FINDING A PATH TOWARDS WHOLENESS
by Philip Goddard
(this is a new text (Jan. 00) and will undoubtedly gain various revisions,
additions and corrections over the next few weeks...)
Contents
Introduction
Many, many texts and books have been produced and teachings transmitted on
ways of becoming whole as a human being and moving towards spiritual openness
and eventual enlightenment, just as there have been and are many, many teachers,
guides and gurus to the same end - and yet I find that there is still a large
number of people who are to some extent stumped in their search for a meaningful
way of opening their lives into a higher dimension, or at least who want
to improve on the understanding and methods that they already have. Each
person has unique needs to be met and difficulties to work through and overcome,
and therefore it is hardly surprising that no one self-liberation technique
or spiritual path fits everybody, and that many people still feel rather
left out in the cold.
In this text I shall put forward a view and series of practical measures
that will enable some people to make new sense of and take charge
of their lives and move systematically towards wholeness, which latter also
means spiritual openness and progress on the path towards ultimate enlightenment
(= theosis, or merging with God or the Universal Consciousness). The people
who can benefit most from this text are not necessarily aware yet of being
particularly spiritual. But they will have open minds, a willingness to extend
their horizons, and, above all, a wish to change, in the recognition that
their lives at present are not altogether satisfactory.
What are my qualifications for giving such vital information? Let's be clear
about this: I am NOT a formally qualified guru in some recognised tradition
or practice. Nobody, absolutely nobody, should swallow any words of mine
unquestioningly as Truth (neither indeed should they do so from a qualified
guru - even the likes of Jesus or Buddha!). I am not a holder or purveyor
of a belief system. What I give is pointers to what you have to check out
and actually discover or confirm (or otherwise) for yourself, whether through
direct life experience, inner vision or intuitive reasoning. I am not putting
forward rigidly held beliefs but simply my own experience for what it is
worth, together with various working hypotheses about the nature of reality
which 'add up' in my practical experience of life regardless of any question
of their ultimate veracity. My 'qualification' for writing this text is that
I have been purposefully led by an inner guide through, and out of, much
suffering, and, through the use of certain understandings and mental disciplines,
have recognised and started to realize my innermost nature, which is effectively
the enlightened state. I have found that a significant proportion of people
who I encounter nowadays do benefit from some non-intrusive input from my
experience and understanding, and it's on this basis that I now seek to make
this more widely available.
Putting it rather crudely, religions have arisen initially to try to put
into people's lives the higher dimension that is otherwise lacking. To a
large extent they fail or have only limited positive effect, and indeed they
have brought about tremendous harm and suffering in the world. The initial
conception of each religion has in most cases been a truly good thing. A
great spiritual leader would appear, who instructs people on how they can
uncover the sublime higher reality already within themselves, and, by so
doing, change their lives and the world for the better. But then the leader's
name would be hijacked and his teachings adulterated as a religion is set
up in that leader's name. To a large extent doctrinal religion is a
political and materialistic, not spiritual, force that is based on
the egotism and power politics of its higher members, whatever their
protestations of pure motivations. It is fair to say that even the word
'spirituality' has been hijacked and misused by most of our religions. Far
from being enabled by religion to open out the empowering reality that is
within themselves, people by the million are diverted into swallowing belief
systems, so closing their inner doors, and looking for perfection outside
themselves rather than within. To a considerable extent I must exclude Buddhism
from this remark, as, when properly practiced, it is not a religion in the
ordinary sense but rather a whole plethora of mental disciplines aimed at
the very goal which I am pointing to.
Belief systems close the door to discovering truth, because within a belief
system you delude yourself into imagining that you have already found THE
truth and therefore reject anything which contradicts that belief system.
For some people such a situation is subjectively extremely comforting, and
they believe that they have 'found God' because they've anaesthetized themselves
to the huge amounts of fear that they are carrying, about facing what is
to them the Great Unknown. However, that fear within them, carried unawarely,
will eventually wreak havoc, not only within themselves but also through
being the basic substance of what drives all the bigotry and intolerance
in the world - the bloody wars, torturings, racism and all that. Belief systems
shut off your perception of the higher reality, including what you may call
God. So we have this bitter irony that most preachers about God are actually
unwittingly seeking to shut your mind off from God!
In the Buddhist teachings there is a wonderful metaphor for all this nonsense
- searching for the footsteps of the elephant in the forest, oblivious of
the fact that you're keeping the elephant locked up in your very own basement.
Within probably all religions a (usually very small) minority of people have
had a much deeper understanding of reality and have not accepted the tenets
of their religion at face value. They have stayed closer to the real meaning
of the teachings of the spiritual leaders from which the religions originally
arose, and have regarded the religion's teachings as being only symbolic
expression of something deeper that is experienced within oneself. This is
where mysticism comes in. It's unfortunate that the words 'mysticism' and
'mystical' tend in Western cultures often to have a rather pejorative connotation
- an association with the often rather unfocused and confused preoccupations
of what is popularly known as the New Age movement.
Very significantly, many mystics are not attached to any particular religion,
and indeed on the surface may not regard themselves as mystics or even as
being particularly spiritual. Openness to inner experience doesn't require
labels or belief systems and doesn't necessarily require the carrying out
of particular rituals or receiving recognised initiations.
Some people with considerable justification call mysticism the 'true',
'universal' or 'real' religion, for it is spiritual awareness and practice
unencumbered by the obstacles which the standard religions have put in their
way.
Mysticism is what we could call 'basic spirituality'. It is a particular
outlook, and ultimately way of life, that is based upon inner vision and
inner experience rather than an externally imposed belief system or moral
code. Consistently, mystics discover within their inner reality a much more
humane and flexible code of ethical conduct than any of the 'moral codes'
laid down in the various religions, which, through their simplistic and rigid
nature, have often led to great injustice and suffering. Mystics discover
a sublime level of reality and meaning of life and death that makes most
of our religions look like inconsequential children's games (often war games
at that!), they are so superficial and materialistic in comparison.
Probably all the great spiritual leaders were mystics. Jesus and Buddha certainly
were. In the case of Jesus, however, his teachings of basic spirituality
or mysticism - finding the ultimate truth, or God, within ourselves - were
regarded as a threat to the religious institutions of the time, because
acceptance of his teachings would have taken power away from those bodies.
Thus the Christian Church arose, seeking to suppress some of the most vital
aspects of Jesus' teachings and divert people away from mysticism in order
that the religious 'power freaks' could gain or regain control over ordinary
people.
The following quote of Jesus in the Gospel of the Essenes - light years from
what mainstream Christianity would have you believe - makes great sense:
Seek not the Law in your scriptures
for the Law is life, whereas the scripture is dead.
The Law is the living word of living God to living prophets for living men.
In everything that is life, is the Law written.
You find it in the grass, in the trees,
in the river, in the mountain,
in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea,
but seek it chiefly in yourselves.
God did not write the Law in books, but in your heart and spirit.
The mystic's view transcends religious divides. Therefore mystics within
the different religions have a strong sense of the ultimate oneness and
brotherhood of them all and indeed all humanity. The different religious
and cultural trappings are to a mystic merely different sets of symbols being
used to describe the same ultimate reality, so there is no room for the 'My
belief is better than yours' rivalry which often drags ordinary religion
down to the level of gutter politics. Ultimate reality is outside the realm
of concepts and so cannot be directly described or portrayed: it can only
be experienced. From this higher viewpoint it can be seen that religious
divides are just children's squabbles (albeit with much more traumatic
consequences!), and if there is any divide of real functional consequence,
it is simply on the basis of how open people's minds are. The different views
on the same ultimate reality enrich our experience and are thus to be rejoiced
in, not fought over.
This is a key area where most religions have let us down. Most of us have
been taught that we are inherently imperfect. Religions tell us that we must
look for perfection outside of ourselves, and try to change ourselves towards
that perfection. God is supposedly outside of and separate from us. Truly,
this is all looking for those elephant footprints in the forest again! The
perfection which is so often perceived in, say, Jesus or Buddha, or indeed
God, is right now not a million micrometres from you. I tell you, it is your
very essence! It is the true you! Every single quality of transcendent perfection
that you have ever perceived or thought about is an aspect of your true nature
- and more! Your true self is universal love and compassion, and out
of that timeless and ceaseless radiation of energy that knows no bounds,
all the other sublime aspects spontaneously arise. If you did not already
have these qualities somewhere within, how on earth could you recognise them
as being noble and good when you perceive them in others or in a supposed
external God?
So, what has gone wrong, then? You may well not yet have seen even a glimpse
of this reality that I and other mystics have seen within. My understanding
of this is that this obscuration of our true nature - this forgetting of
who and what we truly are - is an essential part of the life process, and
is very much linked to the process of cyclic rebirth. When we look at this
broader picture we begin to see that actually nothing has gone wrong.
What has happened initially is that each of us as a separate consciousness
has come into being as a little segment of the universal consciousness, or
God in the mystic's sense.
The point and purpose of this is that the universal consciousness is simply
naked awareness in which all possibilities are present but undifferentiated.
Mere undifferentiated and unmanifest possibilities for eternity would be
a pretty bum deal - mind-bogglingly boring! But this universal consciousness
has an active aspect which results in a continuous play, or dance, of energy
manifestations, which at a more 'concrete' level result in the ongoing physical
manifestation and exploration of various sets of possibilities that were
merely implicit in that highest and most subtle level of consciousness. This
process could be described as 'God getting to know Himself', and this is
what we are part of. The apparently separate consciousness of each one of
us is actually a segment of the universal consciousness or God; we are separate
individuals and yet, at the deepest level, still part of or one with God.
Each of us is part of an ongoing process of individuation - of developing
a unique insight and set of experiences, going through the process of exploring
particular sequences and combinations of possibilities that had previously
been undifferentiated and only implicit in the universal consciousness. Each
one of us is part of the dance of energy of the universal consciousness forever
getting to know itself.
In order for this process to unfold and the sense of individual viewpoint
and experiences to unfold for each one of us, it is a prerequisite that we
start out by forgetting that our true nature is the All, or God. Then, in
total ignorance, each one of us undergoes a different set of learning
experiences, over many lifetimes, which gradually lead us to the point where
we recognise our true nature and eventually recombine with the universal
consciousness - the ultimate homecoming. But when that happens (this is the
point of full enlightenment) we do not dissolve into the oblivion of
undifferentiation once more. Although we are parts of the whole, we have
developed our unique viewpoints and identities, which are part of the ongoing
enrichment of the All. This is indeed God getting to know Himself.
The reason why we suffer and behave in our various perverse ways is through
our own ignorance and the projections that arise from our consciousness in
that ignorance. The so-called ego is a particular manifestation of that
ignorance. Look within your mind to find what is this 'thing' that you think
of as 'I'. Go on - you know all about that 'I', don't you? ...But what you
will find is that there is not one thing that you can identify as 'I'. You
will perceive a whole hotch-potch of feelings, memories, thoughts, images
and so on, but as you look at each one in turn and ask the question, 'Is
this "me"?' you have to admit, no, this in itself isn't me; it's just something
I've experienced. You could then ask yourself, well, if none of these impressions
in the mind is me in itself, is not the sum of all these the real me?
But that doesn't make sense either. Are you really just a set of feelings,
images, habits and so forth? Yet it is those very things by which you've
been identifying yourself both to yourself and other people. Surely something
fundamental is still missing from the equation. People are mostly afraid
of looking within their consciousness like this, for to question their sense
of identity - even though it's false - seems to threaten annihilation.
Indeed because of all that fear it is something that needs approaching with
care, for by many accounts serious problems can arise through a sudden letting
go of your false ID before you have a reasonable inkling of your true nature.
So I counsel anyone who seeks to relinquish their false ID to take it gently,
and keep firmly in touch with their worldly experience so that they don't
become disoriented and psychically ungrounded (aka mentally unhinged).
But back to that missing element in the equation. Those with sharper, more
open minds will be or become aware of something very significant as they
look for that 'I' within the consciousness. Something - indeed, the real
'I' - has actually been observing and experiencing all those images, feelings,
memories and so forth. This lends weight to the conclusion that none
of those experiences - neither singly nor in total - is 'I'. 'I' is in fact
whatever is observing them. But, can you then actually perceive that 'I'
which is doing all that observing?
Now, that is not so easy! At once you are facing an apparent nothingness
that is actually not nothing because it is constantly observing and experiencing.
