Merit vs Need of the Time

In the West, we see progress as based on merit. We see someone accomplished as having deserved it. It feels disheartening when our efforts don’t pan out. We feel it unjust when connections, rather than accomplishments, lead to someone’s promotion. We want our efforts to count. And we see ourselves as less than if we’ve not “measured up.”

We can then unintentionally apply this to spirituality. We can be motivated to regular spiritual practice so we “deserve” results. Awake people must have “deserved” their “accomplishment.” However, our spiritual arc runs on a much larger scale.

First, we don’t awaken. We awaken From the me. So it’s not a personal accomplishment, and it does not reflect personal development very well. This is why I’ve highlighted articles like The Humanity of a Teacher. We can be awake while still messed up as a human. We’re all a work in progress.

Second, prior life development can have an enormous impact on current unfolding. Not simply our last life, but our overall process. Sometimes you see someone spending several lifetimes working through difficult karma, only to emerge like a butterfly.

There is also the influence of the current time. For most of my generation, it took decades of practice to prepare the ground. But this isn’t personal. Awakening is collective. We prepared the ground collectively. Now it’s become much easier to awaken for everyone.

There is a willingness required as well. Willingness to see our shadows. Willingness to let go of our identity. Willingness to change.

And finally, there is the need of the time. We could say the need of the devas or the Divine to evolve things along. For example, when I first wrote Our Natural Potential, I could only use quotes for Pure Divinity, spoken by the rare few I knew there. That stage had not yet unfolded here. But there was a need for the book in the collective. People unfolding without a map. That helped push along the unfolding here. Also, I was given a vision of its sub-stages ahead of my own progress. Now there are many more who have shifted. 

Similarly, when I was young, I had experiences unfold that were symptoms of higher stages that I was not living. It later became clear that this was because of the need of the time. I was being guided through the experiences. It wasn’t yet time to share them, but it was a preparation for when it was. It was long-term training. Not because I “deserved” it, but because the collective needed it.

Being “ahead” or “behind” is entirely relative, an effect of time. When we’re ten and we meet someone who’s 6, there seems a big difference. But when we’re 40 and meet someone 44, the difference seems much smaller in a larger scale of time.

The enlightened are valuable to the collective as they raise consciousness for everyone. Enough of them, and we’ll all live a much higher quality of life. They deserve support but not to be put on a pedestal. That’s unhealthy for everyone. Their “accomplishment” is the birthright of all. It will unfold in the right time for the whole.
Davidya