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The Soul’s Growth Through Daily Life and Relationships
READING 256-5 EXPLAINED
Reading 256-5 is one of Edgar Cayce’s deeper teachings about how the soul grows through ordinary life, daily relationships, right motives, and service to others. The reading explains that spiritual growth is not mainly about mystical experiences, psychic powers, or intellectual knowledge. Instead, true growth happens slowly inside the soul through everyday attitudes, choices, relationships, and actions. Cayce begins by describing the human being as more than a physical body. He speaks of “the entity, the soul-mind, and the mental and material mind,” showing that human life operates on several levels at once. The soul is eternal, while the mind and body are instruments through which the soul learns and expresses itself in the material world. Cayce says that in every lifetime the soul enters earthly experience with certain desires, lessons, and purposes. Some experiences become opportunities, while others become hindrances or tests. Yet all of them can be used for spiritual development if the person remains aligned with the deeper purpose of the soul. He says:
“In each appearance into materiality there have come those experiences, those opportunities, those things that were as hindrances as well as those that were the urges which carried forward the desires and purposes of the soul.”
Cayce explains that spiritual knowledge cannot simply be borrowed or worn outwardly. It must become part of the soul itself. One of the most important lines in the reading says:
“Knowledge may not be put on as a cloak, but must be an internal or a soul growth.”
This means spirituality is not about appearing wise, religious, mystical, or enlightened on the outside while remaining unchanged within. A person may study religion, metaphysics, reincarnation, astrology, or spiritual teachings for many years, but unless those teachings transform the heart, motives, and conduct, true soul growth has not taken place. Cayce believed that spiritual truth must become lived experience. It must slowly shape the person’s character until kindness, patience, mercy, truth, and love become natural expressions of the soul.
The reading says the soul entered this life seeking clarification about the “constructive and universal force” behind existence, meaning God and divine love. Yet Cayce says spiritual development is not measured mainly by private experiences or mystical knowledge. Instead, the true measure is found in how a person affects other people in daily life. He explains:
“As to putting into manifestation, not of self is the thought, is the purpose, is the will - if it would be a growth in self; but as to how it measures in the minds, in the activities of those whom the soul contacts in its daily experience.”
This is one of the central teachings of the reading. Spirituality is relational. The question is not merely what a person believes, but what effect they have on others. Do people become stronger, more hopeful, more loving, more truthful, or more peaceful through contact with you? Cayce teaches that every thought, word, action, and habit becomes a seed planted into both ourselves and others. This is why he says:
“As we sow we reap; not only as we sow in ourselves but in that we make as a portion of our own bodies…”
The soul is constantly shaping itself through its attitudes and conduct, while also influencing the consciousness of others. Every act of kindness or selfishness spreads outward into human relationships.
Cayce then explains that soul growth happens slowly and gradually. It is not sudden or dramatic. He says spiritual maturity “does not spring up as a mushroom.” Instead, it develops “line upon line, precept upon precept.” In other words, the soul grows little by little through everyday living. The small things matter. Daily conversations matter. Attitudes matter. Patience matters. Mercy matters. Cayce says that every person writes a living gospel through their life:
“Each day each body writes the gospel leaf by leaf to be read of those that may read, whether it be faithless or true.”
This is a profound idea. Without realizing it, every person teaches others what they believe about God through the way they live. A harsh and selfish life teaches one kind of gospel, while a compassionate and truthful life teaches another. This is why Cayce asks:
“What, then, is the gospel of THY Christ, THY God, according to you?”
In simple terms, he is asking: What kind of God is revealed through your behavior and your life? Is your life expressing justice, mercy, patience, and love? Or is it expressing pride, anger, fear, selfishness, and control?
The reading also discusses a Persian incarnation connected with the study of stars and spiritual influences. Cayce suggests that in that lifetime the soul studied the deeper forces affecting humanity, much like the Wise Men of ancient tradition. Because of this, the entity carries strong mental and spiritual interests into the present life. Yet Cayce gives an important warning that knowledge alone is not enough. He says:
“Mind is the Builder.”
This is one of Cayce’s most famous principles. Thoughts shape character, destiny, and life itself. But the mind must be guided by love, fairness, mercy, and justice. Otherwise intelligence becomes dangerous. Knowledge without compassion can become prideful, manipulative, or destructive. The purpose of mental ability is not self-glorification but service to others and alignment with God’s will.
