It is almost useless to commit to a spiritual path unless you have understood just how tough a human’s lower nature is, how hard it is to tame and just how much work is required, needing vigilance, humility and perseverance. Far too many people imagine that the moment they find a spiritual teaching, their transformation will be rapid. Unfortunately, no: mastery of the psychic life is so much more difficult than people think! It’s true that every human being has the capacity for renewal and regeneration and to become divine, but it is a very slow process, and what someone can achieve in this lifetime depends on the work already begun in previous incarnations.

For those who are unaware of the difficulties they are inevitably going to encounter in spiritual life, making progress is impossible. They will suffer and make others suffer too. Commitment to a spiritual path requires one to be totally lucid about oneself.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
Izvor Book 213, Man’s Two Natures, Human & Divine,
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