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Spiritual Development
Imitation Spirituality
There are a great many spiritual teachers and groups in the world today,
some possessing much insight and good intentions. However, when compared
to the Path of Holiness it is evident that the vast majority of spiritual
groups and so-called enlightened teachers actually demonstrate a very
significant compromise on the Highest, on the Truth. They practice,
therefore, what to the discerning eye and the pure heart might be termed
'imitation spirituality'.
The culture of imitation spirituality has come about due to a lack of
true Knowledge and selfless motivation. This is clearly apparent within
the New Age movement, for example, where the general focus is upon
gaining and benefiting for the personal self. So many people today have
their own individual ideas about how best to bring about light, love, and
peace on Earth, yet the majority of these individuals have yet to
actually realize such virtues themselves. New spiritual groups and
teachers are appearing all the time in these days of The Quickening on
Earth; self proclaimed masters, teachers and motley bands of disciples
and do-gooders are a very common sight within the spiritual supermarket
today. It is often found that such groups - new and old - tend to
demonstrate a noble intention to heal themselves and this planet, yet all
truly enlightened Masters, Holy Orders and Mystery Schools throughout the
ages have taught that the personal self, this world and all that is in it
do not represent the goal of life, and on the spiritual path neither
should they be the focus. Wrong focus is the result of a lack of true
Knowledge and awareness of the purpose of physical incarnation, and
without such Knowledge the true spiritual Path cannot be found, let alone
trodden.
To improve the quality of life in this world is not the purpose of our
existence here. The Buddha spoke of this world as being like a bubble on
the ocean, an illusion that would pass away just as surely as it had
appeared, and he taught that the spiritual aspirant should not become
attached to it in any way. Jesus said in no uncertain terms, "My
Kingdom is not of this world" and he urged mankind to seek ye first
that Kingdom. For to seek and find true Life (the Kingdom) will alone
right all the wrongs, pains, and sufferings of mankind's self-created
predicament as well as open up the Way that leads to the Goal of life.
Conversely, true healing and redemption from suffering cannot be achieved
by way of a personal and worldly focus or awareness, and the separate
self will only compound its problems through self-effort. Like a dog
chasing its tail, the self can only go round and round in circles,
necessitating and perpetuating its bondage to what the Buddha called the
wheel of birth, death and suffering.
To attempt to heal this world and mankind from an unenlightened
perspective is like a blind man trying to give directions to someone who
is lost. The world may only be healed when humanity's focus and
motivations are true, when the heart of mankind is open and when its mind
is looking in the right direction. The solution to all ignorance-born
world problems may only be apprehended by giving up all self-created
notions, looking out from the separate self and upwards toward the
universal Spirit and the Divine Plan for Earth. The solution to all
suffering, darkness and ignorance is necessarily a divine Solution and
can never be found within the separate and limited nature of the personal
self or its plethora of speculative ideas, projections and delusions.
Such personal, ignorant convictions never amount to anything other than
more separation, the proof of which is perfectly visible in the world as
it exists today, and is also reflected in the many individual and
disparate views and ideals held by the countless spiritual groups and
teachers.
A correct focus is essential if the seeker of Truth is to rise above the
multifarious snares and pitfalls of pseudo spirituality that are to be
found everywhere in this world. The pain of the world’s heart and all
mankind’s sufferings are resolved and ultimately permanently healed
through a focus on what is already True, Whole, and Complete, and not on
the individual self or the transitory world of appearances. Only when a
man's focus is turned to the Highest, to the Truth itself, will he come
into alignment and harmony with universal law, and so realize a true
Spirituality, as he naturally becomes inspired to serve the Divine Plan.
It is only through such a correct alignment and the subsequent spiritual
harmony that it engenders that the world’s ailing condition will begin to
be remedied. Human delusion can never be resolved until the seeker has
made contact with Reality, and so has aligned himself with its cause and
purpose. To seek and practice anything else, anything for one's own
benefit without due recognition of the whole, is imitation spirituality,
and this serves nothing other than the personal ideas and whims of the
separate self, leading to further confusion and suffering. For separation
(from God) is synonymous with pain.
