Seven Levels of Spiritual Business

This morning, I was contemplating the mystery teachings of the seven subtle bodies, or seven stages of soul development. 

And I had an insight.

I suddenly saw how these stages could also apply to our purpose-driven business.

What if our business evolves as our consciousness evolves?

What if the questions we ask about our work reveal something about the stage of development we are moving through?

This is what came through.

1. Physical — How do I survive and provide?

The first level corresponds to the physical body and connects us very practically to the physical plane.

At this level, we are learning how to become useful in the world.

How do I find work?

How do I make money?

How do I provide for myself?

How do I meet my basic physical needs?

There is nothing wrong or unspiritual about this level. We incarnated into a physical world, after all.

We need shelter. We need food. We need resources. We need to learn how to participate in physical reality.

So the first initiation of our work may simply be:

Can I become useful enough to sustain my physical existence?

Very practical. Very objective. Very grounded.

2. Astral — What is happening energetically?

Then we begin to become aware of another dimension.

The astral body relates to emotion, desire and the energetic currents moving beneath our physical experience.

And suddenly we may become fascinated with the energetics of our business.

What karmic patterns are affecting my prosperity?

What ancestral wounds am I carrying?

What blocks my ability to receive money?

What relationship wounds prevent me from trusting support or building the right team?

Why do I keep creating the same experience even though consciously I want something different?

We begin looking beneath the visible result into the invisible pattern.

This is where healing work can become very important.

We realize:

My business has an energetic reality as well as a physical one.

3. Mental — How do I consciously create?

The third stage is the mental body.

Here we begin developing our capacity to create through thought and mind.

We may become fascinated with universal laws and ask:

How can I bring my business into harmony with the natural laws of the Universe?

We become more conscious of thought, intention, perception, and the mind's incredible creative capacity.

And this level is also beautifully strategic.

We become clearer about our message.

Our ideal client.

Our offers.

Our structures.

Our systems.

We learn to think methodically and logically about what we are creating.

This is a wonderful stage for any business or calling because inspiration begins learning how to take form.

The mind becomes an instrument of conscious creation.

4. Causal — What is my soul actually calling me toward?

And then something changes.

This is the causal level, sometimes associated with the soul.

We begin experiencing a heart awakening.

We begin feeling our Higher Self.

And what used to satisfy us may suddenly not satisfy us anymore.

Our own effort starts feeling insufficient.

The plans created entirely by the mind lose some of their fascination.

There is something else calling.

We don't necessarily know what it is yet.

We certainly may not know how to fulfill it.

But we begin to feel:

There is something I am here to do.

There is a deeper calling.

There is a higher vision.

And eventually that call becomes irresistible.

This is also where surrender begins entering the conversation.

Maybe my life isn't only about executing my plan.

Maybe there is a greater plan trying to reveal itself through me.

5. Buddhic — What would devotion do?

This is where I feel another profound shift happens.

The Buddhic level moves through the heart.

Compassion becomes central.

Compassion for ourselves.

Compassion for others.

Compassion for humanity.

We begin moving beyond the endless preoccupation with I, me and mine and feel ourselves as part of something much larger.

And this is where devotion becomes incredibly powerful.

The question changes from:

What do I want?

to:

What am I devoted to?

What will serve the greater good?

What am I guided to devote myself to even if I don't understand the entire plan?

What would devotion do?

There is a heart of devotion here.

My business becomes an offering.

My teaching becomes an offering.

My creativity becomes an offering.

My life becomes an offering.

I may still have desires and ambitions, but something larger has entered the room.

6. Atmic — Let the Higher Self move through me.

The Atmic level takes this surrender into an even higher octave.

This is the realm we might describe as Higher Self consciousness or Christ consciousness.

Here, devotion has matured tremendously.

There is less and less separation between the individual will and Higher Intelligence.

Instead of constantly asking the Divine to support our plans, we become increasingly willing to become an instrument for something greater.

Use me.

Move through me.

Show me.

Guide me.

Let me become an expression of the intelligence that is larger than my individual personality.

This is a deeply humbling level because the individual self becomes less important.

The work isn't really mine anymore.

The wisdom isn't mine.

The gifts aren't mine.

They move through me.

I become their steward.

And surrender becomes the way.

Again and again and again.

7. Monadic — Thy Will Be Done.

And finally, there is the Monadic level.

Divine Will.

At this point, even the distinction between Higher Self and Divine Will begins to disappear.

We can think here of the very rare incarnations of the great Masters—beings whose lives seem to exist almost entirely as an expression of Divine Will.

Reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda gives us beautiful glimpses into beings of this magnitude.

They aren't building a personal legacy in the way we normally think about legacy.

They aren't trying to become somebody.

Their incarnation itself becomes an expression of something much greater.

Divine consciousness enters the world through the human instrument.

And perhaps this is why these incarnations are so rare.

The personality is no longer asking:

What do I want to create?

It is living:

Thy Will Be Done.

As I was contemplating all of this this morning, I realized this is actually very close to how I naturally work with people.

When I work with a private client or a group of students, I am listening for where they are.

What stage of development are they moving through?

What are they deeply desiring?

What is life asking them to learn?

Someone learning how to sustain themselves on the physical plane needs very different guidance than someone whose soul is merging into surrender.

And someone moving into devotion needs something different from someone learning how to think strategically.

None of these stages are wrong.

They are initiations.

That's why I love ancient maps of consciousness.

I love taking teachings like the seven subtle bodies, which have come to us through ancient Indian spiritual traditions and later esoteric and Theosophical teachings, and asking:

How does this ancient map illuminate the life I am actually living now?

My calling.

My business.

My service.

So this was my Monday morning contemplation.

And now I am curious:

Where do you find yourself?

Which level describes the questions your soul is asking right now?

Because I have noticed something else.

The movement from one stage to another usually requires a void.

A gap.

A period when the old way doesn't work anymore, but the new way hasn't fully revealed itself.

A proverbial death and rebirth.

And I happen to have a class for exactly that. :)

The Art of Death & Rebirth

[ACCESS THE CLASS HERE]

Maybe the place where everything seems to be dissolving isn't necessarily a sign that you've lost your way.

You may simply be standing between levels.

Katerina