It is apparently a contradiction in terms, in that it defies any attempt
to describe it directly or even to say categorically whether it is a thing
that exists or not. It's like a sort of infinite space within which all feelings,
memories and present-time images and experiences arise; you could even say
it contains the whole cosmos! Don't dwell on this unless or until you are
ready to do so, for it's powerful stuff! It's the enlightened state I'm talking
of, actually there within you - your true nature. It's so subtle that, although
it's staring us in the face all the time, we look beyond - again searching
for the elephant's footprints...!
But you don't need to get so high-powered about this. The important thing
is to understand that your feelings, impressions, habits, compulsions and
all that are not the real you, and by progressive releasing of your obscuring
mental habits more of the positive qualities of the real you become apparent.
What is described as the ego is nothing more than a compulsion through ignorance
and fear to identify yourself with your feelings and compulsions and thus
to keep them in place through that fear of annihilation. So there is really
no 'thing' that is the ego. It is just a particular type of delusion based
on fear and ignorance - a result of what is often referred to in Buddhist
teachings as self-grasping: the regarding of transient phenomena as somehow
concrete and enduring.
One very important reason why the ego lets you down - quite apart from its
generally obstructing the realization of the sublime qualities of your true
nature - is that it doesn't survive death. Thus, if you are convinced that
you are all these life experiences that you are undergoing, then death is
a highly problematical and potentially frightening prospect. In contrast
your true self transcends time and is unborn and undying, so the more that
this is made manifest, the less will death seem to be any prospect or experience
of annihilation.
Although I have yet to be completely convinced of this, it's possible that
there is a limited place for the delusion of ego, and that is as a
transient stage in children, as part of their process of becoming fully grounded
in their worldly lives - but after that initial growing up and grounding
there is no further use for the ego apart from maintaining itself and other
people's egos. To those who still tell me that we 'need an ego' (and they
sure do!), I would ask, what sort of world do you want to live in? One governed
by ambitions and personal greed, or one in which love and compassion are
the guiding force? You would not get the latter without people taking that
apparent risk and relinquishing the stranglehold of that delusion of ego.
In the population at large there seems to be much confusion between psychic
and spiritual awareness - not exactly helped by the fact that it's in the
psychic realm that people normally encounter spirits. It's really
an oversimplification to talk of the psychic and spiritual dimensions as
just two higher levels of reality, for there are really many levels, and
different people may well not place the dividing line between what they call
'psychic' and what they call 'spiritual' at exactly the same level. I have
little psychic vision myself, so it wouldn't be sensible for me to comment
further on this, except that what is regarded as spiritual is at a higher
level (or vibrational frequency), or greater depth within your consciousness
- depending how you view it. Psychic openness gives one access to various
psychic powers - the ability to see and maybe communicate with spirits;
telepathy; precognition; healing; possibly telekinesis and so forth. To be
open at the spiritual level, on the other hand, enables you to experience
a transcendent level of reality which points towards total enlightenment.
Thus for many people, progress along the spiritual path brings about at least
some psychic vision and abilities before a very high level of spiritual openness
has been attained, though, less commonly, people can open up at a high spiritual
level without having much psychic perception at all.
Most spiritual masters warn against significant involvement in the psychic
level of experience, because there is so much to get fascinated and involved
with there, and it can readily be a great distraction from progressing beyond
that level towards enlightenment. And it's not as though we're talking about
a benign children's playground either. Unless you have become very well centered
within yourself spiritually - particularly through having directly perceived
and recognised your innermost nature - you are potentially vulnerable to
harmful influences from what could crudely be dubbed 'bad spirits', and you
can easily become fair game for those who abuse their psychic powers. Whereas
at the spiritual level you are moving into the arena of unconditional
compassionate love, at the psychic level there is a great admixture of highly
evolved and little-evolved beings, much as we experience on the physical
plane, so you have to be always vigilant and ready to use effective measures
to protect yourself, and need to be very discriminating as to which entities
to have any dealings with. Involvement with psychic experiences can readily
reinforce various egotistical tendencies, which would be taking you in the
reverse direction on any spiritual path that you thought you were following.
This last comment is true even for using healing powers. I know that at least
many Buddhist masters warn against getting significantly involved in healing.
Now I'm sure they don't mean that doing healing is in itself a bad thing.
Far from it! But again the problem is that many people who get into healing
get more or less sidetracked by this activity and lose a lot of their momentum
towards enlightenment, which would in the long run be more beneficial for
themselves and for humanity at large. This situation is commonly also aggravated
by a usually subtle egotism that is involved in carrying out the healing.
I use the word 'egotism' here not particularly to mean 'big-headedness',
though of course that does occur in some cases, but the tendency to carry
out apparently altruistic activities in order to comfort yourself rather
than out of the pure motivation of your innermost consciousness.
I should qualify this last statement by pointing out that when you benefit
others with a pure motivation your motivation is what I would call 'enlightened
self-interest', in that you are helping the 'reality' in which you live to
become a better one, and that is as much for your own benefit as anyone else's.
If you don't include yourself in the world, the cosmos, to which you extend
your love and compassion, then you are gravely in error!
This egotism problem in fact is not specific to healing but rather to involvement
in caring activities in general. Many people who have come to me for healing,
counselling or Alexander Technique lessons reveal emotional problems in their
own lives that have been driving them to busy themselves helping other people
and thus running themselves down and helping to keep their own problems in
place. This is particularly true for people working as nurses or counsellors,
for example. For such people the need is often to make a clean break from
such activities at least for a time, and the more general need is for a careful
balance to be struck between any outgoing helping activities and taking time
and space for one's own spiritual growth - and that includes taking measures
to eliminate the emotional baggage that has made one feel motivated to try
to help people. By letting go of the compulsive, egotistical motivations
you are beginning to give the underlying universal compassionate love at
your core the opportunity to begin manifesting. Caring for yourself is part
of that equation. If you aren't really loving yourself, how can you really
be helping others with the motivation of pure love?
Actually you can help yourself eliminate confusion on this subject by stopping
thinking of your positive aspirations and actions towards people as being
directed to helping them, and substituting the word 'benefit' for
'help'. Often you can most benefit people by not rushing in to 'help', but
rather by thinking clearly and awarely about what is really needed for their
long-term development. Respecting their own self-determination is extremely
important, and this is all too often overlooked in one's efforts to 'help'.
It can seem very hard seeing particular people struggling with difficult
situations and not intervening to try and help, but often the greatest benefit
may come from our just adopting a supportive attitude and sending loving
and encouraging prayers and aspirations in whatever ways are most appropriate
to the particular situations. As a healer I find my clients repeatedly give
me practical training in this discipline of letting go of the 'helping' urge
and instead seeing my proper role as being simply catalyst, inspirer and
support for each client's unique journey of self-discovery; if a client makes
choices that on the face of it seem unwise, that is his right, and he may
have to learn some hard lessons in consequence, but it may well be that those
particular lessons are just what that person requires in order to open up
his awareness properly. In that case I would actually be hindering the client
by seeking to help him in the more obvious way (i.e. to make what I think
is a 'correct' decision). To be of real benefit to other humans means opening
up your awareness and considering every possible consequence of any thoughts,
words or actions you direct towards others.
Much the same principles apply to involvement in the psychic dimension as
to 'helping' involvements on the physical plane. If you habitually involve
yourself, say, with healing, magic, conversing with spirits or whatever,
there will very likely be particular emotional problems, of which you may
be quite unaware, which are driving you into those preoccupations and are
being kept in place by them. Additionally, some people come into the current
life already psychically open and finding it a real nuisance having all these
strange perceptions. The most important thing in all cases is to put the
main life emphasis on integrating spiritual practices into your everyday
life - the mental disciplines which enable one eventually to transcend even
the psychic levels. In some but not all cases this would mean turning away
from all psychic practices (well, apart from protecting oneself as necessary).
Judicious, sparing practice of healing or other beneficial psychic practices
can be part of a true and effective spiritual path, but it depends to what
extent you can step aside from egotistical tendencies and fascinations and
use these practices for your own healing as much as anyone
else's.
A vital teaching of Jesus that the Church has sought to suppress is something
that most mystics and true spiritual leaders are aware of - that we each
pass through many, many lifetimes, accumulating experience and wisdom, on
our way towards the ultimate full enlightenment and reunion with our source.
Although there is overwhelming research evidence that reincarnation does
occur, and it is accepted as fact by mystics almost universally, different
cultures and religious groups have different views on the details of the
process. The biggest divide I know of is between the view in Buddhism and
that of perhaps the majority of non-Buddhist mystical traditions.
The Buddhist view is that beings are in an uncontrolled cycle of rebirth,
with no overall direction towards enlightenment. The exact nature of each
rebirth is dictated simply by karma and can result in a being arriving as
a human in one lifetime, a cockroach in another, a god in another, a denizen
of hell in another, and so forth - until and unless that being's karma just
happens to be configured in one particular lifetime to put him on the spiritual
path. He then has the choice of taking charge of his life direction and future
rebirths by diligently following a spiritual path, or of falling back into
the uncontrolled cycle with all its suffering, and enduring countless lifetimes
of all that before any further opportunity for liberation may present itself
again.
On the other hand, many other mystics see a very different situation. They
do not accept that transmigration between humans and animals occurs - animals
are seen as having a separate evolutionary path in spiritual development
- and every single human is on a purposeful one-way track towards that ultimate
enlightenment. Many people may in the short term appear to be 'stuck' or
'downwardly mobile', but a view of them over many lifetimes would show that
they are simply following longer and more convoluted sequences of learning
experiences on their way to the final homecoming.
It isn't for me to say that one of these views is more correct than the other
in an absolute sense, but I do find that in my work as a healer the second
view is more practical as a working assumption for helping people change
their lives. The first view appears to carry with it a certain 'you're liable
to be flung into hell if you don't follow our teachings' message, which makes
me a little suspicious about possible motivations that lie behind it, and
my own life experience, particularly in healing, is explained much better
by the second view.
Karma is usually mentioned in pretty well the same breath as rebirth. Contrary
to popular misconceptions, karma isn't a process of divine judgment and
punishment. Judgement and punishment do often occur, but these are only
projections from the minds of the individuals concerned, and are not actually
the nature of karma or of God. If you have a judgemental habit (most of us
do, at least to some extent), then this will not only judge other people
but will ultimately judge you - it's as simple as that. But what karma is,
is simply the operation of cause and effect. Most areas of modern Western
science, and our supposedly civilized outlooks in general, fail to recognise
the operation of cause and effect except in relatively simple situations
where it is easily observed. For the most part the rest is dismissed and
called 'chance' or randomness - or still more dismissively, 'just chance'.
(Now, what on earth do they mean by that sneaky little word 'just'?)
It's a truly great philosophy we have in our modern civilization - 'if I
can't see it, it doesn't exist'! Ask any self-respecting frog about that.
It will demonstrate that particular philosophy with great aplomb!
Things are changing, however, in some areas of science - particularly in
particle physics. It's been shown that pairs of particles have some sort
of cause-effect connection between them even when separated by much of the
universe, and that the supposed vacuity of space is a seething mass of particles
appearing and interacting and disappearing. Such findings underline what
mystics have always known - that every single event, whether apparently physical
or within one's mind, produces an effect which has repercussions throughout
the cosmos. Indeed, we're not talking of just one effect of one event, but
an ongoing infinitely complex matrix of interactions and repercussions, far
beyond the possibility of normal human comprehension.
Our karma, then, is repercussions for us of the consequences of all our deeds,
words and thoughts in this life and past lives. The way that karma operates
for us, at least in its gross manifestation, is concerning our learning.
We start our long sequence of worldly incarnations in ignorance, needing
to learn many lessons to gain us inner wisdom. Particularly in the early
stages we for the most part learn very slowly and get stuck in mental habits
that cause us to keep repeating errors. We hurt others, we do all manner
of harm. But gradually, often through traumatic and painful experiences,
we gain more understanding and improve our outlook and conduct. What is often
called negative karma is actually the 'backlog' of lessons we still need
to enable us to progress towards fuller awareness and eventual wholeness.
The more I'm stuck in a negative habit, the more tough experiences I'll probably
need in order to become aware of what I'm doing and be motivated to dismantle
the particular habit.
This load of karma carries over from lifetime to lifetime, so there is no
escape from the consequences of our actions. The good news, however, is that
by becoming more aware and diligently interrupting and dissolving our negative
habits of thought, speech and deeds, we progressively remove the need for
harsh lessons. That is how the neutralization of negative karma, or creation
of positive karma, works. Any judgement and punishment is carried out by
a particular level of our own consciousness and not by any external god.
