SHUIS AUABERK

The first obstacle to spiritual development is the overcoming of egotism. And much of this egotism operates unconsciously. We are so accustomed to measuring ourselves against others that even our spiritual development can become an extension of our desire for superiority. We want to know more. We want to progress further. We want to be more advanced than those around us. But this attitude prevents us from developing. The development of the higher self must begin with an entirely different relationship toward our fellow human beings. We must first cultivate an infinite trust in another person when they tell us about their experiences of a higher nature. This does not mean blindly accepting everything another person claims to have experienced. It means overcoming the ego's tendency to dismiss another person's experiences simply because we have not experienced the same things ourselves. Why? Because we must learn to seek the higher self not only within ourselves, but also in other human beings. Our lower self experiences separation. It compares, distinguishes and constantly measures its position against others. But the higher self is not separate. At the level of our higher nature, the boundaries that divide us lose their ultimate significance. The higher self of another human being belongs to the same universal spiritual reality. When someone stands before us who has progressed further along the spiritual path, we must overcome the feeling that this person possesses an advantage over us. Instead, we must learn to regard that person with the same reverence with which we would regard our own highest nature. Our instinct is often to question or find reasons why another person cannot possibly know something that we do not. But spiritual development demands the opposite. Try to live yourself into this feeling until it penetrates the most intimate fibers of your soul. Until the impulse to compete with or feel inferior to another human being gradually disappears. "Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." The child possesses something that the adult often loses: the capacity for genuine veneration. Not blind obedience. Not intellectual submission. But an openness to recognize something greater than oneself, with a reverence that arises from the innermost heart. This is where spiritual development begins. Not with visions, secret knowledge or the desire to acquire supernatural abilities. But with a transformation of our relationship toward other human beings. The overcoming of egotism. The cultivation of trust. And the rediscovery of reverence. The greatest obstacle to finding our higher self is our inability to recognize it in others.