A sense of stagnation on the spiritual path 

Question: I have been experiencing a sense of being unable to progress to a new level in my personal growth. While I have a good understanding of many concepts and resonate with the teachings of the masters, it feels like there is something missing that is preventing me from reaching a higher level of self-realization. I am seeking assistance to identify what I might be overlooking and what steps I can take to achieve this new level of personal growth and to make the necessary changes.


Answer from the Ascended Master Mother Mary through Kim Michaels.  This answer was given during the 2023 Kazakhstan Conference.

As we have said many times, the spiritual path is a process. It is a process that takes time and has different stages. It is not uncommon that people find the spiritual path, find ascended master teachings. They start giving invocations and decrees, studying the teachings, and they feel tremendous growth. And this can go on for some time, often several years. But then there comes a point where you feel like the growth is slowing down, you are kind of stagnating. What can happen to some people is that they get comfortable at a certain level and they now feel that they do not need to do anything drastic, they do need to continue to do what they are doing.

But there are other people that can see that this stagnation is not constructive because it does not lead to growth. If you have acknowledged that, then you need to recognize that the cause of this condition is that there is something you have not seen. And it is ultimately something in your own psychology. But it is also something that relates to your view of the spiritual path, your approach to the spiritual path. As we have said many times, when people first find the path, they approach the path through the perception filter that they have, through the separate selves that they have. And this means that they, in their outer minds, often decide: “This is how the path works, this is what I am supposed to do, this is what is supposed to happen.” And this is inevitable, everybody goes through this. But when you come to a point where you feel like there is some stagnation, you are not making the progress you want to be making, you need to step back and consciously look at your approach to the past and say: “Where is it influenced by the outer mind, by the separate selves?”

You can take some of the teachings we have given on this, and we have given many teachings on this. Find these teachings, study them, use them to step back and look at yourself and say: “How did I approach the path when I first found it? How do I look at the path today? Can I see there is a higher approach? There is a different approach to it. That I do not have to continue doing things the way I did them before, I need to step back, I need to look, find a different approach, and realize that the way I could see the path when I first found it was at a certain level. It was not necessarily wrong, it just was limited. And now that I have been on the path for some time, I can step up to a higher approach.” Do not think that you can find the ultimate approach right now, just look for the next level up and be content that this is the next level, you follow this for some time, and then you might see something higher. 

One of the big hindrances on the spiritual path is when people allow their egos to make them feel that they have grasped how the path works, they have the ultimate understanding of the path. If you allow yourself to believe this, you cannot question your approach to the path. Be willing to step back and realize there is always a higher approach as long as you are in embodiment. There is always more to understand, more to grasp, as the messenger so honestly explained yesterday. You can take what he said, try to really internalize it, look at yourself, and question what you have not questioned so far. This is not a matter of blaming yourself. But unfortunately, for some people, they had this desire to feel that they were special, that they were important people, that they were very spiritual people, that they understood the path. And if you have this attitude, it prevents you from honestly questioning your approach to the path, because it would make you feel like you were not so special after all. 

You have to look at this mechanism, see it in yourself and say: “What do I really want? Do I want growth? Or do I want to feel that I am special or superior?” It is not a matter of saying that you are then wrong or bad or a sinner. You just realize that the path will have stages. Nobody can see everything when they first find the path, nobody can. You always need to question—you always need to come up to a higher level of vision. And therefore, it is wise to adopt the attitude, as the messenger explained, of always being willing to question yourself, never thinking you have the highest possible understanding. Always be open to growth, to a higher understanding. When you are willing to work with the ascended masters, we will give you a higher understanding. But we will give you the understanding you are ready for right now, not the highest possible. We will give you what takes you to the next level. When you have then consolidated yourself at that level, we will give you more. We will take you step by step. It is very wise to adopt the attitude that: “I do not know everything, there is something I cannot see.” And then you reach up to us and ask us to help you see the next step that you take. Not the ultimate step, but the next step. 

And of course, at every level of the path, there is always psychology that needs to be resolved. There are always separate selves that you need to see. This is the path. This messenger had a dream many years ago that he would eventually resolve his psychology, so he would be free and there would be no more psychology to resolve. And as he said, it was a relief for him to give it up because it puts you in a certain state of tension. But of course, you can come to a point, and many of you have reached the point where you have resolved a lot in your psychology. You can switch where you are allowing yourself to accept that you have resolved a lot, but still keeping an open mind that there is more to resolve. And that is why you can switch into this positive approach where seeing something in your psychology is not a negative, it is a positive, because now you can be free of it. And you know you have already resolved so much psychology that you are anchored on the path, you are a, if you want to use that word, “good” student, a mature student. And then you do not need to have that deficit attitude that makes you reluctant to look at something in your psychology. 

There is a certain black and white attitude among many spiritual people, and it was especially prominent in the previous dispensation of the Summit Lighthouse, where people thought that if they saw an aspect of their psychology that was ego or selfish, it would be very, very bad, very, very negative. And that is why they were reluctant to look at it because they were afraid of this reaction. But you who have the teachings we have about the separate self, you can very quickly switch, you can look at this separate self that has this attitude and let it die so you get into a positive approach where you realize that, let’s just say that you have resolved 80% of your psychology. What does it matter that you see something in the remaining 20%? It does not make you suddenly a bad student because you have resolved so much already. You can accept this. It is again this old thing: Is the glass half full or half empty? Let’s say that your psychology is a glass that is full of water that represents the separate selves. And you have a spoon and you take out one spoon at a time. Well, if you have taken out 80% of the water in the glass, that is a major achievement. What does it matter that you see: “Oh, here is another spoonful that I need to take out?” It is just one spoon compared to the 80%. Just get on with it, get that scoop out, get the next scoop out, and all of a sudden you are at 90%. 

This is what we want for all of you, to have this breakthrough where you see that there is no problem looking at your psychology. You do not need to resist it. And you certainly do not need to feel that it is so bad if you see something in your psychology. It is actually a joy to see something and get over it and be even more free.

 

Copyright © 2023 Kim Michaels