ESTIMATED PROPHET: A Look At Spiritual Teachers In December we discussed the desirability of working with a living spiritual teacher, or master, in order to achieve self and God-realization, and spiritual freedom. Now let’s look at how to identify a teacher of this nature. A lot of people confuse spiritual mastery with its attributes. They expect masters to look a certain way, act a certain way, eat a special diet and so forth. Much of this is due to our cultural upbringing. All of these traits represent humanitys tendency to emphasize outward manifestations of success over success itself. There is a wonderful scene in “Jesus Christ Superstar” in which King Herod challenges Jesus to prove his divinity by doing a miracle magic show: “Feed my household with this bread. You can do it on your head!” When the Galilean fails to jump through hoops on command, the petulant potentate throws a temper tantrum and screams: “Youre a joke; youre not the Lord! Youre nothing but a fraud!” How often do we find ourselves today in a similar situation? We fancy ourselves to be seeking a spiritual guide or teacher, but we want some bells and whistles thrown in so that we can objectively verify that they are the real McCoy, that were getting a “good deal”. In our intellectual vanity, and consumeristic desire for goodies, we demand more bang for the buck. We want something we can take home and show our friends. And so we all too frequently fall prey to any number of psychic tricks – metaphysical medicine shows, if you will – used by Kal (the negative power) to distract us from Souls true quest for spiritual freedom. “Is that a real poncho, or is that a Sears poncho?” - Frank Zappa Kal, one must remember, is lord of the Mental Plane, which is the last and most subtle realm of duality and illusion before reaching our True Home in the regions of pure Spirit. The mind is amazingly supple and has far more than a thousand tricks up its sleeve to keep us distracted from our goal. Most, if not all, psychic sideshows – as well as their practitioners – are products of this plane, or the Causal and Astral Planes below it. Familiar examples include fortune telling, psychokinesis, Akashic readings, aura balancing, science of mind teachings, numerology, ascended masters, mediumship, channeling, studies of various cosmic rays, crystal healings, magick, etc. Now let me just say here – as Ive stated before – that none of these things are necessarily wrong or bad. But their appeal rests largely on our fascination with phenomena. And this is precisely what keeps us distracted. For our attention becomes riveted upon the form rather than the content – the facet, rather than the whole diamond of total consciousness – the symbol of the Reality, rather than the Reality of Itself – the reflection, rather than that which is being reflected. Which brings us back to the original question: How do we get beyond the psychic house of mirrors and attain true spiritual freedom? And the answer endures – as every saint has said since humankind first walked this earth – through a living, physically embodied, God-realized teacher. The reasons for the living teacher (Master, Murshid, Sat Guru or Friend) were discussed at length in the last chapter. The question remaining, however, is one of how to identify such an individual. With such a plethora of professed professors of enlightenment wandering the planet, one might easily be at a loss to pick out the true teacher from their reflection. Here are a few signposts that I found have useful. First, does the teacher speak or write of the Sound and Light of God (Shabda, Word, Holy Spirit or Audible Life Stream)? Soul-realization, God-realization and spiritual freedom are attained by harmonizing our consciousness with and linking it to the return flow of the Shabda. In the process, we let go to IT and allow IT to lift us up above the dual worlds into the realm of pure Divine Spirit wherein dwells the Supreme One, the Eternal God, the Ocean of Love and Mercy. Yes, I know thats a mouthful. But the reality is very simple. And the practice, traditionally known as Surat Shabd Yoga or Surat Shabda Meditation, is the simplest, and most ancient, spiritual technique on earth. It has been practiced by every true saint, master and spiritual teacher who has ever been, or will be. Now, the second question we must ask is, Is the teacher capable of functioning as an inner master as well as an outer? In other words can they meet the student in their soul body and guide them through the psychic realms and into the pure positive God Worlds? This is something I found to be extremely important to my spiritual growth. My Master, Sri Darwin Gross, met me within and taught me to be able to do the same. Even today – years after he has left his physical body – in his spiritual body he is as close to me as my own heartbeat. Likewise, the great Sat Guru, Sant Kirpal Singh. And for this, I am eternally grateful. Another signpost I have found useful is to see who or what the teacher represents. Are they the latest head of a religious institution, or do they represent first and foremost Divine Spirit and God? As Paul Twitchell once noted, true adepts are cliff-hangers. They live on the edge, speaking to the culture of their times and pushing the envelope of consciousness just a little bit further. Whenever such an individual leaves the scene, the natural tendency of their remaining followers is to find a successor from within their own ranks to perpetuate the teachings, and organization. As a result, the Living Spiritual Current, which flowed through the founder, gradually ossifies into dogma and the organization becomes another orthodox religion. Furthermore, the perpetuation of the divinely sanctioned church takes precedence over the quest for truth, and sycophancy – i.e. toeing the cosmic party line – becomes prized over spiritual freedom. “Look here brother, Who you jiving with that cosmic debris?” - Frank Zappa This is why many genuine spiritual teachers start off fresh, as independent instruments of Divine Spirit. Although they have been initiated by a living master, and perhaps schooled in a religious institution, they eventually outgrow all outer structure. While the living spiritual teacher may at times be appointed by their own teacher, they are ultimately chosen by Shabda, the Divine Spiritual Current, as being the path of least resistance for ITS expression. They are one with Shabda, and speak from IT, for IT and IT alone. On the outside, the living spiritual teacher may appear perfectly ordinary – unremarkable even. This is actually a very important aspect of mastership – indeed, it is one of Gods gifts to humanity. For, just as human beings need another human being as a teacher, so to does God manifest ITSelf as an average person, expressing ITs timeless gospel in a language which people of any given generation can understand. Likewise, for this reason true masters avoid, for the most part, overt, outer miracles and psychic displays. These are only distractions, and may even frighten people. At the very least, they can be intimidating and lead to personality worship. Likewise, true Friends earn their own living honestly, and do not live off of the good graces of their followers. This is in keeping with Gods compact with humanity to manifest ITSelf as an average human being, to show that IT cares about their struggles and that any individual, regardless of their position in life, can achieve self-realization, God-realization and spiritual freedom in this lifetime. The masters true power lies with their inner unity with Shabda – the Supreme Essence of God – and their ability to link souls to this Spiritual Current through Initiation and guide them, within, home to God. As a Surat Shabda Meditation teacher, this is the sum total of my focus. I am not here to compete with any other teacher or group. I am simply here as a travel guide, a point of inner focus, and a friend. Those who wish to come study with me are most welcome to do so. My love is always with you. Yours Always in the LightSong of Eternal Love, Michael Turner (c) 2014 - spiritualfreedomsatsang.org - blog
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 01:47:56 +0000
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