soul evolution
Faith As A Spiritual Science
It is generally assumed that all forms of ‘faith’ is merely matter of ‘belief.’ In other words, to have faith is seen as having belief that is blind; it is a belief without reason, evidence, or experience. However, there is another kind of faith that develops through a reciprocal relationship.
According to the Vedic teachings and the practices of Krishna Bhakti (awareness of, and affection for Krishna, the Supreme Person) faith begins with hearing spiritual knowledge from a liberated soul, who is beyond the four defects of material conditioning.
Ordinary people (or conditioned souls) have four defects due to their contact with material existence. These defects are:
- The tendency to make mistakes.
- To be illusioned.
- The propensity to cheat others.
- To have imperfect senses.
At the initial phase of faith, there is an appeal to the intelligence of the conditioned soul that evokes exploration of knowledge through hearing deeper spiritual insights, which in turn appeals to their intelligence to apply it.
From the experiment of applying it, comes observable experiential results that corroborate the truth of what was initially heard from the transcendental authority (liberated soul).
This confirming experience not only yields faith in the knowledge and process applied, but it also forms an evidential knowing beyond a mere baseless, ‘blind’ belief. Therefore, developing a relationship with God through Bhakti-Yoga or Krishna Consciousness is a spiritual science.
Mistakes Are Necessary For Spiritual Growth
Have you ever felt like you made a wrong choice or bad decision that caused everything to fall apart or steered your life went in the wrong direction. Maybe you knew it was the wrong choice, but you did it anyway? Well, every mistake is an opportunity for growth. There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. Without mistakes, there is very little personal and spiritual growth.
Let’s say you choose to date a guy with a bad reputation. Then, as your gut feeling had warned and your psychic advisor had predicted, he cheats on you, and ultimately dumps you for someone else. Your inner guidance told you it was not a good idea; spirit advised against it. Yet, still you chose to find out the truth the hard way, by experiencing it for yourself.
But then you still do not learn the lesson. You go and do it again. You take him back and trust that he has changed as he has promised. Then he does the same all over again. Do you continue to stay and have him hurt you and take advantage of you? If you do, you still have not learned the lesson.
So, what is the lesson here? Well, the first thing you would have to recognize is that the lesson is not about him. It is about you. It is about establishing your self-worth and building your self-esteem. It is about accepting the fact that you, like anyone else, deserve to be loved and to be happy. And it is about learning to trust your inner guidance and pay attention when spirit guides you.
I have worked with many clients over the years who find all kinds of excuses and justifications for staying in a bad relationship, a toxic workplace, or a dysfunctional family environment.
The Evolution Of Your Metron
With the rapid expansion of digital communication technology we are increasingly coming into an evolutionary shift of consciousness as it relates to relationships between individuals in the human family.
Let’s first look at social and spiritual structures in relationships. I would like to resurrect for the purpose the Greek word metron (μέτρον). Metron is a unit of measure that we can use to explain our sphere of influence, and also the spiritual gifts and styles that we use to influence this sphere.
Many of us have a limited metron, and consistently manifest together with the same grouping of souls on the planet. We each have a family structure that is related to soul agreements before incarnating on the planet. This is why we sometimes meet a person and have the feeling that we have known them our whole lives. What is happening is that our souls are united in the same metron.
We are all inter-connected with one another. Think of it this way: we have the Earth making up one bustling metron of consciousness, or a single metron with many parts. Then we have our solar system making up a greater metron; then the galaxy encompassing the metron units on an even greater scale; next the universe; then the multiverse; and who knows what else is out there compiling greater and greater complexity together.
Our spiritual or soul experience is very similar. We have a small group of people making up our metron, and then we have societal and social structures that increase this metron moving out to a greater and greater expansive experience, until we have the cosmic or universal consciousness.
Explore Your Inner Shadows With Your Soul Light
To achieve true spiritual growth, happiness, and fulfillment it is necessary for us to unravel the shadows of our inner being. To know oneself is to recognize both your light and darkness, and to love and accept your entirety. The truly awakened person is not afraid to look at their own flaws, wounds, pain, trauma, and shortcomings. Awakened people boldly face their inner darkness and know themselves deeply.
The key to finding your authentic truth is to unbolt the door to one’s mysterious psychic basement. It’s the courage to honestly question how well your life is going, including the fulfilment of your passion and purpose, the success of your plans and projects, the health and happiness of your relationships and family, and the bravery of your dreams.
