Spiritual Authorities

[Guest guest]

It is natural for human beings to want to follow. We are conditioned

to follow authority since we were babies, and the way of the world is

such that we have imprinted in us through our conditioning a sense

that we are lacking something which an authority figure can fill. In

certain circumstances this imprint has to do with bodily survival.

For instance, when we are babies we must depend upon authority to

keep us alive. We don't choose to do this - it is just done or else

we die. In this parent-child relationship there is no question about

its need - it either works or the subject perishes. But in the

domain of spirituality aspiration, the submission to authority is

voluntary, in other words we don't need to submit in order to survive

(unless you are living in Iran). Most of us are not concerned with

bodily survival - what we are concerned with fundamentally is ego

survival. It is the ego/mind that imagines a situation where the

psyche survives. The ego/mind projects a heaven or Nirvana beyond,

exclusive of embodiment. In order for this imaginary scenario to be

accepted, a spiritual authority is brought into the paradigm. This

authority is not allowed to be questioned, but must be accepted ipso

facto in order for the paradigm to be accepted. Most classical

religions and spiritual programs have an authority at their root. We

see this with Jesus, Buddha, Ramana, various off-shoots of them and

ultimately, God. It is quite challenging to suggest that one does not

need a path to follow. Many people here continue to follow a path and

a spiritual authority in spite of the fact that spiritual authority

figures are not needed by anyone. Why? Because no one "needs" to be

led anywhere. There is no place to go. This is it. True Teachers have

persistently pointed out that the only thing that needs to be seen is

the mind itself, and if one goes searching for ways to stop the mind

or to understand it one is only playing the mind's game, which is to

continue searching but never to arrive anywhere. The mind always is

searching for a "slam-dunk" answer, the indisputable word of a Great

One. However, few if any of the Great Ones became Great Ones by

relying on second-hand information. Given that "faith" is only a

concept to the mind, it really has no meaning for it, it will

not "step off the cliff" into the abyss of unknowing. In other words

it will not voluntarily give up its authority. This seems to leave

the sincere seeker in a quandary: if the mind will not voluntarily

give up, and if one cannot depend upon an authority figure that the

mind itself created, what is one to do?

Nothing!

One is to do nothing at all. This is the key to slipping the mental

prison. This surrender can be nourished in the good company (Sangha)

of those who have begun to open the fist of the mind. And they have

been helped in this not by a spiritual authority that is appropriated

by the mind and then speaks for it, but by flesh and blood Brothers

and Sisters who have their hand extended. Those people who are

dropping the authority of the ego/mind can band together and support

each other. Each person extends their hand to each person who is

willing to take it, and that person extends a hand to another. No one

is forced to take a hand or extend it, because this comes naturally

when one is ready to do so. No one "need" do anything at all.

And what does one begin to See when one begins to drop this world?

One begins to See that the mind is a very small place to live.

One begins to See that the mind is always doing something, fixing

something, avoiding something, attracting something, latching on to

some "proof" that sustains hope that it can survive in a transfigured

condition or state of illumination.

One begins to see that the way things are is fine, except for the

mental judgments that things should be changed, that life is

something we can manipulate in order to get what we think we want.

Human beings are addicted to thought and thinking can be useful and

fun, but when one begins to awaken to cost for this enjoyment, one

begins to also see the slavery inherent in it. For those who are

beginning to awaken in this "lunatic asylum", thinking begins to give

way to simply being lived by Mystery, and the mind becomes too

impoverished a place to linger.

We are being called by an infinite Freedom beyond the reach of the

ego/mind. This Freedom is truly beyond understanding, yet it can be

Realized. When one begins to catch some glimpse of this, questioning

the mind itself to the point of transparency, the reliance on words

and scriptures, no matter how profound and exalted, becomes obsolete.

We are left with the naked realization that we simply Are, that we

don't and can't know what it Is, but that we Are, and in this

innocent ordinariness we move and dance and play as love without any

fixation of identity -- no place to land, nothing but open eyes, open

hands, open heart.

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

b