Posts
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We do like metaphysical material; thanks for the offer to lend some to us. Most of what I have heard from Ken Wilber is positive, and some quite helpful. But I believe that a good teacher must always walk her talk; and we've a personal friend, an attractive young lady, to whom Wilber made unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances. So, until he outgrows this adolescent behavior, he will not be recognized as a valid spiritual teacher.
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Showing posts with label spiritual teachers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiritual teachers. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Spirituality and Money
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Should a spiritual teacher "charge" for her service? This is a profound inquiry. And BEWARE: Often, people will give specious arguments to defend this idea because they are charging for "spiritual" work; they are feeling guilty. We have encountered this, and their many arguments, a thousand times in the past.
Our only contention is that spirituality is not beans or tomatoes. That is, it is not a "marketplace commodity," and should never be regarded as a Way to make money-- and loads of it! We must exercise supreme caution never to take advantage of people, especially of the poor.
The records of both Jesus and the Buddha show clearly that they never set up "toll booths," and never charged anything for even their most famous sermons. Instead, they trusted in the great Mind to care for them and their needs.
This is the challenging Way of faith. As one example, Love Ministries has been in existence since 1983-- twenty-five years. We have never, a single time, charged any fees for our spiritual work. And even though publishing is very expensive, we give away even our books. We started out with an actual mimeograph machine-- the kind that replicated in purple! And now, we are distributing twenty-plus books, and have affiliates in six countries, as well as an infosheet (the "uld," or "Universal Love Digest") and our monthly magazine Lovelight.
We did not seek anyone's "permission" to do this work free of charge. All our lectures, seminars, personal advising, etc., are done free of charge. Other ministries, and teachers, often feel threatened by this, or even "accused." But that is not our problem; we must follow the Spirit as we see and know It.
The bottom line is, No matter what anybody else says or does, no matter how "fine" the arguments, we must look to Jesus and to the Buddha as serious examples. Has the world changed since their times? Of course it has, and radically! Extremely! But they still needed money, and they still refused to push spirituality upon others by trying to "sell" it, as if the jewels of God were garage-sale items.
Jesus said it more clearly than I ever could: "You cannot serve both God and money." You can serve "only one master," he said.
People do not want to hear this. Some "spiritual educators" have even become upset at Love Ministries, because we make them feel selfconscious.
They are not just charging, but over charging, for their work. A cassette tape, for example, if you buy it in bulk, can be purchased for fifty cents, even on the modern market, which overcharges for almost everything. And ministries will regularly charge $12.50, fifteen, or even seventeen dollars for a taped message from the "guru."
Seminars are also terribly expensive. They can range from fifty dollars up to several hundred. I have a special identity with the poor, for I am also poor, and I know the pain of being rejected from spiritual teachings because of dollar-prohibitions. It is unfair that the poor, already abused by life, should be further abused by people who claim to care for and about them-- the so-called "teachers" of the metaphysical community!
This is immoral, and verges on the obscene!
So, even if we must go against everyone on this one, we do not want to "give in," and charge for our seminars, lectures, tapes, and other educational materials. We would rather serve the poor and keep our inner eyes fixed on the Buddha and Jesus as our models. This is especially challenging in a world in which gas is four dollars a gallon! And we do quite happily accept Love-donations to support our work. At the Pneumarium, we even have a donationbox, not that anyone ever uses it!
(Actually, one very sweet and good supporter does make regular donations to our Ministries; without her Love, we would not have survived!:)
But frankly, we are not interested in the rationalizations and justifications that people so often give for "getting rich" by "selling" that which they have received freely from the universal Mind. We do not "sell" the Word of Love, and have no intentions of ever doing so! And no, being a spiritual teacher is not directly comparable to being a social worker; for while a social worker can do very spiritual work, and a teacher can aid socially, they are two different callings. A teacher is called upon to share the invaluable (priceless) contents of her heart, with the hope of "planting seeds of Light" in another. A teacher is more like a caring relative or friend; what would you think of a close, intimate relative who helped you through a crisis, and then sent you a bill for her services?
*******
Should a spiritual teacher "charge" for her service? This is a profound inquiry. And BEWARE: Often, people will give specious arguments to defend this idea because they are charging for "spiritual" work; they are feeling guilty. We have encountered this, and their many arguments, a thousand times in the past.
Our only contention is that spirituality is not beans or tomatoes. That is, it is not a "marketplace commodity," and should never be regarded as a Way to make money-- and loads of it! We must exercise supreme caution never to take advantage of people, especially of the poor.
The records of both Jesus and the Buddha show clearly that they never set up "toll booths," and never charged anything for even their most famous sermons. Instead, they trusted in the great Mind to care for them and their needs.
This is the challenging Way of faith. As one example, Love Ministries has been in existence since 1983-- twenty-five years. We have never, a single time, charged any fees for our spiritual work. And even though publishing is very expensive, we give away even our books. We started out with an actual mimeograph machine-- the kind that replicated in purple! And now, we are distributing twenty-plus books, and have affiliates in six countries, as well as an infosheet (the "uld," or "Universal Love Digest") and our monthly magazine Lovelight.
We did not seek anyone's "permission" to do this work free of charge. All our lectures, seminars, personal advising, etc., are done free of charge. Other ministries, and teachers, often feel threatened by this, or even "accused." But that is not our problem; we must follow the Spirit as we see and know It.
The bottom line is, No matter what anybody else says or does, no matter how "fine" the arguments, we must look to Jesus and to the Buddha as serious examples. Has the world changed since their times? Of course it has, and radically! Extremely! But they still needed money, and they still refused to push spirituality upon others by trying to "sell" it, as if the jewels of God were garage-sale items.
