Dear reader. When reading this text it is necessary to consider the fact that it is not meant to be taken as an absolute truth, but merely as a stimulus to your thinking. No human word, whether spoken or written, can tell you the truth. Words are just references to some possible directions to seek for paths to be proceeded. Let your own truth grow naturally in relation to the accessibility of the depths of your innermost being.


Where are you now?


Your starting point means your inner state at present, your personal being as it really is – not as you or your neighbors think of you.  Our ideas of ourselves and others are usually much too shallow, at least when we are still young. It is, in order to get a firm ground for climbing, useful to produce a thorough inventory of ourselves before entering the first step on our spiritual path. This you can do by observing yourself a long time as an outsider:
-    What is it that you appreciate in other people: knowledge, skills, degrees, status, or understanding.
-    What is it that you cannot stand in them?
-    What is it that you value in yourself: your looks, knowledge, skills, career, attitude towards others or to life in general, your diligence, discretion, impulsiveness, strength of feelings, etc.
-    What is it that you cannot stand in yourself – and why?
-    How do you react to the situations that you face:  with feelings, thoughts, or actions.
-    How do you see your own character: calm, inpatient, introvert, extrovert, helpful, guiding, fighting, leading figure, etc.
-    Do you consider yourself honest and fair in all occasions?
-    How do you think you have become such as you are:  on the basis of your inborn qualities, because of circumstances, by mere chance.
-    Why do you want to promote your inner growth: you want to step above other people, have strong feelings and experiences, want to escape from the dullness of your everyday life, your life in general does not give you any lasting satisfaction or peace of mind.
Those questions above are just a few of all the possible things that you can immerse yourself in trying to learn something about the contents of your mind. When analyzing yourself, write down your ideas and return to them as soon as you have got a new perspective or information on the subject in question.  Of course it is not necessary to introduce your ideas to anybody else, especially if that kind of openness is not part of your nature. If you, however, want to share your ideas, be aware not to promote the growth of your ego, your personal self.
A fairly firm starting point is the view, that this world of ours is an immerse school for souls, individual units of consciousness, not just a pointless formation of countless accidents. And just as the world once got its form, so is your soul to be formed and shaped out of the fruits of this vast play of relative life. Life as it appears to us is relative in nature, even if it were based on the spiritual absoluteness.
It might be fruitful if you would try to go through your whole life for as long a period as you are able to remember, letting all feelings rise up freely without attempts to interpret them. Feelings in general are psychic energy. By letting the energy enter the light of your clear consciousness you can release the tension they have produced for example in your nervous system.
Do not accuse anybody or anything of unpleasant feelings or memories, for those are meant to be surpassed and used to strengthen your mind and will. Even the most traumatic things are not worth invigorating, for they have no real life in them.  The human mind has a tendency to wrap itself around unpleasant things so that it starts to reflect them as dark shadows over future expectations. Your failure today does not automatically lead to the same kind of failure tomorrow.
Before falling asleep it might be a good habit to go through your daily events, and then let them go by. Certainly you can always ask for more strength and wisdom for your coming challenges. All that you need is hidden in the depths of your being. From them can come forth, as you have experienced all that is meant for you, and cleared all futile things from the vast collection of your temporal mind. It is good to see that most of our prayers are full of selfish ideas, containing something favourable to us or people that are dear to us. A wise man has said that we humans often pray for the Highest Will to happen, but as it happens, we seem to become very angry and upset.

Maybe you are ready to face the demands of the first step?


