Over the years, certain common questions have been asked of me. I thought I would take this opportunity to answer them all together in this short blog. The questions in italics are followed by my responses.

What do you teach?

A way to yourself, a way through the mire of un-reality to a direct meeting with the soul and with the spirit.

Is there any contradiction in being a psychotherapist and a spiritual teacher?

For me, no. The way I see it spirituality has really been a matter of human psychology for thousands of years. Very few have taken their enquiry higher than their personal psychology would allow. By working efficiently, thoroughly, and accurately with human psychology, the individual is released into the freedom of authentic spiritual practice. So, if you are of a genuinely spiritual bent, deal with your psychology first.

So, is that what you do—work with human psychology to release people into freedom and authentic spiritual life?

Exactly. I work with people to the end of personality, where it begins to get interesting!

What is the end of personality?

When the character, the ego-processes, and defensive personality are dismantled and we can see how we really operate, how things truly are, we may choose to let go of our attachment to our personality. It was only really a sham anyway, an egoic shell to enable our survival. It has done its job and it is now usually costing us much more than it is giving back.

What would you say to a person who is interested, but doesn’t really want to put the effort into the psycho-spiritual journey to their inner self?

Nothing really! I’m not interested in proselytizing or convincing anyone of anything. One of the first rules of human psychology must be: people don’t do what they don’t want to do. That’s why I find the ancient Taoist saying, “Who follows pleasure alone is wise,” so important. It means if you don’t find yourself compelled to awaken, don’t bother! The way is so difficult and the challenges are so huge, you are bound to be disappointed. Alternatively, assemble around yourself the three treasures—the teacher, the teaching, and the companionship of like-minded souls who are intent on enlightenment—and you can’t really fail. In a way it’s as simple as that. The psychologist William James said it as well with regard to the effectiveness of sadhana (spiritual practice) when he commented that if you apply the required stimuli you would achieve your desired effect. This means: do it. Start now and practice. It’s really the only way. But if you don’t want to, well don’t even start, because what’s the point?

There’s some story about a drop of honey? I don’t know what tradition it’s from, but it paints the human predicament for us and kind of leaves you to think. I think I’ve heard you tell it.

That’s this story… One day a man was walking in the jungle when he was chased by a fierce tiger. Running to a cliff edge he considered taking his own life by throwing himself over when he saw a thick vine hanging over the side. He seized the vine and climbed down the cliff-face. As he was hanging there two little mice emerge from a hole in the rock and start to gnaw away at the root of the vine. In panic he looked down. From the bottom of the vine he would be able to successfully jump down to the ground. But just at that moment a hungry wolf swaggered out from the undergrowth and stationed himself beneath the end of the rope, its murderous jaws slavering. He looked up in terror to see the face of the tiger peering down at him expectantly from the cliff-top. Just then he spied a single drop of delicious honey. It was about to roll off the branch of a small tree to his right, just out of reach. He leaned over and stretched his body as far as he could and extended his tongue just underneath the drop of wonderful nectar. Just at that moment an angel appeared behind him. Declaring the man’s predicament to be critical, the angel announced he had been sent to save the man. Distracted by the imminent drop of the delicious nectar, the man looked round at the angel with a pleading expression and said, “Could you just wait until I have tasted this drop of honey?”

Is that what we are doing -- postponing being saved for just a little drop of honey?

The one certainty when we are born is that we will die. The tiger is this certainty; we are all living under a death sentence. The vine is the course of our life and unfolding events, all that we cling to. The two mice signify the opposites and they stand for time and deterioration (what the Buddhists might call old age and death from the Four Sights of the Buddha). Panic and the consideration of jumping to the ground is the irrational impulse we have to somehow take control and impossibly be in charge of our life. It is also what Gurdjieff called “the terror of the situation,” a phrase I have always admired because it sums up the human predicament at a certain level of consciousness.

The hungry wolf is of course our own appetite for life and it prevents us taking control or ending our own life. So trapped between the certainty of death, the eroding quality of time, the illusion of control, and our thirst for life or our hunger to become, our consolation is the next momentary event that satiates our desire. That drop of honey becomes so distracting that we ignore even the prospect of salvation even the opportunity to transcendent life via the angel-savior.

And yes this is the case for most people. They postpone transformation. They resist the prompting of life lessons that would lead to their salvation.

What is the way out?

There is only one. Strengthen your faith. Turn inward. Work hard on developing your awareness. Freedom and insight are yours for the taking. The human condition is less one of compromise and misery, more one of joy and rapture. Trust in the Divine Being and one day with all your many virtues developed and with the fount of wisdom revealed to you in your inner world you will triumph over all the odds and discover who you really are.

And what are we really?

Love manifested in Consciousness and Light.

BLOG entry #54