Jesus said it more clearly than I ever could: "You cannot serve both God and money." You can serve "only one master," he said.
People do not want to hear this. Some "spiritual educators" have even become upset at Love Ministries, because we make them feel selfconscious.
They are not just charging, but over charging, for their work. A cassette tape, for example, if you buy it in bulk, can be purchased for fifty cents, even on the modern market, which overcharges for almost everything. And ministries will regularly charge $12.50, fifteen, or even seventeen dollars for a taped message from the "guru."
Seminars are also terribly expensive. They can range from fifty dollars up to several hundred. I have a special identity with the poor, for I am also poor, and I know the pain of being rejected from spiritual teachings because of dollar-prohibitions. It is unfair that the poor, already abused by life, should be further abused by people who claim to care for and about them-- the so-called "teachers" of the metaphysical community!
This is immoral, and verges on the obscene!
So, even if we must go against everyone on this one, we do not want to "give in," and charge for our seminars, lectures, tapes, and other educational materials. We would rather serve the poor and keep our inner eyes fixed on the Buddha and Jesus as our models. This is especially challenging in a world in which gas is four dollars a gallon! And we do quite happily accept Love-donations to support our work. At the Pneumarium, we even have a donationbox, not that anyone ever uses it!
(Actually, one very sweet and good supporter does make regular donations to our Ministries; without her Love, we would not have survived!:)
But frankly, we are not interested in the rationalizations and justifications that people so often give for "getting rich" by "selling" that which they have received freely from the universal Mind. We do not "sell" the Word of Love, and have no intentions of ever doing so! And no, being a spiritual teacher is not directly comparable to being a social worker; for while a social worker can do very spiritual work, and a teacher can aid socially, they are two different callings. A teacher is called upon to share the invaluable (priceless) contents of her heart, with the hope of "planting seeds of Light" in another. A teacher is more like a caring relative or friend; what would you think of a close, intimate relative who helped you through a crisis, and then sent you a bill for her services?
*******
Spiritual Teachers
*******
It is true that some have not yet reached a level of mind (consciousness) in which their fully independent functioning is reliable. That is why there are spiritual teachers-- a calling which I have also received.
But it is absolutely crucial for a real spiritual teacher to love her students. A genuine spiritual teacher should never force her students, although she might strongly encourage them to boost their spirituality in showing them a more honorable Way of living. Still, any teaching that she gives to them should be given freely, as she has herself received it freely from the cosmic Mind. It is never appropriate for a spiritual teacher to "sell" or "vend" spirituality as if it were beans, and she a seller at a market. This degrades spirituality, making of it an "economic" commodity.
A genuine spiritual teacher will also never take advantage of students, supporting a negative selfesteem. Instead, she will always emphasize that each student is likely already doing her best, although there might be room for improvement. She will be free with her praise and positive reinforcement, encouraging and uplifting students.
She will never imply that those who do not understand, or "conform to the church," are damned forever. For Love never damns anyone, ever; if a person is condemned, it is by her own conscience. Love simply waits for her to outgrow deeply flawed and very negative selfesteem.
So, while people might, and often do, need some guidance, the spiritual teacher will always present it in Love, as a teaching or subteaching of Love. Love challenges us to change,and this is a good thing; so, the spiritual teacher must often challenge her students to improve their lives. But she never does so in a domineering, intrusive, invasive, or unloving manner. She presents the facts, often powerfully; but she then waits for the student's own conscience to change that student. As a teacher, she can accelerate, but never initiate, the spiritual growth of another adult.
Where she sees errors, especially those that might affect a group of other students, she will, and must, speak up. But she will always do so with Love and compassion, and she will always emphasize only the teachings and actions of Love-- kindness, goodness, service, friendship, other-centeredness, compassion, ahimsa (harmlessness or non-injury) and related qualities.
The spiritual teacher never "pushes the bird from the nest" prematurely, but always recognizes the God-given right for any individual, any adult, to make her own spiritual decisions. She holds the freedom of independent thinking as sacred, and would never do anything, even in giving needed guidance, to violate this basic freedom.
She would heartily recommend against the embrace of any kind of fundamentalist religion, never standing by in complacency and dismissing the religion as her student's "karma." For we are here, we are created, to aid and assist each other. And for a spiritual teacher voluntarily or silently to watch her student enter a fundamentalist mindset without objection would be like allowing a five-year-old to play with sharp razors in the name of "her freedom," or, worse, in the name of "karma."
No loving adult, in her right mind, would permit this; for she would be prohibited by Love acting through her heart.
The enlightened know that to love each other, and ourselves, is the very reason that we exist. She can never turn away from Love, even in the face of great karma. She does not believe in apathy; so, she is determined to reduce human and other suffering whenever and wherever she finds it. In a sad world such as ours, her work is cut out for her!
It is true that one must experience an "ego" before one can transcend it.
This has been pointed out several billion times in the history of
spirituality-- often, by people who are looking to justify or rationalize egobased behavior. The very job or calling of the spiritual teacher is to point people away from the illusionself or ego. So, while she is always acutely aware that egotranscendence does not occur in minutes, but usually requires years if not decades, the teacher is not here, does not exist, to make the ego comfortable. She does not present it as "the enemy," but as a teacher, here to guide us away from itself.
Re "accountability and responsibility," no, these are not evolved. They are intrinsic to every mind; even those which are very undeveloped do bear responsibility for any action in which they voluntarily participate.
Anything done deliberately, by any mind, generates this responsibility.
Even the most regressive and backwards minds do create karma, due to the fact that they are responsible for any behavior followed with intention.
