For those of us on a Spiritual Path, learning lessons to aid our Spiritual Growth are a daily occurrence. But in the school of life, who is the teacher?
Lessons to help us interact with our environments occur continually. How we greet our neighbors, treat our work colleagues, relate to our families, and most importantly, how we think of ourselves are the real spiritual tests.
Turning up to a spiritual circle once a week is not enough to say you are doing all you can. It's a good start, but clearing karmic baggage is an ever present task.
It is believed by spiritualists that we have signed a soul agreement before our incarnation. In this agreement, it is supposed that we have primary lessons we need to address, in order to advance our souls progression from darkness to light. The life we choose to be born into present us with the opportunities to face these exact situations.
These karmic lessons are based on principles such as compassion, trust, love and belief.
For those who feel they are trapped in a continual cycle of recurring situations, such as poverty, abuse or loneliness, it is supposed that the person is not dealing with the stimulus in a way that demonstrates they have indeed learnt the lesson the situation presents.
Karma is not about living the punishment for the wrongs of previous existences. It is about learning the lessons we have previously failed.
For example, if in a previous incarnation you held a position of wealth and power, and spent frugally for personal gratification while those around you suffered the consequences of poverty, it may well be assumed that a new life in which fortune evades you, is for you to experience the same situation from the different perspective. The lessons would be respect for things of value - and sharing for the greater good. Could this lesson be really understood without truly experiencing poverty?
Life lessons are continual. Reminders can come from a passing conversation, a song you hear on the radio, the people you meet, and the vocations you are drawn to or avoid.
Spiritualists, as a group of people, have never before had such means of open communication. Spiritual websites are now commonplace and give a community of belonging to a group that has suffered a horrific past at the hands of those in power throughout the ages. Where religious groups throughout the ages have governed with dogmatic lessons not to be questioned - the nature of the spiritualist is to explore the unknown and question all that is placed before them.
The great witch hunts of the Dark Ages is an example of a tyranny that forced spiritualists underground. Meditation websites provide opportunity for the sharing of ideas and support from those with similar values.
It is important to be aware of every situation we face during our day to day, but equally important to view it with the souls perspective of eternal life. Lessons are all around us. Not a forward step can be placed on a spiritual path without finding one.
Nigel Coates is the moderator of Explore Meditation, and has written several Spiritual Stories with lessons for better living.