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RIGHTATTITUDEANDALIGNMENT

‘How near the truth yet how farwe seek.’Hakuin

‘Thewise understand the ignorant, for theywere themselvesonce ignorant. But the ignorant donot understandeitherthemselves or thewise, never having beenwise themselves.’

Sufi saying

PreparationandAspiration

Successfully navigating the spiritual path, with all its challenges andperils, beginswith posi-tive intention and noble aspiration. Rumi: “The intentiongives birth to the act.” And, aspira-tionmust be accompanied by capacity on the part of the seeker andguidance by a teacher inorder for potentiality to become actualized as self-realizationandenlightenment.

If themotive of the aspirant is anhonest search forwisdomand truth then this provides theproper psychological attitude and foundation to begin the journey to self-realization. However,the decision to embark on inner transformation shouldnot be taken lightly:

Think very seriously before youdecide towork onyourself with the idea of chang-ing yourself, that is, to work with the definite aimtobecome conscious and to de-velop the connectionwithhigher centers. Thiswork admits of no compromise andit requires a great amount of self-discipline and readiness to obey all rules and par-ticularly direct instructions. Think very seriously: are you really ready andwillingto obey, anddo you fully understand the necessity for it? There is no going back.If youagree and thengoback, youwill lose everything that youhave acquiredupto that time, and youwill losemore really, because all that youacquiredwill turninto somethingwrong in you. There is no remedy against this. (1)

The road to self-knowledge requires clarity, maturity of heart andmindand, above all,sincerity and earnestness. “Some people aremore earnest and some are less. Youmay chooseany way that suits you; your earnestnesswill determine the rate of progress. Compassion, foroneself and others, is the foundation of earnestness.”

If youare truly earnest andhonest, the attainment of reality will be yours. As aliving being youare caught in an untenable and painful situationand youare seek-ing away out. Youare being offered several plans of your prison, none quite true.But they are all of some value, only if youare indeadearnest. It is the earnestnessthat liberates andnot the theory.

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Q: Theorymay bemisleading andearnestness -- blind.

A: Your sincerity will guide you. Devotion to the goal of freedomand perfectionwill make youabandon all theories and systems and live by wisdom, intelligenceandactive love. Theoriesmay be goodas starting points, but must be abandoned,the sooner – the better. Whatever name yougive it: will, or steady purpose, orone-pointedness of themind, you come back to earnestness, sincerity, honesty.Whenyouare in deadearnest, youbend every incident, every second of your lifeto your purpose. Youdonot waste time andenergy on other things. Youare tot-ally dedicated, call it will, or love, or plainhonesty. We are complex beings, at warwithin andwithout. We contradict ourselves all the time, undoing today the workof yesterday. Nowonderwe are stuck. A little bit of integrity wouldmake a lot ofdifference. (2)

Anhonest inquiry into the workings of ourmind, emotions and perceptions, without precon-ceptions or judgments, is essential to gaining psychological insight and self-knowledge. “Matu-rity comes from inquiring, inquiring about your life, yourmotives, your surroundings, your rela-tionships. Inquiringmeans questioning, seeing facts andquestioning the facts, without forcingananswer, without forcing a solution, only taking note.”

Q: You talked about ripeness. How canwe ripen?

A: Ripening comes through inquiring, inquiring into your life, your feelings, yourthinking, your relationshipswith your husband, with your children, and so on. In-quiringmeans that you are completely open. Whenyou inquire, when youquest-ion, never force ananswer, because the right attitude in asking a question is theanswer. Sowhenyou inquire into your life the attitudemust be: I amopen to not-knowing, and fromthis opening to not-knowing comes the answer. The answer isona completely different plane fromthe question.

Q: What is functional acceptance?

A: Functional acceptance is seeing facts. Themoment you try to interpret them,justify ormanipulate them, youare not really accepting them. When you see factsfromyour globality, there iswelcoming without choice. When you look fromtheego, there is psychological acceptance, which is not acceptance. In real acceptancethere is nopersonalmanipulation. (3)

The ability to learn beginswith right attitude and right conduct. Higher knowledge andunderstanding has to be earned in accordance withone’s capacity and innerworth. Certainpractices, when followed in a specific order, help shape the student’s inner development. Inthe Sufi dispensation this sequence of psychological exercises is knownas Sabr (patience),Taubat (repentance) andKhidmat (service). Similar spiritual postures of ordered developmentare found in other traditions.

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Appropriate actionand conduct in the world does not automatically determine spiritual pro-gress but it does enhance harmonizationwith higher levels of reality. “It is possible to achievethe alignment of thought andactionwhich correspondswith the Ultimate Truth by the applica-tion in the right manner of order, discipline and service. The capacity for order, discipline andservice is the basis for discharging the terms of the injunction: Be in theworld, but not of theworld.”

Among the Sufis, as among those of other paths, it has always been required thatthe intending participant practise certain requirements to fit himor her for higherlearning. Inmodern societies, equivalent andoften exactly similar prerequisitesare found. Because somany familiar institutionswith clearly laid out requirementsalready exist in contemporary cultures, it should be easier, not more difficult, forpeople to understand, given real desire, the requirements. These include: humility,dedication, abstinence, restraint, obedience. Unless youexercise these ‘virtues,’youwill get nowhere in banking, the army, medicine, politics, human service oranywhere else inmany forms ofmundane endeavour . . . It is no accident that Sufisfind that they can connect most constructively withpeople whoare well integratedinto the world, aswell as having higher aims, and that those whoadopt a sensibleattitude toward society and life as generally known canusually absorb Sufi teachingsvery well indeed. (4)

Positive qualities such as generosity, honesty, compassionand discipline will naturallyemerge when lesser attributes and behaviours are clearly observedandmodified. The Sufimaster Ansari notes four “traps” that must be overcome inorder for people to advance on thePath: “Ingratitude in good fortune, impatience in ill fortune, discontent with their lot, hesita-tion in serving their fellows.”