This karma, and its egotranscendence is often discovered by the creation of egopain.
It is a spiritual error to expand the fine principles of Taoism into the complex and confusing "ultrataoism," which is a distortion that says that we have no control over anything, ever, at any time. If this were so, what would be the purpose of spiritual education? There would be none, and so, Jesus, the Buddha, and other great teachers would have totally wasted their time-- and everyone else's. While we do want to give up control, or the attempt to control, every situation, and allow the cosmic Mind to work through and within us, especially in life's most important matters, the universe is a "dance." It is like a chessgame, in which the cosmic Mind makes Its move, and then, we must make a move also, in response. God (Love) has arranged for this massive and complex "game" in order for us to grow and learn. Growing and learning could have no real meaning in a cosmos in which we did not make decisions or exercise a limited amount of selfcontrol.
We are not responsible for the actions or thoughts of other adults. We are not fully responsible for every activity within even our own bodies.
For, in a fair universe, We are responsible for only that which we can control. This means that we are responsible for our responses. (Easy:
"response" and "responsibility" both come from the same root.)
So, in final analysis, we are responsible for only our responses. If we can teach ourselves, or be taught, to respond in only Love to every contingency, then we have come to our "graduation" from the "school"" of earthly life.
It is true that, as you say, people who are stuck in cults or fundy religion are there due to their karma; I used to be one of them! But the true teacher never regards such benighted souls with apathy or complacence. Love moves her to reach out to them, to teach them.
Without Love, pure Taoism would create only "bumps on a log," waiting for things to occur, never initiating anything ever! This is an extreme, and the Way always moves us away from extremes, which can become virulently anti-spiritual (antiagapic, violating the principle of Love).
So, while cultivating trust in the interior cosmic Mind to care for all life, and for the totality of enlightenment towards all creatures, the enlightened does not see God (Love) as active outside of her, but inside her. Love lives and moves through her, and within her.
This is no attempt futilely to "add to God." You simply cannot "add" to the Infinite. Instead, the spiritual outreach of a teacher is like preparing a garden filled with beautiful flowers. Without care, the garden turns to weeds, and the flower-petals drop off. All you have is a patch of muck and mud. Caring for a student is like cooperating with Mind, with nature, not trying to "add to" It. A student can grow, like a flower, without nurturing; but a flower which receives care has many more petals, is more fragrant, and more beautiful.
*******
It is true that some have not yet reached a level of mind (consciousness) in which their fully independent functioning is reliable. That is why there are spiritual teachers-- a calling which I have also received.
But it is absolutely crucial for a real spiritual teacher to love her students. A genuine spiritual teacher should never force her students, although she might strongly encourage them to boost their spirituality in showing them a more honorable Way of living. Still, any teaching that she gives to them should be given freely, as she has herself received it freely from the cosmic Mind. It is never appropriate for a spiritual teacher to "sell" or "vend" spirituality as if it were beans, and she a seller at a market. This degrades spirituality, making of it an "economic" commodity.
A genuine spiritual teacher will also never take advantage of students, supporting a negative selfesteem. Instead, she will always emphasize that each student is likely already doing her best, although there might be room for improvement. She will be free with her praise and positive reinforcement, encouraging and uplifting students.
She will never imply that those who do not understand, or "conform to the church," are damned forever. For Love never damns anyone, ever; if a person is condemned, it is by her own conscience. Love simply waits for her to outgrow deeply flawed and very negative selfesteem.
So, while people might, and often do, need some guidance, the spiritual teacher will always present it in Love, as a teaching or subteaching of Love. Love challenges us to change,and this is a good thing; so, the spiritual teacher must often challenge her students to improve their lives. But she never does so in a domineering, intrusive, invasive, or unloving manner. She presents the facts, often powerfully; but she then waits for the student's own conscience to change that student. As a teacher, she can accelerate, but never initiate, the spiritual growth of another adult.
Where she sees errors, especially those that might affect a group of other students, she will, and must, speak up. But she will always do so with Love and compassion, and she will always emphasize only the teachings and actions of Love-- kindness, goodness, service, friendship, other-centeredness, compassion, ahimsa (harmlessness or non-injury) and related qualities.
The spiritual teacher never "pushes the bird from the nest" prematurely, but always recognizes the God-given right for any individual, any adult, to make her own spiritual decisions. She holds the freedom of independent thinking as sacred, and would never do anything, even in giving needed guidance, to violate this basic freedom.
She would heartily recommend against the embrace of any kind of fundamentalist religion, never standing by in complacency and dismissing the religion as her student's "karma." For we are here, we are created, to aid and assist each other. And for a spiritual teacher voluntarily or silently to watch her student enter a fundamentalist mindset without objection would be like allowing a five-year-old to play with sharp razors in the name of "her freedom," or, worse, in the name of "karma."
No loving adult, in her right mind, would permit this; for she would be prohibited by Love acting through her heart.
The enlightened know that to love each other, and ourselves, is the very reason that we exist. She can never turn away from Love, even in the face of great karma. She does not believe in apathy; so, she is determined to reduce human and other suffering whenever and wherever she finds it. In a sad world such as ours, her work is cut out for her!
It is true that one must experience an "ego" before one can transcend it.
This has been pointed out several billion times in the history of
spirituality-- often, by people who are looking to justify or rationalize egobased behavior. The very job or calling of the spiritual teacher is to point people away from the illusionself or ego. So, while she is always acutely aware that egotranscendence does not occur in minutes, but usually requires years if not decades, the teacher is not here, does not exist, to make the ego comfortable. She does not present it as "the enemy," but as a teacher, here to guide us away from itself.
