The Essence of the Path
The core of all the great spiritual teachings and teachers can be summarized in a few simple statements. (Operationally, they all amount to the admonition to avoid that which makes one go weak with kinesiology and pursue that which makes one go strong!)
- Choose to be easygoing, benign, forgiving, compassionate, and unconditionally loving toward life in all its expressions without exception, including oneself.
- Focus on unselfish service and the giving of love, consideration, and respect to all creatures.
- Avoid negativity and the desire for worldliness and its greed for pleasure and possessions.
- Forgo opinionation, the judgment of right versus wrong, the vanity of being “right,” and the trap of righteousness.
- Seek to understand rather than to condemn.
- Venerate teachers of these basic principles and ignore all others.
- Apply these principles to one’s view of oneself as well as of others.
- Trust in the love, mercy, and infinite wisdom and compassion of Divinity, which sees through all human error, limitation, and frailty.
- Avoid negative depictions of God—that is, jealous, angry, destructive, partial, favoring, vengeful, insecure, vulnerable, contractual, and so on—as an anthropomorphic error. Understand that condemnation and fear of judgment stem from the ego. Place faith and trust in the love of God, which is all-forgiving.
- Realize that, like the sun, the love of God shines equally on all.
SIMPLE TOOLS OF GREAT VALUE FOR THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
You can pick a primary tool, plus a few others, but many are not needed. Simple tools, consistently applied, will result in the revelation of spiritual truths that do not have to be acquired intellectually, because they present themselves with great clarity. In addition, they present themselves only when suitable and serviceable, and because they are not an acquisition of the mind, they do not end up as spiritual vanity. Some tried-and-true basic tools that have brought about tremendous results over the centuries are as follows:
- Be kind to everything and everyone, including oneself, all the time, with no exception.
- Revere all life, in all its expressions, no matter what, even if one does not understand it.
- Presume no actual reliable knowledge of anything at all. Ask God to reveal the meaning.
- Intend to see the hidden beauty of all that exists—it then reveals itself.
- Forgive everything that is witnessed and experienced, no matter what. Remember Christ, Buddha, and Krishna said that all error is due to ignorance. Socrates said all people can choose only what they believe to be the good.
- Approach all life with humility, and be willing to surrender all positionalities and mental/emotional arguments or gain.
- Be willing to forgo all perceptions of gain, desire, or profit and thereby be of selfless service to life in all its expressions.
- Make one’s life a living prayer by intention, alignment, humility, and surrender. True spiritual reality is actually a way of being in the world.
- By verification, confirm the levels of consciousness and spiritual truth of all teachers, teachings, spiritual groups, and literature one intends to be aligned with or a student of.
- Accept that by spiritual declaration, commitment, and surrender, Knowingness arises that provides support, information, and all that is needed for the entire journey.
The most powerful tool that is in the province of the will is devotion. Thus, it is not just spiritual truth but the degree of your devotion to it that empowers it to become transformative. A great classic that demonstrates the efficacy of simplicity and devotion is Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God (1692), which calibrates at 575 and emphasizes the importance of constancy.
It is the motive that establishes spiritual value. To dedicate your actions as a service of love to life is to sanctify them and transform them from self-seeking motives to unselfish gifts. Even the smallest task can be seen as serving the common good, and if viewed in that light, all endeavors become ennobled.
Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to harmony and beauty by kindness to others and thereby support the human spirit. That which is freely given to life flows back to us because we are equally part of that life. Like ripples on the water, every gift returns to the giver. What we affirm in others, we actually affirm in ourselves.
As you advance spiritually, it brings value to everyone. Because of the collective consciousness, every single person who improves helps elevate the level of consciousness of humankind. As that elevates, the incidents of war, suffering, ignorance, savaging, and disease diminish. When you advance yourself, you are helping everyone and everything. Appreciate that every step forward benefits everyone. In a holographic universe, the achievements of every individual contribute to the advancement and well-being of the whole.