spiritual growth
Three Spiritual Paths
“Your spiritual path isn’t always just something you find, you started it the moment you took your first breath, and ever since you’re been getting closer and closer to remembering who you truly are!” — Martin R. Lemieux
(The following is from a guest writer)
The Paths Of Ascension
In the School of Life there are three main categories of spiritual paths of ascension going up from life on a planet such as Earth, and each individual one may have supplemental variations of the basic path. The experience of life will teach us the laws of the path we are working on, if we but take the time to listen to what life is trying to teach us. Few listen, and thus many repeat life situations over and over, again and again. The first time a lesson is presented it comes as easily as a gentle breeze. But if it is not heeded, succeeding presentations will be harder and harder until the being understands both the lesson and that Creation is the ultimate judge of right and wrong action. Creation’s momentums moving through eternity will go on, seemingly with or without us, as we choose. Although it is Creation’s intent that you learn life’s lessons, you may choose how long it takes and how strongly they must be presented in order to register. It is interesting how we fight life’s lessons, even though the life Creation is intent upon giving us is far more wonderful and marvelous than our wildest dreams.
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When I'm 64
“When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?”
‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ — The Beatles
I turned 64 last week. Is that old? I don’t think so; at least I don’t feel that way. I started this blog four years ago on my birthday thinking that maybe someone of my age would have something wise, relevant, and intriguing to communicate to … whoever, out there in the world. Not sure if I have proved that in any way whatsoever, but at least I have the opportunity to throw a bunch of stuff on the wall and see if anything actually sticks. I guess that would be up to you to decide all that, huh?
We all live our lives in relatively insulated bubbles of reality and illusion, sometimes wondering who we are, where we came from, what we’re doing here, and where we could be going. But mostly we carry on with our lives day to day, reflecting on how good or bad yesterday was, trying to deal with the challenges of the present, and hoping tomorrow’s sun will shine brighter. At times it seems life doesn’t give us the tools to understand what we should be doing in any given moment. Because oddly, the moment is all we ever really have, isn’t it? From moment to moment we traverse through this labyrinth of reality-illusion, with time continuously raging on in a totally relentless manner. Meaning there are no moments we can latch on to. For they are gone … in a moment. Moment by moment. So, what to do in each moment? …
A Spiritual Tribute
“You, a traveler on the road to life, but no longer afraid of death, no longer afraid of life. Knowing who you are and what you are about, perhaps even understanding what you did that suckered you into incarnating here on this most insignificant planet in a very plain galaxy, far from home and the mainstream of life…” — Bruce K. Avenell
An amazing spiritual being who I was lucky enough to know for almost 45 years passed from the physical and into the spiritual just a little more than six weeks ago. He left behind his failing physical vehicle so he could once again fly among the stars, where he seemed to truly belong. This posting will not be specifically about him, for I could not do him much justice in all that. I will leave that business to others. No, it will be about what he has left behind. And by left behind, his many wise writings and teachings for us to read, ponder, and consider. I will only quote excerpts from some of them, and leave it up to you in searching out anything more that may interest you about him and his teachings.
“Understand, this place is not our home. The being you are did not grow to the human level in the very short time that the planet Earth has been hospitable to this physical human life form. We are all wanderers in the great school of life. Some wander aimlessly, not realizing at all they are in a school. Some are assigned here to learn this. All in school, all learning. All learning to be yourself.
Onward & Upward
“History admires the wise, but it elevates the brave.” — Edmund Morris
When I first began my spiritual search more than 45 years ago, I did not really know what I was looking for. Although a part of me certainly tried to act like I did. So much of what I felt was going on with me didn’t really seem to have a basis in any kind of physical reality. I guess that’s a part of why I was so confused and lost as I stumbled along through my life path.
Over these many years I feel I’ve gained a perspective that puts much of that in its proper place. As I have added tools to my spiritual toolbox over that time, it is much easier to pause and look back at all the illusionary misperceptions that drove my direction in life. And the amazing thing about all that wasn’t just necessarily that the direction was off, but that my whole orientation to my path was completely off. Let me explain.
First, a little terminology education for all of you, so you all understand what I’m actually talking about. Not that you’re not intelligent to understand. Just extending the courtesy to you so you can learn the vocabulary of the word values I’m using. Hell, it took me years to really understand what this meant myself, so here goes.
The God Complex
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” — Lao Tzu
Why do we need heroes? Why do we need to worship? Why does it seem we always need to have someone to look up to? What is all that?
I think human beings are too easily brainwashed. We seem too insecure in ourselves and we look to others for validation and approval. That opens the door for others to take advantage of us. We seem to need a Daddy and a Mommy, and a God or Gods, to tell us what to do, and/or let us know we are okay, and/or just be someone we need to admire. Because they are greater than us, since we are so unworthy?
I feel we live in a world of many illusions. And this strong need for someone or something outside ourselves to ease our inside insecurities is one of the grandest illusions of all. We need to be free of hero worship, guru traps, and prophet perversions. They are pieces of this monumental illusion that leads us away from our own spiritual freedom.