Re "accountability and responsibility," no, these are not evolved. They are intrinsic to every mind; even those which are very undeveloped do bear responsibility for any action in which they voluntarily participate.
Anything done deliberately, by any mind, generates this responsibility.
Even the most regressive and backwards minds do create karma, due to the fact that they are responsible for any behavior followed with intention.
This karma, and its egotranscendence is often discovered by the creation of egopain.
It is a spiritual error to expand the fine principles of Taoism into the complex and confusing "ultrataoism," which is a distortion that says that we have no control over anything, ever, at any time. If this were so, what would be the purpose of spiritual education? There would be none, and so, Jesus, the Buddha, and other great teachers would have totally wasted their time-- and everyone else's. While we do want to give up control, or the attempt to control, every situation, and allow the cosmic Mind to work through and within us, especially in life's most important matters, the universe is a "dance." It is like a chessgame, in which the cosmic Mind makes Its move, and then, we must make a move also, in response. God (Love) has arranged for this massive and complex "game" in order for us to grow and learn. Growing and learning could have no real meaning in a cosmos in which we did not make decisions or exercise a limited amount of selfcontrol.
We are not responsible for the actions or thoughts of other adults. We are not fully responsible for every activity within even our own bodies.
For, in a fair universe, We are responsible for only that which we can control. This means that we are responsible for our responses. (Easy:
"response" and "responsibility" both come from the same root.)
So, in final analysis, we are responsible for only our responses. If we can teach ourselves, or be taught, to respond in only Love to every contingency, then we have come to our "graduation" from the "school"" of earthly life.
It is true that, as you say, people who are stuck in cults or fundy religion are there due to their karma; I used to be one of them! But the true teacher never regards such benighted souls with apathy or complacence. Love moves her to reach out to them, to teach them.
Without Love, pure Taoism would create only "bumps on a log," waiting for things to occur, never initiating anything ever! This is an extreme, and the Way always moves us away from extremes, which can become virulently anti-spiritual (antiagapic, violating the principle of Love).
So, while cultivating trust in the interior cosmic Mind to care for all life, and for the totality of enlightenment towards all creatures, the enlightened does not see God (Love) as active outside of her, but inside her. Love lives and moves through her, and within her.
This is no attempt futilely to "add to God." You simply cannot "add" to the Infinite. Instead, the spiritual outreach of a teacher is like preparing a garden filled with beautiful flowers. Without care, the garden turns to weeds, and the flower-petals drop off. All you have is a patch of muck and mud. Caring for a student is like cooperating with Mind, with nature, not trying to "add to" It. A student can grow, like a flower, without nurturing; but a flower which receives care has many more petals, is more fragrant, and more beautiful.
*******
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Fame and Publicity
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There is here zero interest in any kind of publicity. For Jesus made it crystalclear in his famous "Sermon on the Mount" that, if a person obtains "rewards" through any form of publicity, her "rewards" with "the Father" (good karma, and afterlife-rewards) can be totally neutralized.
Giving up eternal rewards (good feelings, good selfesteem, good karma generally) in order to grab for fame on this nanoplanet is like trading in gold and platinum for mud.:) Actually, if Jesus is right-- and no one would know better-- fame is one of the worst possible outcomes for a spiritual teacher!
I do appreciate your desire to publicize a message that would aid many, many people on this sick little planet. The challenge is to make the message wellknown but to keep the messenger out of the process.:) So, if you have any ideas, they are being actively sought!:)
*******
There is here zero interest in any kind of publicity. For Jesus made it crystalclear in his famous "Sermon on the Mount" that, if a person obtains "rewards" through any form of publicity, her "rewards" with "the Father" (good karma, and afterlife-rewards) can be totally neutralized.
Giving up eternal rewards (good feelings, good selfesteem, good karma generally) in order to grab for fame on this nanoplanet is like trading in gold and platinum for mud.:) Actually, if Jesus is right-- and no one would know better-- fame is one of the worst possible outcomes for a spiritual teacher!
I do appreciate your desire to publicize a message that would aid many, many people on this sick little planet. The challenge is to make the message wellknown but to keep the messenger out of the process.:) So, if you have any ideas, they are being actively sought!:)
*******
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Ministry and Bucks
*******
It is an obscenity with what facility greed can manifest even among
"spiritual" pursuits. Many "ministries," and "teachers," are "in the
biz" of spirituality for the sake of greed and fame.
These are invalid reasons, and no one should ever present herself as a
loving, selfless being who has a "service" or "ministry" whose true goal
is money. Spirituality is holy, and is not a mere "commodity," to be
sold like beans or oranges.
Spirituality is priceless. No price can ever be set on a good teaching.
The truly great masters of history, Jesus and the Buddha, never charged,
in any historical record, for any of their sermons.
This does not imply that a modern spiritual teacher cannot receive
Love-donations. But it does imply that any attempt to put a price on, or
to sell, spiritual wisdom is immoral. Spiritual teachers, if they are
the real thing, must and should always be willing to give freely of their
time and energy. Time is a gift from the cosmos, and to try to "profit"
on selling time is a simple absurdity. So-called "spiritual teachers"
who charge for their time are trying to rip off people-- often, those in
most need.
Some "spiritual teachers" are angry because Love Ministries does not
charge anything for its educational work. All lectures, seminars, and
personal consultations of Love Ministries are always given freely, or for
a Love-donation. Other ministries might not like this, because they feel
"criticized" by this policy. Indeed, some of them are operating out of
greed.