The initial step in preparing the way for amore spiritually sensitive approach to life is to ack-nowledge the presence and impact of fixed, conditioned psychological andbehavioural pat-terns. One of the biggest barriers to inner development, and one of the hardest to eradicate, isexcessive self-absorptionand feelings of self-importance. Another relateddisabling anddis-torting element in the learning process is greed. “Greedmakes youbelieve things youwouldnot normally believe. It makes youdisbelieve things you should ordinarily believe. If you can-not overcome greed, exercise it only where you can see it working, donot bring it into the circleof the wise.”

The essence of the Sufi operation’s success is to give, rather than towant to get,to serve, rather than to be served. Althoughalmost all cultures pay lip-service tothis as an ideal, the failure really to operate it means that themental, the psycho-logical, posture which unlocks the greater capacity of the consciousness is notachievedwhere this element is lacking, and sopeople do not learn. You can’tcheat in this game. It is often considereda paradox, especially by people whowantto get something and to rationalize their greedas, at least, laudable ambition, thatwhen the ambition is suspendedanything canbe gained. The easiest way of deal-

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ing with this is to affirm, with relative truth, that since people customarily wanttoomuch, the non-ambitious posture is a corrective, whichenables themto be justambitious enoughandnot too greedy; focusing theirmind to operate correctly inthis respect. Sufi mentors are only too well aware of the underlying greedandhowandwhy it must be assuaged. (5)

One of themost commonexpressions of greed is impatience to progress quickly on the pathto self-realization. Many seekers attempt to start far beyond their actual state of raw, undeve-loped potentiality and feel that they are entitled to advanced studieswithout first completingthe preparatory stages.

Self-deceptionand imagination present further obstacles to the actualizationand refinementof our spiritual nature: “Perceptions of another kindof being, when not accompaniedby cor-rect preparation, canbemore harmful than a lifetimewithout any suchperception. This is be-cause unprepared peoplemisinterpret their experiences and cash in on themat a low level. Anexample iswhenpeople imagine that some true but minor ‘sign’ gives theman importance or adivine contact or character. Suchpeople are already almost lost, even if their repute rises tothe heavens.” Authentic schools of inner development are pragmatic andbased on realisticpossibilities, not fantasy and imagination:

We are not dealing inpromises and imagination; we are operating anenterprise.Although it is not romantic to talk in thisway, (andmost people demandas their‘price’ for giving attention, some degree of romanticismand imagination) we areinterested in the results, and let other people be interested in fantasies. Thereare plenty of people whoare emotionally-minded. Wemust be serious. Andwemust also remember that many people are, effectively, asleep, dreaming romanticdreams. These people will always oppose this approach, dislike it, as they alwayshave, andwe are spoiling their amusement: or interrupting their dream. They willnot, however, realise that this is their condition, and they will therefore opposethese ideas, as always, on other grounds. This helps the cause of sleep, and there-fore it is important for us to remain calm, and to recognize the disease. Whenapersonhas a disease, you do not attack him, but neither do youworry about allthat he is saying. (6)

Inorder to learnanddevelop the student must turnaway frommaladaptive behaviour pat-terns and livemore in harmony with spiritual values and sensitivities. One of the ways to dothis is through the practice of selfless service without expectation of gain or reward. A strongmoral compass also supports real inner growth, but it must be based onconscious choice ratherthanmechanical performance ofmoral injunctions. Gurdjieff: “People are very fond of talkingabout morality. But morality ismerely self-suggestion. What is necessary is conscience. We donot teachmorality. We teachhow to find conscience.”

Inmost religious and spiritual traditions ethical behaviour is seenas the foundationandsupport of all furthermethods andpractices, and a precondition to self-realization. The effort

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to observe precepts andmoral codes also develops self-discipline and self-control and changesthe way we relate to the world: “One’s life situation is the consequence of one’s ownactions,arising fromour thoughts, speechandemotions, whetherwe are aware of themeaning of goodandbad or not. These actions echowithin us and influence our personality. Whenour funda-mental attitudes change, our circumstances likewise change.”

The Buddha’s precepts provide excellent guidelines: (1) not to kill but to cherishall life; (2) not to take what is not givenbut to respect the things of others; (3) notto engage in improper sexuality but to practice purity ofmindand self-restraint;(4) not to lie but to speak the truth; (5) not to cause others to use liquors or drugsthat confuse themind, nor to do sooneself, but to keep themind clear; (6) not tospeak of the shortcomings of others but to be understanding and sympathetic;(7) not to praise oneself and condemnothers but to overcome one’s own short-comings; (8) not towithhold spiritual ormaterial aid but to give it freely whereneeded; (9) not to become angry but to exercise control. (7)

Effort andDiscipline

In everyday life a certain amount of discipline is required, as ameans to an end, to accomp-lish a goal, pass anexamor learn a skill. The discipline can be imposedexternally or emergefromwithin as self-discipline. In a similar fashion, in order to progress on the spiritual journey,discipline must be exercised at certain stages of the path. Idries Shah: “Good discipline is apart of study, and exists for carrying out study: because it is the undisciplined, not the disci-plined, whoover-studies, andwho amasses informationwhichhe cannot really digest in all itslevels. Discipline also enables a person to focus onand off study, and to refrain from it when itis not indicated for the improvement of his higher states.”

In the Traditiona person is required to follow the discipline of the Tradition, andby doing so, disciplining themselves and obeying the order of the teacher of thetime. Thewhole concept of this discipline is a self-imposed one. After all, peoplecome into the Tradition freely, stay in freely, and they can leave if they sowish.But while they are in, they obey the instructions or discipline and impose a disci-pline upon themselves . . . If a person ismentally and physically prepared to dis-cipline themselves, then they can judge towhat degree they canassimilate anduse this discipline in a correct way. (8)

At a certainpoint, however, disciplinemust be transmuted into conscious attention and dis-cernment without any sense of effort or compulsion. JeanKlein speaks to this point: “Even inthe course of the technique knownas ‘letting-go,’ a faint shadow of discipline is implied, forletting goof anobject implies a certain discipline. Only an effortless and choiceless reaction isthe hallmark of liberation.”

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Q: Would you please say something about discipline?

