While moving through the intersections of Fate St. and Free Will St. on Eternity Boulevard, one of the greatest ancient spiritual books ever written offers a reminder of some universals all of us go through. These are the inevitable result of our evolutionary process as we discover what is really true for us versus what is only conditionally or apparently true.

I last gave this to you about a year ago, and it seems this theme is active in many lives right now. We grow through understanding yesterday is not today, and so we must keep learning, keep developing coping skills, and keep adapting to the ever-changing conditions of our lives. All of it serves to help us integrate our body, feelings, and mind to become an adequate disciplined vehicle to express our Higher Self.

Through our challenges and crises, we find our sense of “truth” transforming according to our level of awareness and need for greater unconditional understanding freed from fear. The challenges we face and what we learn through crises help us learn to choose, decide, and respond. This affects our future.

We continually refine our personality by letting go of obsolete habits of acting, feeling, and thinking. All of life is an opportunity to grow into new ways of expressing our Light, Life, and Love that bear fruit in the future. To do this we must, like the trees, withdraw our life force from branches that are dead, and sprout new branches in new directions of growth.

We do this when we stop agonizing over old parts of our life that are voided out, and turn to something more fulfilling and purposeful for us here and now. Since we're all experiencing a sense of emptiness resulting from losing people and ending old life patterns, it is helpful to remember that some of this is the product of the times we live in, and some of it is just a natural part of evolution itself. Since to live is to grow, growth often challenges our interpretations, perceptions, and old ways of doing our Being.

To that end, here is a fragment from “An Essay On Karma,” itself a part of Light On The Path, one of the oldest books on Earth and certainly one of the most venerable works ever written. In a few places I have substituted certain terms that may be more familiar to our western minds than the original term used, in order (hopefully) to clarify the intent of the author. I have also attempted to make it gender-neutral.

"It is said that a little attention to the pursuit of truth produces great Karmic results. That is because it is impossible to give any attention to the pursuit of truth without making a definite choice between what are familiarly called good and evil. The first step in the pursuit of truth brings the student to the tree of knowledge. Then you must pluck and eat; you must choose.

No longer are you capable of the indecision of ignorance. You go on, either on the good or on the evil path. And to step definitely and knowingly even but one step on either path produces great Karmic results.

The mass of humanity walk waveringly, uncertain as to the goal they aim at; their standard of life is indefinite; consequently their Karma operates in a confused manner. But when once the threshold of knowledge is reached, the confusion begins to lessen, and consequently the Karmic results increase enormously, because all are acting in the same direction on all the different planes: for the one who pursues truth cannot be half-hearted, nor can they return when they have passed the threshold.

These things are as impossible as that the adult should become the child again. The individuality has approached the state of responsibility by reason of growth; it cannot recede from it."

Since life, realization, and our sense of purpose keeps expanding into the future in alignment with our intention and abilities, then from time to time it’s helpful to examine what is no longer true, good, or useful in our lives, and gracefully move out of old habits and ways of living, feeling, and thinking into new potentials. This is especially necessary when our lives are fragmenting, or a chapter is ending. These are the times when our focus can bring forth new growth by turning from the old to the new. While honoring the endings, we must also remember to embrace the beginnings.

Once we are spiritual adults, we find ourselves naturally setting aside the shallow or disconnected realizations of our spiritual childhood and adolescence, or at the very least, see how they are a small part of our ongoing process of Self-realization. The lesser must always give way to the greater, and our growth is infinite and eternal. That’s why we have nothing to fear from the voids, or any sense of “not knowing.” These forms of “emptiness,” which show us a new potential, will always be filled.

The voids created by the passing of old parts of the life enable us to attract more fulfilling experiences than we've known before that time. These are the times to shape our attraction in the form of our heart's desire, without being distracted by old echoes of perceptions of memories of perceptions of memories of perceptions of memories of...