The Ten Parami Reflection you did the other night. A very good thing to bring up. Whenever you're doubting whether you're growing bring up this reflection. And make certain that you discover something that you want to do to increase your Paramis.
Maybe at the end of doing all Ten Paramis, you only come up with one new idea for your life. That's alright. That will push you. That will make you grow some. Sometimes that one idea might actually help a few Paramis. They all relate, so maybe we can grow in three or four Paramis at the same time. That meditation on the Ten Paramis is very helpful to stimulate your practice, to discover something new that you want to do in your life, to grow more in the Dhamma.
As to judging others' growth, that's not so easy. I'm not sure that really applies to the first part. The first part says that, "Sometimes it seems to me that I am not progressing much and even stagnate at times". So how can I judge my own growth, that's what I just answered. If we want to judge other people's growth, let's be careful. For a teacher fine, I have to judge where you're at, and how well you're doing in the practice. This is so I can help you move along. But as a practitioner with fellow practitioners maybe it's not that good to put too much judgment onto your friends. Then you might develop a superiority attitude and this and that. It may interfere with your friendships.
However, having said that, you do want to care for your friends. You would like to see your friends grow. You would like to see your friends keep the practice going. So if you actually see that your friend is stagnating, your friend is not growing, try to think up something based on the Ten Paramis. How can you stimulate your friend? How can you get them going? Can you encourage them to come and do another retreat for one thing? Can you encourage them to talk more about the Dhamma when you do meet with them? Instead of thinking, "This person is so stagnated. All they want to talk about is sports, comics, blah blah blah."
Can you stimulate the conversation more? The Knowledgebase, The Volume One, Volume Two books, Questions and Answers that we sell, that's a great way to stimulate yourself. Open to any page, do the website knowledgebase online. It's got 600 topics or something. It's like opening up an encyclopedia, or a dictionary. Put your finger on it blindfold, what word do you get? Find that in the knowledgebase or something close to it, whatever's spelled closest to it. Then you open it up, some of them have 30 questions, some have only one. Shut your eyes, choose one. Open it up, read it, see what it says, it may all of a sudden open your own practice up a little.
One thing a lot of our students are doing is with two people, and you can even do it by yourself if you have no one around. You read the question and you don't look at the answer. And then each one of you take turns in trying to answer it. When you're both finished taking your turns, then open it up and see what Rosemary and I had to say. It's a great way to stimulate your practice. Try to open up again. Get things moving.