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Post by Mysti on Jul 7, 2007 14:46:22 GMT -5
2. FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL PATH
THE INNER CALL
The Inner Call
If you find within yourself a sort of inner grieving, a silent inner crying, a feeling that you are not-of-this-world, that this world is not your home and not where you belong, then you are being called to find and set forth on your own special spiritual path. Some few of us are more fortunate than others: We know that we have a spiritual path; we have a fair, even a clear perception of what that path is; and we have already set forth on the path that calls us. But for many–for most of us, alas–we do not know what our own unique spiritual path is, we may not even recognize that we are being called to a spiritual path.
When I was teaching college courses in Philosophy and in Comparative Religions, each semester I would ask a question of the students in my introductory classes. I would ask how many of them felt an inner crying or a sadness that did not seem to have any particular reason for being there, nor could the student see any particular way of satisfying this inner anguish. And, then I would ask how many students had the feeling that they felt out-of-place, that they didn’t really belong to this world, that this world of everyday experience did not seem to be their right place to be, that this is the world to which they truly belonged. About a third of the students in my classes would raise their hands in answer to these questions. This discomfort, this unhappiness, this inner grieving, is symptomatic of the inner self’s need to find and start upon its spiritual path.
<DIR> <DIR> For many a young person, this inner anguish, the spiritual confusion coupled with that the feeling of being lost in an uncaring, unresponsive world, the feelings of being somehow in the wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong world, become emotional conditions that are overwhelming. The young person tries to escape from the anguish rather than recognizing its true meaning and purpose. Plunging into drugs and into unwholesome sexual activities seems to block out or cover up one’s sensitivity to that inner spiritual anguish to some degree and for a time–enough, at least, so that the young person can find some temporary alleviation to his distress.
</DIR></DIR> I suspect that many teenage suicides are the result of these young people finding unbearable conflicts between the rigid religious training they have received as children and the inner call to a spiritual path which is not in harmony with that
early religious training. It is certainly the case that many young people do find it necessary to leave their homes and sever their relationships with their families because of their recognition of a spiritual call that does not fit well with their family’s religious perspective.
YOUR SPIRITUAL PATH
Finding Your Spiritual Path
Finding one's true inner path is often difficult, very difficult. There are so many teachers and gurus that will say "this is the path for you." And, then the teacher gives you what is and has been his path–the path that works for him. I, personally, went through many, many years during which I sought out various spiritual teachers and gurus. Then, gradually, I became aware that none of these teachers was giving me the direction, training and teaching that I needed in order to follow that particular spiritual path which would bring fulfillment to me, the spiritual path that my own soul craved to follow.
There are those, particularly New Age children (often referred to as "the Indigo Children," "the Crystal Children," "the Rainbow Children,"or "the White Buffalo Children") and those who are characterized as "old souls," who seem to come into this world with the clear conscious knowledge of what their true spiritual path should be. It may well be that all who come into this world are born with the knowledge of what their spiritual path is or should be. But, the various churches and religious dispensations have told you that their direction is "the true way" based on the founder’s idea of spirituality and on the evolving dogmas of that church. They not only urge and encourage you to follow their doctrines but frequently claim theirs is the only way. Then too, there are so many different spiritual teachers, each teaching you how to find a spiritual life following some specific formula. The seeker can only become more and more confused, more and more lost from the direction his own inner self would have him take. The "inner knowing" has become lost, buried. And, the teaching and the training we receive as children from those parents, teachers and others who have only limited spiritual insight, have only served to further confuse and obscure the mind from the life path chosen before we entered the physical world.
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Post by Mysti on Jul 7, 2007 14:46:52 GMT -5
Clues to Finding Your Path
However, there are many clues that will help you find your true spiritual path, the path you intended when you came into this world. Here are some methods and ways for you to begin your search for your particular spiritual path.
A good start is to look back into childhood and see what interests you had at that time. That knowledge of the Spiritual Path you have chosen, the path that is true to your beingness, is often still quite close to the surface in early childhood. When the other kids wanted to play Cowboys and Indians, what did you want to play or do instead? There will be in your early life some interests that you can find no good reasons to explain.
There are often clues to your true path which come from childhood interests and child play. It is fairly apparent that if a child plays as priest during childhood, his true path may be to become a priest. Many paths are not really what a child can play at, so it might be your reading interests or the pictures that you collected or some similar clues. In this New Age, many children not only come in knowing what their spiritual path is but are able to retain that knowledge throughout childhood and into their adult lives. There are many children being born today into nearly every spiritual path, bringing with them with incredible skills and amazing psychic gifts which they are able to retain and develop as they grow into adulthood. But, for most of us, alas, the training and teaching we have received from well intentioned, but spiritually unenlightened teachers, councillors, clergy, etc., even from our parents, have covered our true path with all sorts of garbage that we have to burrow through in order to get to the true path buried deep within.
In your later life, you might be much taken by Celtic designs and patterns or by American Indian motifs. You might be drawn to pictures of the Hindu gods or have a carved Buddha in your bedroom or on your mantel.
