Each Spirit achieves successive degrees of goodness and wisdom along
its evolution. Considering that all Spirits are created simple and
ignorant, they must have at the beginning of their path a zero degree
of wisdom and a zero degree of goodness.
We
can consider the goodness component of evolution to be divided in some
initial stages, each of them associated to a certain understanding of
love or reverence for life. Exactly as happens with wisdom, evolution
in goodness is cumulative, each stage including all the previous ones.
During
the first stage, the Spirit only knows how to love itself, how to be
good to itself, how to care for its own life when incarnate. This is
the stage when selfishness develops. The second stage begins when the
Spirit learns to love other Spirits that are associated to it in a
family when incarnated. In the second stage the Spirit develops the
concepts of pride and ownership. It loves ITS family when incarnate and
it is only good to ITS family members. It has pride of ITS family; it
has pride of ITS ancestry. The development both of pride and ownership
is not limited to other incarnate Spirits; it also spreads to both
material things and abstractions. A Spirit in this evoltion stage loves
ITS home, ITS clothes, ITS car, and also, ITS football team, ITS
political party, ITS race, ITS religion, ITS spiritual path and so on.
The third stage of evolution in goodness begins when the Spirit
succeeds in detaching from selfishness, pride and ownership, when it
realizes that everything and everyone belongs to God. The Spirit then
knows that it is only the care keeper and not the owner of either
things or beings A Spirit dwelling in the third stage loves all other
Spirits, no matter which sex, skin color, religion they have nor which
soccer team they support when incarnate. The fourth stage is a sort of
natural outcome of the third one. When the Spirit learns to love all
mankind it very easily evolves to love all Creation.
Unfortunately,
most of the Spirits that incarnate on Earth nowadays are still dwelling
in the aforementioned second stage of evolution in goodness. They
believe that THEIRS is the only acceptable good race, the only
acceptable skin color, the only good acceptable country, and the only
acceptable religion. They believe THEIR master is the only acceptable
master and that THEIR spiritual path is the only acceptable spiritual
path.
As
a Spiritist, I accept Jesus Christ as the most advanced Spirit that has
ever incarnated on Earth. Yet, I also accept that other superior
Spirits must have incarnated in other times and within other races all
along the human history. Therefore, I have to accept the fact that a
Buddhist accepts the Buddha as the most advanced Spirit that has ever
incarnated on Earth, that a Muslim accepts Mohammed as so, an Hindu,
Krishna and so on.
When
I say my religion is the best one and not the only acceptable one, or
when I say the spiritual path I have chosen is the best one and not the
only acceptable one, I am only being rational and coherent. If I knew
of a better religion, I should have chosen that other one instead of
the one I've chosen. If I learn there is a better path, I must take the
better path instead of the one I am on.
My
conclusion therefore is that there are infinite paths to evolution,
each of them being the most adequate for each of us in a certain moment
of our evolution. To each position in the evolution map corresponds a
best spiritual path to take. A Spirit that has already learned how to
meditate and how to aim its attention inwards, for example, may need to
choose the Spiritist path in order to learn how to practice charity and
help its neighbors. A Spirit that has already learned how to practice
charity, on the other hand, may yet need to learn how to meditate and
focus its attention inwards in order to evolve in wisdom. So Zen
Buddhism may be a good choice for it.
The
reason for my commenting the existence of many paths to one goal is
that, although I am a Spiritist, believe in reincarnation and believe
that Jesus Christ and many of the prophets taught reincarnation, I also
accept that those that do not believe in reincarnation may be just
taking the spiritual path that is best suited to them. And being so,
they have no need to change in this life. If they need to change in a
future life their guides will provide that they are born in conditions
such that will be appropriate to such a change. By the way that’s
exactly what will happen to me if my guides realize that another
religion will be a better choice for me to learn something important
that I’m failing to learn being a Spiritist. Not because the lesson
isn't available in the Spiritst Doctrine, of course, but because my
ignorance doesn't allow me to learn it by the available method.
Were it differently there wouldn't be so many religions on Earth not to
say the so many true saints in each of them.
February
5, 2001