The Necessity of Having Fixed Spiritual Goals
If one is to reach far spiritually, it is important to know what it is that we want to achieve, and then moving towards it by setting spiritual goals. Without such goals in place, it is very easy to drift away into various things related to spirituality; to follow one spiritual direction for one month, and another direction a few months later. Or to stay in Gnosis for prolonged period of time, doing the practices and exploring the conscious way of being, though not necessarily wanting to achieve anything deeper with it.
In Gnosis, there are concrete ‘end’ results that can be achieved; the purpose of these teachings is to transform oneself from the human state into divine state of being, and by so doing to become a higher being – this is to make the conscious leap from the human to angelic state through the conscious efforts, through the revolution of consciousness. This entails reaching higher and higher stages of freedom, starting from the liberation from the Wheel of Samsara and its laws that pull the essence down in its course of learning in the material world. Later we liberate ourselves from higher and higher planes of life, until there is a high form of freedom, possibly the highest one that we can imagine, which is the return back to the Source.
In order to achieve the above mentioned things, one has to walk upon the path to liberation; one has to go through the initiations that the path entails, and in this way going through a great process of learning, and the gradual incarnation of the inner Being. It is this Being, our Higher Self, that, once incarnated, transforms us in a deep and concrete way by changing our psychological and energetic structure, giving us its wisdom and knowledge, and enabling us to permanently feel his blissful qualities, such as true peace, true happiness, and a high form of love.
In order to reach the above mentioned qualities, it is necessary to set it as a goal to reach them. I noticed that many people who are aspiring for the path, do have longings to reach divinity, however the idea of a permanent happiness and the great form of freedom sounds to them like something fleeting and unrealistic, especially so when putting it against the background of the harsh reality of this day and age. It seems that many students see the spiritual possibilities as something abstract and very difficult to reach, if not entirely impossible. And yet, they continue with their work, trying to be conscious from moment to moment, though not noticing that the belief they have is influencing their actions and thoughts, making them do the work within the limits of what they believe that it is possible to achieve. In such a way, a lot of the Gnostic students become content that their work extends as far as being more conscious in daily life, being less angry, having better relationships, or improving their sit-down practices – the things that are of a very small scale of what can be achieved with Gnosis.
In my opinion, it would be much better to recognize such traps of the mind that prompt us to do the work within the limits of what they made us believe that it is possible to achieve, and to truly reflect on the Gnostic teachings and its end results. The latter could be achieved by setting up goals and by being open that such achievements are possible, because they have been achieved already by many people.
It is beneficial to write down on a piece of paper your spiritual aspirations; reflecting on them and consider why are they there, from where they come from, what they mean to you, and what you are ready to do in order to achieve them. If the aspirations that you have are related to the Gnostic path, and you feel sincerely that you would like to reach the milestones that Gnosis teaches, such as the incarnation of the Human Soul (Manas), Divine Soul (Buddhi), Divine Spirit (Atman), or even larger parts of the Being, then you can write down these goals down on a piece of paper and consider how to go about achieving them. You may find that the easiest way is to first break down the big goals to smaller goals, and the smaller goals to even smaller ones, until you arrive to daily and weekly goals that will gradually lead you in the direction of achieving the big goals. As you are doing this, you may discover that there are obstacles that separate you from the next goal that is in front of you, obstacles such as inner defects, attachments to things, fears, crudeness in thought and feeling, etc. Whatever it may be, you can also put it on paper, and in such a way creating a plan of action, and eventually fulfilling the requirements that will lead you to more and more inner experiences, to more and more understanding, as well as an increased ability to feel a stronger and stronger connection with your Being.
If you do this for some time, with consistency and with quality, you will find that the Gnostic path is not only something that sounds incredible in writing, but rather a reality that you can live and be a part of.
HDP, July 2020.
Leave a Reply