In order to allow the spirit of Truth to reveal itself and its Plan, one
must seek the Truth uncompromisingly with a selfless focus and
motivation. Any lesser activity of mind or emotion, even when born from a
noble intention to 'do the right thing', is still a personal desire, an
ideal created from the limited perspective of one's separate reality and
experience. No amount of such good intentions can ever create a perfect
world. To the contrary, such a personally-oriented attitude only
precipitates more conflict and separation from Reality, the impersonal
Reality that has always been Perfect and which is waiting for humanity to
come back into alignment with its gracious Laws by way of its own free
will. Delay in such divine alignment only creates more karmic bindings to
the wheel of birth, death and suffering. It is an inescapable fact that a
personal focus is limiting and degenerative whereas a divine focus is
liberating and regenerative. If only the self-seekers of the world would
understand that should they lose their self-defeating ulterior motives,
then they would begin to enjoy both a greater vitality in life as well as
a truer spiritual alignment and dynamic purpose.
There are a great many people in these last days of a major world cycle
who are focusing on all kinds of interesting things, from personal
healing and self development to the channelled advice and lofty messages
of those who have passed over. There exists today a worldwide marketplace
for psychic counseling, innumerable methods of self-discovery,
journeying, spiritual awakening, soul recovery, magic rituals, past life
recall, etc., etc. The list is endless and would take a great number of
lifetimes for a person to practice even a small fraction of them. Many of
these activities are not wrong or dangerous in themselves, but in the
absence of a right focus and right attitude they lead nowhere but round
and round within the grasping desire of the personal self. They cultivate
and refine the ego-self and so do not lead to That which is already
Perfect.
There are a great and growing number of people around the world who are
writing spiritual books and giving workshops, again often before they
themselves have actually realized anything of a higher order than mere
philosophical insight, let alone aligned themselves with Truth and divine
Purpose. This generally perpetuates ignorance and pride because the focus
is essentially ever the same. No matter how philosophically true may be
the words and concepts of a preferred teaching, it will not help a person
reach the goal of life - Liberation - as long as the focus is selfish,
upon gaining for the ego-self, the 'I', 'me' and 'mine' of self-grasping,
as in: "my healing", "my path", "my
ascension", "my truth", "my self", "my
life", etc. Until one learns in all one's activities of thinking and
aspiring to look towards the One Life alone, to that which is True and
Divine, and in so doing reawaken the inner spiritual seeking element, all
that is created and focused upon will be in vain, and it will yield
nothing of any real and lasting value.
Before aspirants embark upon the spiritual path they should - first and
foremost - ask themselves earnestly, "Do I love and wish to serve
the Truth unconditionally, or do I seek the Truth because I want to take
personal advantage of it in some way?" If the answer reveals that
there is indeed some ulterior selfish motive, then the aspirant is not
yet ready to walk the Path of Purification, the true spiritual Path, and
he should beware of trying to understand and apply the higher teachings
or of practicing advanced techniques.
No matter what is learned and understood intellectually and no matter
from what eminent source it springs, without a right focus and true,
spiritual understanding it will generally be used as yet another vehicle
in which the ego-self can move in circles and create more illusions. All
that is really taking place in imitation spirituality is the motion of
the ego from one separate and unillumined sphere of thought and desire to
another; in the case of the New Age movement, to a so-called 'spiritual'
one. But the path of the ego-self rotates on one plane only, it does not
spiral upwards, it does not lead to emancipation from the
self-replicating problems and woes of the separate personality. Today a
tremendous number of unenlightened teachers seek to propagate imitation
spirituality amongst mankind as if it were a most worthy service to the
world. 'Being spiritual' has become a fashionable trend in our times. But
for the most part such ministrations are actually a disservice due to the
focus upon the personal self, rather than the eternal divine Element
within the heart of mankind, which is innately selfless and True. Until
this divine Element is focused upon and its nature and purpose in
incarnation sought out, no lasting Truth or Wisdom can be realized or
integrated into one's life, and when living Truth and Wisdom are absent,
then no real spiritual Service may be rendered. It is this lack of true
and simple Wisdom that perpetuates imitation spirituality all over the
world, and which drives people to work on themselves, instead of
forgetting the separate self in exchange for seeking and finding the
living Truth.
