Spiritual Training Wheels

 

In my opinion, there is nothing more important than our soul development, for our soul is the only aspect of this mortal realm that we take with us when we journey to the next realm.

This is a bit of a playful analogy, yet quite enlightening for a maturing mind  … we are all children, after all.

Remember your training wheels and how you loved them when you first got them? How proud you were of them? You thought you hit the big time. In a sense you did, they gave you experiences of growth and achievement, and they trained you for the next phase, a bicycle, which opened up a whole new world of possibilities. But what was once the greatest thing in the world, in time became a limitation. You were ready to take them off and ride like the big kids as they zipped around the neighborhood in an even greater freedom.

Religions, their labels of personal identification, and their manuscripts that identify their belief structures, like Christianity, Christian, and the Bible or Islam, Muslims, and Qur’an, can serve as our training wheels in our soul’s development. I say “can” because we can possess them but not grow through them, like letting our training wheels gather cobwebs in the garage, or trying them out a little here and a little there, but not going very far. But if we really use those training wheels, in time we experience their limitations and move onto the next stage. In case your wondering, my particular wheels were Christianity, Christian, and the Bible.

As our souls develop, we lose our dependency on training wheels. We are naturally loosed from these spiritual attachments that we once “couldn’t live without” because they prohibit the needed expansion of truth that an advancing soul requires. They don’t allow us to go into truth where we need to go and in the way that we need to go. Thus, we transition from a system without to the Spirit within telling us what our truth is and who we are. And in letting go, we simply are who we are, no more labels. In the transition to the next stage we experience an immense exploration as we learn from anything and everything, thus extreme growth. Yet, like our training wheels, it can be a bit fearful at first because we think we lack support, but we discover a greater support flowing from within that not only gives us what we need but also allows us to go and do what we couldn’t before.

A defined religion is by its very nature is full of boundaries and limitations, for its particular limitations and boundaries are what make it that particular religion. As we grow, we discover that beliefs aren’t meant to be concrete and static, but rather flow in an evolving rhythm. Like our training wheels coming off, our spirit out grows the confines of concepts sown in a finite understanding. Though our understanding is always finite, it is expandable and if it isn’t expanding we aren’t growing. To grow we need to allow our awareness and understanding to grow. Thus, we are loosed from foundations of belief defined by the outside and our foundation becomes the immortal Spirit of truth and love. This Spirit carries and supports us forward upon our soul’s journey. In this transition, our beliefs become living because they are no longer confined to static formulations. By their growth, they advance our soul toward an immortal state, which is of a continual expansion.

In our spiritual youth, we cling to our wheels very tightly because they are our points of references for truth, which form our foundation of truth in which we find stability. They serve to anchor our wayward minds bumbling around in the darkness. Like our training wheels, they stabilize us in the whirlwinds of relative truths that lack a common point of reference. But we aren’t meant to keep them. They are only meant to be an assistance to our soul journey, not the goal or end of our soul journey. In time, we learn to trust the Spirit of Truth, our new point of reference, and let this Spirit that extends from our Creator guide and lead us. Thus, he alone becomes our foundation, and with his breath of life leading us as he wills, our souls travel to new places of truth that expand our awareness and enable us to continue to change into his likeness; one of a simplicity and purity of truth and love. We need nothing to “identify” us, we simply are who we are of his reflection. When we feel “ready”, we let go of the training wheels and we find new experiences awaiting us. When the Spirit is our foundation, anything and everything is used for our continued growth and expansion. For those not yet free of their training wheels, it’s hard to understand how one can function without them. We only truly understand once we do it ourselves.

Some may ask, how will people know what we believe? How they always know, by our life. Our life reflects our truth. It is and always has been our greatest testimony because it is the most honest reflection of our truth.

This transition deepens our relationship to our teachers, like Jesus Christ and others. We’ve learned to be taught by the Spirit of truth that was their source of enlightenment. Thus, our transition from the static to the dynamic actually draws us in closer relation to them because we are attached and growing by the same Source. Thus, we find even a greater connection and communion with them. This transition is the movement toward what they desired us to learn; we are to become one with the Source of life by allowing his spirit of truth and love to govern us from within.

Some of us go through several pairs of training wheels of different types. Some use them longer than others. It all depends on our purpose and rate of development. We don’t judge our training experience, but if you are still using them, know that there is more, much more that is only truly discovered by trying to ride without them, which you will do when you are ready.

~ Looking from my perspective, and given in grace.