True progress - transcribed podcast

true progress

True striving is like the striving of a plant that works its way through the earth, grows out of the earth and ultimately blossoms. This plant unfolds its potential, what it truly is. And so it may also be in humans. True striving is not the striving for something external.

It is not the pursuit of external happiness or prestige or money and wealth, or a better position. True striving is the unfolding of what we already are inside, what we brought with us when we incarnated. It is of no use to us to try to unfold something that is not there within us. That would be like a sunflower trying to unfold thorns because a rose has thorns. That is not possible. It will fail. The sunflower unfolds exactly what it is.

But humans have ideas and notions of how they could be, and these notions on this mental level are often distorted. They do not correspond to the true spirit or the true potential within us. But we try to compare ourselves and say, “He has so much money, he has this, he has that, I want that too”. And we chase after this carrot, which is very exhausting and often unsuccessful. But when we turn our gaze inward, reconnect with our soul, then we feel what is within us, and also the power that is there, that wants to unfold what is there and reveal this beauty and ultimately reveal this perfection in this world, of what we really are. And we are individuals, and each of us is unique. There are no repetitions; even though we are all human beings, there are no copies of us. We are unique. So we cannot compare ourselves with others, and the same is true in spirituality.

Seeking liberation in the outside world, seeking happiness in the outside world, these are all ideas and states that others talk about, but we cannot find them in the outside world and no one can give them to us. These states take place in the unfolding of who we are. And trying to get rid of what we are and what has not yet unfolded in order to attain liberation is only half the truth, I would say. Because then the divine within us does not get the space to reveal itself on this earth and therefore cannot have an effect on this earth. So liberation is not the final state of what we are here on Earth for.

The same goes for enlightenment. Enlightenment takes place within us. It is not outside. We shine light into what is still hidden within us. We illuminate it and bring it to light, peeling away the core of ourselves, the truth within us, the eternal within us, until it emerges like a bud opening here on Earth.

Thus, true progress is a movement that comes from within, and it is unique, just as we are all unique. Inner progress can be nourished, helping potential to unfold, and we do not find this nourishment in the world, but in our devotion to the divine. Everything we need to grow and unfold is then given to us. And if the direction of prayer and supplication is an inward-directed and inward-focused request that what is true in us, what is eternal in us, may grow, unfold and reveal itself, then it will happen.

And of course we also learn externally, and progress also takes place as human beings, but it is a secondary matter that takes place, or it is the consequence of inner development, which then takes shape externally. And this unfolding from within can and will probably often happen with friction on the outside, and it is inevitable. A plant that fights its way through the earth from the seed is also an image of it going through something. The seed bursts in the earth and it roots itself with the earth in one direction and in the other direction it grows outward through the earth.

If we want to unfold what is divine within us, we must set aside the way we have unfolded until now, that is, from the human mind, from the mental, and turn to a higher dimension, a broader dimension, eternal consciousness. And that can only be done from within. To do this, we must open ourselves, we must empty ourselves in order to receive what is already there in the divine and wants to come to Earth and be revealed here on Earth. And as long as all the vital desires, ideas and wishes are present in human beings, these qualities will spread and manifest themselves in the world. As long as human beings are not aware of the source of their actions or what they manifest, the lower aspects of nature will continue to take precedence in manifesting themselves.

But human beings have a choice about what they want. And in their development, they reach a point where they are no longer satisfied with lower needs, where they want to bring down the highest, the most beautiful, the best for everyone. And thus wants to reveal the divine here on Earth. It is a path, a process in which the divine unfolds like a flower in our existence here on Earth. And we ourselves decide what we want, what we want to be, how we want to be, based on how we are right now.

Thank you for listening.