But it is not our intent to criticize. It is our intent simply to follow
the best examples possible-- Jesus and the Buddha, and other great
spiritual giants, who did not charge for their spiritual work. We must
follow their lead wherever it takes us, no matter what other "spiritual
teachers" say or do!
*******
It is an obscenity with what facility greed can manifest even among
"spiritual" pursuits. Many "ministries," and "teachers," are "in the
biz" of spirituality for the sake of greed and fame.
These are invalid reasons, and no one should ever present herself as a
loving, selfless being who has a "service" or "ministry" whose true goal
is money. Spirituality is holy, and is not a mere "commodity," to be
sold like beans or oranges.
Spirituality is priceless. No price can ever be set on a good teaching.
The truly great masters of history, Jesus and the Buddha, never charged,
in any historical record, for any of their sermons.
This does not imply that a modern spiritual teacher cannot receive
Love-donations. But it does imply that any attempt to put a price on, or
to sell, spiritual wisdom is immoral. Spiritual teachers, if they are
the real thing, must and should always be willing to give freely of their
time and energy. Time is a gift from the cosmos, and to try to "profit"
on selling time is a simple absurdity. So-called "spiritual teachers"
who charge for their time are trying to rip off people-- often, those in
most need.
Some "spiritual teachers" are angry because Love Ministries does not
charge anything for its educational work. All lectures, seminars, and
personal consultations of Love Ministries are always given freely, or for
a Love-donation. Other ministries might not like this, because they feel
"criticized" by this policy. Indeed, some of them are operating out of
greed.
But it is not our intent to criticize. It is our intent simply to follow
the best examples possible-- Jesus and the Buddha, and other great
spiritual giants, who did not charge for their spiritual work. We must
follow their lead wherever it takes us, no matter what other "spiritual
teachers" say or do!
*******
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Spiritual Teachers and Egos
*******
The ego is not the "enemy" of the enlightened. Instead, it is her teacher. As part of the Mind, it is also the creation of the One, and so, has a valid reason for existence.
Still, yielding to its domination (it is always wanting to control everything) is ignorance and darkness. So, especially in a spiritual teacher, we should look for the concealment of the ego, not its prideful display.
The ego is a small but real part of the identity of the Mind. Specifically, it is the "role" that Mind is playing in the "stageplay" of this earthly life. Everyone, including the sage, has one. But the sage, in wisdom, conquers or overcomes her ego with Love.
That means that she reidentifies with the Spirit of Love, or Lovemind. This process begins with a de-identification vis a vis the ego. She says, "I am not just this body," and, "I am not the identity that adheres to, or within, this body. I am not the timebased ego."
Gradually, her identity is transformed: "I am not a physical body" grows into, "I am a nonphysical mind." In time, that evolves into, "I am not just this conscious mind, but an ancient Mind that has lived for many ages-- a Soul." With the passage of more time, this realization blossoms into, "This Soul is part of the Mind of the One. So, It is Love Itself. I am an incarnation of Love, of the One."
This does not lead to selfconscious pride; if the thought leads there, it is anti-enlightenment. This realization leads to the egoless state. It is full enlightenment. This is becoming a sage, or master.
But, free of ego, and free of the need to manipulate others to approve of her (receiving her validation from within only) the sage or master would never, could never, claim to be a "sage" or "master." Thus, you can rest assured that anyone who ever claims to be any sort of "master" is working from an unhealthy ego; she is proving her absence of true masterhood. For one major mark of a master is always her humility. The unenlightened is always so very insecure that she feels that she cannot "afford" humility, and so, is very rarely humble.
So, any so-called "spiritual teacher" who puts herself "on display" is a fraud and a phony. Perhaps she is not simply deceiving, but selfdeceived as well. But any "teacher" who talks about herself rather than the Way is fake. You need to run, not walk, in the opposite direction!
Specifically, any teacher who tries to impress people with her "famous" students, or her "many" students is only pretending. The greatest masters in all human history, Jesus and Gautama (the Buddha(, did not value their disciples in terms of numbers. And anyone who tries to show you how "important" she is by saying that she has "thousands" of followers is only childishly, and ignorantly, selfdisplaying the ego.
Anyone who boasts of how "well-known" she is, how "famous," has also missed the entire point of enlightenment, and denied it. She is suffering from one of the most serious diseases in the whole of mysticism-- egotism. It is a disease that makes the pathetic ego-selfesteem feel better for a few minutes, but it seriously wounds the
Soulmind.
A teacher, in our world, must use an egoname. Jesus, Gautama, and other fine mystics used them. But, in the life of a true teacher, the ego or name must never be the center of the teaching, or the work. Any "teacher" who boasts or brags about her "many incarnations," and any teacher who amusingly claims to have been great beings from the past is laughable from a spiritual perspective. She is also quite pathetic. And she is certainly not enlightened-- not even close!
*******
The ego is not the "enemy" of the enlightened. Instead, it is her teacher. As part of the Mind, it is also the creation of the One, and so, has a valid reason for existence.
Still, yielding to its domination (it is always wanting to control everything) is ignorance and darkness. So, especially in a spiritual teacher, we should look for the concealment of the ego, not its prideful display.
The ego is a small but real part of the identity of the Mind. Specifically, it is the "role" that Mind is playing in the "stageplay" of this earthly life. Everyone, including the sage, has one. But the sage, in wisdom, conquers or overcomes her ego with Love.
That means that she reidentifies with the Spirit of Love, or Lovemind. This process begins with a de-identification vis a vis the ego. She says, "I am not just this body," and, "I am not the identity that adheres to, or within, this body. I am not the timebased ego."
