Many people find spiritual freedom by a sort of abstraction, a loss of connection, detachment. In this they are able to find a space where there is no goal in life, there is no space for guilt over actions done, no achievements are required, boundaries vanish and liberation is achieved. The ‘self’ is lost and a sense of calm takes over and the sense of now becomes all that there is.
This experience frees people up from the responsibility of karma, it opens the prison that values install and removes any need to be anything other than perfect in the moment.
At least that is what I sense during moments like these, a widening of the horizon to the infinite, and a freedom from the burden of expectation.
It is an illusion, a beguiling and tempting illusion.
You see it would work if there was no karma, if we never had to account for our actions and we did not feel love and compassion, if we were the only being in the universe. It is a credit card illusion that allows us to spend without thought of the final cost, as if no day of personal accounting would ever arrive, it is the kind of illusion, a sort of madness that disconnects us and allows us to behave as if our lives have no consequence on our journey.
It cunningly misplaces the fact that we are not alone, that we are only one soul in a community, and that each of us matters.
We know, when we eventually escape from the illusion, that it all matters, that our love for others and especially for ourselves, the caring nature that we know feels right, that our sense of compassion are the true guides, and that when we deviate from them we are losing our way and in danger of becoming lost, lost souls without purpose, adrift. We realise the interconnectedness of our lives, past and present and we see that there is a balance point in everything, a point where all is in its place. Our journey takes shape and we comprehend the reason why it is necessary that we learn and evolve, that we grow and expand – only then can we begin to see the goal, we finally understand the nature of God.
This is no illusion, this is life, this is the reason for our existence, through many earthbound existences, we find the way, we begin to understand the responsibility that a soul as it grows takes on, we stop being a baby, grow to be children and finally become adult souls. This cannot be avoided, no matter how much we seek the bliss of infinite horizons, of guiltless spaces and of aimless being – eventually we need to grow and face the reality that our spiritual existence encompasses.
This makes it sound as if we have to give up the sense of bliss, the opportunity of liberation and as if we lose our personal freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In seeking the calm of illusory, responsibility free isolation we create an existence that is all boundaries, constrained by its very attempt to create a one dimensional existence.
The real sense of bliss is found in the honest realisation of who we are, our liberation comes from our ability to express ourselves in truth and love and compassion, and our freedom is found when we finally learn to love ourselves for who we are. We allow, and in the allowing find peace because we know that our moral and spiritual compass guides us perfectly, we become truth and will feel truth reflected back to us, we discover the gift that has been waiting for us, the gift of understanding, of compassion and of connectedness and of spiritual, loving completeness.
This is the journey we are on, each travelling a different route to the same end point and it how we travel that will define how we arrive.
love
chris
guilt-free
We know that our love for others and especially for ourselves, the caring nature that we know feels right, that our sense of compassion are the true guides. We realise the interconnectedness of our lives, past and present . Our journey takes shape and we comprehend the reason why it is necessary that we learn and evolve, that we grow and expand.
Our liberation comes from our ability to express ourselves in truth and love and compassion, and our freedom is found when we finally learn to love ourselves for who we are. We allow, and in the allowing find peace because we know that our moral and spiritual compass guides us perfectly, we become truth and will feel truth reflected back to us, we discover the gift that has been waiting for us, the gift of understanding, of compassion and of connectedness and of spiritual, loving completeness.
Lovely peace, Chris. I've re-quoted the parts I love most.
I'd modify one aspect. I hold that guilt is always a poison. I suggest that when we "love ourselves for who we are" and realise we took a path other than where "our moral and spiritual compass guides us", the best way of wisdom and growth is to learn the lesson, do our part in repairing the damage, and move on - with total acceptance of self, other, and consequences.
Hi wademk,
Glad you liked it - only what arrives as it were.
you are right that guilt is a poison, I believe fear is as well. Trying to recover ground lost by 'repairing the damage' while not always possible is always worth trying. Forgiving ourselves does not repair anything but does allow us to see more clearly.
love
chris
fear
Yes indeed. Thanks for that response, Chris.
And while the primary counter to guilt is acceptance, the counter to fear may be love, trust, or peace. One of the most wonderful book titles ever (in my opinion) is "Love is Letting Go of Fear". (Jampolski.)
Fear, however, does have a value, e.g. to get us moving fast when we sense a predator approaching or a fire spreading. Guilt has no value.
There is a state of being that is a relative of fear that has a commonplace good, useful purpose - prudence, caution, watchfulness, wariness. The major difference between this state and fear is that it has a calm mind.
I suggest the nearest parallel related to guilt is a heightened wakefulness of conscience that guides our discernment at another opportunity: not to be similarly selfish, foolish or malicious.
