Arthur Osborne - The Quest Begins #4

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THE QUEST BEGINS

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It is also not a question of any special faculty comparable,

for instance, to that for art or music. It is not a question of

being psychic. There is nothing spiritual in psychic powers or

in most that are called occultism and spiritualism, while, on

the other hand, people who are not psychic can understand

and take the quest. Psychic ability may be a help at certain

stages of some types of path, but it is more likely to be a

danger, since it can open the mind to various allurements

which have to be left behind, like the sirens whom Oddyseus

heard but against whom he made his crew plug their ears. If

the pleasure of the physical world is seductive and hard to

renounce, those of the subtle world are certainly no less so.

Christ said that if a man attains to the kingdom of heaven all

else shall be given him in addition; but that is after attaining.

If he seeks all else beforehand, he is not likely to attain. It is

safer to have one’s ears plugged.

 

It might be said that what is required is willingness to open

one’s heart to the truth, in fact to surrender oneself, to give up

one’s ego, to conceive of the possibility of its non-existence.

That is why the Quran speaks of unbelievers rather as perverse

than ignorant, saying of them that even if an angel came down

from heaven to explain to them, they would not listen.

From this it might be supposed that those who do

understand and take the quest should be people of uncommon

goodness, strikingly free from egoism. Some are, no doubt,

and it is they who are on a good way, because, whatever the

religion and whatever the path followed, it is a path towards

liquidation of the ego, the individual ‘I’-consciousness with all

its fears and cravings, its grudges and pettiness, and therefore

the goal obviously cannot be attained while building up or even

retaining the ego. However, it is by no means always so. In fact,

many who take the path, many members of spiritual groups,

will be found to be more egoistic than those one would be likely

to meet in some group of people united for worldly or social ends

— more jealous, more ungoverned, quicker to take offence,

less generous, less inclined to give in. This is likely to come as a

shock and disillusionment to one joining such a group.

 

One explanation that is given is that spiritual training (as is

claimed also for certain types of psychiatric treatment) squeezes

out the lower tendencies in a man, of which he himself was perhaps

unaware, bringing them to the surface and thereby making them

temporarily more obtrusive, so that an aggravation is a stage in

the cure. When a devotee complained to the Maharshi that other

thoughts arose more forcibly when he tried to meditate, he replied:

“Yes, all kinds of thoughts arise in meditation. That is only right,

for what is hidden in you is brought out. Unless it rises up how

can it be destroyed? Thoughts rise up spontaneously, but only to

be extinguished in due course, thus strengthening the mind.”

(The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words, Ch. 5).

 

Once when people complained to him of the arrogant behaviour

of an old devotee he replied: “That is his vasanas (inherent

tendencies) coming out.” When a person first understands and

sets forth on the spiritual quest one may see a new radiance

overspread him, a sort of foreshadowing of his perfected state,

making him altogether delightful. However, this will not last. It

will be followed by a stage when all his lowest possibilities come

to the surface and he seems to be worse than before. At this time

patience is needed. However, this stage is also temporary, and

therefore this cannot be the full explanation of the egoistic types

that are often found in a spiritual circle, at any rate such of

them as were arch-egoists before taking the path and remain

so afterwards.

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taken from Arthur Osborne's MY LIFE & QUEST