Reading, discussing and thinking about spiritual teachings

[Guest guest]

I have added 49 new quotes by Sri Muruganar

from "The Garland of Guru's Sayings"

to the Reading and Discussing Page,

on the topics of reading, discussing

and thinking about spiritual teachings, etc.

 

The new quotes are at the top of the page.

You can read them by clicking this link:

 

http://uarelove1.tripod.com/READING_AND_DISCUSSING.htm

 

The page could be subtitled:

"how to determine if

you are lost in an intellectual journey,

that is pretending to be a spiritual journey."

 

That reminds me of a story I once made up

to illustrate a point:

 

There were a group of four people

who wanted to take a journey.

However, they were afraid of the journey

and they were especially afraid of the destination.

 

They used to meet everyday in their car.

They would bring along with them

various travel books and maps.

Then they would discuss the journey

and sometimes even discuss the destination.

 

Sometimes they would discuss among themselves

that the destination did not exist

or that the journey did not exist.

That was a way to help them avoid

actually taking the journey

and reaching the destination

that they were so afraid of.

 

Sometimes they would say:

 

"The destination is not a goal to be reached,

we are already here".

 

That was only one, of so many ways they had,

of avoiding actually taking the journey.

 

Some books had given clear instructions

as to how to reach the destination.

However, due to their fear,

they never actually followed those instructions.

 

Sometimes, they would make some very small attempt

to follow the instructions,

but they never put the effort into the all day,

everyday traveling,

that the instructions pointed out.

 

Other books said, "there is no journey,

you are already at the destination."

They tended to prefer those books,

because it helped them to

never have to actually take the journey,

and therefore it helped them to

never actually reach the destination.

Such was the power of their fear.

 

They really loved those books that said

you need not make any effort to reach the destination.

You need not start the car,

you need not put the car in gear,

you need not press your foot on the gas pedal,

because you have already arrived at the destination.

 

They liked those books because it allowed them

to never actually take the journey

and reach the destination.

Such was the power of their fear of the destination.

 

Some of the books showed the direct route

to reach the destination,

and some of them showed routes

filled with almost endless detours.

They tended to prefer the books

with routes that had almost endless detours.

That way they could avoid reaching the destination

they were so afraid of.

 

If they had followed the instructions

in the books showing the direct route,

they would have actually

reached the destination eventually.

However, that would have involved a lot of hard work,

and they preferred to just think

and talk about the journey and the destination.

Such was the power of their fear of the destination.

 

Because of all their thinking, discussing and reading

about the journey and the destination,

they began to think that they were actually

making progress towards the destination.

They began to see this fantasy journey

as a real journey.

 

Actually, they were not making any progress

towards the destination.

 

It was very rare

that anyone would talk about this fear

and how this fear was dictating

what books they would read

and what actions they would take.

 

Upon the rare occasion

that someone would point all this out to them,

they had very clever arguments

to counter all such pointings out.

 

All that reading,

thinking and discussing over the years,

had made them very clever with thoughts and concepts,

so they could easily produce rationals and arguments

that would justify what they were doing.

 

So, they talked themselves, and thought themselves

out of ever actually taking the journey

and reaching the destination.

 

The destination was a place of perfect Joy-Love

without any suffering or sorrow.

To reach the destination,

they would have to leave the world they knew behind,

because at the destination,

neither their world nor any other world exists.

They were afraid to leave what the knew behind.

 

Sometimes they would convince themselves

that they had reached the destination.

However, they were still experiencing

a world, with pleasure and pains,

and were not really abiding in the perfect love-joy

that has never known a world

and has never known any suffering or sorrow.

 

Therefore, they had not really

reached the destination.

They began to teach others.

Teachings others helped to reinforce their fantasy

that they had reached the destination.

 

The reason they were lying to themselves

about having reached the destination,

is to avoid actually taking the journey

and actually reaching the destination.

 

40 years later they were still meeting in their car,

still discussing what they had read,

and their own thoughts about the journey

and the destination.

 

During that 40 year period,

the car had not moved one inch.

The car was still in the parking gear,

with the parking break on,

and they had never even put the key in the ignition

to try and start the car.

They had made no progress at all

towards actually reaching the destination.

 

As a way of avoiding having to

actually make the journey and reach the destination,

they had even convinced each other

that there is no such thing as progress.

 

Such was their great fear of the journey

and especially of the destination.

 

They seldom ever admitted their fear to themselves,

or to each other.

 

What would have helped them?

 

#1. Honesty, would have helped them.

 

#2. A great desire to be free from

the many forms of sorrow and suffering

that occurred in the place where they lived,

would have helped them.

 

#3. A great desire to live

in the place of perfect joy-love

that has never known any suffering or sorrow,

would have helped them.

 

Take care,

 

with Love,

 

in: Awareness watching Awareness,

 

Michael L.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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