Both these helpful states can manifest as thoughts, or as feelings, or as in-some-moment intuitions.
Hi Cactuschus - whilst I agree with your definition of real bliss, I think you are a bit muddled/misled over the guilt thing and having no karma. Spiritual people DO take responsibilitiy for their actions (it's part of being compassionate) and DO believe in karma. Somewhere along the line you've made incorrect assumptions.
I've been on the spiritual path for over 40 years now and have never come across what you say.
Maybe you deduced it from a particular kind of therapy?
Hi Amy,
I'm not sure excatly what you are referring to - but I certainly believe in karma, the point i was trying to make was that soem do not - they see that we are where we are and therefore anything we do has no consequence - this frees them up.
This is not true of all spiritual people, in face I think only to an eloquent minority but they do exist.
love
chris
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, they are beautiful.
Hip
Many people find spiritual freedom by a sort of abstraction, a loss of connection, detachment. In this they are able to find a space where there is no goal in life, there is no space for guilt over actions done, no achievements are required, boundaries vanish and liberation is achieved. The ‘self’ is lost and a sense of calm takes over and the sense of now becomes all that there is.
Thanks for that post, Chris. It was nice reading but maybe I'm just dim, as I wasn't sure I knew just what you were getting at. In fact, since it was posted under "General", not "Spirituality", at first I expected a discussion about the political and legal liberty to practice any religion or belief we like, within reason!
I agree with most of your post. I don't however think that a genuine "calm" takes over when people have a "make-it-up-yourself" or "Do What Thou Wilt" (Crowley's phrase) philosophy and way of life. There's a superficial sense of freedom, but there's nothing real to hold onto. Karma is still there, maybe still being made, and even if karma is felt unconsciously only, and doesn't immediately express in the outer life, it's bound to lead to some form of inner lack, emptiness, disturbance, whatever. In fact it will express in the outer life anyway. (Not that it doesn't express in all our lives, as we all have karma else we wouldn't be here on earth: but there's a real calm in understanding that we are balancing it and trying to do good. And that doing good has lasting and real karmic effects.)
There's also a side-topic here. In the "New Age" and the whole gamut of practices and groups in the world today, supposedly spiritual, there's a tendency for folk to pick and choose or move on from one thing to another - to 'dabble'. That's not a serious spiritual Path IMHO. In fact, karma may be believed in intellectually, but no real spiritual Path is being trodden in reality.
I understand the frequent skepticism today towards religions, leaders, Gurus and such, since there are so many bad examples. This is also an era of real freedom and therefore personal choice. But here's a true anecdote. Two men I knew were both part of a modern, relatively recent 'religion' for want of a better word, living in a spiritual community. One just upped and left one day, saying to the other: "I'm a free individual. If I want to, I can choose to leave." The other replied, "I'm also a free individual. And I choose to stay."
V
Hi Venetian,
Great reply - and I agree wholeheartedly.
The calm " ""calm" takes over when people have a "make-it-up-yourself" or "Do What Thou Wilt"" that you describe very accurately reflects what I badly tried to describe - it is a trap, a dead end but is beguiling nevertheless and many that find it assume it is the totality that they have sought.
I have been there (as I assume you have from your insights) but saw the reality of it rather than the superficial face of it, and something made me decide to try to describe it all - thanks for the clarification.
love
chris
The calm " ""calm" takes over when people have a "make-it-up-yourself" or "Do What Thou Wilt"" that you describe very accurately reflects what I badly tried to describe - it is a trap, a dead end but is beguiling nevertheless and many that find it assume it is the totality that they have sought.
Hi Chris,
It's not so much that I've consciously taken this route myself. Though I've certainly 'drifted' a number of times and would hardly set myself up as any great spiritual example. But in my mind I always knew where I was meant to be and what meant to be doing, and always gravitated back. In essence, I don't "belong" to any movement since I found a Path which perfectly reflects - and much enhances - the Real Me, and what I'm meant to be.
It's rather that I understand what you meant since I've most certainly come across people who were vehemently against "belonging" to anything, or "following" any person or teacher or calling. Their idea is that you shouldn't pay heed to anything outside of yourself - only your own 'inner voice'. It kind of sounds good on the face of it, hey? And it gives maybe a feeling of spiritual "freedom". What I've tried to explain is that people like me are not really "following" anyone, though it may appear so; I don't "belong" to a movement in the sense of having been "fooled and taken in by it".
