I remember various times sitting before various spiritual masters. Some of them weren’t actually spiritual masters. They were people who had developed certain Siddhis which gave them the appearance of power, wisdom or poise. They might have been well intentioned for the most part. Good intentions would be more useful if good and evil weren’t playing musical chairs all the time.
Back in the day there used to be these professional disciples. Some of them actually called themselves ‘guru whores’. They’d move from one teacher to another, like bees among the flowers and they took a certain pride among their associates in comparing how many masters they had met and telling the tales about how this one blew them away this much and that one blew them away this much and so on and so forth.
After Rajneesh hit the scene a different sort of disciple started showing up. These were no longer guru whores... well, maybe, maybe not but they were more intent on becoming spiritual masters themselves and, if you are on the scene then you know just how many of these folks there are. Some of them just went right into business because that had all been explained to them now and business was okay now. Everything was okay now. I don’t mean they went into the business of being gurus, though some did, I mean business period.
There was a time you could go to Goa and see quite a selection of them and, with the emergence of Tantra, a lot of them got into the business of sex magic. This doesn’t mean there was anything magical about their sex but rather that they used particular seduction games and they probably explained to themselves that they were, ‘harvesting power’ or opening people up or making us all one, one encounter at a time. You could find gurus handing you a pen so that you could write your cellphone number on their leg.
The book publisher who used me as an object lesson of what happens to someone who does business with a Crowley fanboy has a forum where a lot of these burned out tantrics get together and troll for the younger males who come and go in search of something other than what they wind up getting. These globe-trotting tantrics may have once been hetero but not any more. There’s a spiritual reason for this but I’m not inclined to get into discussing it at the moment.
I’ve never gotten along with Roger Nietzsche’s and I never trusted Osho, nee Rajneesh. The people who would argue with me about my distrust always let me know I was repressed for taking exception to his promotion of sexual license. I take no back seat to anyone in terms of sexual license. You could say that I frolicked freely. However, I never taught it as a lifestyle and I never assumed I was doing what I should when I wasn’t doing what I should. The way I saw it, I had to pass through it or it was going to burn me up. The good news is that I’m not over on that forum, trolling for young boys while purring on about spiritual mysteries refracted through the dead pools of my eyes.
I’ve never gotten along well with most devotees except for the Hare Krishna’s, which I am fond of and who include among their ranks some truly sweet people. I don’t get along with most devotees because most devotees haven’t bothered to live to the fullest before realizing it’s not the way. Most of them decided they knew all about it without ever having engaged it and are now full on authorities sans experience, the way Catholic priests know all about the meaning and hardship of the sex they don’t practice and so can advise their constituents about all of it’s facets while their own sexual forces break through the weakest link in the chain.
A lot of devotees don’t evolve much before they move on into the real life that they knew all about when they rejected it the first time. They can sit in front of the master for years and still be asking the same questions and never tumble to the fact that they are a dog chasing its own tail. There will be no solutions at that particular level because it is an endless loop.
What a spiritual master is supposed to do is to light the lamp of aspiration within and then guide you- according to your trust and focus- through the timeless routines, obstacles and tests encountered by every seeker who ever went looking. A real spiritual master has got you coming and going and the degree of his/her love and support of you is beyond your comprehension.
At any time in this world there are only a few, real spiritual masters. These days the bogus bin is overflowing and the fountain of the living waters is obscured by the darkness of the times. It stuns me that people actually think they are living in civilization and that this modern world is a high point in recently recorded history. This is because we confuse technology with civilization and civilization with organization and eventually everything gets really dis-organized like the way it is now.
We all have duties and debts. This is why I am not in the Himalayas where I wish I was; Shambhala, which I don’t deserve ...or in that permanent psychedelic state I haven’t earned yet.
I used to have a lot of character defects. Some, with more of their own than they know about, might say I still do. The source of many character defects is the ceaseless ability to see them in others through the length of each following day. You’ll note that this is something small children do not do unless it’s already been drummed into their heads. These days I have managed to drop a lot of them and outrun some others but... some of them just won’t go away. I realize now that it is beyond my capacity to rid myself of them and no amount of effort on my part is going to move them an inch. That’s what a spiritual master is for and one does need to come to this particular realization before the master can accomplish their removal.
