The journey towards union with soul and ultimately, the God within, is  restricted or bound by consciousness.  But it is consciousness also that  liberates us, through the exercise of spiritual will, into that final  communion.  The path is marked by ever widening expansions of  consciousness, punctuated by pauses where little apparent progress is  made, where ignorance or illusion have us in their grip.  But  eventually, we are drawn on by the aspiration for more, for different,  for better… food, money, achievement, relationships, health, knowledge,  understanding, freedom, peace, fulfilment, …If we deny aspiration or  fail to aspire to that which is congruent with our challenge to growth,  suffering presents itself as an alternative path to consciousness.  As  we act upon our aspirations towards whatever highest good we can  imagine, we build capacity for the spiritual will that later, will be  the means of our liberation.