Chapter One; Spiritual Survival in a Temporal World.

Greetings Dear Friends. Inasmuch as the first book is to be released any day now and inasmuch as I have just finished the second book, of which this is the first chapter, I thought I would put this chapter out which was the last part of it missing and so you have it before you today. Two posts in one day... well, well. off we go-

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What does that mean exactly; Spiritual Survival in a Temporal World? I suppose there are ways of looking at life that might need to be discussed prior to getting a fix on the title. For instance, there are those that maintain that everything is spiritual. I suppose those would fall into the Advaita category. Then there are those who say that there are spiritual and material worlds and that would be Dvaita. I think if I were to define the difference between spiritual and material, I would simply say, “flesh and not flesh”. It seems that most of the sins or crimes that all of the holy books talk about, are acts of flesh against spirit. Most, if not all of these sins or crimes are motivated by desires of the flesh acting out against dictates of the spirit. You could also say that spiritual is permanent and material is temporary.

According to all of the holy books, they say, one way or another that sin, or crimes against spirit, cause the spiritual being to go to less pleasant spiritual places once material life ends and for the ones that accept reincarnation as being true (it is), must also return to unpleasant places here, as a result of past behaviors. The reverse is true as well. One might speculate whether sin is simply a crime in the mind that is defined so by intent; meaning that sin is not always sin but thinking makes it so. I’m not going to tell you anything in terms of hard and fast or slow and immutable laws being absolute or... that this way is the right way and all other ways are the wrong way. People who know these kinds of things have the luxury of being convinced about what they believe, concerning spiritual and temporal (or material, if you want to call it that) strictures, laws and rules of conduct. I don’t have that luxury because I honestly don’t know.

What gives me the right to author a book such as this, keeping in mind that I may or may not actually be the author? I have been around awhile and I have been through some very difficult moments. The odds say that I should not even be here now but I am. I am in very good shape, physically, emotionally and mentally, given what I’ve experienced and given that I have consumed massive amounts of psychotropic drugs and everything else you can think of. There are not many people around who would be in this kind of shape given the back story.

I am where I am because I am the beneficiary of certain spiritual protections and I have invisible friends. It could be that we all do but only a few of us are actually in contact with then. I am guided and protected at all times. This is something I know and it is my desire to make a similar state available to whoever reads this book.

I am not going to tell you to play by the rules and try to fit in. I am not going to recommend you go to some church and abide by the moral standards of your community. I am not going to tell you one thing is evil and another good because those terms are relative and much that is considered evil is actually good unrecognized and much that is called good is anything but. What I am going to do is ramble about in your mind and try to arrange the furniture in certain ways so that you can get the feel for different states of being; different environments one can exist in and so on and so forth. I am going to tell you what certain things have done for me and you can judge by reason and experience whether such things might work for you.

I want you to listen for a ringing sound. It may not be audible in the same way that ordinary sound is. It is the sound of authenticity and we have all experienced it a time or two under all sorts of circumstances. I want you to see if you can hear that ring when you read this book and I want you to give serious consideration to what you are reading, specifically, when you hear such a ringing because that specific paragraph, sentence, page, or whatever it’s particular length is might have an important connection to you personally. Not everything you read here is going to apply to you. You may not need all of it. You might only need a sentence, a paragraph or a page. If you find that passage and you hear that ring, stop where you are and reflect. It could make all the difference.

There is one thing that I personally want you to connect to and comprehend and that is that there are only a few really important things or conditions that make all the difference. A spiritual life may have many components but there are only a few that are of absolute importance and the cornerstone, bedrock or centerpiece of an evolving spiritual condition. Here are the things I have found to be of critical importance; possessing the qualities of the divine, practicing the presence of the divine and unshakeable consistency of purpose.

Some might ask; what about faith and charity? What about compassion and all the rest of the virtues? Those are some of the qualities of the divine. They are all part of the package. You see, the point and purpose is for you to become like God. To do this, you must first realize and viscerally accept that you are a child of the divine. What does a child of the divine grow up to be? Consistent practice of the presence of the divine leads to the budding of the qualities of the divine. As the divine enters into you and comes alive, in a certain sense, you become like the divine and the qualities of the divine become a part of you.

Most seekers and religious pundits make a big deal out of knowledge. Knowledge has its place but it is of no value whatsoever outside of the mind of the true knower. What this means is that most knowledge is colored by your identification with your false self, the personality. It becomes an extension of the game theory of the personality and ceases to be what it essentially is. Those possessing a true objective reasoning capacity know what I am talking about here.

The spiritual path is brimming with several things. One of them is an effulgent and conscious light. Another is the attendant false light (both contain and operate representative guiding and misguiding entities), often mistaken for the true and conscious light and finally, traps and tests. How can you manage to pass around the traps and through the tests, unless you are in the care of the one who knows the way? Spiritual arrogance has been the downfall of many souls more advanced than you or I. You are never too high to fall. This is why you must remember to stay small and to practice surrender. You cannot surrender without permission. This is another mistake seekers make. They think they can surrender on their own, as if their progress rested upon their own abilities. It does not. You don’t have any. All of your abilities are borrowed from one of two sources, which are two faces of the same eternal being. Besides the qualities of the divine are the shadow qualities of the other side. You must free yourself of these.

There are several things that every seeker must recognize and they are the reason that the true path has so few travelers upon it. First off, it is demanding work. It takes everything you have. You must forget that there is any other life because there is not. Whatever may come to you as another life, in the development of your movement on the path, has to do with duties. You may be sure that all of these are pleasurable and satisfying once you have visceral understanding of their meaning. We seek glamour in our duties without possessing the talents for those particular duties. We need to understand that whatever our role may be as we progress, it is the best place for us and do understand that every secret desire in your heart was placed there by the divine. Desire is the agent of god’s will. Do not fret about whether you will get to do that which you believe to be your heart’s desire. That is a given but it is always a case of having to crawl before you can walk.

The presence of the divine makes one humble. It makes one grateful. It makes one sane and safe. Do not allow the resistant intelligence of the false self to whisper in your ear. Empty yourself of everything but the presence of the divine. If you feel empty and pointless because you can no longer entertain all of the colorful aspects of your false self in this false world, do not despair. That state is like a vacuum calling the divine into presence. Nature, the active and external face of the divine, abhors a vacuum. Everything is under control and everything is perfect. If you cannot see this then that is a part of you that must go. Don’t hold on to the source of your pain. That is all some form of attachment. When attachment is gone, so is the pain. Become attached to the divine, recognize that you are attached. You would have no life otherwise.

A human birth is a remarkable thing and a rare thing. Make the most of it. You cannot achieve except in the embodied state. That is why we always return, whatever we think our reasons are. There are some rare exceptions to this and I will mention them as we go but regardless, you must do it here. Keep in mind that heaven begins where your feet touch the earth. Interested? Then let us be on our way.