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As to the idea of stages or growth, many spiritual writes deny any such. They propose some sudden leap into Spirit. Yet, in reading them, I find them inconsistent in this idea, for they tend to claim this directness but speak of means to attain it, and while denying that one needs any practice.
Why progress? Life, as nature, manifests developmentally and by hierarchy of being: simply, a beginning pianist playing the piano is not the same in degree as a concert pianist playing the piano, and an acorn is a lesser whole developmentally than the tree from which it came and the tree it may become. So, while all in nature is whole unto itself, as the acorn is a whole, the lesser whole forms larger wholes. The beginning pianist may become, in time, a concert pianist. As long as we are in the body, growth is a principle from body to Spirit, and this growth is developmental, even if not consistently in a straight line, so to speak. Even in Spirit, we cannot logically deny a deepening experience of what Spirit is. All this means spirit or Spirit is whole, while the bringing of the totality of body and mind into that wholeness beyond body and mind is a work in progress and happening in space and time.
To mistake the end as being without a journey, meaning we do not take the journey at all, is a mistake of interpreting the whole path from only the end of the path ~ if there is an end, for the end may develop infinitely: we do not know. But the end is arrived at through progress on a path, we cannot leap over essential aspects of growth anymore than a human being can leap and dance without learning to sit up and, then, crawl. This developmental principle is why many Buddhists say there are two shores and when you get to the opposite shore, then you see there is only one shore. So, one is enlightened when seeing only one shore, or seeing oneness. We do not realize the one shore without the journey to the other shore. We are at a loss if eliminating the relative in some premature embrace of the Absolute. We cannot escape the discipline and work of the path, and if we could simply leap into Spirit, we would not be prepared for that. The journey prepares us for what already, always, is. As Buddhists say, "Not one, not two," and we live in that mystery of the unity of the relative and Absolute.
Progress becomes less and less in awareness along the path, until progress is no longer represented in the body and mind; that is, the thought of progress drops. Here, one rests and lives from Grace, rather than any idea of living toward Grace. This dropping of the idea of progress happens naturally, and one is wise not to try to be a spiritual hero and try to drop it before it simply drops of itself. Live with the idea of progress until you can no longer live with the idea in peace, then drop it. Even if progress is occurring, you are no longer living with the need to hold to any idea of progress.
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