Obstacles to Spiritual Growth

In human life, there are many obstacles to spiritual growth and development. Some obstacles may come as difficulties in the life but many come as luxuries in the life. Obstacles to spiritual growth and development may be pleasing or not so pleasing. Either way, they are obstacles when they prevent the forward development of consciousness. The evolution of living beings is a movement from the crude to the subtle, from the harsh to the sublime, from the material to the sublime consciousness. It is a movement from that which is very rough in vibration to that which is so subtle it cannot even be comprehended by the mind, not even thought can touch it. Thought is more subtle than the material body for the material body is the crude body. The mental body, the mind that thinks and the thoughts that are coming are more subtle than the physical body. One would say the mental body is more subtle than the physical body. More subtle still is the spiritual body for the wave of that is awareness, consciousness, cognition, the knower, the witnessing entity. The consciousness is behind the mind and is still more subtle than mind and intellect.
Intuition that relies on the all-pervasive knowledge of the knower of all things is more subtle than intellect that relies upon thoughts, memory and other such psychic developments that are associated with the physical brain and nervous system.

Intuition is not associated with the physical brain and the nervous system. The knowledge gained through intuition comes not from the physical body and the sensory organs but instead from the all-pervasive, all-knowing witnessing consciousness that observes and knows everything in the entire universe. That is a different source of knowledge than arrives through the sense perception in the nervous system to the brain. The source of knowledge of intuition is from a different stratum of existence than the source of knowledge of intellect.

Now those obstacles that prevent one from moving towards one's spiritual desideratum are those things that keep the thoughts always associated with extroversion into the material world, with cruder identifications. In that case, those circumstances, situations, tendencies of mind keep the mind more and more associated with matter, with extroversion of mind. They bring it more towards the material. They go against the evolutionary flow but those thoughts, those tendencies that progress the mind spiritually, skirt away from the crude identifications with matter and towards the realm of intuitional science where knowledge comes from the witness, where there is association and identification with the witnessing entity of all creation.

Consciousness, awareness can land at any point in the spectrum of the evolutionary process and according to the mental tendency of one's mind, one will be drawn one way or another and then, in terms of one's response to the mental tendencies, again one will be drawn one way or the other. Most situations, most circumstances, most mental tendencies will either be positive or negative. Either they will go with the evolutionary flow of consciousness towards the divine progenitor or they will move towards the material universe and identification with physicality.

There are choices to make in the life of each and every person. One chooses between the crude and the subtle, between moving one's mind towards physicality and growing more physical in one's mental wave, perhaps just having focus on eating, sleeping, procreating and gaining more material wealth. That will bring the mind closer and closer to matter. They will spend their time in the most fundamental mental thoughts, all related, all associated with matter. Those who bring the mind in the other direction towards the intuitional flow of the cosmic entity will find the mind growing more and more subtle and getting into greater and greater realms of cognitive awareness. The awareness, consciousness, intentionality and omnipresent knowledge of the Great will grow in such a mind and that mind will grow more and more subtle. What happens? Perhaps one wants to increase the subtlety of one's mind and find the realms of unitary consciousness that stem from the cosmic nucleus of this universe and still one may find oneself drawn again and again into the material universe, into issues of survival that take the mind and wrap it around matter. What to do when this perpetually happens? One may or may not be able to extricate oneself from those situations. Whether one extricates oneself from the situations or not is not the point because if the mental tendency is still towards the crude, even if one gets out of one situation, one is bound to find another situation that captivates the mind, drawing it to focus on food, clothing, shelter and enjoyment of the physical world. To remove oneself from the temptation and say, "Now I can be a holy person," is to trick the mind. It won't work. To be a holy person, one will have to transmute one's perception of the material universe. One will have to change the fundamental way that one sees the universe. One will have to adopt the mental approach of the cosmic entity rather than the material approach.

The material approach brings the mind to crudity because one sees only differences. When one takes a spiritual approach, one trains the mind to see all beings as part of one integral whole. One trains the mind to see the cosmic entity in all living beings, to see the universe as part and parcel of one whole. Even if one's perception is blocked due to the veil of ignorance, still one takes this ideation and through that ideation one begins to wash clean the clouded window of the mind so the bright light of the divine ocean of beatitude can be seen.

Those samskaras, those mental tendencies of mind that ever bring the mind into habitual patterns of seeing only the surface of life, seeing only the material differentiation in the universe, those samskaras will have to be dissipated. The best course to dissipate these tendencies of mind is to take guru mantra, to take a spiritual ideation seeing Brahma in all beings, in all things. This is the solution to that problem, to realize only the divine entity has the strength, the power, the capacity and that one has given you all that are and all that you have. When one thinks in this way, all vanity and pride fly away and one sees, "I am the child of the Great and all I do is by the great compassion of that most beloved entity that grants me this ability. He is the doer of all deeds."

In this way, the association or attachment to the results of actions will begin to fade. One will see, "It all belongs to Lord. It is his now and his alone." One then sees, "I do for him but I hold no attachment, no pride in what I have do for I see it is all his capacity. All belongs to him." When the sadhaka takes this ideation, no attachment forms, no extroversion of mind forms. When this happens, when one acts in the world without accumulating attachments, what happens? Mind begins to grow in magnitude and one's view expands. One begins to see the bright light of the divine Self. One begins to hear the sweet music of the inner shores. One begins to feel the soft breezes of unconditioned love. One begins to know the inner knowledge that comes not from the senses but from the source of all wisdom. From this, one comes to see all the universe as a play within the cosmic ocean of divine grace and love and seeing the continuity of the whole, the world of duality becomes a shadow within the whole. One sees the truth of the unitary nature of all and that the dualities play like apparitions within the mind. They hold no substantiality for one whose mind is elevated in this way. The perception of truth becomes greater than the perception of maya.

When this happens, one gets free of bondages and consciousness intensifies, more and more free from the bondage of materialism and aligned with the body of the Self. So the consciousness grows in magnitude. I encourage each of you, to take this ideation in your mind, free your mind from bondages and feel the unconditional love and grace of the divine entity. That one is always with you, always showering a gentle flow of compassionate love upon you, that you can come to see the one Self, to know and feel the ocean of grace and that your mind expands beyond the veil of ignorance. For this reason, it is important to practice this ideation, this concentration upon the Great.