Spiritually Transmitted Diseases

[Guest guest]

as it directly jumps into open inquiry of our concepts. It

also addresses the issue of intimate relationships and sexuality. Vartman

and Susanna are two beautiful people who devoted their lives to the

continuous discovery and sharing of truth, having found the one beloved in

each other.

Thank you for sharing that Mira. Interesting, how I can see that those

who become enlightened first, as a single, then merge into a

relationship. Might possibly have difficulty with the transition. It

makes sense, that in the "act of living", one might deny their true

expression of themselves. But has never really left their

enlightenment. I can see how the path of meditation, and self

awareness might be put aside for the "human" needs involved in a

relationship. A delicate balance to be sure. For those of us who are

happily married before such a search begins, lies a different story.

The daily struggle from day one to "live" and remember to continue

rediscovering yourself... becomes interestingly enough, a teeter

tooter... I find myself looking forward to the silence during the

week when the kids are in school and the husband off to work.... so I

can rediscover myself, and then equally wish for the weekend and

evenings so that I can "live"... The love of life that used to be non

existent, taking on a new dimension with the daily reminder of

children...

for those of us with young children.... do we see their truth so much

more clearly? I do..... Since I've released so many of my own

memories... my daughters have revealed so much of themselves to me..

One has seen my grandmother, another can see auras, one explained

reincarnation to me, and another explained how we are destroying the

earth... {off subject.... sorry} But to me, the middle path is not

always a straight middle path, but a meandering one. I think I prefer

to stop and smell the flowers along the way ,with my children. They

have so much to teach me.

Love, Lynette

[Guest guest]

Dear lists,

Hereby I forward you an article written by Vartman (some of you may

know....). He addresses an issue that I myself have been confronted with

within the last year and a half or so. The issue of 'walking beside the

razors edge', instead of walking the middle way, jumping from the concept of

'self assertion' into the concept of 'self denial'. I may (or may not)

relate some of my more personal experiences later, but I thought I'd send

this article, as it directly jumps into open inquiry of our concepts. It

also addresses the issue of intimate relationships and sexuality. Vartman

and Susanna are two beautiful people who devoted their lives to the

continuous discovery and sharing of truth, having found the one beloved in

each other.

Mira

 

 

 

 

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When I started to hold Satsang 3 years ago, I would often talk about the

importance of walking the middle-path or razors edge between self-doubt and

denial.

 

It appeared at that time, that 98% of spiritual seekers were trapped in the

dilemma of doubting that they were already Consciousness/Love.

 

Even in this relatively short time many seekers have turned into founders or

possibly many have just jumped to the other side of the razors edge from

self-doubt to denial.

 

Over the last year or so there has been a huge proliferation of satsang

teachers pointing to the simple fact that we are already perfect, pure and

whole. It is totally true, but the mind is a tricky beast, and it can use

almost any truth for its own benefit. The challenge is that generally the

mind is not keen on making effort when it thinks it can get away with

comfort and even less enthusiastic to be shown areas that need more

investigation and not entirely illuminated.

 

It appears that all of us suffer this habit from time to time. Its nothing

personal, it is just the way the mind operates, and is not a problem unless

we are attached to our level of spiritual attainment more than we are open

to honest and naked spiritual existence.

 

As the spiritual community grows, the spiritually transmitted disease, of

denial seems to be turning into somewhat of an epidemic.

 

At some level it hurts less to be thinking that you have got it together,

than being plagued by the mind stuck in self-doubt. As H.W.L. Poonja once

answered, when someone asked him: Why do so many of your devotees think that

they are enlightened? His answer was: Better than thinking that they are

unenlightened! So why rock the boat? Because life, if not death, will

probably test the depth of our ability to be ok with what is, at a pretty

extreme level.

 

The first step out of this trap is the willingness to truly inquire and see

where we may be constricting our inherent openness.

 

The good news is that there is a really accurate and tangible depth meter

to give us a realistic measure of how deeply we are embodying our

realization, illustrating where the truth may only be at a mental level.

 

The Tibetans are really clear on the point of not resting in the bardo of I

have seen that I am already perfectly free irrespective of anything I do.