Sometimes these flaws are left in long past their sell-by date for inscrutable reasons. Mostly they remain so long as our focus is on others because, it is truly said, “they know not what they do.” I’ve found that when you come to the point of surrender and cannot surrender it is because of a particular point needing to be made and that is the full understanding that ‘everything is under control’. When I say everything, I mean everything. I can grasp this intellectually but oh... the difficulty of full acceptance is a labor unlike any other. This is why we should inexplicably be grateful for being crushed. We can’t flow through God’s hand until we have been pounded into sand.
I’d say that the entirety of my life these days is awaiting the arrival of the certainty in the certitude, the assurance in the faith and the final, unshakeable determination within the state of being determined. I can’t go any further on my own; not that I ever took a single step under my own power.
As hard as these times are they are the best of all possible times for realization for those so inclined. I can, we can, only throw ourselves upon the mercy of the court. I wish I could do more but that’s probably how I got into trouble in the first place.
'Something Good (is Coming Soon)' is track no. 10 of 10 on Visible's 2002 album
'911 was an Inside Job'
Lyrics (pops up)
Build Your Own Community.
17 comments:
:)
the 'skip a turn' cards get dealt for a reason.
sometimes the skips take on the temporal appearance of years...
waiting, wondering...
i can only assume after much introspection...
patience and endurance...
simply, was wanting.
and then in the twinkling of an eye,
the path again reappears, and ya move on :)
Hi Les, best
your work in spreading hope, appreciated.
living across the water, particulary so
"I used to have a lot of character defects" :D Was one of them myopia?
It reminds me (and forgive me if I repeat myself) of the nice young lady who wanted to teach maximum security prisoners TM. I cringed when I heard that--- she had no idea what what she was doing. She wanted to cure when the cure would have made them into monsters. You don't 'cure' a sociopath or psychopath (yes... I said it) or a brownsport freak (in the case of Ghandi) with samadhi.
That said, many of these 'self-styled' masters have indeed achieved a degree of enlightenment, but like a painting on a roughly prepared canvas, their 'flaws' are writ large. This can make them dangerous (most often to themselves). As you know, there are forms of yoga to mitigate these problems, and some forms of therapy, not to mention a sense of humour, help a very great deal as well.
I liked Osho. I liked what he said, but that didn't mean I trusted him! :D
I like Crowley too, and trust him even less.
When learning from a spiritual master trust need not enter into the equation, and in fact can be counterproductive. One does not need to stroke the tiger to learn from him.
Lukiftian
One of the things that convinces me of the perfection in creation is at times like this when someone writes something that resonates with what I've been thinking and where I'm at. I am always where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing, despite my opinions to the contrary.
And sometimes that pisses me off.
B
"You don't 'cure' a sociopath or psychopath (yes... I said it) with samadhi." Lukiftian
You say that like its a bad thing.
But, yes, you can. I am proof. And psychopath is generally not used now, they usually use just sociopath. And not that I couldn't still kill without guilt, shame or remorse. I just no longer see the need to participate in that type of behavior. Except in self defense.
B
It appears that the process of healing, that period of intense singular focus and accompanying insights, has been most beneficial. (I've been eager to see how this would manifest.) However, you might be reverting somewhat in selling the power of your own self short - in which case illness becomes a self-perpetuating pattern in which to retreat. Then one can freely say "I can't go any farther on my own..."
You very well may have to and you will and you will be fine because you, on one level, already know "Everything is under control." Go ahead, take it on internally, 24/7, its all about humility anyway. There is nothing to lose now. Of course, the representative self, that face put on to meet the face, etc., will insist he knows best, you're inadequate, you're not up to the task... Just shut him down, he isn't the pure Visible-self we know and love who is unquestionably capable of the quest.
