A Brief Orientation
As has been
stated in other places within this site, people usually become
interested in matters of Spirit or begin to read about metaphysics
because they realize they aren't living a fulfilled life or not
experiencing joy in living. Or they may be in severe pain (physical
or psychological) and suffering. And they want change;
they want answers. In many cases, they may have already discovered
that sources such as traditional religion have been inadequate
in providing the answers they sought.
As they continue to ask, their Inner Wisdom begins to guide them
to information that reveals to them the "power within"
their very being, and that that power is connected to an infinite
source beyond their own physical brain and body.
As a teacher of spiritual / metaphysical principles, it has been
my intent to make it clear that learning the principles by which
the universe works is not complicated and it does not take a
lifetime of study. This is in contrast to religious study. I
have often heard it said by religious scholars who have an intense
literal view of The Bible, that it takes a lifetime of dedicated
study before you can understand the meanings therein. And they
have these reference books which annotate every occurrence of
a word in The Bible so they can compare them and try to determine
the intent of each word and phrase. And there is endless debate
about what is meant by each. To me, this is beyond absurd. If
The Word was meant to be a guideline for living one's life, how
can it be that it should take a lifetime of study before one
can even begin to understand what it means?
What I know and what I teach is that learning how the universe
works is not difficult, and, the student should be able to begin
using the principles immediately upon learning about them. It
must be admitted however that in the case of metaphysics, there
is not one book or compendium of terms, such as the Concordance
for The Bible. For this reason, the new seeker / novice student
may find it rather confusing navigating through the endless number
of books he will find on the shelves of his mega-book retailer
or in a good metaphysical bookstore. Truly, it might "seem"
incredibly complicated. Thus, I think a little orientation is
in order.
In teaching,
what I have come to realize is that for those who have already
got a fair amount of study under their belt, I can sum up essential
principles for them in very short statements. That's in accordance
with my desire to make the Truth as compact as possible. And
the brief statements will be understood and have meaning to such
seekers. On the other hand, that same concise statement, to the
novice, will have little meaning--not because it is complicated
or mysterious--but rather because the new seeker is still steeped
in the conventional wisdom of the world. The whole point is that
Spiritual Truths and the wisdom of the world are to a great degree
contradictory to one another. Specifically, what I mean is that
the wisdom of the world is all about the limitations and struggle
and competition that lead to the problems the person is experiencing
in the first place. In contrast, the wisdom of spirit, of the
perennial truths, is about learning that those limitations are
an illusion.
So the purpose of this orientation is to give a brief description
of what the journey to awareness might look like.
Stage
1: The
individual, motivated by ongoing pain and suffering, not finding
answers that resonate elsewhere, begins to ask for answers. The
asking may be in some form such as, "God, Help me!!"
or, "God, what is this all about?" or "What is
going on here?" or "What should I do?" Metaphysically
speaking, asking is a prerequisite, and the universe always responds
in accordance with that old adage, "When the student is
ready, the master will appear". The master is not necessarily
in the form of some Eastern mystic in pastel robes, nor even
in the form of a person at all. It can come in the form of an
overheard comment or a glance at a discarded newspaper or a book
that catches one's attention while browsing in a bookstore or
library. Thus, if the individual was sincere in her pleas for
help, she will notice the answers the universe is providing--though
she may not recognize them as such at the time. Regardless of
this recognition, if she is aware enough to see what has been
placed in her path and ready to follow where it leads, the journey
to awareness begins.
Stage
2: At
this stage, the novice may discover in one source, a reference
to another, and the resource tree begins to grow rapidly. Alas,
it is not uncommon for the individual to begin meandering about
a seemingly endless flow of subtopics within the broad field
of metaphysics and mysticism, getting off the main path and taking
many side trips. At this point many people begin to get lost
and confused. It isn't that their higher or inner guidance has
forsaken them; it is more that they are exploring without asking
specific enough questions. Or it may be that they have not yet
learned to be good enough listeners to recognize and heed the
directions of their inner voices. Each individual's journey is
unique.
This is the stage in which it can happen that the journey, for
some, may seem to go on endlessly with out any real change occurring
in the seeker's life. This occurs for a number of possible reasons.
Much of it has to do with the resistance of the ego to accepting
that the individual could ever really be problem free, living
a life of flow and ease. During these periods of meandering,
the seeker may become disillusioned and return to old patterns.
And though there may be repeated back and forth with this, the
seeker realizes deep down that there really is no turning back.
