Walking
the Spiritual Path
By: Rev. Dr. William Wong
You've
just found "It"! You've
had the big "Oh Yea"! Or
maybe you had it once, lost "It" and
now you're returning to "It",
knowing "It" had been the right
road after all. At first, you're
happy just to have found the path. But,
after a while things can get confusing
- awfully confusing.
A seeker
is a student. We progress on our
way by accumulating and applying knowledge.
(Just the accumulation of it is not enough. You've
got to live the information 1) To see
it's validity and 2)
to attain the transformation promised
by the information). The problem
comes when the seeker's gaze meets with
the hundreds of esoteric teachers, schools
and philosophies. Which one(s)
is right? Can they all be right, could
some be deceptions? If Truth is Truth
then why isn't there one path to
Truth?
In essence,
you're back to the same problem religionists
face; which one is right. But the
Spiritual Seeker has an advantage over
the Religionist: The religious
person is not generally a student. The
religionist seeks mostly to worship,
to bow down before an immense deity and
supplicate their way to some anthropomorphic
paradise. The spiritual seeker
on the other hand is not merely looking
to worship, he's looking to bond; seeking
that which many religions have in their
teachings but have forgotten about -
to be one with the Creator. For
that end being a thrall (mindless slave),
bowed down in frightful worship accomplishes
nothing. Again, information and
application are the keys.
The
seeker is a student and is not making
a commitment to a "faith". He
has the leeway to take teachings from
a particular source and when he thinks
he's had enough of those teachings or,
when they stop ringing true to his heart,
he has the option of leaving. After
saying "Thank you for bringing me
this far", the seeker again searches
for new teachings. It's that simple. People
are like computers, the programming that
will work for one brand won't work for
another. In this instance the seeker
is writing his own program from scratch,
not just down loading someone else's
programming into his mind.
Many
insecure spiritual seekers need the comfort,
sameness and stability of a regimented
course of study. These seekers
become tied (shackled is more like it),
to "Living Masters". They
make a religionist's commitment to buy
lock, stock and barrel all of one teachers
philosophy to the exclusion of all others. Some
of these slaves see their way out. More
followers still remain thralls of those
teachers who seem to become more megalomaniacal
day by day. Teachers who insist
on chaining their students to themselves
have not passed their Satsushima. Satsushima
is a test of worthiness poised either
by oneself, one's family of one's rulers. In
believing they are "It" instead
of a path to the "It", they
become super control freaks needing constantly
to command, manipulate and be glorified. If
you've been on the path long enough then
you've seen teachers of great spiritual
promise turn into greedy materialistic
dictators.
From
these teachers, study their early work. See
what came from the heart. Leave
be their later thinking; you need to
walk the path free and alone. The
leg irons set on a spiritual seeker are
not locked in place by the teacher, they
are voluntarily locked in place by the
student! Don't lead yourself "into
temptation".
Listen
to teacher with small followings around
them; the ones with low or no overhead
to support; the ones who are happy to
be one of the many teachers you'll meet
on the path. These will answer
your questions, fine tune your philosophy
and practice and, see to your application
of them. Then such teachers will
be happy when you proceed onward and
away from them in your own direction.
It can't
be emphasized enough that in seeking
unity with the Creator you must stride
the path alone. While you may live
and apply principles from mainly one
school or teacher, you cannot attain
your goal believing and applying their
entire package to the exclusion of other
thought. Neither can you make your
advancement contingent on the advancement
of a "Master Teacher" or of
a group. You were born alone, your
spiritual path will be trod alone, your
attainment of mystical union will be
made alone.
Group
dynamics are deceptive; their energies
no matter how powerful are strictly three
dimensional and do not carry over into
the mystical realm. Period! The
use of group energy early on in seeking
is good as the group helps to strengthen
resolve and provide the examples of others
who are further along on the path, but;
after the seeker can walk instead of
crawl, the groups must be left behind
before they become an encumbrance to
advancement.
So what are
the keys to Mystical Union?
- Constant study
- constant application
- meditation
- prayer
- truthfulness with oneself
- avoiding spiritual codependency
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