The Meaning of Progress

You become old when you stop progressing.
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Progress is youth; at a hundred years of age one can be young.
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The best way of not becoming old is to make progress the goal of our life.
[CWM2, 12:123]
The future belongs to those who want to progress.
Blessings to those whose motto is: “Always better.”
[CWM2, 13:234]
 
In progress lies true joy.
[CWM2, 14:303]
Progress: the reason why we are on earth.
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Progress: to be ready at every minute to give up all one is and all one has in order to advance on the way.
[CWM2, 15:75]
Let us progress ourselves it is the best way of making others progress.
[CWM2, 15:76]
Without inner progress there is no possible outer progress.
[CWM2, 2:150]
The ordinary life is a round of various desires and greeds. As long as one is preoccupied with them there can be no lasting progress.
[CWM2, 3:123]
If we make some progress could it be said that we are going towards perfection?
You are mixing up perfection and progress. You do not necessarily progress towards perfection. In progress there is perhaps a certain perfection but it can’t be said that progress is perfection. Progress is rather an ascent. Perfection is a harmony an equilibrium.
[CWM2, 4:14]
 
Each time you receive a blow from life tell yourself immediately “Ah I have to make a progress”; then the blow becomes a blessing.
[CWM2, 4:122]
 
Why do I get bored?… Because I do not progress.” When one does not progress one gets bored —old and young everybody—because we are here upon earth to progress. If we do not progress every minute well it is indeed boring monotonous; it is not always pleasant it is far from being fine. “So I am going to find out today what progress I can make in this class; there is something I do not know and which I can learn.”
 [CWM2, 5:48]
 
Is this the end of self-progress?
There is never any end to progress—never any end you can never put a full stop there.
[CWM2, 5:57]
 
If we are not conscious of all that the Divine is doing for us do we not progress?
You progress but you are not conscious of your progress; and so it is not a willed progress. That is it is a progress that the Divine brings about in you without your collaboration. That takes much more time.
[CWM2, 5:61-62]
 
Those who lead a purely physical life reach a kind of summit then they slide down very quickly. But now with the general collective human progress there is behind the physical progress a vital progress and a mental progress so that the mental progress can go on for a very long time even after the physical progress has come to a stop and through this mental progress one keeps up a kind of ascent long after the physical has ceased to progress.
[CWM2, 5:205]
 

Yes but if I want to progress in sports for instance then that would be a personal progress wouldn’t it?

Eh? What? In sports? No the value of the will depends on your aim. If it is in order to be successful and earn a reputation for yourself and be better than others—all sorts of ideas like that —then that becomes something very egoistic very personal and you won’t be able to progress—yes you will make progress but still it won’t lead you anywhere. But if you do it with the idea of being open even in the physical to the divine Influence to be a good instrument and manifest Him then that is very good. Not clear?
[CWM2, 6:28]
 
It is always an attitude which is awaiting a discovery an opportunity for progress a rectification of a wrong movement a step ahead and so it is like a magnet that attracts from all around you opportunities to make this progress. The least things can teach you how to progress. As you have the consciousness and will to progress everything becomes an opportunity and you project this consciousness and will to progress upon all things.
[CWM2, 6:154]
The progress you will make because you feel within yourself the need to make it because it is an impulsion that pushes you forward spontaneously and not because it is something imposed on you like a rule—this progress from the spiritual point of view is infinitely greater.
[CWM2, 6:431]
 
And true progress is sadhana; that is it is the most conscious and swiftest progress. Otherwise one makes progress with the rhythm of Nature which means that it can take centuries and centuries and centuries and millenniums to make the slightest bit of progress. But true progress is that made by sadhana.
[CWM2, 7:33]
 
All that does not progress disappears and that is why physical bodies die it’s because they are not progressive; they are progressive up to a certain moment then there they stop andmost often they remain stable for a certain time and then they begin to decline and then disappear.
[CWM2, 7:205]
 
But everything that brings down the consciousness is an obstacle in one’s progress. If you have a desire it creates an obstacle in your progress; if you have a bad thought or bad will it creates an obstacle in your progress; if you welcome some kind of falsehood it creates an obstacle in your progress; and if you cultivate vulgarity in yourself it creates an obstacle in your progress; everything which is not in keeping with the Truth creates an obstacle to progress; and there are hundreds of these things every day.
[CWM2, 7:294]
 
If in order to progress you were to wait for others to progress you would have to wait indefinitely. That is the very first thing that is to be circulated everywhere.
[CWM2, 11:209]
 
For collective progress and individual progress are interdependent. Before the individual can take a leap forward at least a little of the preceding progress must have been realised in the collectivity. A way must therefore be found so that these two types of progress may proceed side by side.
[CWM2, 12, 40]
 
It is a recognized fact that in order to progress rapidly one must not be afraid of difficulties; on the contrary by choosing to do the difficult thing at every opportunity one increases the will-power and strengthens the nerves.
[CWM2, 12:49]
 
Whatever occupation or task falls to your lot you must do it with a will to progress; whatever
one does one must not only do it as best one can but strive to do it better and better in a constant effort for perfection.
[CWM2, 12:53]
 
When one does not progress, one feels bored, everyone young or old; for we are here on
earth to progress.
[CWM2, 12:74]