Friday, October 10, 2014

Spirituality and Ego

Hi.

        I had a long discussion concerning my blog concerning following others and this of course included teachers. I had some complaints here in Detroit from some of the "teachers" running organizations. A few seem to challenge the idea of someone "learning" spirituality on their own.
The major complaint seemed to be coming from two different areas.

        The first was the premise that if you are using your "ego" to examine and change your "ego" it's not going to happen. It was suggested that the only way to do this is to place yourself under a "master" who would then be able to help you examine and "be aware" of your ego. That's pretty interesting. I can see the argument and I reminded others that I never said to go it alone. I never suggested that we don't find mentors and people we admire in order to gain information and the tools we need to see ourselves.

        What I said was that be aware of any agendas and possible hidden motives that a lot of the so called "teachers" seem to have. Really ego? When I look into the spiritual world all I see are egos. Teachers who present that they somehow have come to a place that allows them to guide you are very helpful. They are not however ego less. They do not have "all" the answers. They are simply an ego leading an ego. It would pay to keep this in mind and not follow someone "blindly" because they sound like they know what they are talking about.

        How many spiritual paths were created by a human  not listening to other humans? I can think of a few. The three major religions on the planet. Did humans influence others? Yes. But remember the last words of the Buddha that reflect the need to seek and find your own salvation.

        The second area seems to revolve around the belief that people need to be told what to do and how to act or they won't be able to figure it out on their own. OK. I guess if you are the kind of person who needs to be told what to do then join in with someone who will offer you that. Just don't get confused with someone telling you that the need is to live up to the presented ideal. Do you see that teaching and preaching the ideal is different from being able to live that way?

        We are warriors seeking the spiritual path. It takes that kind of commitment and desire to stay true to changing our conditioning and living with projection. Don't ever let anyone fool you into thinking that they have somehow overcome these obstacles and can now "show you the way." This usually translates into money and power.

Keep going.

In Loving Kindness
Bryan