spiritual teachers
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.
(more…)
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.
Spiritual Big Shots
“The West has become a heaven for spiritual charlatans … without the guidelines and criteria of a thriving and full-fledged wisdom culture, the authenticity of so-called “Masters” is almost impossible to establish.” — Sogyal Rinpoche
Have you noticed how many people these days boast about some type of spiritual, self help, or self improvement type of system or program they are selling? And of course, how great they are, and how great their program will make you. Hhhmmm, yes indeed, you probably do detect a note of skepticism in my point of view here. I certainly do pride such skepticism as an ingredient to a healthy attitude, as long it does not get in the way of anyone’s ongoing progress.
Yes, our ongoing progress. Now, how does that work exactly? Exactly, is exactly the word. Meaning there is no perfection, no exactness, no wonderfully magic formula to spiritual growth and progress. No matter what all the spiritually self-important big shots say.
When I first began searching for a spiritual path, system, whatever, in my late teens I felt somewhat desperate. But I realized early on not to make such an important decision while in a hyper emotional state. Calm, relaxed, and focused discernment I felt would serve me better, even if not always easy to accomplish. So, I did not take the first spiritual prescription that happened along. My search wound up taking over four years, which granted is not very long in the span of a lifetime, but when you are young, impatient, and almost frantic, it sure seemed like it.
My Spiritual Adventure, Part 1
“Silence is the language of God. All else is poor translation.” — Jalal ad-Din Rumi
I have previously mentioned several times that I would write here about the particular meditation system I have been practicing for more than 40 years now. Well, since I recently finished an annual retreat hosted by this organization, I figured this was probably a good time to spill it. But be warned, there is a lot to communicate here so it may be written in several posts.
I shall start at the beginning, as it should be …
I found myself in the early 70’s at the University of Texas, after several of my unexplained experiences when I was growing up, which I have already mentioned some of here in this blog. This offered up an environment to help me explore my ‘predicament,’ trying to figure out what the hell had been happening to me.
I spent more than a year reading volumes of material on anything related to this. Back then it wasn’t like today. Nowadays, you can find all kinds of metaphysical books in most bookstores. Then you really had to seek them out, because most bookstores didn’t carry those types of titles.
Still, they weren’t very satisfying. A good portion of them were all theory and philosophy. Some were about experiences the authors or others had, but didn’t really say how or if those experiences were repeatable by anyone else. What I wanted was the nuts and bolts of this greater reality.