Gradually, her identity is transformed: "I am not a physical body" grows into, "I am a nonphysical mind." In time, that evolves into, "I am not just this conscious mind, but an ancient Mind that has lived for many ages-- a Soul." With the passage of more time, this realization blossoms into, "This Soul is part of the Mind of the One. So, It is Love Itself. I am an incarnation of Love, of the One."
This does not lead to selfconscious pride; if the thought leads there, it is anti-enlightenment. This realization leads to the egoless state. It is full enlightenment. This is becoming a sage, or master.
But, free of ego, and free of the need to manipulate others to approve of her (receiving her validation from within only) the sage or master would never, could never, claim to be a "sage" or "master." Thus, you can rest assured that anyone who ever claims to be any sort of "master" is working from an unhealthy ego; she is proving her absence of true masterhood. For one major mark of a master is always her humility. The unenlightened is always so very insecure that she feels that she cannot "afford" humility, and so, is very rarely humble.
So, any so-called "spiritual teacher" who puts herself "on display" is a fraud and a phony. Perhaps she is not simply deceiving, but selfdeceived as well. But any "teacher" who talks about herself rather than the Way is fake. You need to run, not walk, in the opposite direction!
Specifically, any teacher who tries to impress people with her "famous" students, or her "many" students is only pretending. The greatest masters in all human history, Jesus and Gautama (the Buddha(, did not value their disciples in terms of numbers. And anyone who tries to show you how "important" she is by saying that she has "thousands" of followers is only childishly, and ignorantly, selfdisplaying the ego.
Anyone who boasts of how "well-known" she is, how "famous," has also missed the entire point of enlightenment, and denied it. She is suffering from one of the most serious diseases in the whole of mysticism-- egotism. It is a disease that makes the pathetic ego-selfesteem feel better for a few minutes, but it seriously wounds the
Soulmind.
A teacher, in our world, must use an egoname. Jesus, Gautama, and other fine mystics used them. But, in the life of a true teacher, the ego or name must never be the center of the teaching, or the work. Any "teacher" who boasts or brags about her "many incarnations," and any teacher who amusingly claims to have been great beings from the past is laughable from a spiritual perspective. She is also quite pathetic. And she is certainly not enlightened-- not even close!
*******
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Jesus and Immortality
*******
Jesus was an awakened, illuminated, and enlightened man. The great psychologist Dr. Carl Jung believed that the Gospel-stories were allegory, not literal history. As fundies, of course, we were dogmatically locked into the straight-jacket of insisting that every word was literal history.
But legends grow like weeds, especially around amazing or unusual people. Sometimes, these mythologies have nothing to do with "real" or literal events. It is not necessary to be dogmatic about this issue. Personally, a "middle of the road" approach is preferred here: Certain events and descriptions in the Gospels might well be symbolic legends, and others might well be literal, or have had a foundation in an actual event.
But still, it would be a terrible mistake (often made by fundies) to confuse Gospel writers with the modern definition of the word "historians." They often wrote, not to be "accurate" in the literal and scientific modern sense, but to get across spiritual lessons. At times, most ancient writers could not have cared less whether a described event actually, literally occurred. The important thing to them was not historical accuracy, but the lessons.
We know for certain that legends grew up around other "celestial" or spiritual messengers and teachers. It is said that the Buddha, for example, was "born of a virgin," and that he wrestled with Mara, the tempter, for forty days and nights before his enlightenment. But Buddhist scholars and experts universally agree that these were symbolic statements. They indicated a special being of light who recognized that he was not a body, but a mind (Soul). That is why great teachers are often divided from the rest of us by a story re parthenogenesis (birth from a virgin).
So, we need not believe in the literal virgin-birth to follow, understand, or love Jesus as a master, a "son of God." Nor, by the way, need we disbelieve. We can simply keep an open mind. Unlike the cults, people of sophisticated spirituality do not need "black and white," simple "yes or no" answers to every question.
In fact, recognition of Jesus' full humanity actually brings him closer to "home," as he was truly "one of us." The very ancient Christian formula said that he was "true God and true man." He was a man who realized that his true or higher Self was an immortal, non-physical Soul. At Its core, this Soul was the Spirit, God, or Love. In fact, he directed this Soul to become an incarnation or perfect reflection of Love
(God).
He was not a freak, a one-of-a-kind forever being. Instead, his early disciple got it right when he said, "Christ died for you, leaving you a model to follow his footsteps closely." So, our most active Love for Christ lies not in worshipping his human form, but in trying honestly to follow him, as he called upon people to do. In fact, he had a habit of saying, "Follow Me."
So, as he said, "The things that I do, you also will do-- and even things greater than these." So, do we see Jesus as God?
Yes, for he said the perennial statement of the mystic. He said, "I and the Father are one." But if Jesus is a model, not a freak, it implies that, deep down, in our minds, in the deep Unconscious, we are also unified with the great perfect Mind (Spirit) called "God." Indeed, like Jesus, we all have a Lovemind or Love-nature "buried" deep within the "unconscious" Mind. Our challenge is to tap this interior Christ-nature, this Christ-spirit, and to manifest Its Love in our world.
Ancient Christians such as Marcion (about 140 CE) clearly distinguished between "Jesus" the man and "Christ" the Spirit. Jesus the historical man was born, lived, and died. But Christ the everlasting Spirit lived through that death; as a Soul, he proved that death is a survivable experience. It was among his more important lessons: "I will die," he said in effect, "and I will come back to my friends and prove that you -- and we all -- survive death. Death is not the end."
And of course, his body (Jesus) did die. But his enlightened Soul (Christ) did not. (Indeed, in his Soul he had become the Mind of God, deep within him as It is within you and me, and all beings of Love.)