Les
To know that you have been guided and helped in movement by oneness is eazy to see but sooo hard to deal with. I love to create and I get mad at those creations too(the biggest source of pain for me). Most times I sit thankful for this game, its a growing thing. As years pass I still center around deep ideas and havent move off their path. I sometimes hope anothers will stidetrack me, and they do. This has lead me in circles and some understanding. Now I started this, no one else will finish it, why do I care so much about sharing and having interplay with others. Ah, getting somewhere now! I once felt I was here to open others minds, a job. I see I have just let that idea become me. Oneness says do all things. Try for ideas not yet seen. With no system nor pattern yet, I get ideas now from me and with my heart and mind by the masters will too. These ideas arent "coming down" on me but still created by me but with an open heart and hand to what I have and will never see in worldly form, the master's "song." I can find spots to add my words a chance to bet on my drum? Its still a job. Im glad and thankful for this and work with all I have in the seen world to show this to others. I have defined my own end and prison cell, but it is I that will and not the world at large. Someday I'll move on, lately its getting much harder to share, the return comes to fast. It seems about useless to others as well? I havent been in the world of a spiritual master ever. I say this because we all forget we are spiritual being on a human path and not the other way around. Im my own master, spirit, and will all to my own. Never has this not been the case. Why ask others the questions only you yourself can answer?
Le Mat
Kilaya here,
Your comments reminded me of the story of Asanga. He spent so many years in retreat attempting to achieve realizations and twice decided that the whole effort was useless and was about to give up. Both times he met individuals who were involved in tasks which seemed absolutely pointless. In spite of the seemingly pointless nature of the task, the individuals were prepared to spend years trying to accomplish something they wanted to do. Finally, after about 13 years, Asanga is once again totally discouraged and renounces his quest for realizations. Upon walking into the town he comes across an old, mangy dying dog covered with sores and maggots. He stops to help, to ease her pain and when he is about to remove the maggots from her body he realizes that he will kill the maggots if he removes them with his hands. He then decides to remove them with his tongue and closes his eyes, bends his head forward and just then, sees the Boddhisattva, Maitreya. He berates Maitreya and asks where he has been all this time that he was trying to achieve realizations. Maitreya then tells him that he was with him all this time but because of Asanga's own clouded vision, obscurations etc. he was unable to see.
This is a very shortened and, not too well related version of the story but, you get the idea. Asanga was also taken to another planet and returned fifty years later. His is an amazing story.
too funny... the "guru whores" moving on up to become madam's in their own right... that's rich... literally
...
ever spiraling
seven turns in -
seven turns out +
seven turns out / in 0 ...
repeat.... or not
...
passing through anything takes a good bit of courage, eSPECially the siddhis ... resistance to heat doesn't hurt, either
i was told one time that when a bond between one's self and one's master is recognized, whether in their corporeal presence or not, that that bond has an enduring nature. my experience has seemed to agree with that.
it isn't for nothing many traditions say "by myself i do nothing, but by that power moving through me" or, colloquially, Get outta yer own way!
one who knows has this to say:
One more point. No one can be influenced by any force released by others on the
lower levels of the energy world unless he has affinity for that force in his own make-
up, in his own psychic nature. It is said in the Scriptures that, “The prince of this
world” can come unto one of pure nature and find nothing in him to vibrate. You
cannot respond to any force in the energy world unless you have affinity for it in
yourself. It does not make any difference where you are, you cannot be vibrated. Do
not alibi and blame the other guy for practicing “malicious animal magnetism.” It is
only an affinity in yourself that can cause you to respond and be vibrated by the
forces of the lower psychic or energy world. “Purify thine own house.”
and you know this...
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Of course, to search out a guru is very nice, but if you want a cheap guru, or if you want to be cheated, then you will find many cheating gurus. But if you are sincere, you will find a sincere guru. Because people want everything very cheaply, they are cheated. But if someone else says, "You may do whatever nonsense you like, simply take my mantra," then people will like him. The point is that people want to be cheated, and therefore cheaters come.
Reporter: How can a person tell he has a genuine guru ?
Srila Prabhupada: Can any of my students answer this question ?
