Spiritual growth – Growth in self-awareness

What is spiritual growth? How does a human being grow from birth to spiritual enlightenment? What is the process?

I believe that spiritual growth is simply the process of awakening our consciousness; to become aware of the ultimate reality and of “what is”.

Like many things that are “simple”, it is not easy to achieve. If it were, there would be many more enlightened people in the world than there are. What do I mean by awakening or becoming aware of reality? And why is it so difficult?

Let me start by saying that whatever your personal understanding of God, or the Creator, may be, the commonly held theistic view of God as a “person” living in a place called “heaven” will not be helpful when trying to understand the process of growth. human spiritual.

I find it much more useful to understand God or the Creator as the creative spiritual energy of pure agape love or perhaps the radical Consciousness of pure being; the creative Consciousness of the Universe itself.

If we are born in the image of God as many believe, then at the moment of birth, before the world lays its hands on us, we are essentially a pure and immaculate child of God; a child born in the image of God.

At that moment we are nascent consciousness manifesting pure creative agape love; capable of loving without a “because”. At that moment we are able to manifest the infinite. We are simply a wave called “I am” resting in the ocean called “I AM”.

We don’t need a “because” to arouse our love. We love because agape love is our essential creative energy. It is simply who we are. The agape love energy of “I am” is the same as the creative energy of pure agape love and compassion of “I AM”.

This is how I understand the idea of ​​“being born in the image of God”. The goal of the enlightened person is simply to return to this essential self; this place of pure awakened awareness where we begin our human journey.

Conceptually, I find it helpful to think of this localized “essential self” or “I am” as the center of a small circle that is surrounded by “I AM” — “THE” creative ground, the creative essence of all reality. .

As we grow and develop over time into a separate ego “me”, a “unique” individual, opaque layers of “ego stuff” called beliefs, certainties, expectations, fears, desires, likes, dislikes, attachments, assumptions , conclusions, prejudices, illusions, judgments, roles, labels and concerns begin to accumulate layer by layer as concentric circles around the “I am”.

The essential light of the “I am” is slowly covered by the impenetrable dirt of this ego until the agape love light of the “I am” is no longer visible. Instead of manifesting the agape love of the Creator, we manifest more and more our individual ego or self-identity.

Over time, these layers of “ego stuff” become the definition of who “we are”; an “object”, separate, apart and unique from all other unique objects of the “self”. The beliefs, assumptions and other “ego stuff” that we call our “self identity” and which effectively block the light of the “I am” or the essential self, are like little glasses that distort reality. The more rigid the belief, the thicker the lens. These ego “lenses,” or “beliefs,” distort reality because they allow into the ego only those aspects of reality that the ego believes to be true; they effectively block the rest of Creation by labeling it “not true.”

The self-identity of the ego is now complete. The agape light of “I am” can no longer shine, and the light of all reality that is not consistent with the ego’s “beliefs” cannot enter.

We forget that our essential self even exists. Both “I am” and “I AM” disappear! The idea that we are pure agape love, that we are co-creators with the “I AM”, is rejected as ridiculous.

Once formed, the ego is very interested in surviving; both; physically and psychologically. The ego “me” doesn’t like change because it means that a part of its own identity must die to make way for a new ego “me.” If the ego “believes” that something is wrong, that it is not consistent with its beliefs, it will label it as “false or wrong” and then reject it. In this way, the ego’s own identity is protected from change. The ego’s belief is “THE” truth. In other words, when a firmly held ego belief meets reality, the reality will change, not the belief.

Simply put, the psychological survival of the ego requires that the ego avoid change by rigidly investing in being right. The need to be right is a primary source of conflict and suffering in the world.

Unless we are able to understand how powerful this tendency of our egos to only allow what we already believe is, we cannot grow. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual growth.

Removing the beam in our own eye is not an easy task. It can only be achieved when we deeply understand and fully accept that the seeds of conflict and suffering are embedded in our own hearts. Not just our neighbors.

Therefore, spiritual growth is simply a process of getting back in touch with our essential being; a process of awakening consciousness and discerning what our ego “believes” to be reality.

To summarize, spiritual growth is growth in self-awareness. Any growth in self-awareness is spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is nothing more than a process of understanding and accepting the many layers of “ego stuff” that prevent us from sitting with reality as it is and manifesting our essential energy called agape love.

Growing in self-awareness means understanding and accepting the simple reality that each of our beliefs not only distorts reality, but rejects all aspects of reality that don’t exactly fit that belief.

A friend once humorously told me that the plum line of what is right and true ran right down the middle of his ego.

Change, the fundamental act of creation, and spiritual growth, are challenging jobs for the ego. Both require an awakened awareness. Each time we grow in self-awareness and empty the ego of its many layers, we come closer and closer to the manifestation of the essential energy of the authentic self, the creative energy of agape love “I am” that co-creates with the creative energy of agape love. of “I AM”.

The reality is that we are co-creators with “I AM”. The wave can never be separated from the ocean. The only choice we have is: we will consciously create love and compassion, or we will unconsciously create pain and suffering.

Spiritual growth is nothing more than our ability to manifest more and more of this essential agape energy that resides at the core of who we really are… our essential being.