Another major theme in the reading is motive. Cayce repeatedly asks the soul to examine why it seeks spiritual growth. Is the desire for truth motivated by love and service, or by pride, power, recognition, or superiority? He warns that selfish spiritual ambition can lead the soul away from divine purpose. He says the proper inner attitude is:
“Let my purpose, my desire, my life in its manifestations only be as the will of the Maker would have it be.”
This reflects Cayce’s belief that humility protects the soul. The safest spiritual path is not the pursuit of personal greatness, but surrender to divine love and service.
The reading also gives a powerful explanation of karma and difficult relationships. Cayce says that painful experiences, conflicts, obligations, and difficult people often become instruments for the soul’s growth. External struggles reveal inner weaknesses that need transformation. He explains that many outward troubles are “only used as puppets” to help the soul overcome selfishness, fear, anger, pride, or attachment. The real battle is within consciousness itself. Yet Cayce also emphasizes grace and redemption. He says Christ has made a way for the soul to overcome karmic burdens:
“That which has been the easily besetting error or sin becomes as a stepping-stone for a closer walk with Him.”
This means that weaknesses and past mistakes do not have to destroy the soul. When surrendered to God, they can become opportunities for wisdom, humility, compassion, and spiritual maturity. Cayce believed karma was real, but he also believed grace could transform karma.
Toward the end of the reading, Cayce mentions future influences connected with Atlantis and ancient America. In Cayce’s system, Atlantis symbolized advanced mental and spiritual knowledge, but also the danger of misusing power without spiritual wisdom. This suggests that later in life the soul may encounter opportunities involving leadership, influence, knowledge, or spiritual responsibility that will require humility and balance.
Overall, Reading 256-5 teaches that true spirituality is built through ordinary daily living. The soul grows through relationships, service, attitudes, thoughts, motives, and actions. Spiritual development is not something separate from everyday life; everyday life itself is the classroom of the soul. Cayce teaches that every person is constantly shaping both themselves and others through the energies they express. The goal is to become a clearer channel for divine love so that justice, mercy, truth, patience, understanding, and brotherly love gradually become the natural expression of the soul.
READING 256-5
EC: Yes, we have the entity, the soul-mind, and the mental and material mind of the entity now known as [256], with those experiences of the soul in the earthly sojourns with the developments and the environments in the present, and that which has been builded by the entity as to what the entity has done respecting that which has builded into what is now present in the earth.
In giving that which may be helpful for the entity in the present, well that the desires and purposes with the will of the soul through its earth's experiences be considered. Then we may draw those conclusions as to how, through what channel or in what ways and manners there may be added or taken from the experiences or activities of the soul-mind in the present for its advancement toward that goal which is sought by this soul.
In each appearance into materiality there have come those experiences, those opportunities, those things that were as hindrances as well as those that were the urges which carried forward the desires and purposes of the soul.
Then, in meeting all of these experiences, it has been outlined for the entity as to its activities under the varied conditions and experiences in the earth; and when these activities are drawn upon in the present, the purposes that prompted the soul to enter in this particular environ in the present must be adhered to - or the developments would come into those forms of skips - or the knowledge not be the growth from the internal as it should; for knowledge may not be put on as a cloak, but must be an internal or a soul growth towards that which has been determined or set as an ideal for an individual.
What, then, were the promptings for the soul's activity in this present experience? That there might be within the experience of self the clarifications as to who, as to when, as to how that which is the constructive and the universal force in the experience, makes for the attaining of each soul's ideal in the experience. For, as the soul is to glorify that which has been set as its ideal, the MANNERS of its manifestations into materiality can only be measured by the realms in which the activity assumes its manifested form into activities towards that which has partaken of that same realm or materiality.
Hence, as to putting into manifestation, not of self is the thought, is the purpose, is the will - if it would be a growth in self; but as to how it measures in the minds, in the activities of those whom the soul contacts in its daily experience.
Therefore, as we sow we reap; not only as we sow in ourselves but in that we make as a portion of our own bodies - as the varied forms of habits that infest, infect and act upon the motivative influences of the body - and what we act upon as our own activity towards that which produces motivative influences in the experiences of others; thus forming in their experiences their responses to what have been the promptings of the souls THEY contact as in the individual self.
What are the purposes, and how may they be applied, then, in the experience of this entity? There are varied fields of activity in a material world in which contact may be made; in individual activity that deals not only with the mental earthly beings but the soul-activity of others also. Thus, in these fields, in these realms of relationships may the entity, the soul, in its thoughts and purposes and desires of the mind and of the soul build that which will be as the body of the soul, as it passes from experience to experience.