Hell exists all right - as a potentiality in all our minds. People who are
in a deep state of ignorance and are still being driven by anger and hate
will at some stage tend to suffer from projections in their mind of those
emotions, which then turn upon them and give them the experience of hell
in some form or other. Ultimately it's their way of beginning to learn that
there has to be a better way. I don't wish that sort of experience upon anyone,
no matter what horrors they have committed, but - would you believe this!
- a point comes where at a high level of consciousness such people actually
choose to go through all that. If they could simply wave a wand and become
instantly open, aware and compassionate at the emotional and physical levels
they could end their suffering just like that. But it's through going through
hell that they eventually begin to open the door to the awareness and compassion
at their core.
The really big implication of reincarnation and karma is that each of us
is totally responsible for her actions and even thoughts, and cannot escape
their consequences, even by death. Mainstream Christianity has been guilty
of a grievous wrong in turning millions of people away from this simple but
vital understanding. Instead, the Church presented the public with the myth
that Jesus died on the cross to absolve us of our sins. In fact he did nothing
of the kind. Although most of the relevant information was excluded from
the biblical gospels, Jesus himself was teaching about individual responsibility,
karma and reincarnation. And there is overwhelming evidence that he survived
the crucifixion and therefore the matter of his dying on the cross to absolve
anyone of anything doesn't arise - another thing that the Church doesn't
want you to know about.
Does that mean, then, that God isn't forgiving? In fact, in a wonderful sort
of way that is true, for God is beyond any need to forgive. In the 'eyes'
of the Absolute you are totally loved and accepted. Indeed, as already explained,
you are actually part of the Absolute - and its total acceptance actually
transcends the very concept of forgiving, because the concept of forgiving
implies the letting go of a negative view of the wrongdoer, and in the absolute
there is only acceptance and no such negative view to let go of. So there
is no need or cause whatsoever for some messiah to come along and absolve
us of our wrongdoings. What we do need, however, is to learn to forgive
ourselves and others. That is part of the process of purification of
our karma, which process is really the learning well of the various lessons
that lead us towards realizing our sublime potentialities.
Why do most of us not remember any of our past lives? There is a very
important reason for this, so the failure of most people to remember them
certainly does not mean that they haven't had previous lives. The whole purpose
of going through a large number of lifetimes is that we go through sets of
learning experiences that give us an individual viewpoint and eventually
combine that with our innate transcendent loving wisdom. For any particular
lifetime our 'higher selves' (a high level of the consciousness) have chosen
particular issues to explore in order to gain us particular sets of learning
experiences. But if we still had memories from previous lives, the course
and purpose of the present life would be greatly interfered with by issues
from those previous lives. Cases have been recorded where particular people,
say through one type or another of past life therapy, have recovered memories
of being particular strong personalities in previous lives and have then
found themselves starting to take on the mannerisms, habits and undesirable
emotional baggage of the earlier personalities.
Acceptance of at least the possibility of reincarnation is very important.
If we reject it altogether (and that would be without any better reason than
"if I don't see it, it doesn't exist"), then we have rejected an important
basis of any sense of personal responsibility towards each other and the
cosmos. If we don't have to come back here and face the consequences of our
actions, then what point any self-liberation or spiritual progress, apart
from just making ourselves feel more comfortable in the short term? The only
way to try to get round that would be to assume, as mainstream Christianity
does, that our motivation has to come from some sort of reward and punishment
system after our death, with the promise of an afterlife that may be
appropriately heavenly or hellish. That scenario implies so many contradictions
that it is laughable. So much of the iniquity of our materialistic and ego-based
cultures arises from people's not understanding the true extent of their
personal responsibility and the fact that they will have to face the consequences
of their actions. Politicians would behave very differently if they knew
or even suspected that they'd have to pick up the bits from their short-sighted
policies in future lifetimes.
It may seem to you that you aren't very good at loving. A lot of people
all over the world have that impression of themselves. And yet the very notion
that love is something to be aspired to shows that it is really already there
working within, trying to find ways of manifesting itself. In reality love
is not something you have to 'do' at all. Rather, it is a fundamental quality
of your underlying true nature. Therefore in order to become overtly more
loving, far from having to try to love, you need to stop the various negative
mental habits that are getting in the way of the love that is already there
within you.
Most of us carry judgemental habits which not only judge other people but
are constantly judging ourselves. These internalized patterns are very harmful
and readily lead to physical illness. A good way of progressively neutralizing
and eventually completely dissolving judgemental thoughts is to allow the
love from your innermost core to radiate upon the particular thoughts or
feelings every time they arise.
Okay, most people haven't yet opened up that loving core so that it can be
used like that directly, but then the technique is to imagine that
you are radiating that love and total acceptance (like a sort of heavenly
light) upon those harsh and critical thoughts and feelings. Either way, you
will find that as you observe those negative arisings in your mind and direct
the radiation of totally accepting love upon them, they will dissolve. Make
this an ongoing practice for every time negative and judgemental thoughts
come up, whether about anyone else or yourself. Don't worry about whether
God will forgive you for your own particular past wrongs - the universal
consciousness, or God, is totally accepting and thus transcends even the
need to forgive! What is necessary, though, is that you honestly recognise
your past errors and determine not to repeat them, and also you need to
understand that the errors were all part of your particular path of learning
and therefore are all to be forgiven and accepted with love and without
exception.
This process of forgiving yourself is of crucial importance, not only in
this life, but also for enabling you to have a positive experience in the
intermediate phase between this life and the next, and a good rebirth. If
you leave this life still steeped in judgemental feelings and self-criticism,
those negative mental habits will tend to turn upon you after death and not
only give you harsh experiences in that intermediate phase but also problems
in your next life. So, be smart - be prepared!
Universal compassion is simply an aspect of universal love. Cultivating true,
non-egotistical compassion is a powerful means of opening up that inner core
of love that is in itself an aspect of our true nature. This universal compassion
and love is very different from what people commonly call love and compassion,
which actually arise out of stored painful emotions and could be said to
be egotistically rather than spiritually based. All too often, what people
mean by love is desire or/and strong positive judgement of, or a degree of
attachment to, a particular person or group of people. Universal love is
unconditional, not singling people out to the exclusion of others,
and has nothing to do with sex. For more about that, see my text
Exploring Close Relationships - Enter the Soul
Mate. The same is true of universal compassion. What is commonly
called compassion is actually pity, which arises from our own painful
emotions that are restimulated by seeing the plight of particular suffering
beings. Pity is rooted in a lot of fear, for it incorporates a sense of 'Thank
God I'm not in that predicament myself!', and your supposedly compassionate
response is likely to be driven primarily by a desire to make yourself
feel comfortable again. You cannot get far in opening up real compassion
without letting go of the delusion of ego, but conversely, cultivation of
pure, universal compassion is a powerful means of helping to dismantle the
ego. For much more information about the universal compassion within us and
how you can open it up and cultivate it, I strongly recommend
The Tibetan Book of Living and
Dying. Note particularly and learn the important and powerful practice
called Tonglen, which is described therein. You cannot get far along the
road to enlightenment without opening up your compassion.
The delusion of ego can be said to be at the root of all suffering. Yet the
fundamental cause is something even more basic, which is the two opposing
feelings or compulsions we call attachment and aversion. All the other mental
afflictions and wrongs that are identified in spiritual teachings, such as
pride, jealousy, greed and so on, can be related to the operation of attachment
and aversion. Therefore, if you start to understand your feelings and compulsions
in terms of the operation of what I shall call here the Two Villains, you
are starting to address many of your obstacles at their very root.
Usually, when we say that we 'like' something, we mean that to some extent
we are experiencing feelings of attachment toward it; this then leads to
some level of clinging or desire. Desire may seem pleasurable, but in reality
it reflects our inability to experience contentment and happiness in the
present; there is this sort of discontent that drives us to seek to possess
or experience the object of our desire. Aversion works in the other direction.
How many times have you heard somebody grumbling about 'this horrible weather'
when it's, say, raining and windy? But there's nothing intrinsically bad
about the weather. Everyone's put this label 'bad' on particular types of
weather just because they feel aversion toward it. So, when somebody says
the weather is bad, the corrected message would be that that person feels
aversion to what the weather is doing. So, every time it's rainy, at least
in my country, most people feel more or less bad about it because they have
habitual feelings of aversion to that type of weather.
Yet that isn't the only way they could feel about the weather when it's raining.
Every one of us is free to see beauty in the splashes of raindrops as they
hit surfaces and make ripples in puddles, and the grandeur of the cloud
formations scudding across the sky and, if they have an extensive view, the
peaceful progress across the land of the areas of heavier precipitation.
There is an especial grandeur about this in hilly and particularly mountainous
terrain. People could listen to the multitude of different little pattering
and splashing sounds of the rain (or maybe awesome rushings or roarings in
heavy downpours) and find immense beauty and peacefulness in that. They could
find the sound of the wind, as it roars and moans and chucks rain against
their windows, ennobling and inspiring. The only barrier to our getting all
manner of wonderful experiences from rainy and windy weather is this habit
of ours of feeing aversion. So, okay, it's possible, if you keep observing
your feelings and thoughts as they arise, to recognise the feelings of aversion
as they come up, and then observe them without getting involved in them,
so that they dissolve again and you can continue observing the object of
your aversion, without the aversion. Even if you're not at the level of doing
Dzogchen 'non-meditation', of which more anon, you can apply the Alexander
Technique as a mental discipline to assist you in observing and letting go
of such mental habits. Your innate tendency is to derive pleasure from and
a sense of beauty in pretty well all life experiences. Without aversion or
attachment you would be free to gain such positive experiences all the time.
The problem here with attachment and the associated desires is that in
maintaining an attachment you are actually diminishing or rejecting other,
alternative experiences for the sake of the object of your attachment. The
effect of this is very negative.
Attachment and the associated desires tend to be more difficult for most
people to address than aversion, because it seems difficult to believe that
we can still have good experiences without those mental habits. In truth,
without attachment or desire even close relationships and sex have an
enhanced, not diminished, quality. For more about that, read my text
Exploring Close Relationships - Enter the Soul
Mate. On the other hand, without aversion you can continue to enjoy
life - would you believe this! - even while experiencing the various symptoms
of an attack of 'flu; life then is simply different, not horrible.
I don't mean that you'd carry on your life as though you didn't have 'flu,
but rather that you'd carry on enjoying life in its more restricted mode
while you were carrying out your internal assault on the virus.
Many spiritual teachings highlight pride as being a very harmful mental
affliction and obstacle to spiritual opening up. We do need, though, to be
clear as to what is being meant by pride. Pride as described as a negative
habit in the Buddhist teachings is any tendency to compare yourself favourably
against other people, at least implicitly comparing them unfavourably against
yourself. It is one of the manifestations of egotism - the tendency to use
your interactions with other people for the prime purpose of making yourself
feel good without regard to the negative effects upon others. It can
be extremely subtle in its operation, and it certainly isn't enough just
to assume that because you don't feel obvious pride, either generally or
over some specific issue, pride isn't operating - just as you deceive yourself
if you believe that you carry no sexist or racist tendencies (buddhas - totally
enlightened beings - excepted!). But what usually isn't stressed in the Buddhist
teachings is that you do need to cultivate good feelings about and a positive
view of yourself - self esteem - and this is something quite different from
the egotistical attitude that they are calling pride. The difference is that
the egotistical sort of pride operates at other people's expense, even if
subtly, whereas this sort doesn't and has only positive effects.
There is a widespread misapprehension in my culture, and, I think, in many
others, that it's somehow wrong and grossly ignoble for anyone to stand their
full height (both physically and mentally) and acknowledge their true stature,
dignity and worth in the world, because doing so is confused with the egotistical
attitude of pride as already described. Interestingly, in the Tantric Buddhist
teachings I've come across mention of a desirable attitude which they call
'vajra pride'. That appears to be what I've just mentioned - the non-egotistical
acknowledgement of one's whole self and full stature. This can be experienced
as a sort of pride in the sense of 'I am great' with the understanding that
no comparison is being made with other people, and you are great too; it
doesn't require any sort of external display to affirm it, beyond your honestly
being your full self. But the 'I am great' which implies that I'm greater
than you or other people would be a manifestation of the egotistical pride
that we need to eradicate. In my culture Christianity has a lot to answer
for in teaching that people are inherently imperfect and regarding it as
shameful and sinful to conduct oneself as though one were otherwise. That
is not what Jesus was teaching. It encourages negative comparisons between
people according to how imperfect they supposedly are, and thus actually
cultivates the egotistical pride that we need to be eliminating.