What so often seems to happen is that it is taken for granted that I can

always count on perfection being here, so we believe that we can attend to

it later. In Dzogchen the 3 aspects of realization are listed as: view,

meditation, action. Correct seeing of the Truth, meditation/practice to get

used to the correct view, and then spontaneous action, always grounded in

love (regardless what it looks like), is a confirmation of the depth of our

living realization.

 

So the practical test often looks like this; a predominantly masculine

person in his spiritual path primarily feels at home in the

emptiness/stillness of consciousness. Through meditation (or some other

practice that allows him to become grounded and familiar with this fact of

who he is), he can fully participate in the ever-changing flow of life. As

he deepens, fewer things in life can make him fixate on experiences (in

mistaking the promise that they would be able to give him more freedom than

is inherently already here), or can overwhelm him into retreating from life.

 

In a predominantly feminine person, her true spiritual life connects her

more and more deeply with the fact that she is inherently Love. And through

her practice, her conditioning is less and less able to limit the natural

radiance of Love.

 

Both the masculine and feminine person can deepen without being in intimate

relationship, because their primary potential to live totally open is always

in the fullness of the moment. The masculine is at home in the peace of

nothingness, but is also totally attracted to the feminine energy, perhaps

in nature, art, and especially in women. The feminine person is home in

love, but is also attracted to feeling the stillness of divinity manifest in

front of her in a man that seems totally trustable, dependable, and

uncollapsible in his ability to be directed and strong in the midst of the

flow of life.

 

The interesting test is when these two people meet and become intimately

involved.

 

I would love a dakini for every time that I hear someone gasp; "I am so

enlightened until I get into relationship.

 

Intimate relationship tests the level of our practice to an extreme. As the

honeymoon period wears off and all the latent conditioning and childhood

neediness arises, it becomes an acid test of the mans ability to truly

embody freedom. Particularly when the woman is expressing her stronger

emotional aspects of love. Is he grounded and so clear that nothing finally

matters, so that he can play fully in life and be truly loving in their life

together? Conversely the test for the woman is to surrender her strength of

independence (as opposed to codependent weakness) and fully living as her

deepest natural expression of love.

 

Its a tall order indeed but what else would we want to do with our lives,

when we have seen who we truly are?

 

This test works for virtually all people but not all. I have met a very

rare minority of people that obviously have no karmic desire to be in

relationship. For example, one of my teachers in India, Dolano, never really

had any interest in sex or relationship, and there were no signs of strong

repulsion to it either. So for the modern celibates, this is not really

appropriate. Why I mention this to highlight the difference between

naturally being uninterested, and convincing ourselves that we are

uninterested as a defense against life which often equates to being

constantly wounded by love.

 

Four months ago I asked via our website if anyone could recommend people

that were "tangibly" embodying their realization in daily life. Since then,

Susanna and I have hung out with, spoken with, and listened to more than a

dozen of the most notable western teachers that we could find alive at this

time.

 

By their own admission, virtually all the teachers that we met, stated that

remaining fully open in intimate relationship without denial, is an

extremely challenging test.

 

It is an area that many of us would prefer to leave out of spirituality (as

many religions have tried), as it seems to bring out the best and the worst

of our conditioning, leaving us feeling schizophrenic in the tug-o-war

between our spiritual logic and our rapidly defending/denying/closing

emotions, body and mind.

 

For some, an understanding of the absolute truth is enough, but in my

experience, spirituality is only complete when it covers and enlightens

EVERY aspect of life, without leaving out parts that seem unspiritual.

 

Someone that has a profound understanding of the use of intimate

relationships and sexuality for down to earth spiritual growth is David

Deida. Refreshingly, David lives this path with tangible evidence as

displayed in his life. He has deeply researched spiritual traditions,

delivering the essential truth in a radically practical spiritual path.

 

We are deeply touched and inspired by the vision of a fully sexual

spiritual culture starting now so we have decided to work closely with Dav

id to serve who ever feels the pull to live authentically, vulnerably and

wildly open to God in every moment of life.

 

In freedom and love, Vartman and Susanna.

[Guest guest]

, "Mirror" <mirror@u...> wrote:

> In freedom and love, Cartman and Susanna.

 

heh, I'm not taking relationship advice from a couple of South Park

characters.

 

 

Love,

 

A.