Until the self-proclaimed spiritual groups, teachers, and mankind at
large learn to see clearly the need to align themselves with the larger
Plan and so establish a divine Focus, they cannot apprehend what must
soon come to pass in this world and why, and so neither will they be able
to avail themselves of the coming spiritual opportunity. They will remain
ignorant and unaware of how to properly prepare and assist in the One
World Work, which seeks only to manifest on Earth the Divine Plan for
this age for the benefit of all. In the absence of true Knowledge and
right understanding, and without an innate love-yearning for God,
imitation spirituality actually works against the perfect unfoldment of
Truth on Earth by way of its unenlightened and spiritless ideas and
projects.
Adherents of imitation spirituality work - consciously or subconsciously
- to delay that which must come to pass because they operate outside the
Law of Oneness, outside of Unity, and not in alignment with the Divine
Plan for this age. They most often work from a place where they feel
happy and safe, protected within their own personal comfort zones and
spheres of 'I know'. With such unrealized affirmations as 'We are all
God' they try to bring their own will and agendas, disguised as divine
alignment, to bear on others. One of the greatest obstacles - if not the
greatest obstacle - that stands in the way of real spiritual unfoldment
and realization is an absence of humility, and the honest admission as to
how little the separate self really and truly knows of the higher Life,
its purpose, goal and ultimate inevitable result for this end of a major
world cycle. Most people shopping in the spiritual supermarket today are
so focused upon what they know - or more accurately what they think they
know - that there is little or no scope for them to discover what is
actually True. That which has waited eons to enter the heart and illumine
the mind of humanity in order to liberate it from delusion and suffering
can find no resonance with those who already know best, and so neither
can it enter into their lives. Hence the essential need for humility, an
empty cup.
Imitation spirituality comes into being, then, due to the full cup, the
cup that is filled with personal 'knowing'. It is born from the assuming
attitudes of the self-oriented seeker and all groups and teachers who
regard the personal self, however subtly, rather than the Universal Truth
of which the individual soul is only a tiny part. The answer to all
man-made problems must be sought from the Divine, and if a personal focus
is favoured over an impersonal, divine orientation, then the real
Solution will never be found, for there is nothing at all in the world of
the ego-self that has the redeeming power to lift the imprisoned soul
from its dark ignorance, pain and separation. There is but one truly
spiritual attitude and one Way that leads to Freedom: it is through an
earnest and humble seeking of That which has always been True, and
forever will be True, and this Truth has nothing to do with the separate
self and so cannot be contained, acquired or possessed by it. Therefore,
the world of imitation spirituality is in dire need of a complete
reorientation of understanding, focus and consciousness, without which
genuine spiritual qualities and virtues will continue to be a rare and
infrequent occurrence, and so the goal of life will remain unattainable
for the majority.
So many statements and claims made in the New Age movement today are at
least partially motivated by fear, pride and spiritual egotism. By way of
their substantial knowledge and in-fact-uation, many teachers endeavour
to convince themselves and the world that they know all about the
spiritual life. Yet knowledge is not required in order to take the very
first step onto the spiritual Path. What is needed is an earnest love of
and yearning for the living Truth. Such a sincere orientation makes a
person a Seeker, and from such a correct spiritual orinetation will arise
true understanding, insight and eventually Wisdom, as, by law, the living
Truth responds to a genuine and selfless invitation.
All who wish to return to Reality and so partake again of the original
Freedom, must first become empty of self, an empty cup, open and so ready
to be filled with the living light of Truth. Now, an empty cup does not
contain anything, it does not, therefore, proclaim that it knows
anything, for all true Knowing is of God. Allowing the light of Reality
to enter one's emptied grail is to become aware of God's Will, and it is
thus that the Calling to assist in the manifestation of its Plan for
these important times on Earth is registered by the Seeker, and
consecrated service to that Divine Plan then becomes natural and
spontaneous. This is the beginning of Freedom, and the seeker of Truth is
then initiated into life's mysteries and is given progressively greater
spiritual responsibility, together with its commensurate reward. It is in
receiving and then giving away what is received that one becomes the
humble servant of all, proceeding forth along the Lighted Way, not by
efforts of self-will and not by dint of personally-constructed ideals and
theories, but by the living Grace of divine Providence. The surrendered
Server then becomes a tiny, glowing point of light in the darkness, one
with the Universal Light, in which there is neither any separate self nor
speculation.