I mean this in a general, not personal sense, but I can best speak of my own example. Aged 20 I went consciously looking for a spiritual Path. I investigated every religion to a degree, every movement then existing, every philosophy of life I could find. The very search was often full-time involving reading and travel. To my astonishment I found something - it doesn't matter what as each will find their own - which resonated utterly with me, and has the potential (It's not the belionging, but the individual 'work' you put in) to greatly enhance me in spirituality. The particular Path didn't "rope me in" or something: I found it, I chose it.
Similarly I might cite the example of a friend who chose to become a Catholic priest: a good example to cite as it absolutely would not be my cuppa! But it was his, and when he first committed to that calling he didn't even have 0-levels. He was a New Zealand sheep shearer. I didn't know that you need some academic training too for the priesthood, and I watched him through the whole process which took fully seven years. He never wavered. Many of us might shy away from Catholicism, myself included, but a better priest within it you'd never find.
So I'm contrasting this with the "I don't want to 'belong' to anything" and "Why should I not just do my own thing?" approach. Such people certainly possess spirituality - for I believe God or Goodness is probably within everyone. But are they enhancing it? Not so far as I have ever seen TBH. They may be wonderful people, but they're not moving onward or upward as it were. Not in any example I've witnessed. They're just going through the normal man-in-the-street cycle of birth, life, family maybe, then ageing and death; and the cycle of karma and repeating rebirth without moving at all to get off it (at this time). (I've heard, "What's wrong with it? I'm happy to be on it forever." So there's a lack of comprehension of what I take to be the meaning of life: we are intended to graduate from 'schoolroom Earth'. A repost then might be: "Says who? You just read it in a book." And so it goes on...)
From examples I've known it's a "path" of kidding yourself. There's not even a spiritual practice. There are no deep convictions to prevent you from suddenly doing wrong and hurting others, or whatever. We must bear in mind that "Do What Thou Wilt" is very easy! Having an outer movement, guide, or 'religion' strengthens our resolve about what's right or wrong. Frankly, you also in a deep and committed kind of movement get a lot of hefty "pushes" to knock you out of your comfort zone - a bit like a personal trainer in the world of physical fitness. Someone or something which knocks you on the head when you are slacking, or frankly gives you advice which, if heeded, will take you to another level you'd not reach by yourself.
The subject is close to me as it's been discussed for untold hours. I was expected to "leave" my Path. To not believe in God even!! (How do you suddenly just stop believing in God, for someone else?) I couldn't get through that many people are not "inside" a movement: they are the movement or belief system - there's a perfect resonance.
The logic breaks down that you vehemently shouldn't follow or be involved in anything outside of yourself: "just listen to your own heart". There's so much truth about listening to the inner heart, but let's look at plain logic here: we are all influenced by outer factors anyway: as personalities we are roughly half Nature (innate, DNA, etc) and half Nurture (formed by outer factors). Our first "Gurus" - who may be good, indifferent or bad examples - are our parents. It's impossible anyway to avoid outside influence. Why not seek and find something therefore which enhances you?
How many reject the outside influence of a Guru or spiritual movement, then spend hours a week watching TV? :confused::)
The Theosophical Mahatma, El Morya, once said: "The slopes to the spiritual summit are strewn with the skeletons of those who thought to climb alone".
This aversion to Paths, movements, or to following another outer 'guide' of whatever kind runs very deep in some people. In one esoteric teaching (mine, actually) I learned of one explanation we may consider for this aversion. If we do believe in reincarnation, and that we've all lived many times before, a lot of people have indeed joined, been a part of, and maybe just plain were born into some religion or path in a past life, or followed a mentor, which utterly betrayed them, turned out to be much darker on the inside than the outer appearance. (Imagine if you were raised a Catholic today but sexually abused in childhood by priests as we've recently read about.) This would be a soul-scar going very deep indeed. Of betrayal. I've seen it happen in the present: people flee in pain from spiritual betrayal and often become atheists, even haters of religion.
One's psychology at a core level continues from one life to another. Any who've been severely let down in the past may take a number of lifetimes to ever trust anything outside of themselves again. "I'll ONLY do it my way - go away!" is a defence mechanism. The same esoteric teaching which gave me that also states that there's a whole system of angels and healing places beyond the physical world where they try to heal people between incarnations from such an affliction of soul-betrayal.
P.S. Gosh, this has become a bit long, but one more thought. I've known many hundreds of people on intense and committed spiritual paths; I've also known quite a few who'd only do their "own thing" (and I'm not critical of that: it's them and where they are at). What's the core difference? I can't really put words into the mouths of the 'other type', but roughly they seem to feel that their "spirituality" is simply a way to be as you go through life. How to live your day. It's not that they have a greater or higher goal. That's how it seems to me, anyway. What characterises those committed to a movement, practice, teaching & etc is a core-belief that we are here to progress, there is really no limit on how fast we can progress apart from our own foibles and laziness, and there are perhaps NO LIMITS on what man/woman may become. As it says in the Psalms, "I have said, ye are gods: all of you". (But it's meant as a potential we have to strive to outpicture and become.) That's the Goal the committed are committed to.