Ready for questions.
(Q) Considering my detailed activity in school work and present material obligations, in just what direction and what definite steps should I take for my greater spiritual development?
(A) As given and presented here, it is as to the contacts that are made in the daily experience that the individual, the soul, metes out here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept, that which is as the food to the mind and soul of others in forming that which expresses itself in materiality as the character, and expresses self in the individuality of the soul as its concept of the First Cause, or of the constructive influences in the life, or God. Then, as the entity metes out in the daily experience justice, mercy, truth, patience, understanding, brotherly love, these things in the immediate may build first to self then to others that the entity contacts - that which makes for the soul growth. For it does not spring up as a mushroom, nor does it blossom all at once, but as a growth in self and in the minds, the hearts, the souls of those whom the entity contacts day by day. For, as has been given, each day each body writes the gospel leaf by leaf to be read of those that may read, whether it be faithless or true. What, then, is the gospel of THY Christ, THY God, according to you?
(Q) What incarnations will be the source of the most compelling urges during the next few years?
(A) The Persian, where the studies [as one of the Three Wise Men] were of the influence of stellar space or the sojourns of souls in the environs about the earth that made - and make - for the mental urges in the souls of men. Hence, as the entity studies those that seek for the minutia and detail of that necessary in the material things of life that the body and soul may be kept together in the materiality or in flesh, so may the body - in studying that which has been and is the motivative influence of those minds - instill that as Mind is the Builder, unless its promptings and its first and basic influence are in the spirit of fairness and justice and mercy to the fellow man, it may not grow in its maturity to a thing of joy or beauty in the life. Thus may the experience of a sojourn be applied in a concrete and definite way and manner in the present for the glorification of the Father, the Son, through the spirit of truth that abides with those that seek - as in those sojourns for manifesting the love of the Creative Forces for the fellow man. For, "Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of my little ones ye do it unto me."
Then, see in thy fellow man that thou wouldest worship in thy God; for He is the Giver of life, He IS Life, and as ye measure of thy faith, of thy hope, of thy purpose unto the least of thy fellow man ye measure same unto thy Maker. Would YE be glorified in the earth? Would ye be a channel of blessing to thy fellow man? Then glorify, in thine daily acts to those that seek His way, that THOU hast found good in thy Maker!
(Q) Explain these influences and just how I can make the most of them.
(A) In the application of any influence in self, as has been pointed out, first determine within thine inner self as to what is the motivative influence. Not that thou mayest add one whit to thine stature, or that thou mayest purpose to do other than that He would have, if ye would grow in grace; but he that defies the living God falls away and is POSSESSED with those influences that wage destruction upon the souls of men. For only the soul is everlasting. It is in the beginning with Him, lest ye in thine thoughtlessness in the earth - or in thine premeditations with the spirits of darkness - drive same away from the face of thy Maker!
Then, the urges are: "Let my purpose, my desire, my life in its manifestations only be as the will of the Maker would have it be," for the flesh is weak, yet it may be made STRONG by His might. Give Him, thy Maker, the right; not by just sitting still, but by manifesting in the lives of thy fellow man; the right to work with and through thee for thy OWN development!
(Q) How can I learn to interpret and understand such karmic relations and obligations as may require effort on my part in working out?
(A) Each soul is a portion of the Maker. The soul-body may have indulged here, gormandized self there, thus creating that which is to be met IN Him. He, the Giver of life, thy brother, the Christ, HAS made a way for thee; for the life line still holds, when thou knowest within thine self thou art waging war within thyself. Though the conditions about you, about any soul, may be as torments - by the activities, the speeches, the obligations of others - they are only used as puppets, and are as nothing but that self may overcome those influences; and thus does the soul comprehend and understand that in Him, the Maker, the Christ, ONLY is light - and that self lost in Him may meet all karmic forces, and that which has been the easily besetting error or sin becomes as a stepping-stone for a closer walk with Him.
(Q) Are there any incarnations other than those in my Life Reading that are of importance in this experience?
(A) When thou hast passed through '35, thou will have reached that place when those experiences in which thou joined in the Atlantean and American sojourn will become as influences in those periods of thy sojourn.
These then will take on rather the nature that thou wilt be PRIVILEGED to meet the third - yea, the second degrees in thine own development here.