THE FIRST STEP


You have now gathered enough courage and self-understanding that you can face a bit more demanding inner challenges. You should keep in mind here that it is not a question of creating your career, but cleaning and deepening your consciousness so that no external attractions can hold it in chains.
In principle you can ascend to the height of consciousness, where the temptation of this worldly life is in balance with your longing for spiritual life – which you in this state cannot know anything real about. One thing is quite certain: nobody can do the inner work for you nor carry you or your burdens. It is just the contents of your own mind that can be formed to your steps.
Do not be afraid, for in reality there is nothing to be afraid of. Your judge is living in your depths, knowing all your possibilities and impossibilities. If you do your best, nobody has the right to ask more of you.
If thinking is the natural way for you, give it a lot of your time, but let as well your thoughts ripen in peace and silence to the state of understanding that you are able to reach at the time. Never fail to think that you by your reasoning could find the ultimate truth. Experiencing the truth takes place far beyond human perception, feelings and thoughts.
Do not be hasty or afraid even if days and years pass away. Let temporal things do their work in ripening you until they begin to push you out of their circle towards your inner self. Find the fears that are hiding in the depths of your mind and in the nodal points of your nerves. It is fear that forces people to lean to other people and fixed ways of thinking – the so called truths! Raise all those onto the table of your mind and to see whether they can stand the fire of your own consciousness. If you become fully satisfied with some of your conclusions, be careful to not at once try to convert others to your ideas. The value of your thoughts comes into light in your state of understanding, the amount of ideas as such does not tell much about the quality of your mind.
In this stage you should stop talking about fate – good or bad – for you probably have an intuition – as an old prophet in the Old Testament: that all things turn out well in due course. All the essence of life is meant for the growth of one’s inner self – soul, if that is the word you are accustomed to use – could gather proper nutrition to enable it to blossom.
It is impossible for you to live the life of somebody else. All your chances are hidden in your own life. Your only duty is to dig them up. If you in any respect find some personal progress, please do not ask for reward from any direction, for such expectations make you right away a kind of merchant. Be calm and satisfied when you are facing the things that are meant for you – those are your chances to ascend to higher stages of understanding.
Maybe feelings form the strongest element in your mind? In that case you should be careful not to identify too much in ugly things and events around you, trying desperately to change everything for better. It is an old psychological heresy that spiritual life is possible only in very pleasant and beneficial circumstances.
You can rely on the view that once your consciousness and will become so strong and firm that no temporal thing can affect your stability. Be careful when interpreting your possible inner visions. Remember that your mind is full of old thought patterns which will easily be mixed in your imagination with vague reflections from some inner levels. Striving at psychic visions has not necessarily anything to do with one’s spiritual growth – it could in fact prove to become a hindrance. All formal things in your mind may turn out to be illusory, so be careful not to overestimate them.
If you belong to those people to whom strong feelings are alien, it would be better not even to try to reach them. Your way is probably through mental processes – by clearing all your thoughts and striving to ever deepening understanding – ending finally at intuitive perception of the essence of things.
Some people rather practice their will for spirituality for the benefit of other people. For them it is essential to do all that from their hearts. Devotion is the name of their path, helping in all occasions where their help is needed and natural. In doing this one should be careful not to let one’s mind to become proud of anything, for in the end all the best worldly achievements prove to be rather insignificant.
If you now - voluntarily and even gladly - are prepared to carry all the tasks that life is setting afore you, you may well be entitled to enter the second stage of spiritual growth.