V
This is a really interesting discussion! What you described in the initial post, Chris, I can imagine happening, although I don't know that I've seen an example personally. I certainly don't know of any religion, philosophy, or other spiritual system that actually advocates or intentionally encourages that kind of attitude.
All the great spiritual teachings - as far as I'm aware - urge active love and compassion towards humankind as an inseparable corollary to one's dedication to the Divine. In the Christian scriptures, for example, we're told that Jesus spent long periods in prayer, often "on a mountaintop" (literally or figuratively!), but he didn't stay there. He always came right back down to where the people were, to teach them and heal them, and commanded his followers to do the same. When asked what "the greatest commandment" in the Jewish Law was, he gave two, which he said were like each other: love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.
There would be similar examples, I'm sure, from all other faiths and spiritual teachers worldwide. One thing that's often pointed out is that all the world's spiritual traditions - from Indigenous spirituality to the Baha'i Faith - include some version of the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's universally accepted that, whatever one's spiritual path, true commitment to the Divine inescapably demands commitment to the good of humanity.
I would guess that if anything, "pop culture" spirituality might lead to the situation Chris described - spirituality as a form of escapism or a search for mere personal comfort, leaving behind one's own shortcomings and the problems of the world, and absolving oneself of any obligation to rectify them. In a shallow, consumer-driven society, there's probably a good deal of shallow, consumer-driven spiritual seeking (or rather, self-seeking). But I suspect that's not at all common among sincere spiritual seekers in any tradition - of whom there are plenty. 
Hi Venetian,
Thanks for your insights.
I agree that we cannot simply exist alone – I don’t think we were meant to, people and spirits touch our lives and we learn, whether we choose to heed those lessons is part of our journey. Equally I think that we sometimes come across someone who can resonate so strongly, often just by force of their personality that we lose sight of ‘the rest’ of what matters. Yet in the case you site it is also clear that there are times when we find a path that does lead, almost exactly where we feel we need to go, and this kind of calling cannot just be ignored and as you describe one becomes an integral part of the journey.
There is so much stuff available these days that there is a danger that we become lost in trying things out (your investigation was an example), and I’ve seen people that go from one experience (attunement or whatever) to the next without ever realising and understanding what they have just passed through. In each of these we are not alone, we have others who travel in a similar direction, we have guides that will advise from time to time, we have our inbuilt sense of rightness, and we have of course God. This is why the aloneness, do what thou wilt is only isolation and offers no chance of advancement. You are right that it can be a reaction to a past event, an echo that build barriers and creates a fear of future pain – this is an issue that needs much healing.
Like you I have a community that helps me, I listen and try to understand, and I have lost the fear that would leave me frozen. I welcome the journey and travel as fast as I can, but try not to skip to the next chapter without some understanding of the present section. We will all progress at our own pace, sometimes slow and sometimes fast, for some ‘living well’ is a challenge in itself for instance, but as ever it is the journey that shapes us, that tempers us and it is we that choose the journey.
Hi Charis,
I agree entirely with the golden rule parts – and yes Jesus did spend long periods in prayer (and presumably meditation). Part of the difference may be that for some meditation is a quietening, a move towards absolute zero in the hope that enlightenment may be found, whereas often is does not but leads instead to a kind of nihilistic state, of isolation and the isolation helps to put in barriers that repel the threats that change and journeying bring – so a feeling of fear is assumed but equally no progress is made.
love
chris
Yet in the case you site it is also clear that there are times when we find a path that does lead, almost exactly where we feel we need to go, and this kind of calling cannot just be ignored and as you describe one becomes an integral part of the journey.
I'm glad you understand. I joined something when scarcely out of my teens, and relatives thought I'd been "brainwashed" by a cult! It was impossible to get through to them that I'd found something that was ME: they didn't find me, I found it, freely. In fact, on the subject of "brainwashing" (a notion which has critics saying no such thing actually exists), older relatives at the time just didn't "get it" when I said, in a wry way, that I hadn't even at the time met a single person from this movement. In the end I was the first person in Europe, and it grew, and grew, so I'd joke that if anyone was doing the "brainwashing", it was me! (Of course, I wasn't.) But they were stuck in their mindset.