So, in our lives, "Jesus Christ" is a human image of the God beyond ordinary imagination, and beyond even symbols. In Jesus, we can see the "face of God," the full human and divine expressions of Love.
As you can see here, the knowing that God is Love changes everything. Then, we do not have the traditional difficulties of the history of theology. We do not have to explain how Jesus and God-- two different "persons"-- are "one," as Jesus declared. Love lives in your heart, as It did in the heart of Jesus. A human mind can "become one" with Love by living Its principles, for Love is not "another person." This very simply explains such profound mysteries as the "oneness" of Jesus and God.
Since Jesus was a model, we are expected to "follow" him, to live as he lived, and to act and behave with Love towards even our "enemies," again, as he said. For we, like him, are potentially "one with" God. God is not another "person" (this word means "mask") in outer space. God is the very deep Lovemind (Mind filled with only Love, overflowing with Love) at the core of all minds. It is a shared or collective Mind, the very deepest Unconscious. The entire "material, external, physical" universe is an expression of the Mind of God.
We usually live our everyday lives in a kind of sleep, or unawareness of spiritual ideas. That is why, in the symbolic book of Genesis, "Jehovah" (the principle of ignorance) put "Adam" to sleep, and the record never says that Adam ever woke up. Human history begins after Adam is put to sleep by the god of ignorance, Jehovah. Only later does the God of Love come to us, and awaken us. ("Awakening" is a synonym for "enlightenment.")
Again, a whole library could be written to answer your most profound inquiry. Several books have been written here about the deep mysteries of God and human minds, and the many relationships and interactions among them.
Your second question concerns the afterlife. That there is an afterlife is what gives deeper meaning to our actions and lives here on earth. For earth is a place of visitors, but no one really "lives" here.
For years, we were in total denial of death. As Jehovah's Witnesses, we suffered from a severe form of "thanatophobia," or death-terror. But, for the first time in history, tens of thousands of people have actually died, and biomedical technology has made it possible to literally bring them back from the dead. (See the breakthrough work, by Dr. Raymond Moody, Life After Life. It can be found at any bookstore, in a used paperback edition.) Medical interviews have proved, beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt, that these people continued as minds after their bodies were heart-dead and brain-dead. (They were truly clinically dead. To say that they had a "near-death experience is simply a way of giving in to sixteenth-century materialism, which denies survival.) Of course, Jehovah's Witnesses and materialists dismiss the afterlife because, for other reasons, they do not want to believe in it. They say that it is all brain-induced hallucination. But this idea must be wrong, for if you give ten people a powerful drug, such as lsd, you will have ten very different experiences; for the cells and structures of different brains are very different. But many thousands have died and returned with accounts of exactly the same experience. I can attest to this truth, for I have died twice.
How many people would have to return from a country called "Russia," where you have never personally visited, before you would believe that this country really existed? It is similar with the afterlife.
Antique materialism, and Jehovah's Witnesses, claim that all thought, and consciousness, originate in the physical brain. Modern medicine and science now question this dogma. The famous neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles said that the brain was merely the "switchboard" for a non-physical mind (Soul). People have been able to think even after huge portions of their physical brains have been destroyed in accidents.
Immortality is one of the clearest teachings of the Christian Scriptures. To limit this to 144,000, based on a literal interpretation of a verse in Revelation (14:1), inside the teaching that the entire book of Revelation is symbolic, does not make consistent good sense.
Again, entire libraries have been written on this most captivating subject, so they cannot all be adequately summarized here. Since cults keep their members in enforced ignorance, discouraging reading, I take the opposite tact: Read everything! As a free and independent adult, you can choose what you want to believe, and know, and need not fear "influence" by books. Books cannot harm you; that is simply a superstition designed to keep people in ignorance.
Much, much more to come later, my friend. In fact, would you like to read one of my other books? If so, simply say the word, for teaching and learning were the two reasons that I was born.:)
*******
Jesus was an awakened, illuminated, and enlightened man. The great psychologist Dr. Carl Jung believed that the Gospel-stories were allegory, not literal history. As fundies, of course, we were dogmatically locked into the straight-jacket of insisting that every word was literal history.
But legends grow like weeds, especially around amazing or unusual people. Sometimes, these mythologies have nothing to do with "real" or literal events. It is not necessary to be dogmatic about this issue. Personally, a "middle of the road" approach is preferred here: Certain events and descriptions in the Gospels might well be symbolic legends, and others might well be literal, or have had a foundation in an actual event.
But still, it would be a terrible mistake (often made by fundies) to confuse Gospel writers with the modern definition of the word "historians." They often wrote, not to be "accurate" in the literal and scientific modern sense, but to get across spiritual lessons. At times, most ancient writers could not have cared less whether a described event actually, literally occurred. The important thing to them was not historical accuracy, but the lessons.
We know for certain that legends grew up around other "celestial" or spiritual messengers and teachers. It is said that the Buddha, for example, was "born of a virgin," and that he wrestled with Mara, the tempter, for forty days and nights before his enlightenment. But Buddhist scholars and experts universally agree that these were symbolic statements. They indicated a special being of light who recognized that he was not a body, but a mind (Soul). That is why great teachers are often divided from the rest of us by a story re parthenogenesis (birth from a virgin).
So, we need not believe in the literal virgin-birth to follow, understand, or love Jesus as a master, a "son of God." Nor, by the way, need we disbelieve. We can simply keep an open mind. Unlike the cults, people of sophisticated spirituality do not need "black and white," simple "yes or no" answers to every question.