In discussing childhood revelations of the spiritual calling, one seeker on the path of spiritual healing said: "As a child, I was the one who seemed to take care of everyone if they were shot or fell. I had my own space set up with poultices and all."Another on the healing path commented: "Yeah, me too. I always felt for the injured or sick or whatever."Another, drawn to the old goddess religion, said: " I was always the queen, or the star or the princess."
But we can start with any clues–perhaps, to games we played as children. When a kid, did you want to play wizard when other kids wanted to play Cowboys and Indians? Or, maybe you played being a witch or a wise person, an Indian Medicine Person, or whatever. Or you played, with serious intent, doctor or nurse. The doctor or nurse play role may mean you are destined to be a healer–of spirit as well as body, not necessarily that your path is to become a medical doctor or a nurse. Or, perhaps, you nursed animals. Anyway, these are all clues for you to look at in meditation as you seek to uncover what your true spiritual path is.
Now, these are just examples. Don’t run out and say, on the basis of these activities, or on the basis of some childhood interests: " I'm a healer" or "I’m a Shaman" or ‘I’m into goddess worship and the old religions." You will have to find and validate your inner path yourself by looking into your inner being. What you did, or what your interests in childhood were, are only clues. Here, we are only suggesting methods and ways for you
to find that inner calling. Now, I will suggest that you use meditation to find that inner path. We will take up meditation techniques in a later lesson.
Now you will already have clues. You might keep in the background of your mind any unusual interests you had as a child, interests that you don't have a good reason for as an adult. Perhaps, a "picture story" will unfold before your mind’s eye while you are in the meditative state. For those who accept reincarnation, we can say it is a recalling of a past life. For those not into reincarnation, we can say the story unfolding is just a guide to your inner spiritual path. You may come out of the meditation thinking: "Oh my path is that of an American Indian Medicine Person," or you might feel that your path is that of a Buddhist Monk, or that of whatever it turns out to be. Now, it is time to test your feelings. For those who recall past lives, very often the past lives that you recall are the pointers to your spiritual vocation in this life. For those of you who already have the ability to converse with spiritual guides or with your own angels, you can ask them. But the truth of your own being and of your path is very much inside you and requires your validation of its correctness.
Validating Your Spiritual Path
Now how can you go about recognizing your own true spiritual path?
First: You must set aside all the teachings you have received from clergy, from psychic consultants, from spiritual teachers and the like–at least for the moment.
Second: You will find, you will realize and accept, even enjoy the disciplines required for your path. Yes, every path requires self-discipline.
Third: You will feel drawn to read, study, find out all you can about this path. It might be the path of the Druid. Then you will want to read all you can about Druids; the interest has probably been there from childhood. If it is the path of the American Indian Medicine Person then you will be reading about American Indian Medicine practices–since that will come to mind first. Sometimes you will find a path that seems to fit. It might be that of the American Indian. But you might be really called to Celtic Shamanism which closely parallels the American Indian Medicine Path. So you will discover that American Indian Medicine doesn’t quite fit, but the Celtic Shaman’s path does.
Fourth: Then the most important test. You will love what you do and you will do what you love. It might be that you enjoy creating spiritual paintings to encourage and help others. Maybe it will be sand paintings, if you lean toward the American Indian path. When you are walking your own true path, your only inner pain will be that you are not running up that path. The Universal Reality (whether you call it God or Buddha or something else) wants you to be happy, to enjoy the path and to enjoy the work you are called to.
I have to smile at some disciplines. A Catholic order of nuns that I am aware of followed the rule of putting each nun to the tasks she least liked to do– doing what she least liked to do, presumably in order that she learn humility and obedience. There was no recognition of what that nun may be called inwardly to do. Nuns who were natural healers were made to be cooks while those who were teachers and those who loved to care for children were often required to be nurses for the elderly.
Fifth: And also very important, you will find that you can easily become non-attached to the results. If you are a painter of spiritual pictures, you won't care or worry about whether they will sell or not. Your interest and focus is in the doing, not the outcome. If your call is to be a healer, you won't have emotional ties to those you work on. Your life, your soul, finds its fulfillment in the doing, not in the outcome.
Sixth: Whatever path you are called to, it will in some way involve helping others, both in your earthly job and in your spiritual life as well.
<DIR> <DIR> The leader of an esoteric order in New Zealand found his own true earthly work to be in providing low-cost financing for those who wanted to own their own homes, something that had been unavailable to middle and lower economic classes in New Zealand before he started his savings and loan business.
</DIR></DIR> So those are six principles to help you determine which path is your true path. Note that your spiritual path and your earthly working path may seem to be quite different in nature. But, if both your earth-plane job and your own inner path disciplines do not embrace giving help and assistance to others to some extent at least, you will not be happy. If you are not happy, then you are not on your true spiritual path. When you start on your true inner path, you will know inwardly that it is your true path. There will be no real doubts about it. You may find, unfortunately, that those who are not on a truly spiritual path–even church clergy and well-intentioned friends–will tell you that you are wrong. So, it is important that you have that inward knowingness.
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Post by Mysti on Jul 7, 2007 14:47:23 GMT -5
THE ISSUE OF REINCARNATION
Reincarnation is a theory which seems to be philosophically and scientifically impossible to validate or invalidate.
