INTRODUCTION

Every individual has the potential to evolve into the highest understanding and perfect expression of spiritual knowledge.   In order to develop that increasing enlightenment, we must have access to the knowledge; and we must have an environment in which to practice or express the knowledge that we gain from point to point in our development.  The knowledge accumulates as one increases in: Awareness, Understanding and Spiritual Characteristics.  The Awareness is to witness of “what is”.  The Understanding is gradual realization of how the laws, the powers and the qualities all work together inside the mind as well as outside the mind.  The Character is gradual development and habitual expression of the abstract qualities of Divine Intelligence.

We will use the words “God”, “Creator”, or “Divine Mind” to refer to the original conscious creative Being in which everything else exists.  God created individual souls .  And God created in mind a plan for guiding and assisting individual souls (his creation also)  to evolve into the highest possible degree of wisdom, love and creativity but only to the degree that we pursue the potential.  We are calling that plan  for our development“The Divine Plan”.  But the Divine Plan is not limited to the potential for individual soul evolution.  It is a 2 part Plan that ends with the fulfillment of God’s Purpose for having created us and the potential.   We will be referring to that end result of the Plan as “The Purpose”.  The Purpose is held as an image in Divine Mind that can be discovered and seen.   

Evolution of individual consciousness into complete enlightenment is an individual journey that takes the mind through various stages of human consciousness.  That brings us into the potential for developing through various stages of spiritual consciousness.  It is a long process that requires proactive effort based on interest in the spiritual quest and many incarnations to accomplish.  The journey is joyful at times, painful at times, but always an adventure.   The greatest joy is in discovering “jewels” of truth and the pain is in trying to apply that truth in the environment.   Learning to adapt to change peacefully is a part of the process, and we have ample opportunity for that.

 As we proceed, we become conscious of the changes within ourselves.  At the same time we are conscious of our environment, ourselves interacting with our environment and  others in the environment and of the events and experiences that we encounter.    Often those events present new information or problems to solve and that in turn might result in a change of perception within us.  We will refer to the inner changes as “Paradigm Shifts”.    When one becomes conscious of his or her inner environment of thought, feelings and beliefs that  changes that occur in those, that one is said to be self-aware or “awake”.  This is the beginning of the power to make choices through conscious reasoning rather than simply to be a slave to one’s emotions.    The beginning of “spiritual enlightenment” for an individual is  when that one becomes subjectively conscious of the  program of spiritual knowledge that our Creator implanted within  his/her own mind.   Pursuing and applying that inner spiritual knowledge can lead to the threshold of Bliss Consciousness.   In our study we will examine how that personal awareness is gained and the keys to increasing it.     When one has evolved through the first three stages of spiritual enlightenment a choice becomes evident.  Depending on the choice selected, that soul will have opportunity to continue evolving through 9 additional stages of even higher knowledge, understanding.     After having advanced through those 9 additional stages of spiritual mastery, one’s highest spiritual potential has been completed.  Even so, the application is ongoing and must take place in whatever environment the spiritual master is inhabiting, whether earthly or not.  This is not a claim that every soul will elect the option to proceed in development beyond the third stage of enlightenment which is Nirvana or Bliss Consciousness.   Most will stop their development there because of the sheer beauty and freedom of living in the Nirvana Consciousness.  In fact many will never even proceed to the point of Nirvana because of the difficulty and choices that must be made along the way.  

To learn, to become, and to express as a unique living example of the ideal that God holds in mind is the goal of our proactive development toward complete enlightenment.  That is the first phase of the Creator’s Divine Plan.   The second phase of the Creator’s Divine Plan will not be accomplished until this universe ends.  This universe was created to serve as an environment for our development/learning/practice process.  When this universe ends the opportunity for evolving into higher consciousness will end and every individual soul will live out eternity in a specified dimension of a 2^nd universe, happily practicing the limited or complete knowledge it has gained and understood.   In the 2^nd phase of the Plan, eternal happiness and fulfillment for every soul is assured regardless of its stage of development when the new universe becomes activated .  This is a no fault plan and those who have not attained the highest enlightenment will be perfectly content in the environment and practice and experience of what they did attain in awareness, character and understanding.  They will live eternally among those who have the same values and the same understanding.  Until that time the soul is restless, urged by the Holy Spirit to seek more knowledge of truth and ultimate reality.  Due to that urge to evolve, whether subtle or a raging hunger in the soul, sustained fulfillment and a constant level of happiness is elusive.   

There are two coexisting Universes created by God and held in Divine Mind.  The one we currently inhabit is active due to the unconscious life force that God has infused into it.  That life force cycles perpetually through the universe to sustain it as a habitat for souls.  The other universe is dormant.  It is merely a vision held in Divine Mind, to be activated after the first stage of God’s Plan has been fulfilled.   The first stage is our opportunity to evolve and some will attain to the highest possible degree, others will not.  We are active as souls due to the eternal life force that God has infused into us.   Life force is the activating energy.  The eternal life force is conscious, the temporal life force is not.   The eternal life force we will refer to as “Divine Life Force” (activating energy) and the temporal life force we will refer to as “Universal or Vital Life Force” (activating energy).  Again, there is no life force at all in the 2^nd universe as yet.  It is a dormant image in the mind of God.  But, as long as this universe exists, there will be continuous opportunity for souls to evolve in consciousness, in understanding, in the qualities of Divine Spirit and demonstration of that knowing in the way we live.

 God created this universe as a training environment for the purpose of our development, and infused it with creative laws of action, the unconscious vital life force and vibrations of the spiritual ideals.  A Plan is a procedure or method—the “how to”-- by which a goal might be achieved, and a goal is a step toward fulfilling a purpose held in the mind of the creator of the plan.  God holds in mind the purpose for the Divine Plan.  It can be discovered and understood.  This Divine Plan and Purpose were revealed during meditations to the author of the Keys to Enlightenment Program.  Some time later her soul was taken out of body into a dimension that permitted her to view the dormant universe in all its spectacular beauty and pristine stillness.  That is all that will be said about the 2^nd universe.  It is lovely information but useless to soul’s in the current universe who are seeking to become all we can be as citizens of this universe as well as future citizens of the 2^nd universe.

In Lesson 2 we will examine God’s Plan for our opportunity to accomplish the goal of soul evolution.