Reclaiming Your Inner Power

Zen-Haven March 22 2013

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Twenty-five thousand people were attracted to my spiritual teacher over the few years that he taught, and at each level of progress, the teachings and disciplines got harder and harder.

After a period of about three years, almost everyone had dropped out; near the end, there were only 72 people left – one of which was yours truly. Eventually there were only three of us left. It was that tough.

The disciplines imposed by our teacher were difficult because they required you to be extremely spontaneous. So my teacher would phone and say, “There is a meeting next Wednesday evening in southern Spain at seven o’clock. Be there!”

There was no question of: could you afford the travel expenses, get the time off work, were you happy with the idea, or was it convenient for you? It was a matter of “be there”! If you were even one minute late for a meeting, you got tossed out forever. There were no ifs, buts, or maybes; we were cut no slack.

I remember a session that was held in California, at Big Sur. The meeting was called for six in the morning. A number of us flew from London, including two South African friends of mine. We got to the hotel the day before and checked in. My pals were up early next morning and decided to go for a little walk before the meeting started. They arrived back at the meeting room at three minutes past six.

They were not allowed to enter – in spite of the fact that they had flown all the way from London. That was the last I saw of them – on that particular path anyway.

What I learned from those experiences was that spiritual growth and the getting of a higher awareness is not necessarily convenient. That’s why most never make it. They want to reach a higher place from within the considerations of the ego and its limited consciousness – which often defines life into self-righteous, cozy little boxes, creating a self-indulgent energy that has the potential of a slug in a puddle.

The ego likes little boxes it is familiar with. But when considering an infinite consciousness, the first thing you have to do is burn the boxes. Lao-Tzu talks about it in the first few lines of the Tao Te Ching – when talking about the Infinite Self, the Christ consciousness, the God Force, the Tao, the Buddhahood, whatever you care to call it – is that it runs through all things, its everywhere, so it has no definitions.

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