Disciple: Once I remember John Lennon asked you, "How will I know who is the genuine guru ?" And you answered, "Just find out the one who is most addicted to Krsna. He is genuine."
http://www.harekrishna.com/col/books/sre/SSR/sain-swi.html
Spiritual master. Kinda sounds like some ASE certification, where you study the manual, take your test, and presto, you're a master.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it is not that easy, unless of course it is.
You know from my many ramblings that I am and have been a seeker for some time. I have many thoughts about enlightenment, and spirituality and oneness, but have garnered few certainties, and the certainties I do have seem to be about things I am certain I don't know.
I can only speculate about these things because judging by results, oneness has eluded me, and I am still here. I have gotten to the point though where I believe I have been here many times, and that my spirit learns and matures each time.
I have come to understand certain concepts, but putting them into practice is, as you say, a labor unlike any other. I understand surrender, but being locked inside a creature that is so inhibited by fear, I don't seem to be able to take those leaps of faith.
I have not yet found how to get past the maze of my mind, and allow my spirit to commune directly with the universe. I do know that the discoveries I have made, I have made looking in, not out, but I also believe I could not have made the ones have if I had not experienced things in this life. I have come to believe that the questions are inspired from what happens without, and the answers are discovered within.
I don't know any spiritual masters, but that should come as no surprise. I have lived in a country that has been consumed with materialism since before my birth, and from all indications, will be long after my passing. Spiritual enlightenment seems to be the last thing on most Americans list of things to do. I have to go online to find people that even want to discuss such things.
I am not even sure I understand the concept of a spiritual master. I have this thought that if someone actually achieves oneness, they no longer have a reason to be here. With that thought, I must conclude that these masters are still seekers themselves. I also have this thought that even though the same force of life made us all, our spirits are unique, and that the enlightenment for one spirit may not be the same as others.
In any case I am forced by circumstances to seek answers the best way I can, and trust that with clear intention, god will show me the way. After all, he, she, or it has steered me to Smoking Mirrors, and that has been a very good step indeed. Peace to you my friend, and thanks again for doing what you do.
Hey Les,
Sorry about my last rant. I'm a little isolated where I live. Comrades are scarce.
i just wanted to add my little bit about looking within for answers.
That is that ever since I was a little boy I've been looking to the sky.
Thanks for listening-Peace-C
"I don’t get along with most devotees because most devotees haven’t bothered to live to the fullest before realizing it’s not the way. Most of them decided they knew all about it without ever having engaged it and are now full on authorities sans experience,"
Very insightful...
Sri Isopanisad 9-11 explains, "Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge. The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience. Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality."
There is a new excursion on The Petri Dish
Of Cabbages and Klingon's.
the master is in everyone and everyone is in the master
so is this correct,it feels correct,their is only god or the divine and the various scales of awareness leading to the connection only when we are all connected or have experienced that connection can we all have our paradise,and each mans dream is for his own paradise,even cheney and bush their families unfortunately are struggling in the material world trying to dictate it unaware that they would feel much better if they left it alone ,I think Over the years man has complicated himself instead of simplifying.we are definately experiencing the potency of the unconnected the ultimate lie are we going to experience the potency of the totally connected ultimate truth...peace neil
I am new to your blog so forgive me if I am asking questions that you have already answered.
Your comment on Crowely confused me as I do not know which direction you meant by that. My experience is that in my innocence, or a disbelieve in evil besides that created my man (now gone), I went to one my friend's events and I was so surrounded by negative energy that I just prayed and prayed more furtively than I had in years. The deal was that if you agreed to go in, you could not leave until it was over, the doors were manned so all I could do was pray. I treat it as one of the biggest mistakes in my life and this is my first "public" mention of it, as I fear what these people are capable of doing. I personally would not take them on over the internet or anywhere else, I would just walk away and warn others about them.
To the esoteric, I have met people who have used as an example of someone living in India with dysentery who were praising God while they had sickness 24/7. Is that the God we should be praising? One that does that to us? Just seek total misery and you are enlightened if you still praise God? No matter how many different religions I read, no one has explained to me suffering and the God experience. No one has also explained why you need to be a "warrior" to get next to God. It just isn't in my DNA and if I have to fight all the time, I just don't get it.
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