The term ‘personal growth’ is one that relates directly to the process of dissolving the past within you. It is the path of enlightenment, sometimes also referred to as ‘spiritual growth’, and it is something quite different to evolution. Let’s have a look at the differences and why they are important to understand. But first, please check in once again to see what you are feeling right now. Take a moment to settle yourself. Relax. Turn your attention to your breath and follow it in and out, slowly, rhythmically. Drop your shoulders to release any tension that might be there. Relax your jaw too. Feel for some ease, space, or joy in your body. Become aware of the sounds around you, and as best as you can join the sensation you are feeling within to the sounds coming in through your senses as an immediate state of awareness in the now. Let your thoughts go, just let them pass through. Be easy.

The notion of personal growth as I have just described it refers specifically to the sense of expansion in awareness you feel as you come to know yourself more thoroughly. Evolution, on the other hand, is the eternal process of creativity, change and development throughout the universe. There is, of course, a relationship between the two and that relationship is this …

As a creative Being, you are contributing to the evolutionary process by your actions every day. But what you contribute is of little meaningful consequence until such time that you have truly come to know yourself, which is to say, until you have dissolved the past within you (your ego) and can live in alignment with the truth of what you are. Then you engage as a powerful co-creator in universal creativity.

So, if you engage in any process or method for personal growth, then if it is a good method, it will ultimately do one thing only―it will help you become more aligned, more loving, conscious, and present in life, from which a new way of seeing and acting might then arise. If it does not facilitate this, then it is not truly a growth path in the sense of it freeing you from the trappings of the past. For example, studying and gathering information or learning more skills and tricks in life are not indicators of becoming more loving, real and true. On the other hand, the ability to communicate openly, honestly, with courage, whilst also being able to hear and allow space for another to express themselves similarly, for example, would be a sign of successful personal growth in the way the term is being used. To be able to do this is not about adding more things to your life, rather it is about removing blockages.

This now brings us to a very satisfactory definition of the phrase ‘personal growth’, or the path of enlightenment. It is the process of removing blockages within us, of dealing with, or working on, our ‘stuff’, as it is often said these days. And this is quite a reasonable term to use as it indicates extremely well the dark, disturbing, and often indescribably confusing substance of past within us that we begin to face on our way back home.

The knowledge and value of facing and dissolving the past within our Being to free and empower ourselves is quite well known. Although omitted by most major religions (certainly not featuring as a salient point), the process of clearing the past is promoted and practised today through psychotherapy, hypnosis, and other regression techniques. The process is also practised in the powerful and mysterious religious cult of Scientology, for example. Like many influential religions and practices throughout history, Scientology is founded on some very sound principles, and the driving principle behind it is that of ‘processing’ a person to become ‘clear’ through a process that Scientologists call ‘auditing’. Auditing is a specific technique geared towards helping a person see and clear blockages (past events in their lives that have lodged in the cells as ‘engrams’) within them, and as such it can be a very successful and empowering process.

The past, and any attachment to it, is the only thing that will ever limit you or hold you back from experiencing the full joy of living, and the opportunities life offers. However, the continued use of any specific process to help dissolve this attachment may also result in attaching to the process itself. The process, or the person or organisation behind the process, can then be upheld more than the value received from it, and the net result is often the creation of another haven for the survival and growth of ego.

The cleanest way for you to face your past is to simply be present and honest in your life. This will do the work. The energy of presence is a light that shines through you and exposes everything within. Nothing can hide, nothing will be missed if this honesty to life is lived.

The reason that this works is as follows; as you consciously become more present in life, you begin to draw to you events from your past, either literally or symbolically. This is the same process you experience in death, as we discussed earlier―one of going back through your own past. You don’t have to go looking, regressing, or processing to dissolve the blockages within your Being. Although there is validity to these methods―and sometimes they can be very helpful―it does entail the risk of misinterpreting what you discover, especially when it extends to exploring past lives. The cleanest, fastest way is to get out of your head, be present and true, and honestly face what comes without running or hiding from it. To do so is to engage the powerful and intelligent mechanism of karma.

But the human mind always wants to make things more complicated than they need to be, by analysing and endeavouring to describe and understand the complex nature of blockages within. And although the impulse to do so is understandable at an inquisitive, intellectual level, it is for the most part a waste of time and energy. The most valuable thing to see and know is that on the way to enlightenment we will have to face our karmic body―a complex mix of wounds and beliefs from this lifetime or before, generated from living in a way that is out of alignment with Source. It is not necessary or important for us to understand and name it any more than this. And yet the beauty of the process―the Divine justice in it―is that we will come to understand what we need to if we simply don’t try to understand it. Such moments of revelation are a great gift and a powerful springboard to liberation.

If we do go looking to try and understand what is going on, or what the reason for our suffering might be, we will find no end of opportunity to name―and with increasingly elaborate terms―the nature of the ‘stuff’ arising, not at all unlike the way in which the scientist continues to look into matter only to find an endless arising of ‘stuff’ to name. The possibility of discovering and naming things in this way is limitless, because it is the act of looking that generates what arises. In both cases, it is a trick of the ego to keep us on the karmic wheel of compromised living and sustain the secondary world from which it all comes. This can be a specious trap for both the seeker and the scientist, and people snared by it can be deluded for a very long time. They would argue vehemently that they are working earnestly to find ‘what the matter is’ and are doing the right thing.

The right thing, however, is only ever to come back to Love, because ultimately there is nowhere else to go. And when realigned with this Love―which is of course God, the Greater Consciousness―we become wise and valuable players in the evolution of life. Not until we are clear of our own ‘stuff’ can we fully contribute to the whole in this way.

Next up we have a look at a very powerful personal growth tool. Responsibility.