual to the person who walks the spirit path.
But the innermost dimension of spirituality lies beneath, behind, or beyond such things, depending on the terminology you prefer. In other words when we think specifically about our conscious development and our process of spiritual awakening, we can say this phenomenon is deeper than any other pursuit or involvement that’s part of our life experience.
That said, my point with this article is that it’s best - in my humble opinion - to release the notion of timely progress and specific milestones with regard to our spiritual expansion.
First of all there is no real arrival. We are always in motion, eternally on our journey. And the joy of shifting into various stages of observation should never be hampered by some sort of spiritual yardstick or bar graph.
We will evolve into new spaces of being at or own pace. When our emotional growth is sufficient to allow for greater wealth, increased understanding, more patience, and so forth we will step into these phases of living.
Does a small kitten work hard and strain into the flow of life so that it may more quickly become an adult feline? Do the flowers of spring rush into full bloom, anxiously counting the days until they can drop the old, withered petals and push new floral growth out into the world?
Of course not. The idea is absurd.
And it is no less absurd that we should say…
I’ll be a more patient, understanding, intuitive person by the end of the month.
Or…
This time next year I’ll be able to forgive more quickly when I become angry with myself or another.
Such ideas are silly of course. We’ll grow at the pace most appropriate to our individuality.
Time is probably just a construct of our imaginations. The idea that things have happened before, are occurring now, and will take place in the future is how we arrange the conscious experience of the Universe.
We must have chosen this system for a reason, perhaps to savor the various experiences as individual sensations. If this is so then we rob ourselves of an essential bliss each time we declare the time and date of our next spiritual shift.
You are perfect exactly as you are right now. Indeed you are every possible experience, in every possible place at every imaginable time; you are all that has been, is, and will be.
What more could you possibly ask for? So relax and enjoy the ride; celebrate things along the way but in matters of awakening (or whatever term you choose to define spiritual expansion) try to be more of a witness to the miracle than an impatient driver.
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Nothing is trivial. All things have some sort of purpose, the question is only whether or not we are conscious enough in the moment to take note.
Synchronicity is an important spiritual concept that refers to synchronized events, or things that align for a purpose. But what we sometimes forget is that synchronicity need not always be a grand event or earth shaking revelation.
If we are an expression of the cosmos becoming conscious of itself it follows reason that every moment of our life experience is relevant.
We have eyes so the Universe can see itself.
We have ears so the Universe can hear itself.
We have emotions so the Universe can participate in it’s myriad processes in new and colorful ways.
Nothing is trivial.
If you really want to live on purpose meet each day with the belief that everything has a meaning. Trust that life will give you what you need or communicate the appropriate messages in a timely manner.
Don’t become obsessed with interpretations, because your mind, like all minds in the present stage of human evolution, may not be able to comprehend or pay attention to every single message. Just be open to synchronicity within what most people would consider “the mundane”.
In truth there is no mundane. Everything is profound.
Whatever you find yourself noticing holds relevance for you. This could be a magazine headline you see in the checkout line, a bit of conversation you overhear at lunch, or a bright blooming shrub you notice for the first time as you enter a familiar building. Things that seem quite ordinary and insignificant in the moment can later reveal themselves as exciting clues or new miracles.
Wherever your attention leads you, intend to understand whatever is appropriate for your journey. And then relax and trust guidance and answers to follow; these may come quickly or you may have a brilliant “AHA!” weeks later.
I know this happens all the time for you. But its such an abstract, experiential subject it’s difficult to articulate in verbal fashion.
Call to mind the times when…
You overheard a bit of apparent trivia that helped you solve a real problem weeks later.
You saw a company or organization name for the first time and were somehow stricken by it. Some time thereafter, having forgotten all about the company, your financial adviser urged you to buy stock in the corporation and the venture ended up being quite lucrative.
You noticed a distinct title while browsing the bookstore. A few months down the road someone gave you a copy of the same book and it changed the way you look at life in a major way.
These are vague examples but I’m sure you’re coming up with your own list of synchronicities at this point. The message I’m trying to deliver is that such coincidences are not merely sprinkled among the nondescript events of a given day.
These small moments of clarity and meaning are everywhere and everything. Anything we notice is a trail that can be followed; every sight that catches our eye and every sound we hear can be the start of a new adventure or the answer to a long-held question.
When we approach each new moment as a fresh start and embrace the infinite potential of life the ideas of “mundane” and “ordinary” fall away. I challenge all readers, over the course of the next week, be extra alert and take note of the many (MANY!) synchronistic novelties that unfold.
Be on the lookout not for the obvious miracles that even a skeptic would pause to consider, but for the seemingly small events that we find ourselves noticing. Anytime you come out of the fog of your constant mental chatter to see, hear, or feel something with sudden clarity I urge you to open your mind to the connection at hand.
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Spiritual writings from many cultures convey the blessed power of asking and receiving. Intuitive wisdom tells us we can have the experiences and even the possessions we desire.
Happiness and abundance are the birthrights of all. Only through corruption and manipulation have some parts of the world been cast into poverty and lack. When we choose to accept the truth of our connection to the source of all things we understand that we are already part of everything we could possibly desire.
There is no separation. What you want, you already are.
To ask, you simply feel and know the depth of your desire or intention. Many times such a desire will emerge spontaneously; this is called inspiration (in the spirit). Whether or not you open your mouth to form a verbal request is irrelevant.
Asking is desiring with faith that you’ll receive. In truth asking and receiving are one; these notions are connected like all else in existence and we use the different words to describe different perspectives of the same essence.
So we ask or desire. And then we gladly receive what is given.
Once we feel what we want the following thoughts should be a celebration of gratitude. For we know in our hearts our desires are already ours, and we only need to take possession of them.
We hold the power to ask, and then to receive. What happens in the tiny space between is not the concern of our intellectual minds.
In other words, how we are to receive that for which we ask is not for us to decide at the level of ego. This is the end point I had in mind when I started this post.
Too often we befuddle the process of receiving by trying to work out the details of how in our mind. And when we can’t see a clear path we begin to doubt. But our ego minds are small indeed when compared to the infinite part of us that created our bodies and the worlds we inhabit.
Let go of how and let the conscious cosmos do its work. Your job is only to ask and then to receive.