A wise person undoubtedly has humility, but humility does NOT mean denying
your true worth. That is false humility or false modesty -
in other words, humbug, and indeed usually an inverted manifestation of the
egotistical type of pride ('Look what a virtuous and humble/modest person
I am!'). True humility means being open (but not obsessive) in acknowledging
your errors as well as achievements and correcting the errors where
appropriate; of being honest about your limitations as well as your
gifts; of publicizing or using your gifts only for the benefit of people
(including yourself) and not for self aggrandizement (i.e. encouraging
others to look up to you and therefore to compare themselves unfavourably
against you). A wise and knowledgeable person understands and is open about
how little he knows as well as how much; it is the fundamentally ignorant
people - teachers, lecturers, politicians and at least Western-style medics
are often very good at this - who seek to impart 'knowledge' or 'information'
while hiding the large gaps in their own knowledge and understanding. I have
always maintained, and I still do, that anyone who doesn't still openly regard
himself as a student in a subject should not be claiming to teach it.
Enjoy to the full any happiness, comfort and security that comes your way!
That's great. But let it pass, as it surely will! The problem is that most
of us have had heavy indoctrination from our cultures to make ongoing
life goals of these and to try to cling to them. People consequently
tend to seek them out rather than live a lifestyle that would open up a deeper
and enduring sort of happiness and security that transcends the inevitable
ups and downs of everyday life. Our cultures have helped cultivate within
us a phobia of the unknown and of what may bring us transient experiences
of discomfort and fear. No wonder we have so much depression and mental illness
nowadays! People acquire the material possessions and human relationships
they think will bring them happiness, yet deep down inside they know that
something tremendously important is missing. But because they're so afraid
of letting go of their false gods, few of them change their outlooks and
lifestyles in the necessary more challenging directions.
To many people I am a crazy freak indeed, going out for regular long, hard
wilderness hikes, preferring to walk up mountains when I get a chance. I
even hitch-hike to and from nearly all my hiking routes, and have done so
regularly from 1981 onwards. There are many discomforts, uncertainties and
even dangers about my doing this, though it is small fry compared with what
some walkers, and especially mountaineers, do. Because of slowly progressing
problems with my ankles, which I've not yet succeeded in stemming, I finish
almost every walk in some degree of pain. The uncertainties, discomforts
and occasional difficulties in the hitch-hiking could seem daunting, yet
it helps make the whole day's experience one of really living in a way that
no other means of transport could. I tell you, these outings of mine, with
all their uncertainties, risks, discomforts and fatigue, help cultivate a
deeper and more lasting happiness and inner security than any short term
comfort-seeking, and they are a most tremendous way of learning to
relax! For an evocative feel of this in brief literary form, read
my little piece, The Man with the Knobbly
Knees.
It's no coincidence that I own no television and maintain that most people
need one like they need a hole in the head. In front of a television you
physically and often mentally sag, collapse - not healthily
relax! Not many people know what true relaxation is; they spend their lives
in a wound-up state and then experience the flip side of that, which is collapse.
Most if not all 'relaxation' techniques are more about learning to collapse
well! For the most part television watching doesn't relax your mind; on the
contrary it screws you up more, only you are so used to it that you don't
notice, because you don't know what it's like to have your mind open and
relaxed. The widespread addiction to the television soap operas is a great
indication of the impoverishment of most people's lives. They prefer to watch
from the armchair the petty, inconsequential deeds of people functioning
at a low, pretty un-spiritual and definitely uninspiring level, dealing in
trivialities and mostly just reacting among each other rather than applying
higher awareness or thought processes. Instead the telly-watchers could be
using that time constructively as part of living exhilarating and inspiring
lives and putting the lie to the debauched version of supposed reality that
is portrayed on the TV.
Note, however, that I'm not claiming that anyone should seek out discomfort,
fear or unhappiness; rather that we need to be prepared to accept them as
transient experiences and use them well if and when they come our way in
the course of taking a positive life direction.
Physical discomforts, including outright pain, are, like so many other things,
widely misunderstood. A huge component of our experience of these, especially
actual pain, is fear. If you let go of your fear and aversion surrounding
your pains and discomforts, suddenly they become much more bearable. Indeed,
with advanced meditation techniques it's possible to undergo even surgical
operations without anaesthetic and not experience pain as we normally know
it. I'm not suggesting we should ignore physical pains that we feel, for
many of them are important signals warning us that something needs attention.
But there are many minor pains and physical discomforts that you may experience
when you start taking up a more active lifestyle - most of which would probably
cease to occur as you get used to using your body that way - and letting
go of aversion to them is an important part of opening the way forward in
a meaningful life, just as we need to let go of our aversion to having seemingly
hurtful verbal negativities occasionally thrown at us from people who in
their ignorance feel threatened by where we're at.
Those who in their ignorance imagine that it's good to be 'normal' would
do well to ponder what 'normality' in the world as it is at the moment really
means. To be anything like whole and well-functioning as a human being is
still very rare indeed; such a person is abnormal in the extreme! A person
who is 'normal', in the sense of being like the majority, or being average
in the population at large, is in fact functioning poorly and has extremely
little idea or realization of his true, spiritual nature. So whoever clings
to or extols the virtues of normality is attached to a very poor state of
being, no matter how many of his peers regard him as successful and well-adjusted
and all that. If you yourself feel uptightness or disapproval of individuals
who in some way are different from the norm, then the problem is primarily
those feelings of yours, which need working through and releasing. That is
true, no matter how apparently outrageous or evil the other people's deviation
from the norm appears to be. All uptightness or anger that arises within
you, even about, say, mass murderers or child molesters, is your problem,
however 'normal' and apparently justified, and is for releasing and transforming
into positive energy. Without such negative emotional responses you would
be in a much better position to apply wisdom and compassion to all situations
involving human function and malfunction.
In particular the 'normality' bogey is used with tedious monotony with regard
to sexual orientation and behaviour. As explained in my text,
Exploring Close Relationships - Enter the Soul
Mate, almost all sexual feelings and behaviour that occur in the
'real' world arise out of stored painful emotions and so can reasonably called
malfunction. This is pretty well as true for heterosexual as for homosexual
or any other types of sexual attraction or arousal that occur, so in reality
nobody has any 'moral high ground' to claim.
A really well functioning person of course may be 'normal' to the extent
of not behaving in harmful or truly anti-social ways, but indeed paradoxically
such a person would also be abnormal in being so socially responsible that
she wouldn't be behaving in many socially acceptable but actually harmful
and anti-social ways that are the norm in the population at large; here I
would include many manipulative, sexist and adultist elements of normal attitudes
and behaviour (for example, see my text, We are
All Abusers).
Clinging to supposed normality is oppressive and incredibly hurtful to people
who are different from the norm in some way (well, until and unless they
manage to progress so far in their own spiritual opening up that they are
no longer subject to feelings of oppression). I wish I could somehow make
'ordinary' people feel for themselves as a lesson the pain and hellish inner
experiences that their fear-based self-righteousness causes for individuals
around them who they've often made too afraid even to admit to anyone their
own sexual orientation. The attitudes of you supposedly normal people out
there and the ill-conceived things you say actually drive people towards
suicide, you cause so much suffering. In that connection, the pronouncements
of supposed upholders of 'morality' and 'family values' are an instrument
of darkness and evil, reinforcing that widespread oppression and compounding
the misery of many people who are much more in touch with the universal love
and compassion that Jesus taught than any of those pontificators.
The truth is that every one of us is unique, having brought into the world
a unique set of qualities and gifts with which we can enrich the life experience
of others, so, how crazy for any of us to try to deny and suppress that sublime
uniqueness! Each of us is precious!
This may seem an outrageous thing to say, but, okay, I'm by now pretty used
to saying things that at first seem crazy, so I'll say it anyway --
Nothing, and nothing that happens anywhere, is intrinsically good or
evil. There, I've said it, and now, as though I've just said the
naughty 'f-' word at a vicar's tea party, you can picture me ducking and
quietly observing the responses, discreetly smirking and maybe giggling at
the little children's games of negative emotional reactions that ensue.
Being serious for a moment - that statement is absolutely true, and has been
made in some form or other by at least most of the great spiritual masters.
I expect even Jesus taught that, though any such statements of his would
have been rigorously suppressed in at least the biblical gospels in order
to conform with 'Christian' doctrine (What a sick irony!).
But note that I have not said that good and evil don't exist. Good and evil,
like all other attributes, are simply labels that we put upon objects,
experiences, phenomena. They certainly exist in the sense that they have
meaning, but they are projections of our own judgements and are not intrinsic
qualities of anything outside ourselves, or indeed of ourselves. You yourself
are not intrinsically evil, even if you've committed genocide or you regularly
rape and eat babies - though undoubtedly in such cases you'd have a big problem,
with a hell of a lot of negative karma to purify, and there would be an obvious
need for you to be stopped from doing further harm to others. As I've previously
explained, harbouring judgemental feelings and attitudes is a great obstacle
to spiritual progress and propagates negativity and accumulates negative
karma, so such habits need letting go of, however 'justified' they may seem.
How, then, can we square the sublimity of high spiritual progress with ceasing
to judge people and what they do as good or evil?
Supposing we set aside all our judgemental feelings, can we find a wise
definition of good and evil that is not based on our emotional reactions?
I think we can, easily - but as soon as we've done so the scene becomes all
fuzzy! Once you understand that your essence - and the essence of each one
of us that we seek to uncover and make manifest in our spiritual progress
- is universal compassionate love and wisdom (total understanding), then
you have a foundation for defining these terms, no longer based on whether
someone or something transgresses your particular taboos or emotional booby
traps. 'Good' can then be seen as whatever leads people, both individually
and socially, towards greater spiritual awareness or openness. 'Evil' can
then be seen to be the converse, that is, what leads away from that. What
is very different about this view is that if based on all-seeing wisdom rather
than immediate emotional responses, we begin to see that what we have habitually
regarded as evil is actually more like the inevitable vortices and turbulence
in a current whose overall flow is in the 'good' direction.
Remember why we've come into our lives. It wasn't to become 'holier-than-thou'
and self-righteous, but to learn, open up our compassionate love, and to
gain wisdom, eventually remembering who and what we really are and enriching
the universal consciousness of which each of us is part. What we habitually
call 'evil' in this world actually serves tremendously important positive
functions. How could any of us have our universal love and compassion activated
and opened up without being confronted with all the myriad flavours of suffering
which worldly life embraces? I tell you, even the Holocaust was not in vain.
It, like so many other great wrongdoings, has been a powerful force in activating
people's compassion and motivating them towards realizing the higher reality
within themselves, as well as bringing about positive change in the physical
world. I'm certainly not advocating anything other than compassion and love,
but from the higher viewpoint we can see that everything that happens in
the world serves an ultimate positive function, at least in the long run.
The calamity of the Chinese oppression and destruction in Tibet, while being
an obscenity in itself, has brought great benefit to the world at large,
in that many Buddhist masters have fled to the West and have understood that
now is the time for making the high Buddhist teachings and practices, many
of them previously more or less secret, much more widely known. While I stop
short of thanking China for its appalling atrocities and ongoing oppression
of the remaining Tibetan people in their homeland, in a more general sense
I personally have good cause to be grateful for whatever chain of events
has led to the worldwide dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism, for my own
particularly dramatic spiritual opening up was triggered by my contact with
the teachings in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which almost certainly
wouldn't have been written at all if all those Tibetan masters hadn't been
forced to flee to the West.
Think about this: nowadays it's widely reported that the incidence of depression
and suicide is soaring, at least in the so-called 'developed' countries.
Undoubtedly the materialism of the cultures is part of the equation, but
it is only part, and it doesn't explain why the incidence of depression and
suicide is still increasing even though these cultures have surely been as
materialistic as they are now for quite some time. I put it to you that a
major factor involved is that, overall, people are becoming more self- or
spiritually aware. The problem for so many of them is that they haven't yet
any proper understanding of their awareness or how to handle and develop
it (standard religion is little or no help, as it involves too much closing
down of the awareness with belief systems), so their subjective experience
is that they perceive the world as oppressive and full of wrongs. I know
about this sort of thing from the inside, having been through it myself.
