The dilemma of spiritual growth

Spiritual growth and advancement must occur in the wake of pushing oneself forward and no simple cause and effect or linear progression can measure its hopeful and beneficial outcome.We become " a new person" that can be forever changed if we continuously climb onward as on a ladder or regress back to the vomit whence we came. Indicators, many of them ambiguous appear in the realm of synchronicity or synchronous events (possibly?) as was posited by Carl Jung.There is no clearly defined course in this sometimes nebulous undertaking and mid shades of grey and blurrings can abound. We must be our taskmaster of ourselves to push forward, and pay a somewhat steep cost. The last quote from the email article is profound in that we latch onto a circle and hopefully spiral upwards. Often there will be no discernible gains and then one day the student of growth will experience an awakening into a new consciousness. I am certain this has a relation to Ha Gilgul Ibbur, soul attachment I referred to in a former post. I will expand on that notion in succeeding posts.

And this, of course, introduces us to the true dilemma of spiritual growth.
There is no simple cause-and-effect process. One has to work, to push himself in
the necessary directions without noticing any discernible gains. (How does
learning some obscure laws of leprous houses or of Temple meal offerings make me
a greater human being?) And eventually he will find that he has become a
different person. An old friend of mine once repeated to me what his karate
teacher told him: "For the longest time you will run drills and practice moves
feeling like it's just a bunch of forced motions. Then one day you will wake up
a karateka."

When we advance spiritually, we're attempting to penetrate something deeper than our bodies or minds. We are trying to get in touch with our very souls, that hidden piece of G-dliness within ourselves. And there is no direct route. When it comes to spiritual growth, there is no start, finish, or clearly-defined course of action. We latch onto a circle -- at one of its infinite points -- and begin to spiral upwards.