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Chasing Shadows
I would like to say a few words about comparing
teachings and teachers in an attempt to progress along the (so-called)
Spiritual Path:
It can be interesting to read and hear about
different people's journeys into the Truth, how they got there and what they
saw along the way. It is when we believe that their path is the exact path
we too should follow and their life the one we must live that it can become
a problem.
I am going to liken joining the Spiritual Path
to a race. There is really no need to rush, but one's eagerness to get to
the end and to experience more can make it feel like there is. However, in
this race, everybody starts in a different place, the course they must take
is specific to them, and while the end point is the same for everybody, the
nature and experience of it is interpreted according to the experiences they
had along the way.
So, as you can see from the above, trying to
recreate what another has been through to further one's own development is
likely not going to help. In fact, it is like chasing shadows.
A few examples to make the point:
My own teacher, Barry Long, described his
driving force as being his love for Woman. He describes having a vision of
the woman he was with at the time, who he loved very much, and in this
vision she said she would reveal the truth to him of his love for her,
Woman. He was shown that Woman (the pure essence inside every woman) is love
and God itself personified. He later adopted the description 'The Master of
Love', as he was devoted to sharing his love for Woman in his teachings,
giving advice on how to live and love rightly.
My path, though involving following Barry Long's
teaching to the letter (as much as I was able, which is all anyone can do
with any path), was driven by a need to find a reason, and an end, to the
emotional pain and struggling I had experienced all my life. The discomfort
was caused by a stammer as well as other general difficulties (much later
identified as being due to Dyslexia). A major aspect of Barry's teaching is
to remain conscious and face and dissolve emotions, and living 'rightly'.
While I had some of the insights Barry described, I did not have the vision
described above as that was not my path.
Bernadette Roberts is a lady whose works I found
only very recently (start of 2011) as I entered (what she called) No-self.
Her journey involved several years living the life of a Catholic Nun, and it
was her love of God that was her driving force. However, it was shown to her
early on in a vision that her path lay through 'Christ' specifically. Not
understanding what this meant, a life of Christian contemplation began as
she studied the works of the saints. Her Enlightenment was her union with
God. Her No-self was her 'self' stepping aside and her body being
personified by the true essence of Christ.
Then I have a good friend, Dr Nitin Trasi. Nitin
spent his life (until very recently) in India, where there are many
spiritual teachers. He describes how he was curious and spent time asking
questions of the teachers around. Over time he found he was able to answer
his own questions, and at some point in time noticed he was 'Enlightened'.
As time past, he describes a gradual unveiling of Liberation.
__________________________
I hope you can see from the above that the paths
are very different, and the experiences they went through would have been
poles apart if they were ever to compare. So please do not think that having
different experiences from another in itself means they are any more or less
advanced than you. Comparing and making judgments of where you are, or where
someone else is, whether based on your own experience or on other stuff you
have heard or read, is part of the mind games and will only distract you
from your own path. (Of course, in truth, there is no straying from the path
really, and there is no rush - so what's wrong with 'straying' anyway - but
the point is there).
Thank you
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