Why are they not getting it?

So if you've started doing inner work, there's a question that tends to come up sooner or later, usually about a parent, a partner or a friend. Why aren't they getting it? Why are they still asleep?

If we look at most people in the world, most people aren't asking the deeper questions about their life. They're just going through life thinking this is how it is. And the fortunate ones are the ones that actually wake up and say, holy crap, I don't like what I'm experiencing, I've got to figure out how to change this.

And once you've had that moment, it's easy to start measuring people by it. Who's awake, who's still asleep, who's further along than who.

Now, the way I see it, everybody is going to, "wake up" sooner or later, in one lifetime or another. A soul has different lifetimes. You could be asleep in one lifetime and be the most enlightened being in another lifetime, because that's the lifetime you've chosen to awaken. So from the outside we don't really have an understanding of what's going on at an individual soul level, beyond the superficial.

Which means the person you love who seems stuck isn't behind you. You're seeing one lifetime of a much longer story, and you don't know which chapter this one is for them.

And the same goes for you. If there are parts of your life where you still feel asleep, that isn't a verdict on your soul, and it isn't a race you're losing.

So the next time you catch yourself thinking "why aren't they getting it?", try putting the measuring down. You can still love them, and you can still be honest with them. You just don't have to rank them.