There is so much stuff available these days that there is a danger that we become lost in trying things out (your investigation was an example), and I’ve seen people that go from one experience (attunement or whatever) to the next without ever realising and understanding what they have just passed through.
In many ways, today, it's good to have such a volume of choice. Imagine a thousand years ago when you were simply born into an era where, according to nation and culture, you just automatically had to become a Hindu, or Catholic, etc.
But the volume of choice today does, I am sure, hinder many people. It's hard to have the grace or discernment to cut through all the chaff and get to the real wheat. This volume began maybe in the early Seventies, and has grown and grown? I was very young then, but an older friend called the people who moved from one movement, practice and path to another every few months "psychic groupies". It's pretty accurate and I still smile at the phrase.
V
Hi Venetian,
Whatever you found it has obviously allowed you to develop in a manner that suits you and that is really all that matters. I think many of us go through some difficult times when we realise what we are drawn to, some around me while accepting still call it all ‘your weird s**t’ and although often intrigued are not really interested or perhaps are a bit scared, while others have been supportive and understanding throughout. Unconditional acceptance is hard but once found it is incredibly liberating.
What I see a lot is the plethora of very shallow, unconfirmed stuff on the web and more and more lately in books that is designed to sell something (not necessarily for money). It is difficult to discern as you say the valid from the chaff, and because much of it is shallow or just personal experiences it has little relevance. It does draw people in, those hoping for a path to be defined for them, a route laid out by another often with grand stories and bags of personal charisma, and from what I’ve seen this is seldom works to map a path. So people become followers, trailing along behind and never achieving satisfaction, while the real path is visible if only they look for themselves and make the effort to seek it out.
So I have generally adopted the path of being interested in a lot, not coveting what others have, trying to understand the general picture, while opening my own doors and finding my own route – and of course not accepting preconceived constraint and prejudice. Sometimes this is aided by another, for through our journey we are often helped by those who somehow appear just when most needed, but accepting that their path is not mine, we just converge for a bit. Sometimes it also means that I have times of quiet, when progress seems slow, but these times are also important to take stock and broaden ones understanding of where one is and why – journeys are like this occasionally – and impatience will not change that.
I like the psychic groupees description btw - descriptive.
love
chris
Hi Venetian,
Whatever you found it has obviously allowed you to develop in a manner that suits you and that is really all that matters. I think many of us go through some difficult times when we realise what we are drawn to, some around me while accepting still call it all ‘your weird s**t’ and although often intrigued are not really interested or perhaps are a bit scared, while others have been supportive and understanding throughout. Unconditional acceptance is hard but once found it is incredibly liberating.
To quickly take up a couple of points. Nobody can have the whole "picture", but I was in official positions in the 1980s, and had to dialogue with a body set up by the government and, if I recall, even the police. I helped with information and had a very slight hand in a book about the 'new religions' published, effectively, by the government as an information source - I suppose for parents. It seems to me that the 1980s were the peak period for people (and media) being up in arms about "cults" - which were actually anything "new". But TBH I did have severe reservations about some. I don't detect this up-in-arms attitude today about calling anything new a "brainwashing cult". Maybe because an older generation has passed, and there just is so much out there.
But I was in something kinda "new" and it was funny to occasionally be called a "cult". (Christians outside the gates praying for us to die - and in the USA it was legal, at least then, for parents to kidnap their children and "brainwash" them if they could into Christianity, keeping them captive for weeks in what were effectively jails. This really happened, and I know men who were then in their thirties who were kidnapped off the street! I doubt it's legal now, and psychologically one might see it as bizarre parents just trying to assert control and force their children down a planned path.
(In fact the hired kidnappers were taken to court in key trials and prosecuted.)
Not sure where I am going with this! Just sharing memories and asserting that we do need the freedom of religion to do anything we want, within reason.
What I see a lot is the plethora of very shallow, unconfirmed stuff on the web and more and more lately in books that is designed to sell something (not necessarily for money).
I just wrote above about the anti-cult hysteria of the 1980s. In my experience, it passed, but from the 1990s what became very sad to me is that the eternally-growing plethora of Western "teachers" with their books, packs of tarot cards, seminars, and what-have-you are so very often clearly just money-oriented. It becomes their career, and therefore they cannot be spiritually honest, as they have to keep producing more books, more cards, more seminars, to keep themselves in pocket. They also have to branch off and do something different from the pack, just in order to stand out and get their own punters or payees. (One possible example: I'm not as it happens into Reiki, but know people who are and teach it: some clearly are creating and naming new "forms" ONLY to stand out from the pack, for the purpose of money-making.)
V
Hi Venetian - thank you for your reminiscences - I have enjoyed them a lot.
love
chris