Spiritual growth has four focal points:
(1) The first focal point is to use pain as a means to grow. But this way can perpetuate using pain as a means to grow, and thus perpetuate pain itself. Pain has value if it awakens in us the desire to grow. But we need to focus on the solution, not dwell on the pain. We observe the pain, enter the desire to move beyond it, and then move beyond it as fast as we can.
(2) Another avenue of growth is joy. The moment I say, if I'm suffering, "I choose to find ways to live in joy," that desire opens the door to see greater and greater joy. Joy is the individualized expression of bliss. Bliss is infinite; joy is an expression of that infinite bliss within the individual. The body cannot contain bliss itself. In fact, I cannot experience bliss because I am bliss!
(3) Wisdom is the third focus for growth. We can grow by applying discrimination to every experience. Spiritual discernment, or wisdom, means that I only focus on things that uplift me. Such a focus needs to be an ongoing practice with every decision. For example, ask yourself, "Am I making a decision based on my discernment, or on what I think will be pleasing to someone else?"
(4) The fourth focus for growth is love. The moment we choose love as a means to grow, true growth must and does occur. Intentions such as these will be helpful:
I choose to bring love into every moment of my awareness and into every experience.
I choose to approach all life with as much love as is possible for me to express at this moment.
I choose to grow through love in action-by putting love into every action.
There is nothing more fulfilling than doing everything with love. Do you regard the work you do as a joy or a chore? Where do you focus? Do you choose to focus on love or on resistance? Any time you do any action without love, it's selfish. Whatever you do with love is unselfish.