To look to or to seek for anything less than divine Guidance in every new
moment is foolishness. It perpetuates spiritual blindness and confusion,
which then continues to give rise to an endless array of self-oriented
pseudo-spiritual philosophies, groups and teachers, in which great
numbers of unsuspecting people invest their time, energy, dedication and
money. This is how the culture of imitation spirituality has grown to
epidemic proportions in the world today. Those who follow unenlightened
teachers, prophets, deceptive teachings and groups contribute toward the
reinforcement of the grand illusion of false spirituality as they
simultaneously become more deeply bound to and by it themselves. By
investing in the pronouncements and prescriptions of teachers of
illusion, adherents unwittingly support the same illusions themselves
through a compromised focus, and it is thus that they directly help to
maintain falsehood in the world, while delaying any true Light from
entering, and all under the colourful banner of spirituality and truth.
The result of perpetuated self-conviction and personal investment in
imitation spirituality is that one becomes so lost in the darkness of
delusion that the Spirit-flame which may have glowed originally within
the heart, inspiring one to become a Seeker, all but dies out, having
failed to be nourished by the living Truth, and so it is unable to guide
one further along the right Path. When this point is reached, the
consciousness of the separate self becomes so immersed in
appearance-reality and the subconscious fear and attachment that this
engenders, that it finds it extremely difficult to admit that it could be
mistaken or even entirely lost in darkness. This is how the downward
spiral away from the Light develops in the life of the selfish seeker,
and imitation spirituality today has mesmerized vast numbers of souls and
is pulling them ever deeper into the great illusion of 'I', 'me' and
'mine'.
When one considers that all genuine spiritual Masters of the past have
ever pointed to That which lies beyond the shores of this material and
transitory realm, beyond the sense of the separate ego-self, one must
surely question how anything True and lasting can ever be created or
attained by way of the limited perspective, unenlightened beliefs and
focus of the 'I'. One should also ask why there exists such a diverse
variety of ideals and methods - most often in at least partial
disagreement with one another - amidst the great majority of spiritual
groups and teachers who are today, apparently, working towards world
peace, healing, and love. Without first aligning themselves with the
behests of the Divine Plan for world and mankind and so helping to
fulfill that Plan for this end of a cycle period, such groups and
teachers make efforts to manifest their own personal interpretations of
the need of the hour, hence the multifarious discrepancies between them.
There are a tremendous number of spiritual groups in the world today, but
very little unity of heart and focus amongst them. Yet where the Truth is
seen together, hearts are united. This must always be the case.
A right focus - an inner yearning for and love of the Truth itself -
would eventually bring to this world every dream and joy ever longed for
or imagined, without any work or effort being placed directly upon the
self first, as is so often prescribed by misguided teachers. However,
lacking such an earnest and humble inner yearning for the Truth, no
amount of spiritual education or practice will bring the desired results,
for the living Spirit does not regard the personal self and so cannot
avail the ego of its Grace; the divine Spirit recognizes only Itself
within but beyond the separate ego-self: immanent but transcendent.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and many well-intentioned
groups, teachers and leaders in this world today indeed travel that road.
Yet none of these good intentions have served to free the heart of
mankind thus far, and they never will. It is not until one looks
selflessly towards the greater Life and its Plan, neutralising one's own
personal will for the sake of the greater divine Will, that freedom in
Purpose begins to be experienced again. All self-willed actions
necessarily go against the flow of the universal Harmony, which is ever
purposeful, intelligent, dynamic and liberating. Seeking anything less
than perfect alignment with the universal Intelligence will amount to
little or nothing but the creation of more confusion and separation in a
world that has already gone insane due to its long-perpetuated unwise use
of free will.
