To gain spiritual enlightenment one must find a means to liberate or free the consciousness from its restricting and binding force. The force of nature is to keep us bound. The more we become addicted to the false glamour of matter, the greater becomes the bondage. No two people respond to anything in life to the same degree. So, no two people are attracted to or stuck to matter to the same degree; some more, some less. However, all do become stuck. After many ages we have come to a place in evolution where the issue is to become liberated; we come to a point of recognition when we realize that there must be some means whereby we can unlock our chains and become free. So many ways and means and diverse paths are offered as solutions to free us from our chains; some good, many, however, not so good.

The chains are representative of the wheel of birth and death; the wheel that has twelve signs or segments that are also known as the twelve labors of the soul. Each segment or sign presents numerous and definite lessons for us to learn and master, both as a male and as a female. The lessons presented in each sign become more difficult as one continues to grow in consciousness, or as one evolves. However, no human is ever given a lesson in life greater than his ability to master the lesson. So, excuses for failure are not too valid.

Obviously no individual could in one cycle of the wheel master the numerous lessons of the wheel. One turn of the wheel equals twenty-five thousand years. So, around and around we go. This is why it is said that evolution is ever so slow. It takes a long time to learn all that is necessary to be learned, and then through experience and knowledge to learn to balance ourselves in the school of life.

The ego, or lower self, continues to learn and experience age upon age under all types of circumstances and conditions of life. The lessons learned or virtues gained are then absorbed by the higher Self. If one lives a life where no progress is made or no lessons are learned, then the higher Self is unable to absorb anything of any value. So, this becomes a lost or wasted life. Then, in ensuing lives things become much harder because not only are we forced to keep up with our own class, so to speak, we must also make up what we previously failed to learn. This is why all spiritual masters coming to the earth delineate certain laws of living. By living the laws we smoothly progress in our evolution. By not living the laws we make the way very hard for ourselves.

So, life is hard and life is cruel as so many say, failing to recognize the fact that the life they live is of their own making. Generally people blame everyone and everything else and do not lay the blame at its true source, themselves.

The multiplicity of life is such that we have identified with numerous aspects of the external; such as the physical body, the astral body, the emotions, the senses, the intellect, various temporary conditions, roles being played, and so forth. All tendencies up to this point taken together represent much distortion which has set up a vicious cycle that has hindered the expression of higher consciousness through the lower physical vehicle.

When we reach a certain point of development we slowly begin to shift our consciousness inward, toward the center of reality. Until that point we have been identifying with that which is external and has no lasting substance. In doing this we have kept ourselves securely bound to the outer limits of the wheel. In order to spin off the wheel we have to reverse ourselves on the wheel. We have to begin to focus our attention on the internal and gradually phase away from the external. In so doing we learn that the external aspect of human life is that which is not a part of our real Self.

We have to move from the known toward that which is unknown and we do this through Transcendental Meditation. In this internal spiritual practice, as the Being begins to overshadow everything of a material nature, we automatically and gradually eliminate all of the delusions and the abnormalities that exist in the mind. Then what reflects is pure consciousness. A radical physical wrenching away from material life is not necessary and is generally impossible anyway. Instead, through Transcendental Meditation the gradual process of the subtle infusion of the Being into the mind and the body takes care of everything. As a result our lives take on a new meaning.

Through the continued daily practice of Transcendental Meditation we become more and more an instrument through which action is being done. We become agents of the highest power that now works through us. As we express more and more of the Being (the eternal, the essence, the oneness) we find that the ego has now vanished in our daily activity. In its place stands the real and true Self. Not only has the ego gone, but the wheel and chains have also dropped away. Our actions in life no longer bind us. We are now free and we now know that God is both personal and impersonal, and while for so many ages we have believed we were victims of life, we now know that we are masters of life. We have earned our eternal status.