Self-Realization and Spiritual Growth
We have repeatedly spoken about the very common mistake in all paths of mental development: becoming entangled in the dualities of perfection and development, potential and actual, and being and enactment.
Such confusion gives rise to two widespread misconceptions that reflect the mind getting stuck to one pole of this duality and lead to slowed development or mental degradation.
For the traveler who, on one hand, sees his limitations, weaknesses, and shortcomings, and on the other hand is aware of his nature as an instrument of the Great Spirit’s self-knowledge, as a manifestation of the One, perfect and non-dual mind, it is very easy to fall into Beelzebul‘s traps and to take his impulses and whims for manifestations of the Great Will and Perfect Desire.
Failing to discern the difference between the potential perfection of absolute mind and the actual limitation of manifested mind, many travelers indulge weaknesses and destructive impulses, embarking on a senseless path sinking into endless realizations of empty experience.
The second danger such a mind encounters is the opposite feeling: the traveler may suppose that his Way involves acquiring something fundamentally new, seen as ‘growth’ in the strict sense of the word. Thus the mind falls into the clutches of Lucifer and becomes trapped in pride and separateness. In that case, after traveling some distance on the road of self-realization, the being begins to feel ‘arrived’ and ‘developed’, and is, in one way or another, ‘better’ than the ‘primitive’ people who do not recognize and cannot appreciate his progress.
In fact, both of these problems simply stem from the mind’s unwillingness to make an effort to integrate that duality.
Indeed, on the one hand it is clear that each of us, as an individual perspective of the Great Spirit on itself, is entirely perfect and absolute, and needs no improvement.
However, on the other hand, it is no less evident that this perfection lies beyond being, outside of any manifestations and dualities. In relative reality where mind manifests, its fullness and ideality remain potential; they require realization and actualization, which the Way provides.
For the Magus it is essential to maintain the conception of such a “vertical” duality of mind. It is this that underlies the basic Searches — the notorious “knowledge and its converse”, the “search for vision”, and other methods to link “potential perfection” and actualized activity. It is also the ideological basis of theurgy and the practice of “adopting divine forms”, which temporarily manifest the absolute in the relative.
At the same time, the awareness that “the Way is long” is necessary for the transformation of the limited mind into its perfect form, and therefore this Search is equally a realization.
“An overreach into the one-sided assertion of ‘perfection’ can halt development and becoming stuck in the cycle of existence; falling into feelings of ‘growth’ and ‘acquisition’ leads to cultivation of separateness, grandiosity, and thus to degradation.”
For the Magus it must be clear that he is perfect, yet his perfection remains potential; that he has gone nowhere, yet he faces a long way home; that he is not corrupted, yet he must strive vigorously to purify himself.
For a person walking the path of self-dedication, there are no objective criteria for the correctness of what is happening. Therefore, belief in illusions guides them. Some have already crossed the second abyss at the age of 21 while riding the subway somewhere, while others are super-enlightened by default, by the right of birth; and some hold a PhD while sitting in the woods and lamenting how nice it would be to know all the details of the ritual; and others take it upon themselves to be the Judge because they are super pure. But all of this is Illusions.
In my opinion, the criterion for the correctness of an action is the comparison of the desired outcome with the result of the action. If the action is illusory, then there will be no consequences in reality. If the action is incorrect in relation to the world and reality, there will be a contradiction and a discrepancy between the desired and the actual result. If the world has allowed for the realization, then the realization is correct.
For example, if you desired matches, you went to the store and there they are—the matches—in your hands; your theory worked.
Then you desired spiritual growth—you reflected, read, meditated, performed rituals, even learned to make money to travel to India and sit by a temple. All your actions in reality had consequences in reality. You were satisfied with the results and told yourself that everything was right—spiritual growth occurred… but did you perhaps deceive yourself? Perhaps all your actions were nothing but vanity, like a cockroach traveling around a glass. What is the result of all your actions, aside from what you have convinced yourself: that spiritual growth occurred?
“Have you not deceived yourself?”
I resolve this through a request to my Higher Self. If there is a connection, it does not deceive. In my case, there is a connection.
Spiritual growth undoubtedly occurred simply by the fact that a person was moving in that direction. If they weren’t moving, they were sitting. If they weren’t sitting, they were lying down. The other question is how much they spiritually grew.
For one person, it is enough to look at a fallen leaf, and they will have an insight that another might need to spend six months in a Tibetan monastery to achieve. Both simply had different starting points and levels of resistance from the universe. Each person walks their own path and can only evaluate based on what was, compared to what is. At the same time, of course, what will be is hidden behind a vast number of variables and cannot be known.
A good question – “By how many units has he grown spiritually?!”
The Creator also did not divide temperature into degrees, waves into hertz, or matter into separate objects. But we went ahead and divided it anyway 🙂 So dividing spiritual growth into some conditional units shouldn’t be a problem either.
Ah, how should we measure our illusions?
What should we conditionally divide them into?
And how can we honestly believe
That they have the right to exist?
