At the present time in the western and westernized world we have four broad types of human beings:

·         sleep-walkers

·         sheep

·         the curious

·         and the courageous

The sleep-walkers are those who fit neatly into the system, who are unconsciously cloning behavior and emulating emotional reactions. They are mostly concerned with action and practical and material world matters, and they function minimally as human beings to get through life without questioning, enquiring, or consideration. They are not philosophers in any sense of the word, not psychologists, not thinkers, but neither are they growing or developing in any other than purely biological and minimal developmental ways. Sleep-walking is therefore an apt description. They have not awoken, not even roused. They maintain the status quo. They are the rice and vegetables of humanity.

The sheep appear to question or enquire, but in reality they are not that much different, deep down, to the sleep-walkers. They manage to maintain the appearance of interested, thoughtful beings, perhaps with stimulating books adorning their shelves and an appearance or two -- which they can regale their friends with at social gatherings -- at courses and workshops in art, creativity, or even personal development. But they have missed the one essential which will set them apart from sleep-walkers and that is the ability to think for themselves, to criticize their education, their indoctrination, and their domestication and conformist behavior in the system, and their tacit support for the status quo. In order to stay strong, and virtually unassailable, the system subsumes not only the conformists but also the antagonists, the rebels, and the critics, so that -- as per the dictum: keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer – the sheep follow blindly and are led unquestioningly.

The curious have imbibed some sense of inner restlessness. Something, they know, is not quite right and they have decided to do something about it. They may not know what to do about it, how to do anything, where to go to do it, or how to start. But they need no convincing that some radical difference is called for. They have awoken to the extent that they are not overly comfortable like the sleep-walkers and the sheep. They have blinked their eyes, so to speak, and seen, even if only for an instant, some alternative reality. However, there are so many today – by no means the majority, but a growing number -- that the enterprises of raising consciousness and cultivating compassion have turned into flourishing businesses. Blunted by the edge of desire, what were in the Seventies cutting-edge workshops and experiments in becoming alive, feeling intense emotions, and releasing and waking up spiritually, emotionally, and energetically to vibrant life has been popularized and metamorphosed into entertainment.

Thus the curious have become consumers, participating in a sort of endless fiesta of multiple approaches, a smorgasbord of insight-enhancing methods and approaches where the practitioners are only as good as they are a fresh, new novelty and the participants are only interested in the very latest fashion in awareness and the so-called Shift. As dazzling as it is, the spectacle of the gathering of the curious has become a self-serving event. It is little good appealing to our better nature and declaring this the gateway to more serious endeavors. Who in their right mind could possibly forsake this orgy of the senses, this self-righteousness and implied virtuousness, where any seeker on the path may ascend into the clouds and declare himself enlightened!

We have lost discernment, if we ever had it in the first place, and the blind leading the blind comes to mind as an apt description.

The spiritual way that is appropriate to this time, this era, this space, and the contemporary human predicament right now is self-directing, self-regulating, self-fuelled, and self-motivated practice, commitment, and courageous application.

Out of the history of the human struggle to make sense of the world and surrender to a greater force than the merely objective, relative realms of fluctuating forms, three broad streams of spiritual undertaking have emerged. One is living in this world in the belief that there is a better world we attain to in the future. Second, is to turn your back on this world, transcend worldly appetites, and enter a “better” or more spiritual world, even prior to physical death. Third, is the delight in spiritual “experiences” in the present bodily reality as an end in itself. Generally speaking these approaches inhere respectively in:

·         the religio-spiritual belief systems of the Middle East

·         the religio-spiritual belief systems of the Far East

·         and the way of the mystics

I encourage you to take your self-direction, self-regulation, self-fuelling, and self-motivation and apply yourself to a fourth way. The religions of the Middle East and the Far East have shown us the ways of renunciation and acceptance: to reject or accept the world in its present form and its invitation to participate in it. Either option involves abnegation, since the present world is abandoned in favour of a more glorious life in another world or a supernal experience through rejecting the present life. In the case of the mystic way, there is also a tacit abandonment of present experience and process of life in favour of a homogenous experience of transcendent or life-negating unity.

The fourth way is the way of total acceptance of life in its ordinariness, wondrousness, and mystery. There is no other world, no other time, no other place, and no journey to where you presently are. This world is the very heaven, Nirvana itself. The Kingdom of God resides in your own heart. The dance of Shiva is a present reality, not something you have to travel to see!

The seeker is and always has been suffering from the delusion that he may find what he is looking for in some other place, at some other time, in some other dimension. He enlists the help of teachers, teachings, books of wisdom, approaches, and methodologies, theories and dictums, good advice and bad – but he is never, never free of the basic delusion that what he seeks is closer to him than his own eyes.

Today is the time of the self – the individual is paramount. The seeker has emerged as an entity of longing, of aspiration, of desire. He wants all and everything – no less in the spiritual endeavor than in the material one. He is enthused and excited to become, to transform, to be. He looks here, he looks there, for himself and for the truth, for reality, for God, if needs be. But he is deluded. The courage of the seeker must be to renounce the search itself, to realize the futility of the search, to abandon the historical and time-honored wisdom to which he may have stapled his delusion and loyally fastened his trust. You must be forsaken and you must forsake everything you hold dear to attain the only thing of value – the jewel is in your heart.

The century of the self – the twentieth century – has given rise naturally to the twenty-first century – the century of radical decision... by choice or by default. For this can be a time of growing superficiality, hollow hopes, the degradation of spiritual morality, the growth of pointless desire and the consolation, of mere spectacle and representational “reality” obscuring Reality, Truth and Wisdom. Or, this can be the age of the self transcending itself. Using our great awareness of all and everything to discover the self within that is the very seed of the divine, the growth of the heart within us, and the birth of the divine self, and the Divine Person in which we are all one.

This is the hope for humanity; this is the way that peace, cooperation, and tolerance can finally be achieved. Not by any accumulative effort, not by trying or travelling or seeing or developing through progressive stages of peace unfolding in us. Spirituality or Truth or Reality or God is not separative or divisive and from this we should be able to see that neither is it partial. On the contrary, it is whole, total, and without a second. Not even you and I are two – God-Reality is All and Everything, therefore it is not progressively attained even if to attain it were the goal.

There is one thing and one thing alone that you need to do. That is to realize yourself and this realization is of nothing other than exactly, precisely, and indistinguishably what you are right now.

This is why I do not advocate the historical approaches in the tradition of humanity’s search for Truth. On the contrary I honor and revere them, since they have enabled us to awaken and see now in this present era that Truth is right here. The human being is inherently free, wise, and loving. All you need do is realize yourself... and that is the work of the courageous.

Self-realization begins with the removal of the fetters of small selfhood. In order to engage in a practical method to release our inner freedom, we all need to do work on the character, the personality, and the contraction of the ego-processes. For a first step in getting practical advice in how to do this see http://www.sacredattentiontherapy.com/About-Us.html. If you have already begun then visit http://www.sacredattentiontherapy.com/SAT-Online-Training-Level-1.html.

BLOG entry #59