Dear Friend:
None can tell you what to do with your life, nor to whom and how you should relate. Were I to do this, I would be violating the most sacred trust of the human soul:
We all are free to explore ourselves and our possibilities, and in this, by solving our own psychological challenges, we become Masters of Wisdom and Compassion.
Instead, I am going to try to pour some light into the situation of groups spiritually oriented and to share with you my experience (which is also the experience of those who share with me in the inner life).
I observe three main factors playing in the life and relationships of most individuals who are pursuing the Spiritual Path. They are:
- The need for Impersonality
- The value of Silence
- A proper relation between one’s personal life and the group life
The lack of mastery in these three areas of our life accounts for most of the difficulties that exist in all the kinds of relationships one may have.
Impersonality is, perhaps, the most pressing need of all those on the Spiritual Path. We could come up with several definitions of Impersonality — I am sure you have read or heard some of them. There is no need to repeat them here. What I want to do is to share with you a ‘measure’ used in the Inner Groups of the Masters of the Light to estimate the degree of impersonality of disciples. It is a very enlightening measure because, even though it is a measure, it also points the way out of the prison of the personal. This measure says:
Our knowledge of the personal life of others has an inverse relation to our degree of impersonality.
We can paraphrase the measure in this way:
The more one knows about the personal life of others, the less one is embodying the life of the Soul. And the less one knows about the personal life of others, the easier it is to embody the life of the Soul.
All those who today are consciously traveling the Spiritual Path are mature souls, old in the long journey of human incarnations. It is time for all of us now to be concerned, not with the details of the personal life of others, but with the creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth.
Have you thought that, contrary to appearances, to know the details of the personal life of others is a real and major impediment for serving and helping them? Ponder carefully on this because participants in the multitude of so-called spiritual groups throughout the world are still too personal in their interactions with others and, as a result, are serving little as the Soul serves — that is, the service they render is done without a real and long lasting effect for the spiritual well-being of all concerned.
A valid question could be asked at this point:
If being personal is an impediment for Service and for one’s soul growth, what is the value of "friendship” on the Path?
A very good definition of the Path could say that the Spiritual Path is the journey along which we discover the meaning and the value of true Friendship. Only those who look at each other as souls and as divine beings experience the fullness of Friendship.
It is here that the importance of Silence must be emphasized. The fullness of Friendship and the exercise of true Service cannot be experienced unless one has learned the power of Silence. I am not referring to silence in speech. I am referring to the more important silence in the mind. The root of every word and every voiced expression is always found in our mental life, therefore, this is the level upon which we should focus our efforts to be silent. Of course, Silence spiritually understood does not mean not to think any thing or not to speak any thing.
Silence referes to a silent attitude regarding the many imperfections of this world, including ours. It refers to an inner silence of mind and emotion where we have room to create that which is new, beautiful and perfect. It is thus a silence where we can be co-creators with the Universe.
Until very recently, the many interpretations of the Teachings on the Path emphasized the need to fight against those habits that one may regard as obstacles for the Path. Success using this approach is very slow, painful and usually unbalanced. The new approach to the Path, for a more mature humanity and for a more mentally polarized disciple of the Light, emphasizes, on one side, a balanced effort with non-resistance and a conscious rhythmic activity, on the other side.
Thus, the new approach emphasizes a non-resistance regarding those habits that one considers as obstacles for the Path. This means that one endeavors not to give attention to that which is regarded as undesirable. Instead, one aims all efforts to cultivate the opposite to it. This is a two step process:
- First, one accepts all that exists in one’s nature, without any moral or ethical judgment — let’s remember that all tendencies in our being are just energy forces locked in the substances of our various bodies; they are the result of both our experience and lack of experience in creating the kind of being we want to be.
- Second, looking away from that which no longer is desirable, we focus on cultivating in us and in our life that which we desire anew. To succeed in this, we need to consciously give our attention to it so that we can substitute the old habit for a new one (hopefully, a more spiritual and liberating one). As detachment from oneself is the key for the first step, rhythmic and balanced living is the key for this second step.
This new approach to the Spiritual Path will account for a faster and more balanced progress.
With this in mind, let’s go back to the need for Silence at the level of our minds.
Silence at the level of mind refers to the freedom from the continuous chatter of our thoughts and from the over-analysis of all events, things and circumstances.
Curiosity about transitory and unimportant things in life and a judgmental attitude are the results of a lack of mental discipline; mainly the results of an over-analytical mind — a mind that is constantly analyzing all experiences and all relationships, usually in terms of how they impact one’s little self. In other words, undue curiosity and a judgmental attitude are usually present in those individuals whose minds are constantly preoccupied with how others, how life and how all things are affecting them personally. This overwhelming tendency to analyze everything in terms of the little self (overwhelming to the Inner Self) is a major obstacle for Soul contact and for the flow of the Light of the Intuition into the mind.
To apply to this situation the new approach to the Path one needs to cultivate a use of the mind directed away from one’s little self. In practical terms, one redirects the power of the mind towards the creation of those things that will serve the spiritual needs of others and towards the cultivation of universality of mind (as it is described in “The Discipline of Universality” in the “Fundamentals for Soul Living)”. Cultivating these two inner tendencies will change our attitudes towards ourselves, others and the entire scheme of things. Cultivating them will awaken in us Selflessness and true Impersonality.
Here we arrive to the third element that I observe in the life of many spiritually-oriented groups, and the question can be asked:
How does one balance the personal life with the group life?
This is a question that all disciples on the Path of Light must answer to themselves. The key is found in the capacity to be impersonal and to be silent (as we just described these).
We all have a personal life to live. This is unavoidable until we arrive to a complete freedom from incarnation. I can but share with you the way those who have achieved this level of spiritual identification with the Source of All have solved this dilemma. They say to all of us:
“Make one of your personal life and your group life. Learn to see your personal life (including the family life) and your group life without separating borders, and make of them your one field of Service and your instrument to reach many with healing and blessing.”
May the Blessings of the Great Host of Light surround your being and life conditions.
In Light and Love,