Look around. It is everywhere. Our celebrity society, with its movie stars, sports stars, political stars, business stars, religious stars, media stars, stars everywhere in all forms. We promote them in all types of mediums, and joist them high on their pedestals. For they know better than us. And we know nothing. Right?
Vehicles & Tools
“I have come to believe that there are infinite passageways out of the shadows, infinite vehicles to transport us into the light” — Martha Beck
“The expectations of life depend upon diligence. The mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.” — Confucious
Two things. Vehicles. Tools. Two … very … important things. They define, perfect and transport us. You may ask, rightly so, what am I talking about?
Okay, think about it. First, vehicles. How would we get anywhere if we didn’t have some type of vehicle; bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, bus, train, airplane, or even our own two feet? We need vehicles to get anywhere, so we can do the things we need when we get there. Right?
Second, tools. We need tools to do things, to accomplish things, to complete things. Something as simple as silverware to eat with, or as complicated as software code to run computer programs. For many of the things we do, we need tools to go the full distance with our tasks. Right?
Think how boring life would be if we had no vehicles or tools. Wouldn’t we just be sitting at home, twiddling our thumbs? But then again, would we even have a home? How would it get built with no tools? No, we’d still be in a cave, maybe starving, because we had no tools to hunt with.
The Search
“Silence is the language of God. All else is poor translation.” — Jalal ad-Din Rumi
A person who had just died walks up to the pearly gates of heaven and greets St. Peter with anticipation and joy. So, St. Peter welcomes him to heaven.
Then the person replies, “St. Peter, I’m so glad to have made it here to heaven. Now I’d like to meet God.”
St. Peter gazes at him oddly, takes an appraisal of him and finally says, “You mean to say that in all your years on earth you have never met God?”
The person appears puzzled, then answers with, “No. How could I meet God on earth?”
St. Peter asks, “Did you ever look for Him?”
The new person answers, “No, uh, I guess I didn’t.”
St. Peter replies, “Well you certainly won’t meet Him here either. That is, if you don’t look for Him.”
Do you know what you are looking for?
TMC
The Scientology Abyss
“You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.” — Carl Sagan
It was late 1971, and I was not a happy camper. I had been searching for a spiritual path for a couple years, but nothing was clicking. In Austin, TX at this time there was a chapter for about every path, practice, persuasion, system, etc. that you could think of. And I had checked a lot of them out, to no avail. Until this one day when one of them actually pushed itself upon me.
At the time I was going to the University of Texas, methodically attempting to get some kind of college education. But a lot of the time my heart was just not into it. The world did not seem real to me, and I was searching for something more. Clarity? Truth? Honesty? Reality? I just didn’t get it and was thinking there was something wrong with me.
One day I was walking across the street just off campus on the main drag. A guy came up to me and stuck some kind of brochure in my face. I looked at him and then at the store front right behind him. Scientology. The brochure was about a book called Dianetics. I had heard of the book, but didn’t really know much about it. I had seen the storefront before, but hadn’t given it much thought. He talked to me and led me into the store. I was feeling a bit tired and just halfway listened to what he said. Somehow I wound up taking one of their tests, along with an E-meter reading someone gave me.
A Way In Up & Out
“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.” — Marcus Aurelius
What about you? Do you have ambitions or aspirations?
When I was about ten years old I remember having an identity crisis. You may ask, how can one so young have anything that seems too serious going on, as if some type of existential crisis? I doubt from where I’m looking at it now, that it was actually too serious. But of course at the time it seemed so. Yet I do believe to this day that it set me on a course that led me to where I am today. And for me, that is important.
We only have moments as they are played out in our life, for the past is only a memory, and the future is only a hope, a dream, or a fear. But I think in those ‘important’ moments is where we set the sails for our life’s destiny. And that moment at ten was one of those ‘important’ moments. I don’t consciously remember how I comprehended that moment, but for the most part I do remember how I felt. And that is where I think the journey I am currently on actually started.
Letting Go & Getting Up
“Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.” — Simone Weil
Isn’t it fun, interesting, sad, intriguing, and on and on, about all the stuff we get to see, do, have, play with, experience in this crazy world … and eventually have to let go of? Eventually? Really? Aahh, we really have to let go of all that stuff, and all those people? But why? Why? I need it. I want it … no, no. I think I’m gonna cry. Ah yes, another sad song on the radio, about that stuff, and all those people, I just keep losing.
Life is sad. Life is happy. Life is nothing. Life is everything. Life is lots of things in between. Always. But we all know that, right? Yet doesn’t this simulation of life we all live in seem but a shadow of what it really seems it could be? Can that really be true? I think so, but you may not get to know unless …
All types of things and people come in and out of lives continually. And we have a tendency to want to keep everything we can, based on what we think we want or need. And over time we become attached to many of these items, as well as the people. We get used to them and feel they provide some type of comfort, happiness, and security. But do we really need them? We may want them, but what is behind the wanting of them?