A: A disciplinedmind is never a freemindand cannever act spontaneously. Adisciplinedmind looks for results or for a profit. Do not confuse what we call“attention” with “discipline.” Attention is open, it is not directed, it ismultidi-mensional. It is not the discipline of “being attentive to” something as is sooftenproposed. Youdo not needdiscipline whenyou really love something.But youmay need a certain rhythm. In the yearwe have the four seasonswhichappear according to a rhythm. All your cells, all the composition of your body,ask for rhythm. Sodiscover the rhythm. (9)

Some teachings place great emphasis on the need for an inner struggle between two forces:anactive, developmental impulse anda passive resisting power that does not want to change.This great metaphysical struggle is sometimes allegorized as the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ inwhich the seeker confronts the “demons” which prevent real spiritual growth. It is the crucibleof fire or struggle which burns away the lower self so that our true nature can shine. “The pas-sage is strewnwith thistles andbrambles, and the climb is slippery in the extreme. It is nopastime but themost serious task in life; no idlers will ever dare attempt it. It is indeed amoralanvil onwhich your character is hammered and hammered. To the question, ‘What is Zen?’ amaster gave this answer: ‘Boiling oil over a blazing fire.’ This scorching experience we have togo throughwithbefore Zen smiles onus and says, ‘Here is your home’.” Gurdjieff describedthis process in striking terms:

Fusion, inner unity, is obtained bymeans of ‘friction,’ by the struggle between ‘yes’and ‘no’ inman. If aman liveswithout inner struggle, if everything happens inhimwithout opposition, if he goeswherever he is drawnorwherever the wind blows,he will remain such as he is. But if a struggle begins inhim, and particularly if thereis a definite line in this struggle, then, gradually, permanent traits begin to formthemselves, he begins to ‘crystallize.’ But crystallization is possible ona right found-ationand it is possible onawrong foundation. ‘Friction,’ the struggle between ‘yes’and ‘no,’ caneasily take place on awrong foundation. For instance, a fanatical be-lief in some or other idea, or the ‘fear of sin,’ canevoke a terribly intense strugglebetween ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ andamanmay crystallize on these foundations. But thiswould be awrong, incomplete crystallization. Suchamanwill not possess the pos-sibility of further development. Inorder tomake further development possible hemust bemelteddown again, and this canbe accomplishedonly through terriblesuffering. (10)

When viewed froma higher, more panoramic perspective the difficulties and challenges oflife are seenas ‘gifts’ which act as ‘polishing stones’ to refine the humanessence:

In a sense, our path is no path. The object is not to get somewhere. There is nogreat mystery, really; what we need to do is straightforward. I don’t mean thatit is easy; the “path” of practice is not a smooth road. It is litteredwith sharp

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rocks that canmake us stumble or that can cut right throughour shoes. Life it-self is hazardous . . . The pathof life seems to bemostly difficulties, things thatgive trouble. Yet the longerwe practice, themorewe begin to understand thatthose sharp rocks on the roadare in fact like precious jewels; they helpus to pre-pare the proper conditions for our lives. The rocks are different for each person.The sharp rockmight beworkingwith a nasty personor living with somebody whois hard to get alongwith. The sharp rocksmight be your children, your parents,anyone. Not feeling well couldbe your sharp rock. Losing your job could be it, orgetting a new jobandworrying about it. There are sharp rocks everywhere. Whatchanges fromyears of practice is coming to know something youdidn’t know be-fore: that there are no sharp rocks – the road is coveredwithdiamonds. (11)

The pursuit of self-knowledge demands a certain intensity of effort, steady determinationandpersistence to overcome obstacles. In the words of RamanaMaharshi: “No one succeedswithout effort. Self-realization is not one’s birthright. The successful few owe their success totheir perseverance.” In esoteric schools the greater the effort made on the part of the student,the greater the subsequent demands required by the teacher:

Every effort amanmakes increases the demandsmade uponhim. So long as amanhas not made any serious efforts the demandsmade upon himare verysmall, but his efforts immediately increase the demandsmade uponhim. Andthe greater the efforts that aremade, the greater the new demands. At this stagepeople very oftenmake amistake that is constantly made. They think that theefforts they have previouslymade, their formermerits, so to speak, give themsome kind of rights or advantages, diminish the demands to bemade upon them,and constitute as it were anexcuse . . . Nothing that amandid yesterday excuseshimtoday. Quite the reverse, if amandidnothing yesterday, nodemands aremade uponhimtoday; if he did anything yesterday, it means that hemust domoretoday. This certainly does not mean that it is better to do nothing. Whoever doesnothing receives nothing. (12)

Gurdjieff coined the term“super-effort” to describe efforts on the part of the student thatgo far beyondwhat is normally required. “Vast efforts, tremendous labors, are needed to comeinto possessionof the wings onwhich it is possible to rise. Theway is hard, the ascent becomesincreasingly steeper as it goes on, but one’s strengthalso increases. Amanbecomes temperedandwith eachascending stephis view growswider.” Gurdjieff providedan arresting exampleto illustrate this exceptional effort:

It means aneffort beyond the effort that is necessary to achieve a given purpose.Imagine that Ihave beenwalking all day andamvery tired. The weather is bad, itis raining and cold. In the evening I arrive home. Ihave walked, perhaps, twenty-fivemiles. In the house there is supper; it is warmandpleasant. But, insteadofsitting down to supper, I go out into the rain again and decide towalk another twomiles along the roadand then return home. Thiswould be a super-effort. While

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Iwas going home it was simply aneffort and this does not count. Iwas onmywayhome, the cold, hunger, the rain – all thismademewalk. In the other case Iwalkbecause Imyself decide to do so. This kindof super-effort becomes still more dif-ficult when Idonot decide upon it myself but obey a teacherwhoat an unexpectedmoment requires fromme tomake fresheffortswhen Ihave decided that effortsfor the day are over. (13)

The energy andeffort expended inone’s spiritual search canalso be carriedover andappliedto everyday life:

A jewel of great price is never a giveaway. Wemust earn it, with steady, unrelent-ing practice. Wemust earn it in eachmoment, not just in the “spiritual side” of ourlife. Howwe keepour obligations to others, howwe serve others, whetherwemake the effort of attention that is called for eachmoment of our life – all of thisis paying the price for the jewel. I’m talking about earning the integrity andwhole-ness of our lives by every act we do, every wordwe say. Fromthe ordinary point ofview, the price wemust pay is enormous – though seen clearly, it is no price at all,but a privilege. As our practice growswe comprehend this privilegemore andmore.(14)

Effort by itself is a formof raw energy. When dedicated to laudable goals it is a positiveforce, but whenmisdirected it can be counterproductive andevenanagent of destruction. Toomucheffort, or effort applied at the wrong time, canactually delay spiritual development. Thewife of the Indian saint Ramakrishna admonished his disciples for their excessive zeal, compar-ing themtomangoes ona tree whichare pickedbefore they are ripe: “Why hurry? Wait untilyouare fully ripe, mellow and sweet.” Sri NisargadattaMaharaj recommendeda balance be-tweeneffort andnon-effort: “Wheneffort is needed, effort will appear. Wheneffortlessnessbecomes essential, it will assert itself. Youneed not push life about. Just flow with it andgiveyourself completely to the task of the present moment.”

