Q: How do I know I am making progress along the Path? I long for spiritual experiences, mystical states, and reading minds. Yet, nothing happens. I fear I am lost and wonder what is going on?
The following 2 quotes from one of my teachers help shed some Light on the question of making progress along the path. (To this day, he chooses to remain anonymous.)
- When you come to me, come to me about God. Do not come here for anything else.
- It is precisely at the moment when you feel most distant from God that you need God the most.
I have been meaning to answer this question for a few days; so dear traveler, please pardon my delay. Sometimes, the pot must simmer for the stew to be ready.
Usually, most travelers are mistaken when they set out on a spiritual quest. Often, there is a mixture of motives that fuels their journey. One of these is the need for excitement and stimulation: in the form of spiritual experience.
While these experiences are an essential aspect to the Path, often they are by products of a higher state of consciousness, temporary and must be left behind. These experiences are foretastes of what will be and are not the goal. In the journey, the goal is the Absolute/God; and it is love which fuels the effort.
Hence in the first quote, we have the admonition, always, turn toward God.
In the second quote, the teacher is discussing the feelings of loneliness, despair, and general fear that we are not progressing. In our mind, because nothing special or spiritual has happened; we fear we are lost.
Because we have defined the spiritual search in terms of experiences, states, and stations; this desire or need blocks us from perceiving the whisperings of the heart. At this moment, the traveler is indeed lost and most remember the second quote. In this journey, always turn toward God; it is as easy as that: Because love of God rules the universe.
A: One day, I directly asked the teacher, this same question: How do I know I am making progress along the path? I hope this answer serves you well.
“Progress is measured by how often you think about God and what God wants. Not what you want or desire. Also, progress is not measured by spiritual states and stations. It is measured by love of God.
Today, if you think more about God than you did yesterday, then, you are making progress. Travelers make religion and the spiritual journey into too complicated a thing.”
_________
Also by Dr. Bitkoff, A Commuter’s Guide to Enlightenment, Llewellyn, 2008 and Journey of Light: Trilogy, Authorhouse, 2004. These books are available on Amazon.Com or from publisher.
To contact author go to: www.stewartbitkoff.com or e-mail: goldpath@ptd.net.
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