Just as in the common, selfish life of the mass of mankind, the misuse of
free will in imitation spirituality is also rife as people shift from one
ideal to another, from one form of self-will and desire to an
alternative, perhaps more exciting form, which may seem in the beginning
to offer something more, something better. But no matter where one shifts
one's personal focus, the 'I' still remains in its separate and very
limited condition, and it is this self that gives up on one idea only to
grasp at another in the hope that it may gain greater happiness and
perhaps ultimately eternal freedom. However, there is nothing lasting and
so truly satisfying that can ever be procured by the separate self, and
the one who realizes this will understand the sane choices made by all
wise men of the past who successfully regained their spiritual heritage
through a selfless attitude and a humble yearning for Reality, in which
there is no separation. To open one's heart to the One Life in all and so
to forget all ideas of 'my will' is to become aware of 'Thy Will', the
Universal Will, and it is in such a prudent focus that one begins the
process of being initiated into true Spirituality, and so becomes a
recipient and servant of the liberating Truth.
Due to the prevalence of imitation, self-orientated spirituality in the
world today, the true servants of Life - those who are aligned with the
divine Spirit and so also with the greater Plan for these times - are
mostly forced to wait and prepare in the shadows, while so many
self-appointed teachers are busy in the limelight propagating their
information and methods from an unenlightened perspective, teaching the
multitudes how to achieve what they themselves have yet to realize. The
genuine awakened servants of the human race and the Divine Plan prefer to
eschew the loud claims and commercial activities of those who spend much
of their time doing and saying the greatest things in public so as to be
seen as spiritual and wise, and they seek not to teach those who are as
yet unready for Revelation.
In the past, candidates for the inner teachings of the Divine Mysteries
had to seek out and to prepare themselves to work with the Initiates and
Masters, and unless an aspirant possessed the key that opened the door to
the inner sanctum, he could not gain access to Life. Today the
requirements for true spiritual work have not changed, and the kind of
potencies wielded and teachings offered by holy groups are dangerous for
the unprepared.
Yet we may observe everywhere today the public advertisements in
magazines and on the Internet for teachings about ascension, together
with an expanding abundance of teachers offering to show the way to
enlightenment. In fact there are so many self-styled masters and
spiritual teachers in the world presently, offering a diverse array of
methods and philosophies, that one cannot help but wonder why humanity
has not ascended to at least the seventh dimension already! This is the
great tragedy of sham spirituality, that so many people in these times
have bought into the imitation version of the real thing and so are being
led astray, deceived by the rising number of false teachers who instruct
upon matters which they themselves do not yet truly understand, practice
or embody. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that advanced
spiritual teachings have found their way into the general public and can
today be purchased by anyone in the local book shops. Yet using sacred
teachings for personal agendas always leads to disaster, for without a
pure and yearning heart that is motivated earnestly by a truly selfless
and intelligent focus, such teachings will always be used by the ego to
cover its own fear and ignorance in an attempt to create a safe and
comfortable semblance of truth for personal happiness, self
aggrandizement and power. In doing this with conviction, in widely
advertising the benefits for self of even the greatest and truest
teachings, the delusion of imitation spirituality spreads all over the
Earth, and so what in past has been a most sacred and carefully guarded
treasure becomes degraded into a commonplace vogue in the marketplace:
ascension, free for all!
With the greatest alacrity the Truth is repeatedly utilized in error by
the ego, rehashed into an imitation spiritual philosophy to suit the
needs of the separate self, where, for example, people loudly proclaim 'I
AM', yet without the heart realization to back it up, and simply because
they have read it somewhere and have taken the impersonal Truth
personally. That which is True is not of the world of time and space,
where everything is in a perpetual state of change, decay, death and
rebirth. The Eternal is evidently absent from the world of rising,
glimmering, fading and dying. Just as that which is True is not of the
temporal world, similarly the Truth itself cannot be revealed in the
temporal world. Nothing True can ever be written or spoken in words
alone. The Truth that is written and spoken is at best only a reflection
of the Unborn, the unmanifest Truth of Life, which can only be
experienced. But without a pure heart and motivation, which may only be
reached through a loving, selfless and intelligent search, the all
important and vital Energy of the living, vibrating Truth that may
accompany only realized words and concepts, is lost. Thus so the living
energy of Truth cannot be received or passed onto another. In this way
many people may read and even understand philosophically the most
profound truths on Earth, yet still not receive one modicum of the
living, experiential Reality. This is how the most exalted words and
teachings of our saints and spiritual masters have been stolen and killed
by way of self-grasping, and the foundation of all imitation spirituality
is rotten due to the selfish motivations of those who practice it.