Striving for goals, achievement andend-gaining canensnare the aspirant in the anticipationof future rewardswhile disregarding the reality of now. “There is nothing to attain, nothing tofind. When youmake the slightest effort yougo away fromthe purity of the timeless reality.”

Any formof exercise is bound to a goal, to a result. But this is an obstacle whenthere is no goal to be reached since what youare looking for is here now and hasalways been. When themind is free fromall desire to become, it is at peace andattention spontaneously shifts fromthe object to the ultimate “subject,” a fore-taste of your real Self. Be vigilant, clear-sighted, aware of your constant desire tobe this or that and don’t make any effort . . . In this letting go of all trying, time nolonger exists, there is nomore expectation. In the absence of name and formwhat room is there for fear and insecurity? When there is no projection there isthe forefeeling of wholeness. (15)

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Effort implies tensionand striving as the seeker looks for a result, an accomplishment. Ithides our natural state of pure seeing and being: “Just be aware that youdon’t see. Becomemore aware that you constantly react. Seeing requires no effort because your nature is seeing,is being stillness. Themoment you’re not looking for a result, not looking to criticize, to evalu-ate or conclude, just looking, then you canperceive this reacting and you’re no longer anac-complice to it.”

Q: If wewant to learn the piano, we need to practice a lot before it becomes effort-less. If effort applies to limited objects, why shouldn’t it also apply to infinity?

A: Theword “effort” implies intention, the will to achieve some end. But this endis a projection fromthe past, frommemory, and sowemiss being present to themoment at hand. It may be accurate to speak of “right attention” in the sense ofunconditioned listening, but this attention is diametrically opposed to effort in thatit is entirely free fromdirection, motivationand projection. In right attention ourlistening is unconditioned; there is no image of a person to impede global hearing.It is not limited to the ear; the whole body hears. It’s entirely outside the subject-object relationship. (16)

InnerandOuter Support

Certain ‘psychological postures’ andbehavioural changes, when properly carried out underthe guidance of a teacher, prepare the ground for real learning and progress on the spiritualpath. These postures include obedience, respect, trust, faith, sacrifice and voluntary suffering.

Spiritual progress requires both obedience and gratitude on the part of the student. “If youcannot be obedient to your teacher, you cannot effectively learnanything. Obedience is part ofattention.”

Q: Why should a spiritualmaster be treatedwith respect?

A: Not for him, but for ourselves. It is the posture ofmindwhichaccompanies thefeeling of respect whichattunes us to the reality andbanishes self-satisfaction.Just aswhenpeople mourn the dead they are doing sobecause of themselves – thedead are unaffected by it – so, too, whenpeople are too self-centered they cannotlearn. They have to think of others asmore important than themselves. However,a balancedattitude is necessary. People sometimes become tooworshipping andthink toomuch of their spiritual teacher. (17)

Unless the student trusts the teacher no real learning is possible. “The humanbeing,whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something everymoment of the day.

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He trusts the floorboards not to collapse, the train not to crash, the surgeon not to kill him, andsoon.”

Sufis, traditionally, dwell among those whomthey teach, living good lives aspeople of probity, acting according to theirwords, fulfilling undertakings: untilthey have earneda sufficient degree of trust from those who come in contactwith them. According to the nature of the individuals amongwhomtheir lotis cast, this time put inby the Sufiswill vary. None of themcomplains if it ismeasured in decades – though thewould-be learnersmay complain. The lattermay lack patience whenonly thiswill overcome their suspiciousness. If theteacher does not dismiss them, they effectively dismiss themselves. One can-not learn fromsomeonewhomone distrusts. Yet plenty of people, again per-haps because of self-flattery, ‘follow’ those whomthey donot entirely trust. Tothe Sufi, such peoplemay be followers: they cannot, in that condition, be pupils.(18)

The apparent duality anddynamic tensionbetween faith anddoubt provides the energy tolead the seeker to the final goal of spiritual enlightenment:

Faith is neededbecause the experience of Zen is inconceivable to the ordinarymindand cannot evenbe imagined until it happens. Therefore faith in the naturalpossibility of enlightenment is necessary in order to take practical steps towardthe unknown. Doubt is unavoidable because the inconceivable nature of Zenen-lightenment necessarily keeps the seeker in a state of suspense, which is of indefi-nite durationand intensity. Without the first element of faith, this suspense ishumanly unendurable; combinedwith faith, it enables the individual to questionobjectively the circumscribed habits of feeling and thought towhich he or she tendsto returnagain andagain. According to Zen teaching, the inclination to becomeengrossed in subjective habits of thought and feeling is precisely what inhibits thehumanmind fromrealization of enlightenment. (19)

Trust and faith in the words of the teacher provide the foundation and support for spiritualdevelopment and realization of our true nature:

To beginwith, trust me, trust the Teacher. It enables you tomake the first step –and thenyour trust is justifiedby your ownexperience. In every walk of life initialtrust is essential; without it little canbe done. Every undertaking is anact of faith.Even your daily bread youeat on trust! By rememberingwhat I told youyouwillachieve everything. I amtelling youagain. You are the all-pervading, all transcend-ing reality. Behave accordingly: think, feel andact in harmony with the whole andthe actual experience of what I say will dawnupon you in no time. No effort isneeded. Have faith andact on it. Please see that Iwant nothing fromyou. It is inyour own interest that I speak, because above all you love yourself, youwant your-self secure andhappy. Don’t be ashamedof it, don’t deny it. It is natural and good