Thus I see the high and increasing incidence of that sort of suffering as
being a positive and inspiring sign! It's a sign that there are more and
more people who at least potentially have the awareness that can lead towards
the world becoming a better place to live in, and who have a strong motivation
for positive change. May texts like this one fall into the hands of many
of those who are desperate for that positive understanding and direction
to deliver them from their agony of uncomprehended inner awareness!
At the same time, while, with awareness and wisdom, we can find a force for
'good' in pretty well all that we habitually regard as 'evil', if we look
at what we regard as 'good', things are just as convoluted. Doing 'good'
for people may be taking away from them the opportunities for certain learning
experiences that they actually need for their own development. Look more
closely at the attitudes and deeds of great 'good' people and you will usually
find problematical elements, including various flavours of egotism. And what
is so good about obeying the Ten Commandments that are supposed to be at
the core of Christianity, to the extent that you turn away from the opportunity
to kill a person who you know will go on to commit genocide? If you think
of yourself as doing, or trying to do 'good' in the world, then most likely
your ego and judgemental habits are very much involved and negating much
of your supposedly positive intentions. Train yourself to seek to spread
love and compassion in the world, rather than 'doing good', and you'd
be getting closer, though it's important that you have no aspiration to be
seen by others as particularly virtuous, for any of that is egotistical pride
creeping in.
If, as a result of positive karma from past lives, you have a life full of
abundance and apparent contentment, you will probably not have much motivation
towards true spiritual progress, even though you may appear to be a well
adjusted and 'good' person. In that situation you will most likely have a
much more difficult time in a subsequent lifetime as a result, because it
is actually the problems and difficulties which are your true friends, and
it is these (well, at least to a fair extent) that you need in order to progress
towards enlightenment!
In short, then, if you want to be wise just drop all talk or thoughts of
'good', 'bad', 'evil' and so on. They are here to confuse and deceive you.
Simply drop judgement and let the unity of love, compassion and wisdom be
your foundation and guiding light in all that you think, say or do. Isn't
that simple!
Understanding
Impermanence
The Buddhist teachings are particularly strong and clear about the nature
of impermanence. Whatever has gone up will eventually come down. Whatever
has gone down will eventually rise again. Whatever has come together will
eventually disintegrate. Every lifetime has a beginning and will come to
an end. "Life is like a bridge - pass over it but do not settle
down on it!", as Jesus once said. You may think of at least the mountains,
the Earth, the sky, as being permanent - but not so. They just last a bit
longer than our present lifetimes do; that is all. Our sun will die. Our
galaxy will die. Even our Universe will have an end of some kind. None of
us can escape the truth of impermanence; Buddha couldn't; Jesus couldn't.
Beginning to gain a true understanding of impermanence is to begin to grasp
the true nature of reality. We are deluded when we believe that there is
an enduring solid physical reality outside and independent of our own
perceptions. Everything that we perceive as 'matter' is simply particular
transient aggregations of energy. All the matter that we see is made up from
molecules, which in turn are made up from atoms, which themselves are made
up from... And at the most fundamental level so far detected, the 'particles'
are quanta of energy. In truth all matter that we perceive as so solid is
just temporary configurations of energy. It is as though even the most
solid-seeming objects are just crests of complex waves on a seething ocean
of energy. And this ocean of energy - what evidence have we that it is anything
other than an emanation from consciousness itself? Sure, many people would
at once point out that we have sense organs which are perceiving something
outside ourselves, but what they overlook is that the impression of input
from sense organs is simply an impression that arises within the consciousness.
Likewise, scientists can carry out what research they like into brain function,
but most still overlook the simple fact that the brain, like everything else,
is simply a construct of the mind; there is nothing to show us that consciousness
arises from a brain which exists somehow independently of it - as so many
scientists still claim.
Does this then mean that I'm saying that nothing exists except 'me'? -- Well,
actually, both no and yes. It depends from what level of perception you look.
In the Buddhist teachings a meaningful distinction is made between, on the
one hand absolute truth, which is the reality of the innermost level
of consciousness, which is beyond concepts, and on the other hand relative
truth, which is effectively the everyday experience of phenomena, objects
and concepts. From the level of absolute truth - in other words from the
viewpoint of the enlightened state, all objects and experiences can be seen
to be illusory, in the sense that they have no existence outside the (universal)
consciousness (i.e. God), of which you are part, and are just transient arisings
within it. On the other hand, from any particular level of relative
truth it is perfectly reasonable to say, yes, these objects, these phenomena
,do exist outside myself, albeit as transient phenomena in the cosmic dance
of energy. It makes sense, therefore, to adopt whichever viewpoint is most
practical for particular purposes. It's a basic, albeit universal, error
to regard truth as dualistic and assume that only one view can be correct
and all others must be wrong.
There's little point in simply denying any sort of apparently external reality,
for even if the life experience can be seen from the highest level to be a
sort of dream, it is the dream that we have, and therefore it makes sense
to make the 'dream' meaningful and as positive as you can. You could easily,
through disregarding the reality of your 'dream' at the relative level, turn
the dream into your nightmare. However, through also maintaining the higher
view you maintain and cultivate a much greater command over your spiritual
progress - your progress over successive lifetimes, or even within this one,
towards full enlightenment.
It is not for me to seek here to rival the eloquence and
comprehensiveness of some of the Buddhist masters on the subject of
impermanence and the nature of reality; I refer readers particularly to
The Tibetan Book of Living and
Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. Suffice it to say, beginning to understand
impermanence is a great liberation. Many things that you previously felt
important no longer seem so, and on the other hand you can then begin to
tune in to the unborn and undying nature of your true self. Then that 'Life
is like a bridge' quote of Jesus gains new and fuller meaning. You become
more in tune with the long-term purpose in your succession of lifetimes;
you plan and think ahead not just to future events in the current lifetime,
but you start shaping this lifetime to make something meaningful and positive
out of future lives. Thus you find that spiritual development and your long-term
role in the evolution of humanity becomes of overriding importance, because
you see that every other consideration is transient and unless it is related
to the overall, spiritual, direction, it is of no consequence whatever.
In this connection, I cannot overemphasize the importance of regularly
contemplating impermanence and - yes! - death. Indeed, such
contemplation needs to become an integral part of all your everyday awareness
at all times, so it becomes part of your basic view of yourself and the cosmos.
This may seem an outrageous idea - that you should be contemplating death,
and even your own death, every day, and regardless of your age, even as you
rejoice in life. But as you recognise the true nature of yourself and of
death, then it is a joyful and inspiring contemplation and not morbid or
depressing at all. Truly, you can rejoice in the fact and prospect of death!
Here is that saying of Jesus again. Think about it - a lot!
Life is like a bridge - pass over it but do not
settle down on it!
Please be aware that this doesn't claim to be a comprehensive account of
all self-liberation methods, of which there are very many. What follows here
is simply the methods that have had some relevance to me personally. I cannot
understate the importance of using a combination of methods for your growth
and liberation; any one method, even though it could theoretically take you
all the way, would be a slow vehicle indeed compared with an intelligent
and discriminating multi-pronged attack on your obstacles.
It will be noted that I omit mention of the plethora of alternative therapies
and natural remedies much used by many spiritual seekers. Although each of
those therapies has some value for particular purposes for particular people,
they are widely misused. Many people, disillusioned with the restricted view
of orthodox Western medicine and psychiatric therapies, opt for 'alternative'
therapies and natural remedies but fail to let go of their fixation on the
notion of the quick cure either through taking a drug (albeit a supposedly
natural one) or having a therapy done to them. What they really need to take
on board is that the underlying causes of their problems and obstacles cannot
be removed except through their taking full charge of and responsibility
for their own lives - and that means changing one's lifestyle and uncovering
and releasing or dissolving their stored emotional traumas. It means opening
yourself fully to learning from each experience, whether apparently good
or bad.
This is rather the Cinderella of the methods I'm mentioning, because of
culturally-inculcated ignorance and confusion about the nature of the emotional
release processes. What I am referring to here is the natural healing processes
of crying, trembling, laughing, angry storming, yawning and interested,
non-repetitive talking about past hurtful experiences. It is a normal
but serious error to seek to sidestep or diminish the importance of emotional
release; it's as important for our liberation as anything else.
Emotional release can be greatly assisted through sensitive counselling by
counsellors who are able to release their own emotions readily; the procedures
and insights of Re-evaluation counselling
are especially helpful. The emotional release processes have the following
main functions:
-
crying (releasing mainly grief);
-
trembling (releasing fear);
-
laughter (releasing a lighter level of grief, fear, anger and indeed pretty
well any uncomfortable emotion);
-
bright, indignant angry storming (releases frustration, but rarely occurs
in anyone other than young children);
-
yawning (releases various physical aspects of stored traumas);
-
interested, non-repetitive talking about past experiences (releases
mostly the final part of stored hurts and traumas).
There are many widespread misunderstandings about emotional releases. Crying
and also trembling are generally confused with the emotional hurts themselves,
so are regarded as a Bad Thing and discouraged. That is quite wrong; they
are wonderful healing processes, and if they are allowed to occur with the
understanding that they are important healing processes they can actually
be a delightful experience and have extremely beneficial long-term effects.
Laughter is much misused and misdirected, but, if allowed to occur freely
as you interrupt your mental habits, it releases the lighter levels of stored
hurts and helps you to become more open and aware. Laughter is also a general
'lubricant' that makes it easier to initiate the other types of release,
and makes the whole emotional healing process more enjoyable.
'Anger' is greatly misunderstood, for the angry ragings and rantings of an
adult are not normally much of a healing at all, no matter that the person
doing it may feel temporarily comforted through having let fling at someone.
What is behind such angry displays is a lot of fear, and it is this
that needs releasing, in particular through trembling and laughter, though
often much crying needs to occur as well. You may have noticed how quite
often somebody starts shaking when really angry. It's the shaking that needs
encouraging, not the threatening and negative display. This is not the end
of the story, however, for there are many people, myself included, who sometimes
need quite deliberately to 'act a rage' (discreetly, where it won't upset
anyone) to break patterns of timidity and bottling-up frustrations and allow
the underlying fear to start releasing in all that trembling and laughter.
Stored emotional hurts or traumas are what cause much or even all of our
rigid patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour. They are what stop us learning
many of life's lessons readily, and they make us keep on repeating our mistakes
instead of properly learning from them. They are also what cause us to keep
our awareness greatly limited. Therefore theoretically you could free your
true self from its multitude of obscurations simply by embarking on an intensive
long-term programme of retrospective emotional release. That is the original
conception of Re-evaluation Counselling
(RC), a peer co-counselling technique which was something of a lifesaver
for me back in the early 1970s. You don't have to be aware of your emotional
hurts initially in order to benefit from the procedure; you would progressively
develop more self-awareness as you continued to use RC. The underlying theory
of RC is given in the excellent succinct book,
The Human Side of Human
Beings by Harvey Jackins, the originator of the method.
The 'core' method of RC is co-counselling sessions. A pair of people works
together, one being counsellor and the other 'client' for half the allotted
time, and then the roles are reversed. It's very important that whoever functions
as counsellor also functions as client and releases emotions too; otherwise
the process would founder as the counsellor's egotistical power games unawarely
insinuated themselves into the proceedings.
In these co-counselling sessions the person in counsellor role listens non-
judgementally to the client, without giving advice. But the counsellor is
not there passively. The counsellor pays close attention to what is going
on - not just to what the client is saying, but to the underlying emotions,
patterns and tensions that reveal themselves as the client talks. At appropriate
points the counsellor may interrupt to get the client to say, for example,
a particular phrase again in a different way, for the normal way of talking
incorporates patterns of tension that block emotional release, and contradicting
such 'control patterns' allows such release to occur. The aim therefore is
not really talking about hurts or problems but the actual occurrence and
sustaining of emotional release.
If a client starts off by saying "I haven't any problems really" and the
counsellor observes a certain sign of something going on underneath that
statement, the counsellor, observing a certain seriousness in the client's
face at that point, might immediately step in and gently say, "Say that again
with a great big smile!" Now, the point is not that the client should henceforth
be going around with a great big smile all the time, but rather that while
aiming for emotional release she is directed to do something that interrupts
an old habit, which in this case involves a rather tight and serious facial
expression. To interrupt any habitual pattern of behaviour, speech or thought
can sometimes cause discomfort, but more importantly, it allows the stored
emotions that have caused the pattern to start releasing.