THE SECOND STEP


To be able to stay and act on this stage requires that you can stand firmly on your own feet in both outer and inner things of life. Taking the whole responsibility of our own affairs should now be obvious, as well as honesty, which does not mean the right to be arrogant or even proud. The most important thing is to find one’s mental feet.
You should have courage enough to examine all things in the light of your own consciousness and pick up the kind of content in which you find some permanent value. This of course does not mean that you would not listen to anybody else or read any books on matters that you are dealing with. But simply that you are boiling all things in your own kettle before accepting them to enter into your stock of thoughts.
The growth of higher mental resolution should not lead to intolerance of any kind, even though it often causes dramatic changes in your circle of friends. Friendship is mostly based on the same kind of values concerning life – and if there is a huge change in your own attitudes, it often weakens the foundations of ordinary friendships. You may feel that you have lost touch with social life, even feel some guilt, but it seems to be evident, that there is no way back.
The paths of mental and spiritual growth are lonely; many disciples seek support and guidance – ending often in disappointment. In your moments of weakness you may have serious doubts that there is no love left in you anymore. But be sure that love has not gone anywhere – only the ordinary ways of mutual affection has become weaker in order to let a real love grow and ripen in the depths of your mind – the love that does not look at a person, for in its light you can see and understand the deep purposes of life concerning every individual you are facing.
Be peaceful and merry even in your sadness, so you will pass over it in no time. The weakening attraction of temporary things naturally causes temporal sadness and melancholy, and some difficulties to motivate one’s everyday activities. Let all those dark clouds fade away and keep your mind clear and awake, for it is but your unconscious mind that reflects your old reactions to be wiped away.
You begin to understand, what the meaning of the saying “poor in spirit” might be: that material and psychic welfare is not worth striving for, until the peace and harmony of mind is achieved. You also know that mere literal renouncing of any kind of worldly things does not lead to any real advancement, for it is impossible to do business with spiritual realities. Your inner and outer wealth serves as means to learn how to use them wisely – so that spirituality in general gets an opportunity to rise up among human beings.
If the greatest spiritual messengers had worried, whether they will be accepted by masses, they would have certainly become just poor village politicians.
This stage regards strength and courage of mind, throwing away all crutches and railings, accepting oneself such as one appears at the moment, and utmost striving to realms, which are said to stand far beyond human reach.
Too many have spoken about losing oneself long before they have even found their own true nature! On this stage a feeling of the meaning of your personal self is becoming clear: what role of your inner self it is meant to realize, and in what way and reservations; which are its worst stumbling blocks and weaknesses of character, rooting out what by sound observation must belong to your everyday routines.
Remember that your personal self is to a great extent a formation of your experiences and circumstances, a historical compilation lacking all independent permanent being. Many of your qualities tend to give their own colour and distortion to your perceptions, so you must be careful in watching your actions and leisure.
There is nothing to be afraid of but your own weaknesses, but even they can in time be mended. Be merciful to yourself that you do not become hard towards other people, or that you do not hide your faults behind curtains, from where they surprise you as soon as your consciousness becomes exhausted for a moment. Remember that you can still make bad mistakes, and that our will is not as strong as it should become, for it is still leaning on human understanding.
It may well be that you are ready to try the third step in the growth of human consciousness.


THE THIRD STEP


Have a glance at the path behind you. Is there still something left of your personal self? Are you going to stick to it? Do your worldly duties still hold you tight? Do you feel that you have completely drifted away from all attractions of common life? Is it now very unpleasant for you to be dishonest?
Have you lost all your desire for power and honour? Do not long for them to give motivation to your life. You should be quite sure that they cannot satisfy you anymore.
Maybe you have learnt to understand, what St. Paul meant in his peculiar claim, that he was strong every time he was weak?
Are you waiting for something not knowing what it might be? Be patient, for life itself really knows, what you need, and gives you everything as soon as you are ready and free to receive.
Have you any idea what it is to become and be like a child? It means a state of mind which contains no hidden selfish terms or reservations, readiness to act right from one’s innermost necessity with creative powers of life. Very few of us people have become like children – instead, far too many have become childish.
The real likeness of children requires that one realizes in all actions the impersonal will – the very will that has become strong as your own personal will has weakened!
You can be sure that there is no external essence to replace the space that your personal will has left empty. All that is great is hidden in your depths, and to be found as soon as you are able to throw away all you personal restrictions.
Your personality is just a womb, where your real being has had one of his opportunities to grow and ripen in all those things that human existence ever contains. And as your child is ready to be born, so shall it take place from the necessity of the eternal spirit. A pure consciousness in your depths is always ready and to be given to you requiring that you have experienced all necessary things in human life and that all your desires have faded away.
Be patient and happy, not waiting for anything, for there is nothing that the eternal reality would not know about you. You must take into account the fact that a process of spiritual growth is always a very complex one. Experiences in life usually grind many features of mind at the same time. A spiral like complexity is to be found in spiritual steps, too. Life is not like a normal school with fixed schedules for life continually alternates between lectures of different steps, so that it in the short run it might seem almost chaotic. So do not be hasty in charging where you, yourself, or somebody else is standing – it is not even human business to make such conclusions.
There is not much to be said about the third step: the more you learn of reality the less you can tell about it in words. Remember that real things are not feelings or thoughts, but pure consciousness without any means.


BEST LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY

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