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to love oneself. Only you should know what exactly do you love. It is not the bodythat you love, it is Life – perceiving, feeling, thinking, doing, loving, striving, creating.It is that Life you love, andwhich is you, which is all. Realize it in its totality, beyondall divisions and limitations, andall your desireswill emerge in it, for the greater con-tains the smaller. Therefore find yourself, for in finding that you find all. (20)

At certain critical points in the spiritual journey privations and sacrificesmay be necessaryfor a period of time. Gurdjieff: “Sacrifice is necessary. If nothing is sacrificed nothing is gained.And it is necessary to sacrifice something precious at themoment, to sacrifice for a long timeand to sacrifice a great deal. But still, not forever. Sacrifice is necessary only while the processof crystallization is going on.” The attitude that accompanies sacrifice and renunciation iscrucial anddetermines the success of the efforts:

Whenamancomes to the conclusion that he cannot, and does not desire, to liveany longer in the way he has lived till then; when he really sees everything that hislife ismade upof and decides towork, hemust be truthful with himself in ordernot to fall into a still worse position. Because there is nothingworse than to beginwork on oneself and then leave it and findoneself between two stools; it ismuchbetter not to begin. And inorder to not begin in vain or risk being deceived onone’s own account amanshould test his decisionmany times. And principally hemust know how far he iswilling to go, what he iswilling to sacrifice. There is no-thingmore easy to say thaneverything. Amancan never sacrifice everything andthis cannever be requiredof him. But hemust define exactly what he iswilling tosacrifice and not bargain about it afterwards. (21)

Deliberate, voluntary suffering is basedon conscious choice and requires a certain psycho-logical attitude to be effective. “What is important is your attitude towards it. It becomesdeliberate if youdon’t rebel against it, if youdon’t try to avoid it, if you don’t accuse anybody, ifyouaccept it as a necessary part of your work at themoment and as ameans for attaining youraim.” Gurdjieff employedamemorable analogy to compare conscious andunconscioussuffering:

Q: What is the role of suffering in self-development?

A: There are two kinds of suffering – conscious and unconscious. Only a fool suf-fers unconsciously. In life there are two rivers, two directions. In the first, the lawis for the river itself, not for the drops of water. We are drops. At onemoment adrop is at the surface, at anothermoment at the bottom. Suffering depends onits position. In the first river, suffering is completely useless because it is accidentalandunconscious. Parallel with this river is another river. In this other river thereis a different kind of suffering. The drop in the first river has the possibility of pas-sing into the second. Today the drop suffers because yesterday it did not sufferenough. Here the law of retribution operates. The drop canalso suffer in advance.Sooner or later everything is paid for. For the Cosmos there is no time. Suffering

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can be voluntary andonly voluntary suffering has value. Onemay suffer simply be-cause one feels unhappy. Or onemay suffer for yesterday and to prepare for to-morrow. I repeat, only voluntary suffering has value. (22)

Advaita Vedanta teacher JeanKlein describes how suffering playedan important role inhisownspiritual journey:

Q: Did suffering play any part in propelling you into the path?

A: It depends how you understand suffering. Suffering as an idea, a concept, cannever bring you to the knowing of yourself. But the direct perception of sufferingis, like all objects, a pointer to your Self. What was important formewere thosemomentswhen I facedmyself and found a lack of fulfillment; this produced thedynamismto exploremore deeply. In a certainway whenyou really feel this lackwithout conceptualizing it, it is great suffering – but it is not the kind of sufferingcaused by a robbery, losing a job, a brokenmarriage, death, and so on. Of coursethese difficulties lift youout of a kindof complacency, a habitual way of living.They wake youup to interrogate, to inquire, to explore, to question suffering itself.Real surrender is letting go of all ideas andallowing the perception, in this casesuffering, to come to you in your openness. Youwill see that it does not “go away,”as is the case withpsychological acceptance – where the energy fixed on sufferingismerely shifted to another area – but it comes to blossomwithin your full atten-tion. Youwill feel it as a free energy, energy that was previously crystallized. (23)

Renunciationand Transformation

One of the dangers in traversing the spiritual path iswhen the student develops in an un-balanced, lopsidedway and is unable to integrate experiences of a higher order into their nor-mal personality. One example is the state of ecstasy or rapture where a person feels at onewith creationor the Creator. “What is considered by the individual to be a blessing is in fact aflooding-out of potentiality. Whenexperienced by those whohave not carried out their devel-opment in a balancedway it may give rise to a conviction that it is a truemystical state, especi-ally when it is found that supranormal faculties seemtobe activated in that condition.”

In fact, ecstatic experiences are only a stage in spiritual development. The seeker, lost inawe andwonderment, is halted at this point and prevented fromgoing forward to the realiza-tion that lies beyond. The seeking of such experiences is considereda ‘veil’ preventing furthergrowthanddevelopment:

The disciple does not yet see theminewithin themountain. Hemay experiencewhat he thinks are spiritual states, ‘ illumination,’ all kinds of thoughts, feelings,experiences. These, however, are illusory. What is happening is the ‘wearing out’

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of the spurious imagination. The spiritual cannot act effectively on the non-spiri-tual. As Saadi puts it, “If dust ascends to the skies, it is not mademore precious.”Such states oftenoccur in people who, lacking proper guidance, believe that theyare having spiritual experiences. These illusions can happen even to people whoare not in discipleship, and they account formany of the reports of supposedly‘higher’ experiences fromthose whohave no specialised knowledge of thesemat-ters, andwhoare still ‘raw.’ (24)

A similar situation canarise whenaspirants attempt to activate certain interior ‘centers’ or‘organs’ of perception throughexperimental methods or out-of-sequence spiritual exercises. Insome traditions suchasHinduismthese ‘points of concentration’ are called chakraswhile inSufismthey are referred to as the latifa:

