January 15, 2001

• Growth of the soul

• The importance of silence

All of your guides join you as you explore what seems to be the great mystery that surrounds you in what is referred to as your spirit, your soul. We say it is a mystery because you cannot see it, feel it, touch it. Your senses are of no value in observing your own soul as an entity, but truly, there is for each of you no mystery about the existence of your souls. For though your senses do not detect this eternal entity identified with you, you are still, at some level, aware of its true reality.

Your souls exist. You are as they are. If your soul is energized, you become energized. If your soul is weary, you too, feel that weariness. When you feel the electric energy of great joy, it is your soul that leaps with such ecstasy. You are aware of the existence of your soul, but you do not see it, touch it, feel it, smell it. You know it is there. At times, you know that God exists. We say “at times” because too often you go through life without acknowledging the existence of God.

You know you have a soul when you can feel immediately connected to another whom you don’t really know. What joins this relationship of connectedness together? It can only be through the common shared experiences of the souls. So although you do not have direct physical contact with your soul, you know by circumstance that the soul is present.

We wish to speak with you about growth—not about your physical growth, but the development of your soul. All souls began from a common point, namely the totality of God. Because all souls come from the same source, all souls are equal. But as your souls evolve from their common origin, they must develop. That development is dependent a great deal on human life occupation—occupying the physical body and experiencing what the physical body experiences. As a result of the human experience, souls always grow.

What is it we mean by a soul growing? We refer to it so often, and yet it has never been clearly explained. Your souls grow through the evolution of their God- directed vision. In a sense, you grow as a result of what you experience. Much of what you experience is, for many people, visual. There is a sense of similarity with your spiritual growth. Your souls grow, not by seeing, but by experiencing. If you want to experience compassion, you must first have experienced suffering. There is no compassion without the companion experience of suffering. You cannot experience happiness unless you know sadness. There is no way to understand the concept of a long period of time if you have never experienced a short period of time within the same contextual boundaries.

Souls do grow, they do evolve, they do learn. They learn what it means to be loving. They learn the power of compassion through suffering. They learn what it means to be patient because they have experienced impatience. They learn what it means to be supportive only because they have experienced abandonment. Souls learn to think of others, to be generous, to be thoughtful because they have experienced the negative sides of these concepts.

But how does a soul grow? How’s a soul given an opportunity to experience sadness in order to understand the gift of joy? The soul experiences these actions, these events, and emotions of life through the experience of human life. Your soul grows because your soul occupies a physical presence and is thereby impacted by that presence. Suffering and its accompanying need for support can only be exercised in an environment that recognizes what suffering is. A soul that has not experienced the challenge of life cannot serve as a guide for those who are currently experiencing life. It is the human experience that, in many ways, is the most profound teacher of the spirit. The church is not just a matter of explaining what spiritual life comprises. The church, for many, provides an opportunity for experiencing directly and indirectly the impact of sickness, of suffering, of pain, of anxiety, of fear. By your experiencing these feelings, you’re providing a framework upon which your soul develops most stunningly.

Your souls have chosen you. You do not choose your soul. When you begin your physical life, your soul is there. And much of your development, physically, mentally, is the result of the presence of your guides. Human life is the great teacher for the soul. The soul grows because it experiences a physical, temporal life. It is the goal of growth that dominates the experience of spiritual life. Your soul broadens through its efforts to connect to your own achievements and failings. Nevertheless, you grow.

You make mistakes in life…your soul grows. You have the audacity to deny God…your soul grows. You turn your back on your neighbor…your soul grows. You commit a terrible crime against your own society…your soul grows. You devote your lives to meditation and loving prayer…your soul grows. You devote your life to others, and your soul grows. Growth, you see, is experienced everywhere that life exists. There is nothing at all that you can do to prevent that growth.