Until one seeks out the living Truth and its Wisdom with an honest and
humble heart and with a mind that earnestly acknowledges that it knows
nothing of that Truth, no true Light can ever be received, no matter how
many books one reads, no matter what teaching is followed or believed in
and no matter how many lifetimes one practices spiritual techniques.
Until a man rediscovers the hidden mystery of the living Truth in his own
heart, he remains essentially ignorant, a fool, and if he proceeds with
conviction to think that he may lead others to Enlightenment when he
himself has yet to attain the Goal, then he becomes a foolish teacher of
fools who will follow him; the blind leading the blind. Until a man
actually reaches the Goal of divine Remembrance he should keep in mind
always that he is still a seeker of Truth, and not yet a teacher of it.
If the great majority of spiritual teachers in the world today would
remember the enduring fact that they may only assist others along the Way
to a very limited degree until they themselves have actually attained the
Goal, then there would be far more humility on Earth within the spiritual
supermarket and consequently much more true Light, rather than the false,
deceptive glamour-light of imitation spirituality.
Being with a true and therefore divinely-aligned Teacher will always give
us Light, and not just in the head! The awakening of the divine spark in
the heart as a result of coming into contact with a true Teacher may be
accompanied by a sense of wonderment, awe and perhaps great 'jubilant
sorrow' as the realization dawns how we and most of humanity have
prevented the Light from entering our lives in the past by way of our own
ignorant habits. If a teacher does not give us Light, particularly in our
early encounters, then either the aspirant is not yet ready to receive it
or the teacher has not come into divine alignment and so is not qualified
to awaken others. However, if the teacher has attained some significant
level of divine contact, then his personal radiatory field will prove to
have an effect, and this may be experienced by the insincere, impure of
heart or spiritually immature aspirant as a surfacing of unresolved
fears, hatreds and resistances, a rising of inner darkness. Therefore,
one way or another, the true Teacher will generally have a significant
effect upon the consciousness of almost everyone who opens to him.
It is astonishing when we consider just how many thousands of
self-proclaimed masters there are today all over the world and accessible
to the general public, more than in any other time in history. Yet the
human race is more profoundly deluded than it ever has been in any other
time in history, and consequently our planet is ailing more than ever
before, for we have today reached the nadir of human expression on Earth.
Hundreds of thousands of souls are presently being led astray, as was
long ago prophesied would happen in these times, and as more groups and
self-proclaimed spiritual teachers rise up around the planet, infecting
the minds and hearts of their growing followers with unrealized
philosophical systems and personal ideas, very ordinary people with
little spiritual or even psychic experience are becoming self-appointed
teachers. Today we stand at the end of a major world cycle and the
imminent dawn of a New World, and still the focus for the majority is on
the spiritual feel-good factor, and even those who do have some innate
wisdom are being drawn into the great deception.
“False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform
signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the
elect.” - Matthew 24:24
Imitation spirituality has reached such a record high today that those
who have actually established true divine contact and who possess real
Knowledge of the need of the hour and the Plan for Earth, are forced to
stand aside and look on at the confusion as it plays itself out before
they are able to commence the greater holy work for humanity for which
they have incarnated. These souls are not here to scatter abroad yet more
unrealized words or pass on philosophical teachings that never really
change anything. These advanced souls are here today on Earth, mostly on
humanity's behalf, to comprise the critical mass required to satisfy the
Law, and to sound the final Call in the world, which is a cry in the
wilderness of mankind's ignorance and selfishness, a last plea to
humanity to face in the right direction in good time. For most human
beings, however, it is already too late with regard to this cycle's
spiritual opportunity for Deliverance, and all that remains for the
relatively few realized hearts who have become aware of the truth of
these end times, is to wait in the background of life until the Redeemer
of this world finally commissions them to transmit the divine vibration
of Truth worldwide, to wield the Sword, and so shatter all that has not
aligned itself with the Plan.