The illumination or activation of one ormore of the centersmay take place parti-ally or accidentally. When this happens, the individualmay gain for a time a deep-ening in intuitive knowledge correspondingwith the latifa involved. But if this isnot a part of comprehensive development, themindwill try, vainly, to equilibrateitself around this hypertrophy, an impossible task. The consequences can be verydangerous, and include, like all one-sidedmental phenomena, exaggerated ideasof self-importance, the surfacing of undesirable qualities, or a deteriorationof cons-ciousness following anaccess of ability. The same is true of breathing exercises ordancemovements carried out of correct succession. The nonbalanced developmentproduces people whomay have the illusion that they are seers or sages. Due to theinherent power of the latifa, suchan individualmay appear to the world at large tobe worthy of following. In Sufi diagnosis, this type of personality accounts for agreat number of falsemetaphysical teachers. Theymay, of course, themselves beconvinced that they are genuine. This is because the habit of self-deception or ofdeceiving others has not been transmuted. Rather it has been supported andmag-nifiedby the awakening but still undirectednew organ, the latifa. (25)

Real spiritual growth is only possible for a seekerwhencertainundesirable characteristicsare abandonedandother qualities of amore developmental nature are nurtured. “Detachyourself fromall that makes yourmind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace. Emo-tional reactions born of ignorance or inadvertence are never justified. Seek a clearmind andaclear heart. All you need is to keepquietly alert, enquiring into the real nature of yourself.”

Many spiritual traditions assert that the path to transcendental realization is one of nega-tionandemptying – a vanishing of the ego rather thana pursuit of affirmationandattainment.“The finite is the price of the infinite, as death is the price of immortality. Spiritual maturity liesin the readiness to let go of everything. The giving up is the first step. But the real giving up isin realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is your own.”

Identificationwith our body, mindandemotions binds us and creates a state of dependencyon the external impacts of life. There canbe no true freedomuntil we recognize the illusory

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worldwhichwe have created and inwhichwe live. “The understanding that the egohas noreality in itself springs directly fromour true being. It does not result fromany effort but isspontaneous, neither discursive normental. It brings about total presence, wholeness, wherefear has noplace.”

We live in fear of suffering. This sufferingmust first be fully felt and it canonlybe felt when it is accepted; accepted as a fact, objectively not fatalistically. Thisscientific acceptance canonly take place when there is no psychological relation-shipwith the fear, when it is seen fromthe impersonal standpoint. Whenwedon’t conceptualize fear it leaves us, for we no longer nourish it. It is condemnedto die when seen in clear-sightedpresence. (26)

Whenwe become aware of the workings of the ego through intelligent observation it imper-ceptibly withers away. Spiritual transformation is a shift away fromour self-protective view oflife to a newway of being in the world – open, non-attachedand fearless. “Thismeans being asaware aswe can in everymoment, so that our ‘personality’ begins to break down andwe canrespondmore andmore simply to themoment.”

In traditional teachings repentance involves confronting one’s ownshortcomings andpsy-chological blocks, including fixation upon oneself. There canbe a danger, however, when theegohijacks the process, subtly reinforcing its own existence:

Repentancemeans turning back or giving up completely something that was ofpowerful attraction. Pleasure gained through repentance is inmost cases as badas the original offence, andnopermanent improvement canbe expected by thosewho pride themselves in reformation. The repentance of the ignorant iswhenpeople feel strong reactions to giving something up, or seeking forgiveness fromsomething. There is a higher form, the repentance of the Wise, which leads togreater knowledge and love. (27)

Renunciationof the false is the door to liberationand self-realization. RamanaMaharshi:“All that is needed is to lose the ego and realize that which is always eternally present. Evennow youare That. You are not apart fromit. Be yourself and nothingmore.”

Q: Is renunciationnecessary for Self-realization?

A: Renunciation and realizationare the same. They are different aspects of thesame state. Giving up the non-self is renunciation. Inhering in the Self is jnanaor Self-realization. One is the negative and the other the positive aspect of thesame single truth . . . Our real nature is timeless, effortless andever present.There is no realization to be achieved. The real is ever as it is. What we havedone is, we have identifiedwith the unreal. We have to give up that. That is allthat is wanted. (28)

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Turning away fromthe false, fromdesires and fears, releases anenergy that purifies andennobles the essential being. “Merely giving upa thing to secure a better one is not true re-linquishment. Give it upbecause you see its valuelessness. As youkeepongiving up, youwillfind that yougrow spontaneously in intelligence andpower and inexhaustible love and joy.”

The purpose of inner purification is to unite the humanessence with its source – the realityof timeless Being or Self. “When the psyche is raw, undeveloped, quite primitive, it is subject togross illusions. As it grows inbreadthand sensitivity, it becomes a perfect link betweenpurematter andpure spirit and givesmeaning tomatter andexpression to spirit.”

Q: If it is the inner that is ultimately responsible for one’s spiritual development,why is the outer somuch emphasized?

A: The outer can help by being restrainedand free fromdesire and fear. Youwouldhave noticed that all advice to the outer is in the formof negations: don’t, stop, re-frain, forego, give up, sacrifice, surrender, see the false as false. Even the little des-cription of reality that is given is through denials – ‘not this, not this,’ (neti, neti).All positives belong to the inner self, as all absolutes – to Reality.

Q: How are we to distinguish the inner fromthe outer in actual experience?

A: The inner is the source of inspiration, the outer ismovedbymemory. The sourceis untraceable, while all memory begins somewhere. Thus the outer is always deter-mined, while the inner cannot be held inwords. Themistake of students consists intheir imagining the inner to be something to get hold of, and forgetting that all per-ceivables are transient and, therefore, unreal. Only that whichmakes perception pos-sible, call it life or Sprit, or what you like, is real. (29)

Certainpsychological attitudes andbehaviours, suchas honesty andhumility, are conduciveto spiritual growth. Real honesty is amanifestationof an innermaturity rather than anextern-ally induced compulsion. “The really sincere act is the onewhich is knownby no recordingangel, by nodemon to afflict it, nor by the self to become prideful of it.” Humility is one of thekeys to spiritual understanding and awakening. “Humility is the acceptance of the truth aboutthe truth, from the truth.”

Q: Would you talkmore about humility inhuman relations?

