The Courage to Question - Adyashanti

[Guest guest]

The Courage to Question

 

Spiritual seekers are some of the most superstitious people on the

planet. Most people come to spiritual teachers and teachings with a

host of hidden beliefs, ideas, and assumptions that they

unconsciously seek to be confirmed. And if they are willing to

question these beliefs they almost always replace the old concepts

with new more spiritual ones thinking that these new concepts are far

more real than the old ones. Even those who have had deep spiritual

experiences and awakenings beyond the mind will in most cases

continue to cling to superstitious ideas and beliefs in an

unconscious effort to grasp for the security of the known, the

accepted, or the expected. It is this grasping for security in all

its inward and outward forms which limit the perspective of

enlightenment and maintain an inwardly divided condition which is the

cause of all suffering and confusion. You must want to know the truth

more than you want to feel secure in order to fully awaken to the

fact that you are nothing but Awakeness itself.

Shortly after I began teaching I noticed that almost everyone coming

to see me held a tremendous number of superstitious ideas and beliefs

that were distorting their perceptions and limiting their scope of

spiritual inquiry. What was most surprising was that in almost all

cases, even those who had deep and profound experiences of spiritual

awakening continued to hold onto superstitious ideas and beliefs

which severally limited the depth of experience and expression of

true awakening. Over time I began to see how delicate and challenging

it was for most seekers to find the courage to question any and all

ideas and beliefs about the true nature of themselves, the world,

others, and even enlightenment itself. In almost every person, every

religion, every group, every teaching and every teacher; there are

ideas, beliefs, and assumptions, that are overtly or covertly not

open to question. Often these unquestioned beliefs hide superstitions

which are protecting something which is untrue, contradictory, or

being used as justification for behavior which is a less than

enlightened. The challenge of enlightenment is not simply to glimpse

the awakened conditioned, nor even to continually experience it, but

to be and express it as your self in the way you move in this world.

In order to do this you must come out of hiding behind any

superstitious beliefs and find the courage to question everything,

otherwise you will continue to hold onto superstitions which distort

your perception and expression of that which is only ever AWAKE.

 

~Adyashanti

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

Mazie & b