Already the Sword is beginning to show itself in the world today, and the
prophesied 'Great Separation' is now taking place on many levels all
around the planet. There are relatively few who boldly acknowledge what
must come to pass: the Victory of ages of Truth over falsehood, yet
mankind has been warned repeatedly over the millennia about the
inevitable, stark reality of these times and the inescapable fate of
everything and everyone that is not True. Even at this late stage of the
period leading up to the Day of Reckoning and the Great Shift, only those
with eyes to see and ears to hear have responded in any vital way to the
Call. Throughout the ages humanity has been cautioned about the false
leaders, teachers and groups that would rise up in these last days of an
age, but so very few have taken heed of those warnings. In these
accelerating times it is most inexpedient to continue building more
dreams and romantic ideals pertaining to planetary healing and peace, or
for improving upon the world's illusions of preservation of what is old,
familiar and now redundant, based on unenlightened imagination of right
and wrong. All such self-constructed projections of the human mind are
about to be utterly dispelled by the insuperable and living light of
Truth itself. These are the 'end times', and there is only one way to
safely and wisely navigate through the darkness and multitudinous
distractions of this period in order to attain Liberation from falsehood
in the valley of the shadow of death, and that is by humbly seeking the
Truth and surrendering to and serving God's Will, free of all personal
sentimentalities and philosophical ideas.
If we truly Seek, then we shall Find, but if we think that we already
know and so fail to perpetually and humbly Seek until we are Free, then
we are going to discover nothing liberating or True. Part of true Knowing
is knowing that we do not know. But until the heart awakens to Truth, we
do not really know how little we really know. There are two kinds of
fools in this world: the ignorant fool and the wise fool. The ignorant
fool is he who cannot find the humility to admit that he is a fool who
knows nothing. The wise fool is he who knows that without the divine
Spirit he knows and is nothing. It is this latter kind of fool - the wise
fool - who is guaranteed of spiritual success.
If we are engaged in selfish activity, however subtle or 'spiritual',
then we will not see past our own selfish reflection in the mirror of
Truth that is approaching our world today. If we try to build further
knowledge upon our own existing ignorance and ideas, then nothing True
will be constructed, and neither will our ivory towers survive what is to
come. There are relatively very few true, uncompromising spiritual
Seekers in this world who have cultivated the art of spiritual Listening.
Fear and pride has long found a home in the hearts of the majority of
souls on Earth, and consequently a great number of foolish fools have
adorned themselves with their own ideas and methods of attaining
Liberation. But the Way to find the Truth and to be liberated by it is to
completely and unconditionally give up the self in deference to that
Truth: "Not my will but Thy Will be done." This requires the
virtue of a selfless consecration, which has nothing to do with the
beliefs and plans of the ignorant self, however long-established, noble
or cherished.
If the ego feels good and proud in its knowledge, psychic power,
spiritual attainment or influence over others, then imitation
spirituality is being practiced, and the true Path is still yet to be
found. Most people turn to spirituality in order to attain greater
happiness, healing or some meaningful achievement for themselves.
However, it is a fact that the separate nature of the ego-self will
always struggle and fight to maintain itself when faced with the Truth,
the nature of which dissolves all separation and ultimately annihilates
the illusion of the separate self altogether. The further along the true
Path one progresses, the greater the suffering. Therefore to walk the
spiritual path in order to find personal happiness is as absurd as it is
impossible, and always results in imitation spirituality. The true
pilgrims of the Way are 'men of sorrows': "Suffer little children
that come unto Me." - Christ. Nonetheless they are also candidates
for Glory and they seek the Truth simply because they are in love with
it, not in order to make their separate selves happier, more powerful or
to shine in any way. "I wish to reduce myself to zero." -
Gandhi. Going the Way of Sanctification entails a unique form of
suffering, but this does not mean that if we seek the Truth we will know
only misery and suffering. It means that regardless of what arises in our
lives as a result of our courting greater Light, we shall remain true,
selfless and empty, even if at times what is revealed to us may be hard
to bear. As we move closer to the Truth and the Goal of life, our vision
will expand and we will see this world for the travesty that it really
is, yet still our focus will become ever more impersonally loving, in a
way that cannot be fully understood by those who have yet to be initiated
into the Divine Mysteries.
