This is a highly controversial topic, but ….
I’m no longer talking about the mistakes, programming, conditioning and formatting that the system has imposed on people over the past millennials. But one result these aberrations of consciousness has created in many people, especially in Western nations, is an innate distrust of spiritual authorities.
In the nations of the East, immense importance and respect is given to those who have achieved spiritual or religious mastery. There is an understanding that the path to realization must include devotion to those who have walked the path and achieved liberation before us. For these traditions, there can be no salvation without a master to show the way. Hence the title Lama, Guru, Master, Guide, etc. In indigenous nations, it is the title of spiritual elder and the importance given to ancestors that serves as a path to the ultimate levels of spiritual evolution. The respect given to elders in general among the First Peoples is tremendous in comparison to the nations of the degenerate West.
There must be a path, a signpost, an example, a role model, i.e. traces on the path, demonstrations in daily life of those who have dedicated their lives to spirituality and have achieved realization. Since there has been in the West much persecution of spiritual masters over the millennia, and even among certain peoples in the East, there are few traditions left in the West that allow us to understand what devotion to a spiritual guide brings. What’s more, in a world dominated by technology, people often have no spirituality at all and view anyone who does with great suspicion or skepticism. As a result, the few who persevere on the narrow path to realization and enlightenment receive little support and even face persecution. Only the degenerate peoples of the West would crucify their greatest spiritual master!
Yet this principle, so much a part of Buddhism and Hinduism, and so close to the hearts of all primitive (indigenous) peoples, is of vital importance! First, masters are not like other people, and their behavior can often seem incomprehensible. In a society where there is respect for spiritual leaders, this is accepted. In today’s world, however, there is often judgment, discrimination and persecution. To walk the path you need a teacher, a master, as in all disciplines of human experience. Only when we speak of spirituality we do evoke the ultimate culmination of human evolution, the state of being where the limitations of the physical body no longer exist in the same way. Even death is no longer inevitable, as many initiates in all the great traditions have demonstrated.
We need to rediscover respect for our elders and devotion to those who have gone before us on the spiritual path. For the path to realization is very narrow. How can we find our way without a guide in our reality, here in the physical world? We can’t. We need those who can show us the way, and they are rare and already somewhat removed from our conditioned reality. To receive the message they carry, we must prepare the sacred space in which they can transmit it. This sacred space requires, among other things, what is called respect and devotion.
There’s much more to be said on this important and little-known subject. I’ll see you next week to continue this article.
Have a great weekend!