In fact, recognition of Jesus' full humanity actually brings him closer to "home," as he was truly "one of us." The very ancient Christian formula said that he was "true God and true man." He was a man who realized that his true or higher Self was an immortal, non-physical Soul. At Its core, this Soul was the Spirit, God, or Love. In fact, he directed this Soul to become an incarnation or perfect reflection of Love
(God).
He was not a freak, a one-of-a-kind forever being. Instead, his early disciple got it right when he said, "Christ died for you, leaving you a model to follow his footsteps closely." So, our most active Love for Christ lies not in worshipping his human form, but in trying honestly to follow him, as he called upon people to do. In fact, he had a habit of saying, "Follow Me."
So, as he said, "The things that I do, you also will do-- and even things greater than these." So, do we see Jesus as God?
Yes, for he said the perennial statement of the mystic. He said, "I and the Father are one." But if Jesus is a model, not a freak, it implies that, deep down, in our minds, in the deep Unconscious, we are also unified with the great perfect Mind (Spirit) called "God." Indeed, like Jesus, we all have a Lovemind or Love-nature "buried" deep within the "unconscious" Mind. Our challenge is to tap this interior Christ-nature, this Christ-spirit, and to manifest Its Love in our world.
Ancient Christians such as Marcion (about 140 CE) clearly distinguished between "Jesus" the man and "Christ" the Spirit. Jesus the historical man was born, lived, and died. But Christ the everlasting Spirit lived through that death; as a Soul, he proved that death is a survivable experience. It was among his more important lessons: "I will die," he said in effect, "and I will come back to my friends and prove that you -- and we all -- survive death. Death is not the end."
And of course, his body (Jesus) did die. But his enlightened Soul (Christ) did not. (Indeed, in his Soul he had become the Mind of God, deep within him as It is within you and me, and all beings of Love.)
So, in our lives, "Jesus Christ" is a human image of the God beyond ordinary imagination, and beyond even symbols. In Jesus, we can see the "face of God," the full human and divine expressions of Love.
As you can see here, the knowing that God is Love changes everything. Then, we do not have the traditional difficulties of the history of theology. We do not have to explain how Jesus and God-- two different "persons"-- are "one," as Jesus declared. Love lives in your heart, as It did in the heart of Jesus. A human mind can "become one" with Love by living Its principles, for Love is not "another person." This very simply explains such profound mysteries as the "oneness" of Jesus and God.
Since Jesus was a model, we are expected to "follow" him, to live as he lived, and to act and behave with Love towards even our "enemies," again, as he said. For we, like him, are potentially "one with" God. God is not another "person" (this word means "mask") in outer space. God is the very deep Lovemind (Mind filled with only Love, overflowing with Love) at the core of all minds. It is a shared or collective Mind, the very deepest Unconscious. The entire "material, external, physical" universe is an expression of the Mind of God.
We usually live our everyday lives in a kind of sleep, or unawareness of spiritual ideas. That is why, in the symbolic book of Genesis, "Jehovah" (the principle of ignorance) put "Adam" to sleep, and the record never says that Adam ever woke up. Human history begins after Adam is put to sleep by the god of ignorance, Jehovah. Only later does the God of Love come to us, and awaken us. ("Awakening" is a synonym for "enlightenment.")
Again, a whole library could be written to answer your most profound inquiry. Several books have been written here about the deep mysteries of God and human minds, and the many relationships and interactions among them.
Your second question concerns the afterlife. That there is an afterlife is what gives deeper meaning to our actions and lives here on earth. For earth is a place of visitors, but no one really "lives" here.
For years, we were in total denial of death. As Jehovah's Witnesses, we suffered from a severe form of "thanatophobia," or death-terror. But, for the first time in history, tens of thousands of people have actually died, and biomedical technology has made it possible to literally bring them back from the dead. (See the breakthrough work, by Dr. Raymond Moody, Life After Life. It can be found at any bookstore, in a used paperback edition.) Medical interviews have proved, beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt, that these people continued as minds after their bodies were heart-dead and brain-dead. (They were truly clinically dead. To say that they had a "near-death experience is simply a way of giving in to sixteenth-century materialism, which denies survival.) Of course, Jehovah's Witnesses and materialists dismiss the afterlife because, for other reasons, they do not want to believe in it. They say that it is all brain-induced hallucination. But this idea must be wrong, for if you give ten people a powerful drug, such as lsd, you will have ten very different experiences; for the cells and structures of different brains are very different. But many thousands have died and returned with accounts of exactly the same experience. I can attest to this truth, for I have died twice.
How many people would have to return from a country called "Russia," where you have never personally visited, before you would believe that this country really existed? It is similar with the afterlife.
Antique materialism, and Jehovah's Witnesses, claim that all thought, and consciousness, originate in the physical brain. Modern medicine and science now question this dogma. The famous neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles said that the brain was merely the "switchboard" for a non-physical mind (Soul). People have been able to think even after huge portions of their physical brains have been destroyed in accidents.
Immortality is one of the clearest teachings of the Christian Scriptures. To limit this to 144,000, based on a literal interpretation of a verse in Revelation (14:1), inside the teaching that the entire book of Revelation is symbolic, does not make consistent good sense.
Again, entire libraries have been written on this most captivating subject, so they cannot all be adequately summarized here. Since cults keep their members in enforced ignorance, discouraging reading, I take the opposite tact: Read everything! As a free and independent adult, you can choose what you want to believe, and know, and need not fear "influence" by books. Books cannot harm you; that is simply a superstition designed to keep people in ignorance.
Much, much more to come later, my friend. In fact, would you like to read one of my other books? If so, simply say the word, for teaching and learning were the two reasons that I was born.:)
*******
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