What scales can we use to measure progress?
Material
The most obvious choice. Bigger cars, more cars, bigger house, more houses, bigger bank balance, bigger pension fund, bigger vacations, smarter phones, more gadgets, bigger titles. Globe trotter, jet-setter. Life is there for me to enjoy it is all about pursuit of happiness outside.
Knowledge
Life is never ending journey of learning. Eyes wide, ears open, antennas up cranking out days building skills, knowledge. The moot question is the what does this relentless pursuit of knowledge mean to you? Is it getting better jobs, better titles, better salary, getting smarter than peers and competition? Is it materialistic progress under the guise of knowledge?
Spiritual
Who can define spiritual progress? What does spiritual progress look like? How can society validate it? Here is the thing this is only about you, no one else can validate this. My two cents on spiritual progress is this — spiritual progress is a journey towards dissolution of ego. It is getting this idea permeate into your consciousness that
“I am just a tiny spec in the grand scheme of things, a spec of dust in this cosmos”
Now if this is the theme using which I wire my brain and operate my life lot of issues trivial and non-trivial would wane out automatically. But there is no logical way, a text-book template to reach there, you need a path, you need a charter and more importantly you need a Guru.
