Thanks for the clarification Bonita…not sure I understand…but perhaps evil is actualized temporally to fade into the oblivion of non-existence due to not being reality-related in any eternal value or meaning? I recall that the sin and the sinner are distinct one from another, but the sinner is inherently affected/infected by their own error even by such a distinction…so long as the repercussions are embraced, the evil remains actual?
100:1.7 (1095.2) Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a personal experience which grows proportionally to the growing quest for final values. Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of meanings and the ever-expanding elevation of values. But nobility itself is always an unconscious growth.
Me: This quote really helped me long ago to understand that there is only one true religion – the one lived by each of us – both within and as we walk by. This truth has led to many very interesting discussions with other religionists – and those who claim to not be religious – in helping break down institutionalized differences which tend to categorize and isolate religionists one from another. This is, apparently, a near universal belief….no true religion can be defined by beliefs, creeds, doctrines, and ceremonies but only by the individual’s experience and personal expression of the Light Within. I think this truth is spoken to every mind by the Son’s Spirit….and many have heard it.
Next quotes:
100:1.8 (1095.3) Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious.
100:1.9 (1095.4) The unconscious nature of religious growth does not, however, signify that it is an activity functioning in the supposed subconscious realms of human intellect; rather does it signify creative activities in the superconscious levels of mortal mind. The experience of the realization of the reality of unconscious religious growth is the one positive proof of the functional existence of the superconsciousness.
2. Spiritual Growth
100:2.1 (1095.5) Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance of a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one’s fellows of that which has been received from one’s spiritual benefactors. Spiritual progress is predicated on intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with the self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the desire to know God and be like him, the wholehearted purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven.
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