True spiritual growth is the search for truth beyond the surface. It is to boldly plunge the depths our being. It is to leap up to our highest peaks and crawl deep into our darkest corners. Because only once we have fully opened the doors of our interior, can we begin to affect change, growth and personal transformation.
By confronting our inner mysteries we acquire freedom, wisdom, and access to a new way of beingness. We become reborn, renewed, empowered. A conscious spiritual warrior in command of our powers, gifts, and capabilities.
But how to achieve this breakthrough? The first step is to welcome, embrace, accept, and cherish the scars and wounds. Then, we investigate its origins, to find the root of what has been influencing our life towards victimhood, self-limitation, self-sabotage, or repeated self-destruction.
Forgive, But Never Forget!
I’ve been reflecting on the notion of ‘forgive and forget’ in this season of thanksgiving, joy, generosity, and gratitude. Is it indeed necessary for us to both forgive and forget when others wrong us? Does that not make is doormats or losers? Consulting spirit on this matter, I found that the concept of ‘forgetting’ actually implies something quite different to our typical understanding of it.
True forgiveness is to ‘turn the other cheek’ when we are wronged. It is an essential aspect of our spiritual growth and soul evolution. When we practice forgiveness, we increase dharma, which is essentially ‘cosmic law and order’ and therefore ‘good karma.’ If we have good dharma, we begin to receive more gifts and blessings from the Universe, and spontaneous kindness and generosity from others. We also become more approachable because our ‘gratitude glass’ is always more than half full with spiritual champagne!
Spiritual practice and energetic self-care are the optimal ways to practice and strengthen our forgiveness. Through daily prayer, meditation, candle work, or journaling, supplemented by anointing ourselves with healing essential oils, for example, or taking an Epsom salt bath, we can release all resentment, anger and bitterness that block our energy flow and holds us back.
The other person does not need to know that we’ve forgiven them. It is of course even better if we tell them, but their participation or approval is not necessary. Forgiveness is a private matter and a gift we give to ourselves.
Forgetting harms and hurts is however an entirely different matter. If we forget too easily, we also tend to stop reflecting gratefully on our joys and blessings. Bad things happening to good people increases our appreciation and gratitude for the good things in our lives.
The Truth About Spiritual Growth
One increasingly sees social media influencers and self-appointed gurus preaching personal growth and development online. It has become a fad to sell such growth courses, services and products. But do these offerings represent and promote true spiritual growth?
Material growth can indeed be achieved with some discipline, determination, further education, hard work and proper use of one’s mental faculties. However, spiritual growth is a different matter. It cannot be bought, learned, or achieved with temporary efforts, for it is an organic, lifelong growth process. Always seeking with sincerity, patience and humility is to grow spiritually.
Our spiritual growth is something we are solely responsible for, and it is a process in which you alone can be your worst enemy, or best ally. This is the kind of growth where the reality of what you have been attracting into your life is exposed over time. Regardless of your choices, the only one who bears the responsibility and consequences is you.
Spiritual evolution is highly personal and individual. Other people and external situations cannot secure your spiritual expansion in this lifetime. It may be that the people and circumstances in your life are currently not resonating with you. If you want to grow spiritually and attract more of what you want, instead of what you do not want, trying to force situations or change other people is pointless.
The true spiritual seeker must also take care not to become caught up in a ‘savior mentality’ of thinking you need to save or open the minds of everyone around you. The spiritual choices of another is not your duty or responsibility. Your only responsibility is to personally evolve and inspire others by example through your own attitude and achievement.
True Love Is An Eternal Knowing
We can always tell if someone loves us, or not. Simple as that. I know you may be thinking: “What? How can that be?” But believe me, if more people made the effort to be more mindful and aware in this regard, there might be much less disappointment and heartbreak in the world.
How can one tell for sure if someone truly loves you? Well, it’s in the eyes and how they look at you. The eyes are indeed the windows to the soul. We constantly are telepathically communicating with one another and although we may not be picking up on the information consciously, our higher consciousness certainly always is! Energy does not lie.
You can tell if someone cares about you. It’s really that easy. It’s an intuitive feeling, an inner knowing. You just know. It’s how you resonate with each other’s energy. It’s in the way they look into your soul, the vibrational frequency of their voice, the comforting glow of their aura. Trust your intuitive feelings and inner guidance, because we have recorded in our cell memory every single experience we have had with every other soul we are connected to. Your soul will always recognize another soul who is significant to you.
When I do love readings, I can clairvoyantly see this love cord connection right away if two people are meant to be together. It’s much like the silver cord that connects us to our bodies when we astral travel or dream. It’s there because we are connected karmically to someone in this lifetime with a soul contract.