Chap 8 contd.

The Calmed Mind

When there is searching or seeking the journey continues. At some stage you want to be more than a searcher – and be one who has arrived. When you reach the right place, you don’t need to go further. Enlightenment is occurring at the same time as the journey is ceasing, when all diversion and digression, and the need to block the mind stops. Simply being is a present and natural state, inherent and always active. A position where all the spiritual, religious, yogic, psychiatric, and personal growth trips and efforts are cleared. Like a breakthrough of the sun. Even if all of our life, (or lives), may seem to have no real meaning, when achieving this place, one will become truly grateful, and see all that has gone before as the work of the Divine through the human.

We don’t need to become enmeshed in our own beliefs or practices from this perspective, as at the end of the day we don’t need the path any more, nor the guru, the teacher, or even a defined God. The purest elevated form of existence flows into a native state of spiritual enlightenment otherwise experienced as Existence, Knowledge, Bliss, or Sat-Chit-Ananda. This position has been known and written about over thousands of years from the time of the ancient sages and is prior to most known established religions. Nearer in history if we look closely it is expounded upon eloquently by all religions, albeit it in a variety of words, expressions and philosophy.

There are endless permutations of developed codes of religious practice, rituals and rules that are supposed to bestrew some benefit, giving a good credit rating towards the heavenly rewards. Sometimes this leads to some rejection of human natural activity such as seeking sex or wealth, even though the very acceptance of the human nature is also connected with Divine awareness. (From a Tantric perspective). In the here and now, the individual who is struggling to spiritually succeed seeks a way, which is lit up by the presence and involvement of teachers, sages or gurus. The true guru is the Sat (True) teacher.  Gu means to “break through”, while Ru means “darkness”. You chose or ask for guidance on your journey, and seek it from a human teacher form, (even if not still alive). This imparter of the teaching or dispeller of darkness may just subtly project Shakti, enabling achievement of the required goal. For the spiritual seeker the guru is a grace that appears to the degree that the seeker has prepared to surrender to the guidance. It is a spark of recognition that jumps the gap between the teacher and the follower or disciple to light up the inner fires. This following of the teacher or the guru is also part of a way, which is not about following one’s basic desires, but about dealing with one’s basic desires. Getting past what is binding. The characteristic behaviour or activity of an enlightened being can seem at times very ordinary or normal:  a human who behaves as a human. But the path set down by the teacher endlessly addresses the problem of trying to get past or out of the human predicament, and the greed, hate, and desires that afflict us. It is then about accepting human nature and working with one’s problems, continuing to practice, and not giving up on the journey in spite of lapses or even relapses from the path. There is no forceful asceticism or strident moral posturing, nor religious crusading. It is then the way of accepting the Grace and energy of the enlightened being and simply allowing that to promote one’s own spiritual state until all the searching and seeking fall away.