Because when he tries to go back to the ways of the conventional
wisdom of the world, he only realizes that, "This is where
I came from; I've already been there and done that and I already
know the answers I seek are definitely not there."
Some people will turn to groups or guru types for guidance. This
can often be a tenuous course to follow. Some groups can turn
out to have cult like qualities, a choice that is no better than
some fundamentalist religions. Some so-called teachers can be
ego-centered, charismatic personalities looking for followers.
All of this is not to say that finding someone who can
provide some guidance along the way is not a good idea. It often
can make the path more direct and save some time by focusing
on the essentials and avoiding a lot of the dead end side roads.
One must be cautious in choosing a teacher or a group. The very
best advice I can offer is to follow your intuition rather than
being motivated by desperation for any answer regardless. Relax
and trust in Inner Guidance.
Since we are on this subject, this might be a good time to define the concept of teacher. It is said that we are all both teacher and student in life. So the very first thing is that a good teacher will come from a belief in that idea. He will not be so inclined to see himself as above or separate from students. He will not make such a distinction. A teacher is there only to guide a student to discovering truths within herself, reminding the student that he / she has just as much access to wisdom from the universe as the person filling the role as teacher does. Students often confuse statements of metaphysical principle with similar literal statements from the realm of religion. When a student is confused about seemingly conflicting statements or not understanding the metaphorical meanings of proverbs she comes across, the teacher can assist in sorting it out. A good teacher is never there to lead or to say this is what must be followed or believed. He / she is not a purveyor of dogma or certainty of "what is". For a good teacher teaches that there is no objective reality, that there are only an infinite number of personal realities.
So in this stage, the journey can proceed in a fairly straight line or it can meander erratically, depending upon the individual. Eventually, many arrive at the next stage, though not all do. The "eventually" can actually be quite soon, depending upon how willing the student is to surrender the limiting beliefs of the ego. (Note: You will learn more about this as you read other articles in this site. Most people begin with the Perspectives series). For those who are unwilling to let go of the ego-self, they may never progress beyond their current stage.
Stage 3: The period of Transformation. At this stage, seekers have finally begun to "get it". They are ready to surrender the ego in order that they may transform their identity into their authentic, eternal God-self. They have decided that they will live self- empowered lives, having full control over their experience, creating the conditions and circumstances of their lives consistent with their desires. They will allow themselves the best, as only God would. All of this they will do by operating in accordance with the spiritual principles they have learned. They have discovered how resistance interferes with peace of mind; and they have chosen peace of mind.
As the seeker moves closer to this stage and enters it, the teacher is able to remind the seeker of the essential truths with a very brief and concise statement of Truth. The statement I have been using is that, "It's all about Self Identity". In other words, are you identifying your "self" with the ego-centered self or are you identifying your self as God, which is the Ultimate Truth of your nature. Make no mistake; each and every one of us is all that God is.
Now, even that may not be a meaningful statement if you don't know what that, which is referred to as God, really is. Most certainly, before you have come to Stage 3, the stage of transformation, you will have learned all about that. (Parts 1 and 2 of the Perspective series are specifically about this.)
In Conclusion: Know first that the journey to awareness in this physical experience is just a small chapter in the infinite journey of the soul to expand toward infinite love and unity and oneness with all. Secondly, know that you do not have to complete any course of study or meet any other outside requirements before you can begin living a self- empowered life now. You can begin this very moment by letting go of the beliefs in fear and limitation that keep us in bondage. But if you aren't really sure what that means or how to do it, you may want to spend a little time learning about that. Once you learn, you can spend as long or as short a time as you wish before you implement it. If you are spending a long time, it cannot be blamed on the fact that you are incapable of getting it or that it's too complicated to understand. Neither of these is objectively true. But since one's personal reality is made up of beliefs that he strongly holds, and fears that he resists, you must realize that YOU AND YOU ALONE can make both of these limiting ideas a part of your reality. For the whole point of these teachings is that YOU create your reality. Only you have that power. Though you may not understand this right now, NOTHING outside of you actually has any power over you. There is no such thing as fate. Why? Because free will is an absolute given of the universe. It is an essential principle of how the universe operates. Any belief to the contrary is a result of the illusion of separation from our Source.
One final but very important thing -- this journey is the point of life. No matter how you do it, you are doing what is right for you now. Even if the way you are doing it is bringing you undesirable experience, it is perfect. The reason is that the pain and suffering of resistance eventually gets you to drop resistance, and when you are ready to do that, you are cruising in the flow.
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©, 2002-2006, William Gunderson
All Rights Reserved
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