A: Humility is not something youwear like a garment. It has nothing to dowithbowedheads andaverted eyes! It comes fromthe re-absorptionof individualityinbeing, in stillness. In attention, alertness, there is humility. It is receptivity,openness, to all that life brings. Where there is nopsychologicalmemory, no ac-cumulation of knowledge, there is innocence. Innocence is humility . . . Humilityariseswhen there is no reference to an ‘I.’ This emptiness is the healing factor in

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any situation. Heidegger says, ‘Be open to the openness.’ In this openness thesituation offers its ownsolution, and inopennesswe receive it. (30)

Humility is not somucha virtue as a necessity or ‘technical requirement’ for spiritual growth.True humility is concernedwith the quest for Absolute Truth. “One of the real reasons for theattempted inculcation of a really ‘humble’ attitude towards life and learning in traditionalteaching techniques is to try to enable people to adopt a point of view whichwill allow themtoapproach things as they are andnot as they are imagined.” The distortion of humility is falseself-abasement. On the other side of the coin, people who take pride in their humility are hy-pocrites. Pride destroys all possibility of spiritual awakening.

Humility is a “cloak” which protects one fromthe subjective judgments and superficial as-sessments of others:

Like Zen, Taoismlays particular emphasis onnot being gladwhenpraised or upsetwhen reviled. Inboth teachings, ultimate truth is not a question of human feelings,and the seeker of ultimate truth therefore cannot afford to have attention divertedby emotional assessments fromanother realmof concern. It is related that oncewhen Jesus prayed for people whohad reviledhim, someone askedhimwhy he hadreturned kindness for cruelty. Jesus replied, “I couldonly spend of what I had inmypocket.” Similarly, it is said that when the prophet Mohammedwas victimizedbyaggressors, and someone askedhimwhy he didnot curse his oppressors, he repliedthat it was not hismission to curse. (31)

Recognition of the spiritual laws governing earthly existence leads to a panoramic awarenesswhichencompasses past, present and future:

Gurdjieff often spoke about the need to repair the past – not to dwell on it andindulge in useless self-reproach, but to feel remorse of conscience . . . He said toa pupil: ‘Past joys are useless to aman in the present; they are as last year’s snows,which leave no trace by which they can be remembered. Only the imprints of cons-cious labour and voluntary suffering are real, and canbe used in the future forobtaining good,’ On another occasion he said: ‘What amansows, he reaps. Thefuture is determinedby the actions of the present. The present, be it good or bad,is the result of the past. It is the duty of man to prepare for the future at everymoment of the present, and to right what has beendonewrong. This is the law ofdestiny. (32)

Inorder to energize the work of transforming our lower conditioned self and realizing ourhigher spiritual nature, Gurdjieff admonished his pupils to always remember their ownmortal-ity and the inevitability of the death of all living beings:

You should try to realize your ownsignificance and the significance of those aroundyou. Youaremortal, and some day will die. He onwhomyour attention rests is

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your neighbour; he will also die . . . If youacquire data always to realize the inevita-bility of their death and your owndeath, youwill have a feeling of pity for others,andbe just towards them, since theirmanifestationswhichdisplease youare onlybecause youor someone has steppedon their corns, or because your owncornsare sensitive. At present you cannot see this. Try to put yourself in the position ofothers – they have the same significance as you; they suffer as youdo, and, like you,they will die. Only if you always try to sense this significance until it becomes a habitwhenever your attention rests onanyone, only thenwill youhave a real “I.” Everymanhaswants anddesireswhichare dear to him, andwhich hewill lose at death.Fromrealizing the significance of your neighbour whenyour attention rests on him,that he will die, pity for himand compassion towards himwill arise in you, andfinally youwill love him; also, by doing this constantly, real faith, conscious faith,will arise in some part of youand spread to other parts, and youwill have the pos-sibility of knowing real happiness, because fromthis faith objective hopewill arise –hope as a basis for continuation. (33)

Acceptanceand Surrender

Buddhist teachings stress the impermanent and transitory nature of all phenomena. Non-acceptance of this fact leads to suffering: wewant life to be other thanwhat it is. Open accept-ance of life as it unfolds is diametrically opposed to our normal desire to control and shapeevents and situations. “Stay without ambition, without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable,unprotected, uncertain andalone, completely open to andwelcoming life as it happens, with-out the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, eithermaterial or so-calledspiritual.”

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot findperfect com-posure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Be-cause we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer. So the cause of sufferingis our ownnon-acceptance of this truth. We should findperfect existence throughimperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection. For us, completeperfection is not different from imperfection. The eternal exists because of non-eternal existence . . . We should find the truth in thisworld, through our difficulties,through our suffering. This is the basic teaching of Buddhism. Pleasure is not dif-ferent fromdifficulty. Good is not different frombad. Bad is good; good is bad.They are two sides of one coin. (34)

Suffering andunhappiness arise whenwe oppose life in a futile effort to protect ourselvesandmaintain the illusionof a separate self or “I.” In reality, complete openness and vulner-ability to life is the only truly satisfactory way of living. “Whatever natural experiences youencounter, just accept themas they come. Just bewith them. Don’t try to alter anything.”

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With anattitude of acceptance desires and fears come andgo, andwhen they are allowed tonaturally pass away they cease to have a grip on themind. “Dispassion, detachment, freedomfromdesire and fear, fromall self-concern, mere awareness – free frommemory andexpecta-tion – this is the state ofmind towhichdiscovery canhappen. After all, liberation is but thefreedomto discover.”

Genuine acceptance is free fromany psychological need, preference or judgement. In thewords of JeanKlein: “Seeing all the facts calls for acceptance. When there is no longer anypsychological involvement there are no opposing factors and therefore no choices of somefacts, some elements over others. Acceptance does not come fromthe body-mind, it comesfromourwholeness. Once all the elements of the situationare welcomed inour acceptancefree fromqualifying, the situation itself calls for action, but we donot go to it already armed.”

Q: In acceptance is there any notion of good or bad?

A: Goodor bad are projections frompre-conceived ideas, frommemory. Stopprojecting your desires and fears onto the seen. Take things as they are. Youmustaccept something inorder to really know it. In accepting, the accent is not onwhatyou accept but on the accepting position itself. Youwill come to find you are onewith accepting. The acceptor is not an object. It is an inner reality. Acceptancegives freedomtowhatever is accepted. What youaccept really becomes alive andhas its ownstory to tell you.