In the case of this client who's just been told to "say that again with a
great big smile", what could well happen at that point is that he or she
starts crying. Or maybe it will be laughter... But if it's laughter, if it
is encouraged it may well soon tip over into crying. Now that the client
is releasing, it's the counsellor's task to be supportive and help the client
remain focused on the mental images that produce the release. This may involve
periodically getting the client to repeat whatever it was that started the
release process in that session. Most people find this sort of active and
aware support extremely difficult to give, because they are so conditioned
to feel uncomfortable about somebody releasing emotions, particularly crying
and trembling. Although physical closeness of the counsellor during crying
or trembling can be helpful, it is often used unawarely as a means to try
and comfort the client in order to stop the release process and so make the
counsellor feel more comfortable.
The more advanced use of the insights of RC involves more far-ranging recognition
of rigid patterns of feelings, thought, speech and behaviour, and interrupting
these at all levels of scale, everyday life included, thus putting much emphasis
on directly opening out one's life. This can free up even deeply ingrained
hurts for release, and the basic procedures of RC can then be used to dissolve
the underlying cause of these rigidities.
The insights and methods of RC are of great importance in all areas of life
and pretty well all other self-liberation techniques, but RC used in itself
is limited in what it can do for most people because of very deeply ingrained
patterns of unawareness and the associated problem of egotistical power games
that insinuate themselves into co-counselling sessions. This sort of limitation
is illustrated by the fact that in about 1980 the Exeter group of the RC
community actually excluded me from the group (permanently) because they
were all colluding in a certain level of unawareness and felt very much unsettled
by my deeper level of awareness and more consistent motivation for full
emergence.
Another difficulty with RC is that although within the RC community there
is growing awareness of the need for pattern-breaking in everyday life, there
is a lot of emphasis on emotional release, which isn't wrong in itself but
it feeds patterns which many of us carry that make us dwell too much in our
perceived 'problems'. So it is best used in combination with other methods
that keep one's attention more outwardly focused.
Although emotional release occurs most readily and thoroughly when you have
the undivided non-judgemental loving attention of another person, it is possible
to learn to use the insights and counselling techniques of RC upon oneself.
I know, because I've been doing it for decades now, not having had the ongoing
support of others on my wavelength. Plenty of people warned me not to, but
they were simply expressing their own ignorance and fear. I had the choice
of doing so or simply waiting upon the unawareness of people around me and
not progressing much at all in freeing myself. They were afraid of witnessing
anyone really taking charge of his life and becoming whole. Sheep, the lot
of them! Baaaaa! :-)
An emotional crisis is not 'the end', and is good
news!
How many times have we all heard in the news media that so-and-so 'broke
down' at some point! What the reporters or editors actually should be saying
is that so-and-so started healing, not broke down! Some difference!
When will those fools learn that simple truth? It is commonly not realized
that what appears to be an emotional crisis or breakdown is a sure sign of
a very positive process occurring. For the person concerned it is a horrible
experience at the time if they don't understand the true nature of the process,
but it is a potential turning point. I rejoice inwardly for whoever comes
to me because of an emotional crisis. That is where there is a real possibility
of starting to release the stored emotions and stopping covering up all that
emotional baggage that has been carried for so long and caused so much inner
suffering. In my small-scale and informal practising as a healer I find again
and again that it takes an emotional crisis to motivate particular people
to reach out of the negative ruts which their lives were in and to seek help
from healers or therapists of one kind or another, or even directly to take
charge of their own lives with self-liberation techniques (as indeed happened
for me back in 1972). Not all these people find the way out from their personal
hells within their current lifetime, but many do. It ultimately depends on
whether the person concerned is prepared, at least bit by bit, to take
responsibility for bringing about change in her life.
A lot of people are so addicted to their suffering that even when they hit
an emotional crisis they are not prepared to let go of old habits that have
caused them so much trouble; such people commonly then continue their lives
stumbling from crisis to crisis and afflicted by much physical illness, using
mind-numbing drugs to try and keep themselves going. They want doctors or
therapists to take responsibility for 'curing' them, not understanding that
the real cure involves changes of lifestyle and relinquishing negative mental
habits, and there is only one person who can bring that about (albeit probably
with a bit of help)...
It is important to understand that unless you take measures to interrupt
and counter the rigid patterns of behaviour, thought, feeling and general
outlook which are caused by your stored emotional hurts and tensions, you
could need to spend a great amount of time on emotional release, and it could
feel pretty unpleasant. On the other hand the more you break the patterns
or habits and direct yourself to be open, flexible and positive in your everyday
life, not only can it be easier to release the emotional baggage, but it
becomes a much more efficient and enjoyable process, with minimum time needed
for the release process to give major and lasting benefits.
"Emotional release is best avoided-it's better just to let go of the tense
and hurt feelings"
No, that is often claimed but in most cases it's just the voice of unaware
fear of facing one's buried emotional hurts. It's true that with appropriate
meditation discipline you can 'just let go' of quite a lot of your emotional
baggage, and it may be that, given sufficient time (probably much more than
remains in your current lifetime) you could release all of it by that method.
But the very reason why you don't want to allow the natural emotional healing
processes is also the reason why you want to avoid acknowledging some of
your material, and it will greatly hold back your ability to 'just let go'
of everything, as you are keeping a wodge of fear intact. That fear keeps
areas of your awareness walled off, so that you simply don't realize how
your feelings and life experience are being constrained, and have no inkling
that you are carrying all that fear. Of course for somebody who cannot face
allowing himself to cry or tremble, 'just letting go' may seemingly be the
only method available, but quicker and more comprehensive and thorough clearance
would be achieved by the use of all readily available means and not just
one. So, the verdict is: 'just letting go' is great, but works better and
more comprehensively if you also allow the natural healing processes of emotional
release to occur, at least when they offer themselves. Receiving healing
(of which more anon) is very helpful in this respect as it tends to make
it easier for us to feel and release buried emotions.
In my own life the Alexander Technique (AT) took over where RC left off.
The AT is reasonably fully described in another text of mine, which is
http://www.philgodd.force9.co.uk/"spirit.htm#Alextech">downloadable from my website. Although
the AT superficially focuses just on letting go of habits of body misuse,
it is actually an extremely profound and powerful method of training yourself
to let go of mental habits. Mental habits - each and every one of them -
block our awareness and good functioning. Our true nature is one of alert
awareness, always able to perceive what is new in each situation and respond
accordingly. It is mental habits or patterns which limit our ability to function
like that. For every physical tension or distortion that you let go of you
are actually letting go of a corresponding tension or distortion in the mind
and your outlook on life. And you can use the AT for progressively letting
go of mental habits which don't correspond with any physical manifestations
you are aware of. The AT, if learnt properly and integrated into your life,
is a training in maintaining ongoing awareness of what you are doing with
your body and what is going on in your mind. You learn to be an ongoing observer,
in control of your life and able to make appropriate decisions at any point,
instead of operating in the previously normal auto-pilot mode.
Almost anyone who wants to take up the AT would initially need to have one-to-one
lessons from a qualified teacher, but as the technique is learnt it should
be integrated into their lifestyle. Apart from those initial lessons it's
a method that you use yourself for yourself, so the extent and quality of
your progress doesn't depend on your getting a particular level of support
and attention from other people. That was a particularly important point
for me, having been so let down by other practitioners of Re-evaluation
Counselling in my geographical area.
As I discovered to my amazement at the beginning of 1997, the ongoing and
growing awareness in everyday life that you can develop with the AT is actually
the same as what Buddhists refer to as mindfulness, the highly desirable
acutely aware and alert state of mind that results from proper integration
of the meditation state with everyday life, and this can become a high-level
spiritual opening up. With the AT you can achieve this without any formal
meditation whatsoever. So, although the AT is not normally classified as
a spiritual path or even anything more than a physical technique, it is actually
also a very powerful spiritual path which lacks a lot of the dangers and
pitfalls of more overt high spiritual paths, which often require a qualified
guru to ensure safety. You won't find many books on or teachers of the AT
who would tell you about this!
The AT isn't a complete path to wholeness in itself, however, for it concentrates
on letting go but doesn't have anything to say about the natural emotional
healing processes. The result tends to be that, as with meditation, many
people become more peaceful and relaxed, and certainly elegantly dissipate
large chunks of their emotional baggage by the simple method of just letting
go, yet they unawarely leave many areas of stored emotional hurt still buried.
They too readily assume that if they feel comfortable they simply do not
have such material still to work through, and remain unaware of some of their
most deeply ingrained habits of outlook which shape their perceived personality
(a false ID, as already explained). It is more effective therefore to incorporate
the insights and practices of Re-evaluation Counselling in your use of the
AT, so that when something is stirred up it can be released with a good cry,
laugh, trembling or whatever. Such release is particularly efficient if you're
using the AT because you'd know to let go of any habit of indulging in the
hurt feelings that are coming up for release; the crying or other 'heavy'
release is likely to be intense but highly enjoyable and not of very long
duration, leaving you feeling very positive and exhilarated. Think of the
brilliance, freshness and sparkle of the countryside after the passing-through
of a briefly torrential thundershower!
Although these do not figure in my own 'itinerary' in any formal sense, I
do recognise them as important methods of developing inner and outer harmony.
However, although many people I know have benefited from them, it appears
that in themselves these methods were not providing full answers to the needs
of these people, and it turned out that yoga and meditation were best regarded
as adjuncts to the more practical and all-embracing practice of the AT and
releasing emotions when necessary. Some positions used in traditional meditation
and the Western-adopted Hatha Yoga are actually physically harmful as recognised
in AT practice, and therefore need to be changed or abandoned.
One great problem with these methods - and this commonly occurs even with
the AT - is that people fail to integrate the methods into their everyday
life. You may achieve a great sense of peace and harmony during the allocated
time of formal meditation sessions, but not be bringing about much improvement
for the better in your everyday life. And I groan inwardly each time one
of my AT students tells me (usually while standing or sitting in a more or
less distorted posture) that she has been meticulously 'doing the AT' every
day - actually meaning just doing the required lie-downs and possibly a few
other overt practices that have been learnt in the lessons. Real use and
application of the AT is not in 20 minutes of lying on your back, nor in
a brief spine- lengthening exercise against a wall, but through cultivating
and nurturing continuous awareness and self-correction through interrupting
and letting go of each habitual pattern as it is observed, 25 hours per day.
:-)
The same applies to the true importance of Yoga or meditation. Through these
methods you are learning mental disciplines which are very close to those
of the AT and whose main value is really through their ongoing use and
cultivation in all the situations of everyday life. The scheduled sessions
are only periods of return to the 'home position', as you might describe
it, to help focus yourself on good use of mind and body in order to help
counter the distractions and distortions that inevitably creep in during
everyday life.
Caution! There are probably as many ways of meditating as there are
people to do it. But meditation needs care, particularly the advanced types.
It's wise to have a well reputed guide for meditation practice. A particular
risk of the more advanced methods is that you might become psychically ungrounded
- with diminished or broken connection to the worldly 'reality'. Another
problem which I have myself seen is how people with strong egotistical streaks
commonly use meditation simply to make themselves feel more comfortable and
peaceful over their compulsive and often manipulative behaviour towards others.
So it is unwise in the extreme to regard meditation in itself as the
means to improve your life or open up spiritually. Use it along with other
methods.
I have said that I myself have not used formal meditation, but actually since
I recognised my innermost nature in 1997 that statement has become a little
fuzzy in its accuracy. The Dzogchen type of meditation, which in fact I do
use throughout much of my everyday life nowadays, although rarely in scheduled
sessions, is quite commonly referred to as non-meditation, for it involves
no attempt to achieve non-thought or indeed any special state of mind. For
anyone who, like myself, has recognised the innermost and most subtle level
of consciousness through perceiving it directly, the essential practice,
whether formally meditating or not, is simply to keep one's self-awareness
resting in that innermost consciousness or naked awareness, and to observe
all experiences, thoughts, feelings and so forth completely non-judgementally.
That innermost consciousness is the naked awareness which I previously described
as the real 'I' which observes all that we experience. It is also the enlightened
state itself, so this practice, if carried out really diligently, can lead
to full spiritual enlightenment.
It should be understood that Dzogchen 'non-meditation' depends upon having
had that inner recognition of what is effectively the enlightened state -
a very rare thing to happen to anyone. This is little or nothing to do with
various experiences of bliss, peace or clarity which meditators or others
may experience. Many people kid themselves that they've found enlightenment
just because they've had some of those pleasurable or inspiring experiences
- but no, enlightenment is something much more subtle and elusive for ordinary
people, and it transcends any type of experience that you could describe.
