Clarity about the Path

It is so easy to become entangled in erroneous concepts or an incorrect vision of the inner work, that to unravel the true meaning of the spiritual path from within the plane of unconsciousness is truly a supreme achievement. Unless our intelligence reaches a profound degree of clarity and true understanding, we will never arrive at our spiritual destination. The lucidity of our intelligence is our only defense against confusion in the realm of forgetfulness.

The evolution of intelligence remains the most mysterious facet of the soul's awakening, reflecting her very consciousness and the frequency of her light. We have to mature over many lifetimes before we reach a level of intelligence that mirrors the truth of our blueprint. Our quest for clarity precedes all the other steps of our inner journey. Clarity is our ultimate and only guarantor of success on the path.

The Spiritual Goal

To uncover the nature of our spiritual goal, we must deeply ask ourselves what we are truly seeking. Unless we bring focus to our inner search, our path will lack strength and clear direction. How can we summon the recollection of our evolutionary purpose? How can we avoid living in an illusion of spiritual fantasies and expectations, lost to the essence of the path?

Through knowledge imparted by superior spiritual teachings, the help of a spiritual guide, and our own enquiry, we need to intuitively sense the direction and aim of our internal evolution. Upon entering the path, this can be a great challenge, because we are moving into entirely new territory; however, our initial task is not to uncover the final purpose of the path, but its essence. Even though the inner way is the great unknown, within its intangibility, we can intuitively sense its core of silence, the light of I am.

True recognition of why we follow the path coincides directly with our discovery of its essence. To discover the essence of the path, we must rely explicitly upon our spiritual sensitivity and wisdom to recognize the realm of pure subjectivity, the dimension of no-object, as the immanent truth of the path. The spiritual search is not the pursuit of an abstract idea of enlightenment, but of our very self. Only by looking within and diving into the stillness beyond thought can we enter the domain of our ancient self. What we strive to awaken is our inner potential, through which the light of I am can be established once again as the heart of our identity. Awakening to I am is of the ultimate importance, for its presence accompanies all the steps of our journey towards the increasingly complete realization of the self.

Encountering a True Teaching

A mature seeker entering the path should by all means take into account the experiences of those who have reached self-realization. Many generations of seekers, monks, sages and mystics have explored the inner realm, and their testimony is an invaluable resource of spiritual understanding. Nevertheless, due to the extremely varied and often contradictory visions of the inner path presented by different individuals and spiritual traditions, the process of finding the correct teaching and guidance for oneself can be extremely confusing.

Despite the considerable effort many great thinkers have made through the ages to try to prove the unity of all religions and spiritual schools, that indisputable differences exist between them simply cannot be denied. They differ and disagree not only in their practices, but also in their philosophies and interpretations of spiritual illumination. No one has yet arrived at an interpretation of spiritual evolution that would be universally accepted.

The interpretation of spiritual truth is not only a matter of philosophy and belief system, but also an expression of the evolutionary level and spiritual potential of each individual or group of souls that seeks to convey it. Although truth is universal, its perception and reception are by nature subjective, determined by the capacity and point of view of the consciousness that asserts it. For this reason, we cannot simply declare the superiority of one tradition over another, for such judgment is only relative. The ability to recognize and understand truth cannot be separated from an individual's constitution, spiritual maturity and depth of intelligence .

For some seekers, excessively high doses of truth are indigestible, even destructive. When the level of truth administered surpasses one's capacity to receive it, this truth is either missed or misused. Because truth is the ultimate elucidation of reality, it needs to be dispensed appropriately and absorbed gradually. As truth is none other than the highest frequency of light and understanding, in order to safely receive it, the ground of our intelligence and consciousness has to be prepared as a suitable container

What are the criteria for choosing the most suitable tradition and spiritual teaching for oneself? Most seekers choose according to their karmic predisposition. They feel an immediate sense of familiarity and recognition when they encounter a tradition known personally from past incarnations and naturally gravitate towards it. However, feeling a connection to a particular teaching does not always indicate that to follow that tradition is in one's best interest. Often the soul needs to break specific connections in order to learn new lessons and de-condition herself from her karmic past. It may be that an association with a specific tradition or teaching is a temporary affair, meant only to be experienced for the sake of learning a specific lesson before moving on. A seeker has to use discrimination. He needs sensitivity and deep intuition in order to truly feel which spiritual teaching is the proper vehicle for one's inner journey.

The intensity of one's identification with a specific teaching does not necessarily correlate to one's commitment to the path. Through our commitment to the path, we serve the truth of universal evolution, not a single interpretation of the spiritual dimension channeled through a specific human belief system. A spiritual tradition remains just one of the many vehicles we use to journey within on the path to the self. Complete understanding cannot be expounded by any one tradition, for the very simple reason that truth is beyond traditions. Truth belongs to the tradition of universal intelligence, which oversees the whole of existence, and to the intrinsic knowledge of the soul's blueprint encoded in the consciousness of our higher being.

Recognizing the Next Step

The inner way is an unbroken continuity of evolution consisting of many separate steps and gradual progressions. Because we cannot possibly have a panoramic view of the inner realm at the outset of our journey, our advancement depends upon the clarity of our present state and our ability to recognize the next step. We can liken the inner journey to the ascension of a steep mountain: in order not to slip and fall, we focus not on the mountain's peak, but on each individual step we need to take to reach it.

