Edgar Cayce on Mastering Your Spiritual Growth. Kevin J Todeschi

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       Edgar Cayce on Mastering Your

       Edgar Cayce on Mastering Your

      by Kevin J. Todeschi

      Yazdan Publishing • Virginia Beach • Virginia

      Selected Books by Kevin J. Todeschi

       Dreams, Images and Symbols

       Edgar Cayce’s ESP

       Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records

       Edgar Cayce on Mastering Your Spiritual Growth

       Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation and Family Karma

       Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates

       Edgar Cayce on the Book of Revelation

       Edgar Cayce’s Twelve Lessons in Personal Spirituality

       God In Real Life

       Fiction

       A Persian Tale

       The Reincarnation of Clara

       The Rest of the Noah Story

       To Joe and Carol, In love and appreciation for allowing me to discover that truth is a growing thing.

      Copyright © 2011

      by Kevin J. Todeschi

      Printed in the U.S.A.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or

      reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written

      permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied

      in critical articles of reviews.

      Published by:

      Yazdan Publishing

      P.O. Box 4604

      Virginia Beach, VA 23454

      [Previously published by A.R.E. Press as Edgar Cayce on Soul Growth]

      ISBN-13: 978-0-9845672-5-6

      Cover design by Richard Boyle

      Text and design layout by Cathy Merchand

      Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993-2007

      by the Edgar Cayce Foundation.

      All rights reserved.

       And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?

       It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

       Luke 13:20-21

      Table of Contents

       Preface

       1 The Edgar Cayce Material and Spiritual Growth

       2 Spiritual Growth Case Histories

       3 Spiritual Growth Through Meeting Self

       4 Spiritual Growth and Personal Loss

       5 Spiritual Growth Through Life’s Experiences

       6 The Nature of the Human Will

       7 Keys to Spiritual Growth: Ideals, Attunement, and Application

       8 Light to a Waiting World

       Conclusion

      Preface

      “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is the purpose of life?” Throughout the history of the world, questions such as these have driven every generation of humankind in search of meaning. Many have discovered partial answers in religion. Some have encountered personal revelation in philosophy. There are even those who have found clarification of their life’s purpose in psychology. Others, however, have spent a lifetime in search of answers to questions that they didn’t entirely know how to ask.

      In much of religious thought, one’s ultimate identity is connected with the soul—that portion of each individual that is believed to experience some form of eternity. Generally, it is thought that, through the evolving process of life, each individual begins to shape the “eternity” which becomes one’s destiny. In spite of the fact that some people have always maintained a narrow and exclusive look at the liberation and salvation of the soul, for many interested in spirituality, the purpose of life is much more than simply being “bad” or “good” and then receiving the corresponding punishment or reward. For example, in Hinduism there is the belief that, eventually, within each individual, the desire arises to discover an understanding of Brahma, the Creator. Although every soul is a part of Brahma, it is only as the soul ponders and experiences the knowledge of Brahma, the Supreme Universal Soul, that the individual soul gradually begins to awaken to its true selfhood. In time, the soul begins to discover the same powers and attributes within itself that belong to the Creator. The result is that the soul is released from limitation and bondage and truly becomes at one with Brahma, the Whole.

      This same idea—that we are somehow integrally connected to the Divine and are destined to become like our Creator—is found in legends, myths, and stories such as the Buddhist parable of the wealthy man and his poor son, contained in the Lotus Sutra. In the parable, a young man, apparently in search of himself, leaves his wealthy father’s home and roams the country for more than fifty years. Through the course of events, the son experiences extreme poverty and must take on meager jobs simply to pay for his next meal. During those years, the father grows old and moves to an even larger estate, still constantly grieving over the loss of his son.

      Eventually, the poor son passes by the gates of a magnificent estate. Peering inside, he can see servants taking care of an old, wealthy gentleman. Unfortunately, because the son has so lost himself, he does not recognize the man as his own father. In spite of the passage of fifty years, however, the father immediately recognizes him and sends well-dressed servants to rescue his now-grown son. Because the son does not recognize his own father, when the servants come to retrieve him, he panics and thinks he is being arrested for a crime he did not commit. It is clear that the son has forgotten his true identity. Not wanting to scare his offspring any further, the father releases his son. A plan is devised through which the son can remember his worth and grow into his inheritance.

      Two of the wealthy man’s servants dress in shabby clothes and follow after the son to offer him a lowly job on the estate, gathering sewage to make fertilizer, which the