In addition to that caveat, I must also warn that Dzogchen 'non-meditation',
if used in the wrong hands, and particularly without a properly qualified
Dzogchen master, can lead people into big trouble with their sanity through
becoming psychically ungrounded. However, if you are one of those rare people
who, like myself, have recognised their innermost nature spontaneously and
do not find that level of inner awareness problematical, then throughout
the rest of your life your central practice needs to be that of maintaining
your inner 'view' and simply observing whatever arises in your mind without
getting involved in it. What happens then is that thoughts simply dissolve
back into naked awareness as you observe them, so that increasingly you perceive
the true underlying nature of whatever is experienced. As I've already warned,
this can be the stuff of insanity unless you are properly prepared for it,
so go gently and don't get fascinated with it!
As with other types of meditation, however pervasive Dzogchen 'non-meditation'
may be in one's life, there is a real need to have other, additional practices
which maintain more contact with the worldly dimension of 'reality'.
You may not have thought of yourself as being particularly spiritual, because
the popular notion of spirituality is confused with the belief systems and
rituals of religions. Yet every one of us, whether we are yet aware of it
or not, has a psychic and a spiritual dimension, both of which greatly dwarf
the 'physical' dimension. It may be very helpful to take up one of the recognised
spiritual paths to help focus your method(s) of freeing yourself. Although
I have not formally joined or taken up any such path, my contact with Dzogchen
Buddhism through reading (initially of the invaluable
Tibetan Book of Living and
Dying) was of crucial importance in my own opening up, and I have
found the teachings of the Dzogchen masters clearer and more illuminating
than any other source on a whole range of fundamental issues about the nature
of consciousness and of 'reality'. What concerns me is not so much trying
to find out what is 100% true, because that can never be established within
the worldly dimension, but rather, what insights are most effective in furthering
my and our spiritual opening up and self-discovery. "Don't ask if it's
real - ask if it works!"
What teachings I have read from other mystical traditions, particularly Christian
mysticism, tend to be so full of concepts and imagery that the simple path
towards recognition of your innermost nature is much more obscured, and you
are much more likely to get sidetracked. If, of course, you aren't ready
for the direct approach of the highest Buddhist teachings, then these more
conceptual viewpoints may be more appropriate for you for the time being.
If you feel the need for a belief system, that isn't the end of the world!
Maybe that is the level at which you need to operate for the moment. It's
not for me to say that all participation in mainstream, non-mystical religion
is wrong. It's a matter of courses for horses. For many people it's a big
step forward to let go of a total materialism and begin to get a focus on
higher things within a formal religion. If you have no awareness at all yet
of the goodness and compassionate personal responsibility that is in your
true nature, then you may well benefit greatly from getting used to living
with a belief system and externally imposed moral code laid down by that
religion. This text, however, is primarily aimed at people who want to move
beyond that phase.
Like many a spiritual guide I have to warn about the unfocused pick-and-mix
sort of spirituality, often associated with much psychic preoccupation, which
characterizes what I could best describe as the 'New Age syndrome'. If you
are going to be at all independent of the named spiritual paths, be sure
that you are clear about your direction and ultimate aim. If you do want
a pick-and-mix sort of path, with much dabbling in the psychic dimension,
then at least be clear that you aren't on exactly a fast track towards
enlightenment, even though it might be a stage you have to go through to
gain particular learning experiences (not necessarily all pleasant!).
Far more than most of us realize, we are really our own healers. For the
most part, when we go to medics or other specialists for a cure, this is
a sign that we have erred in our lifestyle, and, rather than taking
responsibility for correcting our lifestyle so that the particular symptom
disappears, we seek to pass responsibility for producing a cure to somebody
else.
In the broadest sense, all our spiritual progress and general improvements
in lifestyle are a healing, for they are leading us towards wholeness and
thus removing the root cause of much physical illness as well as mental and
emotional problems. In this section, however, I am referring additionally
to what is popularly known as spiritual healing, faith healing, hands-on
healing or simply 'healing'.
No two healers have exactly the same methods. Most of the healing that I
practise, both upon myself and upon others, is called Reiki, but I do not
accept the common notion that Reiki healing is somehow quite different from
spiritual healing and therefore subject to being considered either much better
or much worse than spiritual healing. In my experience Reiki is simply one
of the multitude of methods of spiritual healing. It's not my concern here
to go into details about different methods of healing; that can be read about
in the books on my list and indeed countless others.
Healing is widely misunderstood, and the accounts in the Bible and indeed
scriptures of other religions have a lot to answer for over this. The prime
purpose of healing is to help people become whole. That means, it helps them
to become more spiritually open. If some apparently miraculous 'cure' of
a physical symptom occurs, that is simply a by-product of the main purpose.
Energizing and balancing a person's subtle energy system and helping to clear
out energy blocks from old emotional traumas, and so forth, can not only
cause current symptoms to disappear but can help remove the disposition towards
particular illnesses in the future. However, all this is to rather little
avail if the client doesn't make changes in her life that would maintain
and build upon the improvements in health. That would involve learning to
let go of various negative mental habits or belief systems, many of which
are held quite unawarely.
But hang on, haven't we been talking of letting go of mental habits in another
context? -- The AT in particular, of course. To receive regular healing sessions
and to take up the AT fully in your life is a very powerful combination
for taking charge of your life and opening it out - effectively to re-write
your own reality.
Especially in the context of healing we see that physical, mental, psychic
and spiritual well-being are all interconnected, and so no technique which
addresses only one of those areas is very effective in itself. That is why
orthodox Western medicine is so deficient. It's not that it is wrong, so
much as grossly incomplete as a healing system, and needs to be integrated
with methods that address the higher levels of our being.
Some healers - particularly ones carrying out very advanced 'psychic surgery'
- may charge quite significant fees, but it has to be remembered that this
may be their only means of obtaining a living. Also a high quoted fee may
be covering for a loss being made through accepting clients who cannot pay
the full amount or even anything. So it is an error to criticize healers
for their charging policies, at least unless you really have strong factual
evidence that they are taking advantage of their clients unfairly. Many healers
do give a free service, and of those who charge for their private sessions,
many additionally give free short healing sessions at various centres and
healing circles.
Healing circles usually accept but don't insist upon small donations to cover
the running costs of the group sessions. I belong to a very small healing
circle that meets weekly in central Exeter. Other healers attend as and when
they can manage it, and we practise upon members of the public who come in.
The recommended donation amount is currently a mere œ2, to enable us
to pay a very nominal rent for use of the room, but it is of no concern to
us whether any particular client donates or not. When two or more of us healers
have no clients to work upon, we give each other some healing. It is important
that a healer treats the healing as being for oneself as much as for his
clients, otherwise a subtle ego trip is operating and can cause a wide range
of problems and complications in the long run.
Really effective healing is much more than just the laying on of hands and
channelling of healing energy. As I've already indicated, each client also
needs to learn to let go of various mental habits and start changing her
lifestyle as part of the healing process, so the healer's task includes very
sensitive and supportive, non-judgemental counselling. To this end I myself
recommend the AT to many of my clients, and use the insights and often the
methods of Re-evaluation Counselling to help the client towards emotional
release where this is appropriate. It is saddening for me as a healer to
encounter, for example, a client who's been to many healers in succession
to try to reduce or eliminate a cancer, when it turns out that nobody has
sought to guide him towards recognising and releasing the buried anger and
resentments which undoubtedly are the underlying cause of that cancer. Without
that fundamental work on the part of the client, even total removal of the
cancer would have only short-term benefit, for another would undoubtedly
soon appear.
No, of course this isn't a method for anything positive or desirable. But
I mention suicide here because, particularly since I've been involved in
healing, I've had dealings with several people considering the suicide option,
and in the population at large suicide is rather a taboo subject which not
many people think through in a rational and humane way. In my country suicide
is actually a crime - which is a sure sign of an emotional reaction against
it, trying to sweep it under the carpet and condemn what people at large
don't understand and don't even want to understand.
It is not for me to say to anyone "don't do it!". It is ultimately their
choice. But I do give some gentle warnings to them about their motivation
and the likely results of that act. The moment anyone seriously considers
suicide, they are turning away from their personal responsibility in their
life - the responsibility for finding their way towards wholeness and opening
out the positive force that is their true nature. The responsibility I'm
talking of here is not one that anyone seeks to impose upon us; it is simply
intrinsic in our existence, and reflects the impossibility of any of us escaping
from the consequences of our actions.
If I were to commit suicide it would no doubt have many negative repercussions
for others, causing much anguish and hurt among people who know me. Indeed,
in many cases a contemplated suicide, whether carried out or not, is part
of an attempt, whether deliberate or unaware, to put emotional pressure upon
somebody. 'Emotional blackmail' is a very appropriate description for such
behaviour in its outward manifestation - though of course it is understandable
in the light of the desperation and confusion of the person concerned and
it should be seen as a cry for help, even though it is commonly very much
misdirected. Although it may sound rather harsh to anyone reading this who
feels implicated, no solution would normally be found by, for example, using
attempts at suicide to try to put pressure upon an estranged partner. The
prime need in such cases is for coming to terms with oneself and learning
responsible conduct. This may require considerable firmness on the part of
friends and acquaintances, who may feel pressured to 'help' in ways that
actually would only help perpetuate the problem. We all need to cultivate
the ability to say 'no' resolutely, with love and compassion, when people
make unreasonable demands out of their own suffering. Loving kindness, to
be truly effective, requires thinking carefully about the long-term implications
of particular kind or 'helpful' acts.
I remember when I was pretty young, although I never actually wanted to end
my life in the 'real' world, in my misery I would have long night-time fantasies
about my dying prematurely, presumably as a result of my suffering, and everyone
around my dead body being shocked and grieved and very guilty that they hadn't
been kind and loving to me and hadn't recognised my true worth and stature.
At that stage I was actually wanting to hurt all those people through my
death and wanting them to be sorry about me. It was actually a useful practice
for me, for these fantasies led me on to question the validity of my assumptions,
and were part of my long-term training in recognising hurt feelings that
arise in the mind as not being a true statement of reality or any useful
guide as to appropriate action.
So, what would happen to me if I committed suicide? Let's be absolutely clear
about this - it is not the escape that people often imagine. If I shirked
my life responsibility I'd not be absolved from it in any way. By running
away from responsibility in the current life I'd ensure that I carried over
with me for subsequent lifetimes an extra load of negative karma: the backlog
of all the learning experiences that I'd still have to go through in order
to discover and open up my innermost, spiritual, nature.
Documented cases of people with past life memories which have been painstakingly
verified by independent researchers have shown strong indications that people
who feel drawn to suicide in this lifetime often have a history of suicides
in previous lives. The implication is that by running away from the issues
that they needed to resolve and learn from in one life, they simply carried
those issues over into subsequent lives, repeating their suffering lifetime
after lifetime until such time as they managed to resist the urge to run
away yet again and actually started taking responsibility for themselves
and learning the essential lessons that would lead to the ending of the suffering
for good. This tallies quite well with the Buddhist view, that suicide generates
a lot of negative karma and ensures that you'd have no control over your
next rebirth, whose nature would be determined purely by the forces of karma,
and especially the additional negative karma that you'd have then created
by taking your life; in one way or another an 'unfortunate' rebirth would
follow.
-
Do you really want to change, and if so, are you letting your fears set limits
to the possible extent of change? Consider these questions frequently. I
sometimes have people coming to me for healing or counselling, who tell me
how desperately they want to change and get out of their particular package
of problems and suffering, and yet they turn out to have no practical will
to make the necessary changes in their lives and sometimes they even shut
out the healing energy when a healer lays hands on them. So, be sure that
you really have the innermost motivation for change. The feeling that you
want to change is usually a good indication, but sometimes it can be deceptive!
If you find that you have this problem, the message may be that for the time
being you need to learn to accept aspects of yourself or your life that you're
at the moment rejecting, and only then can the changes that you wish for
be able to occur unobstructed.
-
At all times, learn to take full responsibility for your life - your physical,
mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Regard any assistance from outside
as just that - assisting you under your direction. Many orthodox medics
in my country find such an outlook difficult to cope with, but don't be put
off. Such people need some apparently challenging and disconcerting contacts
with self-aware people who are in charge of their body and mind, as part
of their own learning; how otherwise could they even begin to let go of their
own ignorance and prejudices? But of course for your own good you would need
to seek out those medical practitioners, therapists, counsellors and so on
who are most supportive to your own self-direction - that is, when you do
actually need such outside assistance.
-
Develop lightness, balance and poise in the body, and body awareness; let
go of habits of body misuse - various techniques are available, including
Yoga and Tai Chi, but the Alexander Technique is particularly recommended.
