UNVEILING THE SPIRITUAL PATH
Chapter 9
🕊️
“The fulfillment of divine law within the human evolution produces ‘just men and women made perfect.’ These are individuals who have mastered the lessons of the human kingdom and have advanced into the spiritual kingdom. Having met the karmic obligations stipulated by the Law of Cause and Effect and having achieved the illumination that comes with the purification of motives, they have no other life intention than service to the divine plan.
Prior to that culminating point on the Path, the incarnate initiate progresses through expanding levels of learning and achievement. Consciousness grows through further refinements of vision and insight, plus course corrections when needed. An early initiate into the realm of Spirit can be a reliable collaborator on an aspect of the Plan yet still not be entirely free of karmic obligations. Periodically, as circumstances trigger old emotional and mental patterns, karmic residues will surface as opportunities for further cleansing and greater exposure of the true self.
At this advanced stage of the journey, personality adjustments are made without self-blame, self-denigration, guilt, or shame. Firmly identified with the higher self and consciously living in the aura of love radiating from the Kingdom of Souls, such emotions are left behind with the discarded shell of the old persona. The meshing of energies that occurs when a person consciously enters the Realm of Souls ensures a flow of divine love that is reliable, just as a beloved child can rely on the steady flow of parental love. When the personal past is redeemed and cleansed of feelings of remorse, the disciple is freed to enter further into the ranks of the Hierarchy.
On the path of transformation, the meaning of ‘law’ is also transformed. Having lived under the governance of human laws, which are often arbitrary or designed to serve the powerful, the initiate into a higher dimension of reality comes to appreciate the power of spiritual laws to transform the self. Learning to conform to these laws initially causes discomfort to the personality but a sense of gratitude arises over time for the liberation they bring. By aligning with these undeviating laws, the lesser self becomes subordinate to the higher self and the suffering of the human condition comes to an end.
In general, seekers have no conscious remembrance of the circumstances that created karmic debt that persists into the present lifetime. Causes can only be surmised based on conditions one has faced in the current lifetime. A useful assumption is that present conditions in some way mirror what came before, except ‘the shoe is on the other foot.’ At the higher stages of the path, when soul identity is secure enough to bear whatever distress may arise from encountering facts of one’s karmic history, circumstances will often bring to light the factors that created the debt which finally comes due. This is the chance for ultimate refinements of character that lead to the state of perfection.
Most of humanity is blind to the reality that indulging in a life of illusory freedom from constraint, unconscious of harm done to others, produces liabilities in the ‘karmic ledger’ or ‘book of life’ that accompanies the soul from one lifetime to another. But debts eventually come due. This is the undeviating law that drives the advance of the human soul. It is the pain of penalties endured that eventually tenderizes the heart and leads the awakening soul to the path of ascent. At some point in life, a crisis produces a degree of suffering that impels the soul to search for the cause of suffering and for its relief.
In today’s world, masses of human beings flock to practitioners of modern psychiatry or psychology in search of relief from emotional pain. Such practitioners are skilled at identifying destructive behavior patterns and shedding light on specific areas of the psyche in need of healing. They aim to provide comfort and solace to individuals living through acute crises, and they are trained to help patients in longer-term care to alter self-defeating behaviors. With rare exceptions, however, such practitioners will lack the capacity to help patients find ‘the peace that passes understanding.’
For the soul in search of the light of wisdom to relieve the pain of life, the ultimate source of healing will be found by treading the path to spiritual liberation. For the person who becomes an aspirant to truth, first, then a disciple under the guidance of Higher Beings, then an Initiate entering the spiritual realm, the cause of pain can be identified in the history of preceding lifetimes. Healing comes through accepting responsibility for painful life conditions and transmuting their causes.
A willingness to atone for whatever past actions may have caused the suffering, whether specifically identifiable or not, is what enables constructive passage through the burning grounds and ultimate release from ‘the prison house’ of an unconscious personality. The soul becomes liberated to advance into a sphere of light, love, beauty, and harmony where the full spectrum of one’s energies can be devoted to the upliftment of humanity and the good of all living creatures. The relentless stress of human living, with repeated cycles of pain and material burdens, is left behind.
The fruit of complying with divine law is the transformation of a human being into a spiritual being. This is achieved through acceptance of responsibility for one’s life and submission to the requirements of the path that yield identification with one’s higher self. This path does not permit compromise. It cannot be trod while keeping one foot in the world of material comfort and security. On the contrary, it demands that the lesser self be extricated from that world so it may be transfigured by spiritual light. The transfigured being then returns to the world bringing illumination and liberation to others, elevating the human condition, before advancing fully into the realm of Spirit from where it will serve the Plan through subtler means.
Selfless service is a quality of the disciple; the state of selflessness is the attainment of the Initiate. At the end of the path that leads into the spiritual realm, the sense of self that belonged to the personality no longer exists. Individual awareness remains, along with unique capacities honed through human experience. But the one who achieves mastery becomes absorbed into a fellowship whose mutual aim is to carry out the purpose of the Lord of this World—the creator of Earth’s life and causal agent of its evolution. Individual will is sublimated to the collective will to implement the divine plan. Such is the goal of the divine law that is designed to achieve the perfection of human beings, under the aegis of divine love.”
🕊
REFLECTIONS 