Cults, Masters, and Travel

The entire Christian fundamentalist concept of an "end time" is a myth and a superstition. I have seen this problem from both sides. I was a fundy minister in an extremist right-wing cult. Now, I do lifedesign work to aid ex-cultists, helping them to break the bonds of cult-psychology. Cults are attractive because they offer "answers" to all questions. People often have more than a touch of mystophobia, and want to live in a cosmos empty of all mystery. By stunning contrast, the mystic is a mystophilic, and loves mystery. Now, I use extra caution to stay a galaxy away from anything-- any teacher, group, or movement-- that tries to restrict or regulate individual freedom. I do not respect groups or "teachers" who do not respect individual rights to select what one believes.

Is it a teaching of Astara that the earth has been "destroyed" three times? How can anyone know this? How could anyone ever prove this? It seems that, had the earth ever been literally "destroyed," it would no longer be here. To "destroy" something, by definition, is to obliterate or dissolve it, to remove it from existence. After severe impairment, a system can be "renewed," but it cannot be "renewed" if it has been completely destroyed.

In the larger overview of history, all complex empires have fallen under the crushing burden of their own cultural and economic complexities.

The true mystic has never wanted, ever, to "master" others. A true "master" is never the master of other people, but the master of only the self. A person who has mastered the elements of egotism, ignorance, violence, and other personal limitations is the only true "master." This is because she has overcome her personal dragons and demons.

The "kung fu" tradition is a good example. The phrase "kung fu" simply means excellence. A very good carpenter, for instance, can be a "kung fu" carpenter. A really fine artist can be a "kung fu artist." So, a "kung fu master" is a person who has mastered the excellent art of living. To this mastery, all mystics aspire.

The master is not created by selfimprovement. Instead, the pre-existent inner Master is discovered, and one becomes a human "master" only after fully surrendering to this Mind. A true "master" is an empty mirror of highest Mind, nothing more. So, any claim to being "special," or taking "credit," is out of the question. A real master is marked by never claiming to be a master. You can be absolutely certain that anyone who claims to be a "master" is a fraud!

Human beings such as Jesus and the Buddha set perfect examples of how real masters live. They lived lives of what the Buddha called karuna, and Jesus called agape-- both words referring to compassion, goodness, kindness, and Love. Only the practice of yielding and surrender to the deepest Mind, profoundly in the Unconscious, liberates us from the wheel of life-and-death, or karma. We cannot do this by merely changing our beliefs. The mystic never "lives" on earth, but is jvtp-- "just visiting this planet."

Re the mystics of Tibet: They could do "tricks" such as melting snow, but they did not consider these "powers" to be important at all. Mere "powers" are worthless on the truly spiritual path. All that really counts is self-dissolution into cosmic Mind. In other words, you become all by becoming nothing. You disappear into higher Mind, and then, It speaks, writes, teaches, and acts through you. This is simply an extension of Jesus' famous paradox, "The greatest will be the least." The true master strives to become the "least," and is not the least bit interested in playing games, or impressing other people.

Technology can be either destructive or useful. Some cybertech is very useful, such as that which makes our email communications possible. As in all things, the enlightened do not take any extremist positions. They are neither "all for" nor "all against" technology. Technology is not good or bad in itself, but is a tool that becomes good in the hands of good people, and bad in the hands of the bad. (This is, of course, an oversimplification.)

"Truth," like wisdom, is to be found only in the deepest Mind. You are "plugged in" to that Mind, and so am I. This is why the mystic finds NO VALUE in travel itself. The master does not need to be running around all the time. The great secret has been realized that travel does not enrich your life at all in itself. People who brag and boast about travel are announcing to the world that they are not enlightened. The master Lao Tzu wrote, "The sage can see the whole world without moving the front gate," and this is what he meant. God is to be found equally in your own home as in any "sacred site" in the world. The mystic is not made a microgram richer by travel. So when the master goes to Peru, for example, it is because there are people there. There is nothing, has never been anything, special about Peru or any other place on earth. Spirituality has nothing to do with either geography or history. Instead, it is a "right here, right now" pursuit. People who are impressed by places, who take a "golly gee whiz" atitude towards Peru, Egypt, Israel, Mecca, or any other place, are spiritual toddlers. Spiritually, these people have not even learned to "talk" yet.

Shamans use "spirits" (different levels of the Unconscious) in their work, and these do the actual healing. In the life of the mystic, the Spirit does not only healing, but writing, teaching, speaking, and other "normal" or "everyday" things. In Zen, they say "samsara is nirvana," which means that the highest Mind is found by being an "ordinary" person. Indeed, the true master cringes at the thought that people will admire or praise the ego, which works against spirituality.