-
Cultivate self-esteem - 'vajra pride' - while being vigilant against the
egotistical sort of pride. Let go of mental and emotional habits and negative
belief systems about yourself and the 'external' world. Purify karma. Many
techniques are available, of which more than one are really necessary, including
(not listed in any particular order of importance here):
-
Spiritual practices. These could be formal, in a recognised religion or,
better, in a mystical tradition, or they could be informal and may or may
not draw from one or more mystical tradition, carried out without affiliation
to any group or tradition. Most spiritual masters would warn against this
latter option, but there are the odd people here and there (e.g. myself)
for whom this is appropriate and works.
-
Meditation and/or Yoga
-
Alexander Technique, used thoroughly as a mental discipline
-
Emotional release
-
Healing (receiving it, and, maybe, practising giving it to a certain extent
under suitable guidance, provided it doesn't become a major preoccupation).
-
Cultivate everyday mindfulness, integrating whatever physical and mental
techniques that you are practising into your everyday experience. This is
very important! For example, you can use your waits in supermarket checkout
queues for discreet meditation and Alexander Technique work on yourself.
You can insinuate little flashes of your meditation state into every part
of your life, virtually whatever you are doing. If you don't get overabsorbed
with it and fall into the error of getting into spaced-out states you shouldn't
go and crash your car!
-
Give yourself much contact with nature. Take time to go for walks. Although
cycling can be good, walking is better because you keep in closer contact
with nature and observe much more, with less distraction from a sense of
space and peace. All such walks in the wild are good, though there is especial
benefit in doing longer, 'serious' walks or hikes in remote country and
especially on mountains, provided these outings are embarked upon harmoniously
and not with the 'assault course' mentality. Practise perceiving all the
sense of wonder, grandeur, space, peace and detachment from the perceived
woes of the world as being reflections of qualities of your true self, so
you don't have to 'shut down' again when you return to what is supposedly
normal everyday life, because your more enlightened self-perception is
reinforced. If at all possible, do some of your walks alone. The risks of
molestation by undesirables for a lone woman in hiking gear and in wild country
(and especially using one of the modern light alloy 'telescopic' walking
sticks with a tungsten point) are pretty well the same as for a man - virtually
nil, at least in most countries; news media reports give an absurdly distorted
impression.
-
Keep your life centred in your true self - not your job (or lack of one)!
How many people identify themselves almost entirely by their job! How foolish
and harmful! However demanding or absorbing your job or main life activity
may be, apart from time taken specifically for overt spiritual practices
you need to ensure that you keep time and inner space for yourself. If you're
not already doing so, develop at least one activity unconnected with your
employment, which is for you, and make it something of a fixture so
that it doesn't get squeezed out by supposed pressures of work and all that.
To take an example, although at present I have no paid work, my main and
very time-demanding activity is composing music at the computer. But I make
a fixture (weather permitting) of a weekly long wilderness hike, and I'm
an active member of a local choral society, whose weekly rehearsals during
University term-time I regard as a commitment; in addition, I spend a weekly
two-hour lunchtime practising in a local small group of healers (as an enjoyable
healing experience for myself as much as helping others). Your own choices
may be very different of course, but the principal is the same. If your job
doesn't appear to allow for such things, then it's time you started questioning
your job. If you don't, most likely at some stage serious illness will force
the issue.
-
Let go of patterns of holding back on personal change because you are trying
to please others ('What would they think of me?' and all that). Most
of us have these habits, which became deeply ingrained as they started at
a very early age when it seemed that our very survival depended on gaining
parental approval. In the long run you will gain better and more rewarding
friendships and social interactions through being fully yourself and speaking
your truth (considerately and lovingly!) rather than bowing to peer pressure
to be less than your true self.
Afraid you'd lose friends if you stood your full
height and spoke your truths? Well, what sort of 'friends' are they that
would judge you harshly or even reject you altogether for cutting out your
habitual pretences, improving your life and being fully yourself? In general
such 'friends' are worth losing if they cannot adjust to your positive changes.
I myself have lost some like that, and it was a considerable liberation to
do so. On the plus side, as you change in positive ways you would tend to
draw to yourself more like-minded people, so the quality if not quantity
of your social interactions would be greatly improved. If you are still afraid
of possibly losing friends, remember the universality of impermanence; all
friendships, like everything else, have an ending; nothing is permanent,
and we need to let go of our urges to cling to to our past experiences.
However, while straight speaking is important
we also have to remember that just as important is due consideration for
where other people are at. Don't become one of those tiresome characters
who, in the name of self-liberation and 'honesty' go around like a bull in
a china shop, uttering any angry or judgemental thought that's in their mind
without regard for the effects on whoever they're speaking to. And the sort
of 'speaking one's truth' I'm referring to does not include spouting opinions
and beliefs all over the place; those are your self-deception, not your truth,
and need to be dismantled, not used to bludgeon other people into your particular
brand of unawareness!
-
Attend to how you start your day, ensuring that each day starts with a positive
attitude and an acknowledgement that, never mind what your habitual feelings
are, each day brings a new and unique set of challenges and learning experiences
and you have something special to add to it. Here are some measures to that
end:
-
Unless there is any special contra-indication, get up reasonably early;
don't lie in, because that plays into all sorts of negative views
on the new day and the worth of your own life! I get up at 6.50 a.m., except
for my hiking days when I get up at 5.0 a.m. after an appropriately early
bed-time. Don't play games with the snooze button on your alarm. Use of the
snooze button would be a symbolic declaration of your reluctance to get up.
Getting-up time is getting-up time, and the day is worth living for (seriously!).
-
Once you know it's getting-up time, briefly S-T-R-E-T-C-H and openly,
unashamedly, Y-A-W-N. Stretch every limb and all obviously stretchable
parts of your torso. Then, because in stretching you tensed up various muscle
groups, LET GO, with special attention to letting go of tensions in
the neck. This whole process of stretching and the let-go needn't take longer
than 5 to 10 seconds, so don't anyone tell me they haven't time for it...!
-
At the same time, regardless of all those 'Oh my God, another bloody day
to trudge through' feelings, allow your mind to open out to the day ahead,
to the world and the Cosmos, and form within your mind an aspiration for
love, compassion and peace to fill and direct all that the day will bring,
everywhere, without exception. You can make it a formal prayer if you like,
but it can be more powerful if you simply let that aspiration shine out into
the cosmos like a sort of radiation, not limited in its meaning by any words
or concepts.
-
With that aspiration or prayer shining out into the new day, allow yourself
to get out of bed, but make sure that you do this in a manner that is
symbolically positive . Do it in a mode that has minimum effort, as -
I hope - you'd learn in the Alexander Technique, and which leaves no room
for bringing reluctance and effort into such a simple and natural act. My
own method is aided by my having a duvet rather than tucked-in blankets on
the bed. I yank the duvet aside from the top, then almost in the same movement
I roll over towards the getting-up side, allowing the legs to take the lead
in reaching for the floor. Meanwhile, I also allow a sense of the crown of
my head, through which my positive aspiration is still shining, leading me
in the rising direction; I thus have the image of the crown of my head and
my aspiration for humanity and the cosmos leading me upward and forward into
the new day as my feet descend to the floor, and with a sense of lightness
and balance. Remember, your thoughts and aspirations really do have an effect
in the world, so by getting up like that you've already brought something
precious into what your habitual feelings may still be telling you is just
one bloody drear day after another.
-
Finally - stating the obvious of course, aren't I! - eat a healthy breakfast
and sufficient of it, and without rushing. If you rush your breakfasts, then
the message is that perhaps you need to get up a little earlier. Breakfast
at least should give you some peace and space for contemplation, even if
the rest of the day seems not to. That way you have at least the beginnings
of a sound foundation for the day.
-
Be ready for mood swings, and beware the deceptions they seek to bring you!
Particularly in the early stages of an effective path of self realization
and spiritual development, you'll very likely experience some emotional highs
and excitement. When I get new clients who've got overjoyed and excited because
of all the positive changes that are starting as a result of their newly
enhanced life direction, I warn them that those feelings, like any feelings,
are transient. They will pass. What has gone up will come down
(remember?). Such an emotional high is very likely to be followed
by a painful and discouraging 'trough', in which you find yourself wondering
what it was all about and seriously doubting whether anything really worthwhile
had happened after all. Unfortunately some people can feel so discouraged
at that point that they even turn away (I hope temporarily) from the very
methods that had given them a positive opening for their future, so this
is why I give advance warning of those feelings of discouragement.
What we have to keep reminding ourselves is that
our feelings that arise tell us little or nothing about present time reality,
for they are really like stuck recordings of past experiences. To
assess present time reality, we have to stand apart from any feelings and
observe instead. And yes - shock horror! - we actually have to use
our grey matter and think about what we observe! We have to remember
that even when very advanced along any spiritual path we can still experience
uncomfortable feelings, and many of the old mental habits which we want to
get rid of will still be present, albeit with weaker grip, and will take
a long time to go altogether. Therefore it's an easy error to make, and one
we need to recognise as an error, to get discouraged because you find that
you still are being controlled by many of your old habits. What you need
to put your attention on, however, is not your ongoing catalogue of apparent
failures to change positively, but instead the instances, however seemingly
few, when you felt and especially thought and behaved, differently and more
positively than previously. As you pass through the various emotional highs
and lows you will become increasingly aware that there are many positive
changes in your life regardless of what your roller-coaster feelings are
saying to you. And of course the mood swings will become progressively less
marked and decidedly unconvincing as you develop that higher awareness of
the positive things that are really going on for you.
-
STOP TRYING! How many times do I have to tell people that simple
thing! It's an absolutely crucial part of one's spiritual progress, to learn
to stop trying and just let be. This is not the same, however, as inaction.
It means awarely allowing and enabling things to happen rather than trying
to 'do' them (more or less on mental auto-pilot). Most of us have habits
of trying, deeply ingrained, impressed upon us from a very early age. I hate
to think how many times my own school report said 'he must try harder'! What
folly of those unaware teachers! 'Trying' habits are a serious obstacle to
spiritual opening up, which is so much a matter of simply allowing yourself
to be open and aware. The reason why a person is not very spiritually aware
is not that she isn't trying hard enough, but that her mind is already trying
to do so much; it needs to let go and let be.
Let's be clear about one possible misunderstanding.
When I say 'stop trying', I'm distinguishing between the effort of trying
on the one hand and the consistent diligence that springs from alert awareness
on the other. Such diligence is something that needs gentle cultivation all
the time; without it you'd never get anywhere very much spiritually, whether
you were trying or not. Diligence is attention to detail and consistency;
it is a peaceful recognition of the many strands in each situation, however
small, that you are aware of; it is clarity and consistency in applying your
best understanding to each situation. Diligence is concerned with attending
to the actual process of living, whereas trying is the unaware
end-gainer's method: you just try to bludgeon your way ahead to whatever
goal you've set yourself, using whatever habits that you carry. Diligence
is in itself free of effort, whereas trying wears you out. Always liking
the easier option, I know which I prefer!
From my reading of the teachings of a number of
Dzogchen Buddhist masters I'm convinced that huge numbers of devoted
practitioners of the higher Buddhist paths are slowing their spiritual progress
a good deal by following instructions to put a lot of effort into their
practices. A hundred thousand prostrations - is that all? No, let's do two
hundred thousand! --And hundreds of thousands of mantra recitations... This
leads into an egotism problem, for eventual innermost recognition is then
seen as a great achievement and a sign of great virtue in a sort of moralistic
way. Then you get the nonsense of a taboo being put upon revelation of your
state of spiritual realization because it is seen as a great achievement
in an end-gaining game and it would thus encourage your egotism. No doubt
there are special reasons why certain people need to undertake particular
arduous practices as part of their spiritual path, but overall I would urge
people to apply the insights I've gained from the Alexander Technique - to
stop treating life as a trying-to-do, end-gaining, exercise and instead develop
the awareness that enables oneself to find the mode of least effort, so that
all manner of wonderful things, including even enlightenment, come about
with a sense of lightness and ease, as natural consequences of the life direction
instead of something akin to hard-fought-for battle trophies!
All power to you! May you your life soon take on
the Natural Great Ease of Being!
Copyright, © 2000 Philip Goddard.
This text may be distributed freely, provided no financial gain is involved,
and any distributed printouts are in unbound A4 format only.
Anyone wishing to distribute this text for financial gain must make a standard
publisher's contract with the Author.
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