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Test
to Determine Your Spiritual Growth
Are you a Saint? A Zen Master? How about just a good human
being? How do you know? What are the qualification? Are there any tests you can
take to find out your spiritual growth? Yes there are.
There are lots of ways to test your spiritual progress and life is constantly
doing just that by giving you tests to help you evaluate yourself in order to
make spiritual progress. There are also many ways to assess your spiritual level
proactively and in this article I will provide one such illuminating test.
Human beings are complex and so is life. I am glad it is so. The test I propose
in this document is to evaluate some aspects of your being and is by no means a
comprehensive examination. Perhaps I will come up with a more complete system
down the road, but for now let's try this one test to get us started.
This test will help you determine if you have the right perspective, the right
spiritual attitude towards life, or if you have been snared by society and
entrapped by the ugly web of attachment.
From my experience this one test, although simple, is quite revealing. It is
incisive and cuts deep into your psyche to reveal the conditions under which you
are currently operating. Using it, I can not only keep a sharp eye on if I am
slipping into the jaws of ambition, but can also determine the state others are
in, with regard to their "spiritual evolution".
By no means am I suggesting that you start to use this test (or others I might
propose) to start judging the world or yourself harshly. The test is simply to
be used as an indicator, to give you insight and help you with your spiritual
work. So here is how the test works.
Test To Determine Your Spiritual Growth & Mental State
Step 1: Take a few moments and determine what you are very passionate about.
This can be your career, but, does not necessarily have to be so. It should be
something, though, that you are actively engaged in doing and something that you
feel deeply about. Here are some examples: Yoga Teacher, Professional Blogger,
Health Care Professional, Technology Professional, Businessman, Politician, etc.
Step 2: In this field that you care very deeply about, think about someone who
is enormously successful. Successful in all ways if possible. Someone who has
made a huge amount of money in that field, become famous and is powerful. Now
one more criteria is important about this person. If possible, have it be
someone who you don't like, or don't agree with. The more you dislike their ways
and methods the better, but the test will also work pretty well even if you
don't dislike the person or their systems.
Step 3: Watch your reaction to when you hear complimentary information about
this person, or just hear about the success this person is having in their life.
Be brutally honest, or you will just be cheating yourself. Does it create any
negative wave within you? Any tinge of jealousy? Any feeling of irritation? Any
feeling of frustration? Any feeling of hurt? Does it cause any ripple, any
disturbance, in your psyche? The greater the disturbance the more the test
indicates its time to get busy with your spiritual practice. Here is a more
detailed analysis of the test results.
A negative reaction or disturbance can indicate the following with regard to
your spiritual state.
1. Too Much Ambition: You are probably focused too much on getting results and
are overly ambitious. These attachments to the results can cause jealousy and
ill-will towards those who have already achieved what you so badly seek. Another
way to look at this is you may not be doing what your really love to do in life?
This is the only way to be free of the clutches of society and gain oriented
living. Doing what you love to do, will free you from everything. If this test
produced negative waves, it could mean that you are only doing things to see
what you will get out of them, instead of doing things for their own sake.
2. Non-Dual Perception of Reality: The test could also indicate that you are
living excessively in an ego-centric way. You are seeing the world as full of
separate people and focusing on the various personalities, instead of seeing the
world in a non-dual light with all of creation being One and having nothing but
divine nature. As Yogi Bhajan points out, "If you don't see God in all, you
don't see God at all." Are you seeing the Divine Nature of he who is
getting under your skin? Are you seeing the Oneness of Reality?
3. Chasing the Wrong Things in Life: If you have never thought about it, let me
point out an interesting fact about enlightenment. In society there is so much
competition because resources/rewards are limited. There are only so many top 10
Blogs, there is only 1 winner in the tournaments, there are only limited
political seats, there is only 1 CEO, only so much oil, land, etc etc. This
breeds competition and conflict. But Enlightenment is not limited. Just because
I am enlightened, does not mean you can't be also. We can all be enlightened
(and are), so this is one of those things you can chase without worrying about
having to wrestle it away from anyone else. There is no need to compete, it is
an infinite, inexhaustible resource.
So this test implies that you are not exclusively chasing enlightenment. You are
getting distracted and running around all over the place chasing useless stupid
things. Time to buckle down and get back to the business of going after that
which is the highest purpose of man. Time to fulfill your destiny.
Take this test from time to time, or be aware when life brings it your way. It
is an insightful instrument to gauge your goodness and spiritual understanding.
Anmol Mehta is a Yoga & Zen Meditation expert. For Free Online Yoga &
Guided Meditation Classes visit http://www.anmolmehta.com/blog/classes-online
hosted on http://www.anmolmehta.com. For help & insights on Meditation,
Kundalini Yoga, Chakra, Tantra, Zen & more visit http://www.anmolmehta.com/blog
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