<DIR> <DIR> Consider that you have an old computer with a self-evolving software program, say a word processing program. Now you take that program off the old computer and put it on a new computer. Maybe someone has made a few copies of it and they have put that same program on still other computers. Maybe this program has to be "tweaked" or rewritten for that new Pentium 1000 Central Processing Unit in your new computer. Now, if you liken the software program to a soul and the computer to a physical body, would you say that the program has reincarnated in a new body?
</DIR></DIR> We tie personal identity to continuity of an object’s physical existence. Something continues to be the same thing if we, at least in theory, can trace it and locate it moment by moment throughout its physical existence. Consider a battleship which the Navy has upgraded and repaired and rebuilt over the years, piece-by-piece, until no part of the ship remains that was originally there–from the total replacement of the ship’s metal-plating and hull to the ship’s screws and engines. At one time or another, every single part of the ship has been replaced. Is this still the same ship? It still has the same name, the same identity. In the very understanding of reincarnation, we lose the very element that we need to establish physical continuity–a physical body. Perhaps the body, over time, replaces every cell in its body, but nevertheless it remains a physical body that has a continuous existence and a continuing identity. By "continuous existence" I mean that at every given instant during its life, that body can be located (at least in theory) in some specific place or locale.
I am not sure about reincarnation. As it stands, reincarnation theory needs lots of qualifications. But, there do seem to be some genuine stories and experiences that are difficult to explain without reincarnation theory.
THE BIG SECRET
God or the Universal Source (or, however you see it) really wants us to enjoy His creation, His world. He wants us to be happy and joyful as we follow our spiritual callings. But so many "isms" think you should sit on tacks or flagellate yourself or suffer and endure all sorts of hardships.
A student commented: "Specially [the issues] of ‘Who we are?’ and ‘Why are we here?’ I guess I am saying that because it was through meditation that I found out ‘Who I am’ and ‘Why I am here.’ It’s just my experience, though each has to find their own way. I found the divine spark within me. and then I found the
divine...and love so incredible that it made me so, for me...meditation was worth it. The divine spark is in each of us and part of the spiritual quest is to find our own individual spark."
<DIR> <DIR> Another student asked of me: "Can we ask what you found [in meditation]? Who we are?" I replied: "Well I'll go out on a limb here. I'm not a believer in returning to the source to be reabsorbed into God, or into the One. I think that it's absolutely wonderful to have individuality and to have the ego as a tool. Like Sri Ramakrishna, a great yogi of India, I'd rather taste the sugar than be it. I am not keen on becoming just a single drop of water in the ocean of bliss. But more than that, I have read books by some astral travelers who tell of other dimensions, of new and exciting worlds that go on and on. I'd like to see, experience all of that. So, I guess I do, at the least, hope that there is some truth to the concept of reincarnation–or, at least, to the theory of continuing survival of consciousness after death.
</DIR></DIR> Once you discover your true path and set yourself to your true quest, you will still experience inner pain from time to time. But now, the cause of the inner grief and pain will be known and obvious. It will be because you are not developing inwardly and spiritually as quickly as your heart and mind and soul would have you evolve. There will be dry times–"the dark night of the soul"–when you feel you have made no real progress. There will be times when your progress moves so slowly that you will feel quite discouraged. But, there will be moments of elation as well– times when you know you are where you should be and that you are doing what you should be doing. It is better, I think, to know why the tears fall, then to live with that desperate inner grieving that seems to have no root, no cause, no purpose.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
1. Look at the interests and patterns in your life. During the week, try to recognize any unusual interests that you have had over the years, from early childhood to the present. Are there conventional reasons why you have these interests? Jot these images and thoughts down in your journal.
If your father collected coins and you collect stamps, it was probably an effort to emulate your father. But, if you liked to collect Indian artifacts, it might indicate a link to the American Indian traditions and a clue to your own personal spiritual path. What sort of stories did you like to read? If you read about Egyptology and no one else in your family was interested in ancient civilizations, it could indicate a link to Egyptian religious beliefs. Do you like Aztec paintings or artifacts? Where did you like to go? If you liked amusement parks and went to Disneyland or Six Flags what sort of rides did you like? What exhibits in the museums have attracted you? Do certain animals attract you, like horses or kangaroos–and no one else in your circles of friends or family has any such interest? Do you dream about unusual places or activities?
2. Now is a good time to start your Spiritual Journal, if you haven’t already. An inexpensive school type spiral bound binder will be totally adequate for your journal. Answer the questions listed above, add any other questions you might have, and record any thoughts, answers, and other impressions that may have come to you in dreams and meditations; and, as well, include those ideas and impressions that rise more or less spontaneously. Try to make some entry every day about your spiritual quest. If you check, you will find that almost all of the great respected minds of history kept personal journals or diaries. If you begin to write down your dreams, you will develop the ability to remember them in great detail.
SUGGESTED READING:
Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi. Very easy and entertaining reading.
Available in paperback for about $6.00.
Ted Andrews, How to Uncover Your Past Lives. $4.99 Paperback.
Copyright © 2003 Quinten Lance Corbenic
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