The Necessity of the Inner Work
“Although grace does play a vital role in our evolutionary progress, this fact does not diminish the necessity of the inner work. Practice manifests out of a deep command within the soul to use all means available to accelerate her spiritual enlightenment – an expression of our innermost collaboration with the divine will. Unless we activate our own capacity to support our evolution, how can we expect the divine to assist us? Waiting indolently for grace to do the inner work for us is an arrogant approach. It is no different than expecting water to spring from the ground without first digging a well. One needs to be prepared to receive grace, and through conscious cooperation with one’s evolution, to increasingly mature into that readiness.”
~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)
June 19, 2009 | Filed Under Evolutionary Development | Comments Off
Spiritual Traditions of the Past
“Not all teachings point to the highest truth, just as not all seekers seek the highest knowledge and realization. Traditions of enlightenment reveal varying levels of understanding, as they reflect the particular intelligence and capacity of their founders…”
“We may wonder why teachings of non-duality founded by seers of the highest order and expressing extraordinary depth have repudiated the existence of a personal essence. It is not that the conclusions of these masters sprang from incomplete realizations, but rather that their perception of reality was conditioned to express their experience in a purely impersonal way. The traditions we are referring to were created in times when humanity was not yet ripe enough to embrace the consciousness of the soul. They may have been revolutionary in their time, but from the viewpoint of the now, their spiritual vision is outdated. At its conception, any new tradition of enlightenment naturally reflects the unconscious evolutionary needs of the contemporary collective mind, otherwise it is rejected and forgotten. It is in fact the will of the divine cause to express truth at a level in accordance with the evolutionary capacity of humanity at any particular stage of its development. Traditions of the past were not designed to reflect the subtle dimension of the soul; their objective was the strict realization of impersonal peace and freedom. It’s not that their teachings were incorrect, only incomplete – and not in their time, but from the present perspective of the expanded potential of human consciousness.” Read more
June 19, 2009 | Filed Under Evolutionary Development | Comments Off
Evolutionary Imbalance
“One of the most serious pitfalls on the path is an imbalance between one’s inner and outer evolution. Some misguided seekers suppress their psychological issues, fears and natural desires in the name of the quest for enlightenment. They see their outer reality as the ‘enemy’ of inner peace and stillness, and neglect their emotional development by spending all of their time in meditation and solitude. By becoming attached to the peace and calm of meditation, or spending excessive time alone, one tends to develop an unhealthy fear of the world, with its many challenges and distractions. The completion of the human personality requires that we engage in a well-balanced relationship with the world, for one can never be truly whole without psychological balance and emotional maturity.
“In addition to becoming imbalanced in our relationship with the world and our human existence, we can also develop an imbalance in our internal growth towards the self by becoming too extreme or one-sided in our practice. For instance, some over-crystallize awareness, neglecting the expansion into being or the awakening of the heart; others deepen being or awaken the heart, but fail to address the work with awareness. Perhaps the most common imbalance we come across is a disproportionate development between the mind and the heart. Many on path of love disregard the evolution of their intelligence and awareness and become trapped in emotional states devoid of clarity and inner stability, while those who strictly follow the path of awareness and understanding tend to repress their sensitivity, and remain alienated from their divine essence as a result. To become integrated and whole, one has to follow the principle of harmonious evolution and possess a complete and holistic vision of oneself.”
~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)
June 19, 2009 | Filed Under Evolutionary Development | Comments Off
The Measure of Evolution
“It must be noted that one’s level of evolution cannot simply be seen as a linear progression through various states of inner expansion. The inner state is merely the internal space requisite for the awakening of the soul. It is the consciousness that embodies the inner reality that is the true measure of the evolutionary value of any awakened state. It is not what has been attained that matters most, but who has attained it. That who is our level of consciousness and intelligence – and the existential depth of our very soul, the subject of all stages of awakening. Hence, someone with a profoundly realized state of presence may in fact be more conscious and evolved than someone abiding in the absolute state. The deeper our inner realization, the more we can embody our eternal self; but it is the relative awakening of the who that constitutes the ultimate significance of any attainment.”
~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)
June 19, 2009 | Filed Under Evolutionary Development | Comments Off
Enlightenment and Evolutionary Development
“How far we can expand the frontiers of our enlightenment obviously depends upon our spiritual capacity, inspiration, knowledge and intelligence, but of equal consequence is the limiting factor of our own unconsciousness. It is clear that enlightenment is an expansion of human consciousness, perception and existence beyond the confused condition of ignorance, but our vision of enlightenment cannot be complete unless we know, in addition to our potential, our evolutionary limits…
“Any kind of spiritual awakening we experience occurs only in relation to the level of evolution we have reached thus far. The more our consciousness evolves, the more its standards are raised for its further, more complete enlightenment. Read more
June 19, 2009 | Filed Under Evolutionary Development | Comments Off