A pure heart is a fertile ground for goodness.

Many spiritual teachers say that meditation leads to heightened awareness and clarity of mind. It is true. It is considered to be progress. But is that really enough to progress? With heightened awareness and a clear mind, a thief will become a better thief! Meditation enhances the qualities already found within us. For true spiritual progress, in addition to meditation there is a need to purify our hearts and minds of all the impurities. This creates purity. Purity gives birth to many other things that are good. For example, you can be pure and at the same time you can be simple, but you can also be simple and still impure. Being simple is not enough. Purity is the foundation for all that is good in spiritual life. Purity weaves destiny.

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Elevated consciousness and conditioning

Daaji was going through some texts about spiritual practices, and the author was presenting the limitations of the mind. In context it made perfect sense, but for a beginner, it could easily create the wrong impression about the mind, missing the whole spirit of elevation of consciousness as spiritual progress. Daaji remarked, "Those people with an elevated consciousness have nothing to worry about when they read something. They are able to differentiate what is good from what is not. They are not easily conditioned by books because they already have a better understanding. In a similar way, we have a better understanding of life when we are not influenced by samskaras, when our consciousness is pure."