The ability to identify and take each next step upon our inner journey is an outgrowth of spiritual knowledge and our clear insight into where we are in our process. But because it is often impossible to identify one's exact or even approximate place on the path, the majority of seekers need a qualified teacher to verify their state and present the necessary explanations.

As we gradually move deeper into the inner realm, the vision of our evolutionary purpose becomes increasingly apparent, and we grow more independent. Our personal intelligence progressively merges with the higher wisdom of the soul, who timelessly knows her final destiny and recollects all the steps of awakening as the natural landscape of her evolution and blueprint.

The Role of Doubt

No true understanding can be reached without first going through the fire of doubt. Doubting supports the development of clarity, and in many instances protects us from pitfalls on the path. The function of doubt is particularly critical at the outset of our search, when we are faced with a vast and varied array of spiritual teachings; we must exercise doubt as we weigh our options. An intelligent mind does not subscribe to a teaching indiscriminately, but investigates and considers it thoroughly before making a commitment. Only a dull mind blindly accepts a teaching.

On the spiritual scene, doubt plays a critical role. Naive and immature seekers routinely become victims of teachers with inadequate and even questionable qualifications. The price they pay is grave, because they can become spiritually stagnant for long periods, or worse yet, regress in their evolution. To assure the positive movement of our evolution, we must remain alert and critical in our perception of the path as a whole, as well as its elements. We are not suggesting that one should be resistant or closed. On the contrary, constructive doubt serves as a positive test of reality that leaves the doors open to all possibilities in choosing both a spiritual teaching and a teacher. Although our capacity to verify a teacher's qualifications and recognize the quality of a teaching is restricted by the level of our own maturity, within our limitations we absolutely must practice discrimination with the highest level of clarity, wisdom, intuition and simple common sense, for choosing the right teaching and teacher is of the highest importance, often determining the course of our whole lives.

If the absence of doubt is coupled with insincerity and arrogance, one can easily develop a dangerous kind of spiritual ego that can block the evolution of the soul. One has to honestly question one's intention, spiritual direction and inner experience. Only with the emergence of complete clarity and truth can doubt be abandoned.

Although the role of doubt is essentially positive on the path, excessive doubting can undermine the inner work. Doubting can become an addiction based on fear, insecurity and the inability to discern between right and wrong. For this reason, we must keep the doubting mind in check so that doubts will not erode our basic trust in the path and our courage to enter the unknown.

The Role of Trust

When our doubt exceeds our trust and faith in the path, we lose our spiritual force - we become helpless and powerless. Trust is the quality that directs the doubting mind into a positive direction and maintains the basic balance of our intelligence. Trust must be founded upon clear discernment. We must not believe with blind faith to follow the path, but recognize the truth of the direction we have taken. Our trust should be rooted in the intuition and wisdom of the heart, for not everything can be verified by the mind. The mind, in fact, often proves quite limited in its ability to find the right way. To trust does not mean that we are one hundred percent certain of what we believe to be true. In fact, once we have reached a particular point of certainty, there no longer exists any need for trust - we simply know. Rather, to trust is to follow a sense of rightness into uncharted territory.

Trust serves also as the foundation of the student-teacher relationship, growing as a student obtains increasingly more confirmation from his inner experience of the accuracy of the guidance received - trust in a teacher is the natural outcome of a student's progress. In the process of seeking out and committing to a teacher, the initial degree of trust should be based on a sense of the quality of the teacher's heart and being. One should not look for eloquence, charisma or 'spiritual' gestures. A student has to feel genuine light and truth behind the presence of a teacher, their pure intention and true wisdom.

Cutting Through Confusion

Just as doubt can be caused by confusion, so confusion can be the result of unresolved doubt. If we are cannot transcend our confusion because we keep feeding it with doubts, we can create a major crisis in our evolution. However, the presence of confusion, like the arising of doubt, is a natural aspect of the spiritual path. If a seeker never experiences confusion or doubt, it suggests a serious lack of spiritual refinement and a gullible type of personality.

Confusion can be defined as a feeling of being lost, of lacking a clear sense of direction or a satisfactory understanding of one's inner situation. It is not an enemy, but a challenge to be faced and overcome so that at a certain point the light of clarity can reemerge. We must accept confusion as an inevitable part of spiritual exploration, but also know how to break through it. To cut through confusion, we must call upon our passion for understanding, faith in the spiritual path and determination to find clarity.

There exist two basic types of confusion. There is the natural and gentle kind of confusion that arises from the simple impossibility of comprehending all the intricacies of the path prior to our arrival at higher states of spiritual attainment. Then there is the kind of confusion that arises from intellectual dullness and lack of imagination, indicating that we are stuck on the path. This latter type of confusion can become a real problem, because when left unresolved, it may seriously impede our spiritual progress.

Although the presence of confusion often serves as an incentive to strive for a higher level of understanding, we should never dwell on it or allow it to take root in our inner life. Confusion is intrinsically unreal, and according to the law of reality, must eventually be dissolved by the light of truth and understanding. Sooner or later, a true seeker will triumph over any kind of confusion or doubt.

Return to http://www.anaditeaching.com/teachingentry3.htm