Neale Donald Walsch answers a viewer question about measuring spiritual growth. He argues spiritual growth is measured by how little a person needs to be happy — the fewer material desires and negative thoughts one requires, the more spiritually advanced they are. As one becomes the source of joy, happiness expands while personal needs decrease.
Chapters
So here's a very interesting question from Ann Barr. And Ann asks really simply, how do you measure spiritual growth? By how little you need. By how little you imagine yourself to require. To be totally, perfectly and wonderfully joyous. How happy, fulfilling, and to be the source. You measure your spiritual growth by how few negative thoughts pass through your mind. A person who's spiritually awake never has another negative thought. They never have another moment of inner desire for something they think without which they can't be happy. We measure our spiritual growth by how much of our life is turned toward the real purpose and the real agenda of the soul. You know, life is not about get the guy, get the girl, get the car, get the job, get the house, get the better car, get the better job, get the better house, get the spouse, get the better spouse, get the better spouse, get the better spouse, get the kids, get the grandkids, get the office in the corner with the name on the door, get the big business successful. And then finally get the gray hair, get the sickness and get the hell out. That's not what life is about. So what you discover. You can measure your spiritual growth by noticing how the distance that you have placed between the you you are today and all those things that I've just mentioned, and by measuring how little it takes. This is really my answer. I'll give you the answer in one sentence. You want to know how to measure your spiritual growth, how to measure your spiritual evolution and your spiritual advancement? You can measure your spiritual growth by noticing how little it takes for you to be happy when your happiness expands in direct reverse proportion to what it takes to make you happy. See, when it takes virtually nothing for you to be happy, and then you become the source of happiness and joy and wonder at peace and prosperity and abundance and love in the lives of everyone else because you no longer need all this stuff you thought you needed in order to be happy. So you know how I measure my spiritual growth? I noticed that less and less every day, less and less is required by me to be the thing that I call joyous, peaceful and happy. So there's a direct inverse ratio. Little is needed, Much is. Much is available to us to give to others. So I, you know, that's how I. That's how I measure my. My. My spiritual growth. How little is necessary? How little does it take? What little does it take for me to be totally happy, totally joyous, totally fulfilled, and totally one.