Why then, you may ask, is it so important to live a godly life as you currently perceive it to be if regardless of the type of life you lead, your soul continues to grow? The answer is that a godly life enhances the growth; an ungodly life inhibits it. This does not mean that an ungodly life stops growth. It is only that such life grows slower in your sense of time. In the end, your soul grows regardless. Why should you bother to live that godly life? You live a godly life because it enhances the evolution of your soul, and such a life enhances the evolution of all souls which come in contact with a godly life. The good life brings goodness to others. Your soul grows as it expands constantly outward. Your lives are given meaning because of the experiences that contribute to that growth. A life characterized by compassion, patience, and love is a unique life. It is not a better life than one surrounded by poverty and inner pain. These two lives are of course very different, but they both hold within them seeds for spiritual growth.

We work for your growth, but how can you work for ours? Most importantly, what helps our spiritual growth to continue in this plane of existence is for each of you to allow time in your lives, whenever that may be, to just be. Take away agendas, take away expectations, take away whatever artificial requirements, specifications you feel are essential to life. Ultimately you come to the core of what really is important. By being open to the core, by suspending thoughts, by suspending concerns, by suspending the feelings of joy as well as sadness, you are actually becoming fully open, a vessel as it were, that allows growth, your growth, your spiritual growth to be enhanced.

Your soul grows through your prayers, but your soul grows most profoundly in your silence. Allow for total silence in your life. You will become fully aware of your own spiritual growth in those moments. There is a magnificent hugeness to silence. When it is truly silent, when there are no sounds of the human condition, no voices, no automobiles, no music, nothing, the vastness of that silence brings you face to face with God.

It is important therefore, for the growth of your spirit, to seek opportunities for complete and total silence. You cannot achieve this state every day. If you think about it for a moment, you will realize how difficult it is to be absolutely in silence, for you are surrounded by the sounds of humanity and all that humanity has produced. Getting away from all sounds is very difficult, but search out ways when you are separate from the sounds of humanity. You may be successful when all you hear are the sounds of nature. It may be sounds from a brook, sounds from the wind, from the birds, from the surf. Do whatever it takes to eliminate the sounds of humanity, and you will suddenly be aware of God in a manner never before experienced. Your soul will leap in ecstasy. You will become fully aware of your spirit. You will know, without a doubt, the strength of your soul.

God speaks to us. God speaks to our spirits in the silence of creation, in the silence of nature, in the silence of rest and relaxation. Although God’s voice dominates all that has been created, it cannot be heard in the noise of conversation. It cannot be heard with the noise of machines. It can only be heard in silence. You may feel that you sense God’s presence when you listen to music or see beautiful paintings. It is not so much that you hear God in those moments, but that you are reminded of God in those moments. That is, of course, an important influence not to be cast away from your lives. But it is most powerfully felt as a spiritual presence when you find yourselves removed from the clutter that is associated with everyday life.

Your souls grow no matter what. They grow in noise and they grow in silence, but you become aware of their growth, the direction of their growth which is toward God, when it is quiet. Your souls need the human experience to grow, but you need the experience of silence in order to recognize that growth and to recognize the purpose toward which all living things grow. God’s presence is a part of all that is created, manmade or not, but your vision of God’s presence can be best sharpened when you remember these concepts. Welcome all that life offers you. Welcome the opportunity for your souls to grow. Welcome your experience of that growth. Welcome the vision you get of God in your lives when you find moments to remove what is not God.

Yes, your souls chose your lives to accompany, but it is your responsibility to provide the environment most helpful for that soul. As your soul grows, you will, too. As your soul becomes deeper and more compassionate, you too, will gain in depth and compassion. As your soul increases its power to be loving, you will be more loving. As your soul overcomes concerns that give rise to negative thoughts, you will be stronger in your ability to handle negativism.

We bless your souls, we bless your lives, and we ask that you bless your souls, and that you acknowledge the power and ability to bless your own lives. At that point, your soul’s growth and your growth will be united permanently. It is a magnificent goal, one not easily reached, but one that we pray may be your reward for efforts, that God’s peace may really become your peace, that God’s love may really become your love, that God’s compassion, your compassion and God’s light, your light for the world.

Amen.