Tavita Shauta, by the way, you express your thoughts in the same way through “units of measurement”; here they are called “words and letters.” Each letter measures meaning and energy.
Both numbers and letters are signs. Behind the sign, there is significance and meaning.
Therefore, I don’t see a fundamental difference between hertz, “units of spirit,” and words.
Just as letters and words are a means of communication for you, for a scientist, the language of communication is numbers.
A separate language can be examined in relation to natural (living) flows of energy.
By the way, for modern Russians, it’s not very good.. How much was it.. mm.. I re-scanned it: ~30% of 100% possible.
The lower the percentage, the more illusions there are. 🙂 You can see how many illusions communication in the Russian language generates by itself. 🙂
To measure nothing and avoid experiencing illusions, we need to remain silent and understand each other silently, telepathically. Unfortunately, within the framework of a blog format, this is almost impossible.
So I express myself with words, hoping that you will understand me..
..And Napoli has a point.. I completely agree. 🙂
And regarding units of spirit—this too. 🙂 It’s just a conventionally introduced unit. It’s hardly possible to express spirit in units, but one can try. 🙂 It turns out to be quite amusing. And everything is clear. The main thing is to remember in time that the unit is introduced for conventions and not to get hung up on it. 😉
It should also be understood that these units of measurement can only be applied on a person’s internal scale, as their existence is meaningless on any external scale, much like the endless race between Hercules and the turtle is meaningless.
“Or maybe it’s simpler to get rid of the distraction ‘Spiritual Growth’?”
Well, without a road through the forest, there is still a chance to head in the right direction, but with a road, it feels more reliable.
))) There is such a distractor. 🙂
The trick is that spiritual growth occurs with any quest anyway. 🙂
And in the absence of activity, the spirit folds back into a point. 🙂
So you strolled around the temples (quest ‘strolling around the temples’ completed successfully) – then you came home, sitting doing nothing.
That’s it, the spirit is back to zero. 🙂
You can sit down and go again for some ‘spiritual growth’… and so on until the end of time.)))
The text translates to:
“In a person, there are, among other things, Egyptian rituals, the story of the Grail. But the assertion is false that for someone going through… self-consecration… There are no criteria… there never are any criteria for truth. Well, there is someone who has passed through, or a description of the path, but nonetheless, individuality prevails, and all choices and doubts happen in reality. After all, every second, consciousness decides whether to believe in this path. The phrase about an allegedly existing true religion and true path, like a cheat code. The rituals of dialogue, in order to hear one’s spirit a little and check the truth for oneself?”
Here is the translation to English:
Tavita Shauta
Please accept my respects without hesitation.
You are a delightful, unmatched
Stay, dwell, live, and bring joy
All the best as a well-deserved gift for your labors and aspirations.
An eternally relevant topic… Although I would like to see a deeper exploration and illumination of it, especially in the part that analyzes the duel with one’s pseudo-ego… In this regard, I present to the attention of clear-minded individuals some of my “thoughts on the matter”…
1). I believe that for a true magician who has undergone the appropriate initiation into the worlds of archetypes, it is important to remember two truths:
a). that truth as such does not exist, a priori. There are only markers that allow us to find the direction towards it;
b). that perfection has no limits, and therefore, no one is perfect, but there are criteria for evaluating the quality of one’s work with their own “rough edges.”
2). Regarding pride and separation…
We are all at different stages of maturation. This means that one should not seek understanding from those who are still in a “toddler stage,” just as it does not make sense to offer “adult” food to “infants.” Those who are capable of making a valuable contribution to the common cause but refrain from doing so for any selfish reasons suffer from pride, i.e., noting their superiority (often imaginary) and looking down on those they classify as underdeveloped, forgetting that they themselves belong to this category in relation to more advanced subjects of evolution.
As for separation…
If separation is caused by a selfish feeling of superiority, then it is a consequence of pride and requires special attention, as it is a dangerous disease. However, if separation, or rather isolation, is a result of the masses’ unpreparedness to accept any contemporary concept, or if it is a stage of preparation for the master, then such separation is positive and beneficial for the development of a true magician.
Thank you, Enmerkar, for your many years of contribution, which I hope has been beneficial to the evolution of humanity.
It’s not advisable to completely reject pride within yourself either. It is a part of our mental processes and serves as a positive reinforcement for the next step. This is a crucial stage for personal growth. There must be a sense that: this step is good, another step is good, another step is good. Or the goal should be great—almost a mission. However, there is a significant risk of creating an illusion for oneself and charging towards it blindly.
In this sense, pride is very useful, as it provides a certain groundedness in the present, allowing you the chance to look back, assess the situation, and adjust your course. It becomes harmful only when a person decides to completely stop at the moment where pride arose. It’s like giving all the treats to a trained dog at once.
So, it’s necessary to embrace your “flaws,” and then they will serve you. If you try to cast them aside, you’ll be in a constant struggle with them and lose energy.
Thank you for your work.
The last paragraph is, in fact, a Song!