A man who has attained a true, spiritual vision will be deeply moved at
seeing his brothers and sisters suffering in their own blindness and
ignorance, yet he will be unable to help them because they are not yet
seeking the true Solution and due to his obedience of the law of
non-interference. However, he is able to carry the vision for others
until they learn to see it for themselves. His heart will weep for them
and be moved to great sadness as he watches his family get lost in the
darkness of self, knowing there is nothing he can do for them and that
they must learn by way of their own choices, even though he may recognize
that those choices must lead to further pain and suffering. It is not
until the earnest Seeker finds the true Path himself that he sees how few
actually tread it, and so often he finds himself quite alone on his
journey as a physical being. Yet imitation spirituality assures us that
it is all about 'love and light and joy and happiness', and that if a
spiritual path does not make us happy then we are on a false path! Yet
this kind of path is for the selfish self; it is trodden with the self in
mind in order to gain for the self, and as such is a lie, just one of the
many facets of self-seeking fake spirituality. Those who tread this path
are often unable to see the world objectively, to see the dire truth of
this world and what must come to pass, because it does not please them or
support their fear and delusions to do so. And so the blinkers remain on.
It is easy to create a self-made bubble of distortion and glamour around
ourselves and choose to see what we want to see, to believe only what is
most pleasant for us personally, but such a subjective focus only leads
to greater error and attachment, and the deeper and the longer this
investment is made in self by self, the more difficult it becomes to
surrender one's comfortable and familiar illusions. The plain Truth must
be seen in its own light, not in a light that pleases us most; things
must be seen just as they are before we may begin to truly progress
spiritually.
Imitation spirituality, then, most often includes the feel-good factor
and is born and maintained for and by the separate self; it usually
contains impressive intellectual knowledge, philosophies and ideals,
which are unrealized in the heart and so are lacking in any true
Spirit-life. Imitation spirituality is marketed and sold to the masses in
attractive packaging that appeals to the personal self: "heal your
life", "find greater happiness", "empower
yourself", "create your own reality", etc., etc. Yet
crystals, tinctures, ointments and head knowledge never led a single soul
to the Truth, and neither will any unrealized teaching or practice made
for self-gain. What is so often overlooked by the hopeful and
self-grasping aspirant is that true spirituality has little to do with
and is often not pleasant for the ego-self at all, because that self must
necessarily surrender to the higher Life and Purpose, so that the
inevitable process of self-abnegation and ego-demolition may begin.
"I must decrease so that He may increase in me."
One cannot live in two worlds or serve two masters; neither can one be
attached to the things of this life while trying to reach the next. In
fact, everything must be given up to the Truth if we would walk the
Lighted Way that leads to Liberation, and so also be of real spiritual
service to others. No one can enter a new spiritual world while still
clinging to the old, it is impossible. However, imitation spirituality
seeks to do just this very thing, for the separate self. Yet it is the
perpetuation and aggrandizement of the separate nature, along with its
personal desires and ideas, that preserves and augments the pain and
illusions of the very life that imitation spirituality claims to serve.
In order to walk the true spiritual Path all that need be sought is how
best to give one's separate and illusionary nature in sacrifice to the
greater Good for the benefit of all; this is right use - divinely aligned
use - of free will. No matter how good one feels and no matter how the
self attires itself, it will at some point have to give up all its ideas,
opinions, desires and fears in order to allow the One Life to do its work
of self-redemption within. Therefore a lover of Truth seeks to stand
aside, to remove self from Reality, and to unite with other hearts for
the same divine Purpose. For such a true Seeker knows that it is not he
personally who may possess or benefit from the Truth, but rather the
Universal Spirit itself does, and in his pure love of and devotion to
God, that Reality is all he cares about as he seeks uncompromisingly to
again become one with it and so dissolve his separate and painful sense
of self forever.
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