Q: But in life it’s necessary tomake decisions. How canwe do this if we don’t dis-criminate?

A: You can really onlymake decisionswhenyouaccept the situation. In acceptancethe situation belongs to yourwholeness, your completeness, and the decision comesout of this global perspective. There’s nothing passive about this accepting. It isultimate alertness. And the decision that results is anaction, not a reaction. Themoment you live inopenness and let every situation come to you, you flowwith thereal current of life. (35)

Anattitude of welcoming andaccepting enables the false limited sense of whowe are –body, mind, feelings and sensations – to drop away, revealing our true timeless nature:

Leave the body andmind free to bewhat they are and youwill no longer be theirslave. They are only fragments of the whole which youare. Simply take note ofyour imperfections and this awareness will take care of them. Once youunder-stand that you are not the body and themind, you can thenaccept whatever hap-pens. Understanding your fundamental autonomy brings you to anattitude oftotal acceptance. Every single thing is seen in the light of thiswelcoming, appearsanddisappearswithin it. As a result, things attain their full significance and har-mony re-establishes itself. Thiswelcoming is analert awareness, uninhabitedby

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the past. It allowswhatever presents itself to unfold in and point to the welcoming,without being limited by the egoor deformedbymemory. In thisOnenesswe dis-cover our nature: ultimate joy andperfection. (36)

Accepting life unconditionally is pragmatic and functional. True acceptance is free fromvo-litionand the interference of the egoor “me,” allowing one to be completely alert, aware andclear to face the situation or circumstance. “Accepting is a state of openness. Be completelyopen towhatever happens to you. That is non-volitional living. There is a very deepwisdominnot grasping, not asking, only waiting.”

By relaxing and letting go, we create an open, welcoming space which is perfectly adequatetomeeting whatever comes into our lives. Lao Tzudescribes this state of being as “to do no-thing, yet to leave nothing undone.” In accepting andwelcoming there is no arguingwithreality, withwhat is.

With the dawnof spiritual understandingwe flowwith the energy andmystery of life, warm-ly embracing the present moment with all its glory and infinite possibilities. In this state of un-conditional acceptance, past and future no longer exist andwe are completely present to thereality of now. Zenmaster ShunryuSuzuki: “Our ‘originalmind’ includes everythingwithinitself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. Our self-sufficient state ofmind is anemptymindanda readymind. If yourmind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open toeverything. In the beginner’smind there aremany possibilities; in the expert’s there are few.”

Spiritual realization gives a completely new perspective on theworkings of reality andpro-duces a shift in our attitude to the events of everyday life: In the words of Sri NisargadattaMaharaj: “You neednot be anxious: ‘What next?’ There is always the next. Life does not beginnor end. Light cannot be exhausted even if innumerable pictures are projectedby it. So doeslife fill every shape to the brimand return to its source, when the shape breaks down.”

Things just happen; the roll of destiny unfolds itself and actualizes the inevitable.You cannot change the course of events, but you can change your attitude andwhatreally matters is the attitude and not the bare event. Theworld is the abode ofdesires and fears. You cannot find peace in it. For peace youmust gobeyond theworld. We seek pleasure andavoid pain. Replace self-love by love of the Self andthe picture changes. Brahma the Creator is the sumtotal of all desires. Theworldis the instrument for their fulfilment. Souls take whatever pleasures they desire andpay for themin tears. Time squares all accounts. The law of balance reigns supreme.(37)

Inmany traditional spiritual teachings the word “surrender” is synonymouswith acceptance.RamanaMaharshi described surrender as giving oneself up to the original source of one’s beingwhich lieswithinoneself rather than outside. He also characterized surrender as submission toaHigher Power: “By whatever path yougo, youwill have to lose yourself in the One. Surrender

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is complete only when you reach the stage ‘Thou art all’ and ‘Thy will be done’. With completesurrender you have nodesire of your own. God’s desire alone is your desire.”

If you surrender yourself to the Higher Power all is well. That Power sees youraffairs through. Only so long as you think that youare the worker you are obligedto reap the fruits of your actions. If on the other hand, you surrender yourself andrecognize your individual self as only a tool of the Higher Power, that Powerwilltake over your affairs alongwith the fruits of actions. You are no longer affectedby themand thework goes on unhampered. Whether you recognize the Power ornot the scheme of things does not alter. Only there is a change of outlook. Whyshould youbear your load on the headwhenyouare travelling in a train? It carriesyou and your loadwhether the load is on your head or on the floor of the train.Youare not lessening the burden of the trainby keeping it on your head but onlystraining yourself unnecessarily. Similar is the sense of doership in the world bythe individuals. (38)

Whenwe surrender andopen to the immediate experience of life as it actually is, we tastereal freedomand sense the perfume of our real nature. “Surrender is not a passive state. It isbothpassive andactive, passive in the sense of letting go aswithMeister Eckhart’s ‘PoorMan,’andactive in that it is a constant alertness.”

Surrender calls for a true recognition of the facts, facing themsquarely. Youmustaccept andwelcome them ina scientific way without reactionand judgement.Acceptance is not a sacrifice nor a process of will. In the openness that is inherentin our nature there is noonewho accepts. Acceptance or surrender is thus passivein its absence of a director, andactive in that one remains supremely awake andalert, ready forwhat presents itself. This silence is simply waiting without the anx-iety of waiting and in this openness the highest intelligence operates. (39)

LiberationandAwakening

In the awakened state we live in harmony with the rhythmand pulse of life, able to respondskilfully andeffectively to any situation or circumstance. “Perfectionmeans not perfect actionin a perfect world, but appropriate action in an imperfect one.”

Our true nature is pure, clear, and free. All kinds of things come up in our lives –hardships, pain, illness – but if we know our true nature, if we experience thebottomof our being, the ultimate groundof our being, none of these things canknock us over. Of course we die, but there is a certainty in themidst of birth anddeath that we are living in the Great Time of eternity. There is no end to this. Nomatter that this body falls off, passes away; the joyful essence of life goes on. (40)

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With the dawnof enlightenment, fear andanxiety are replaced by serenity and inner joy.We realize that we are whole and complete just aswe are: “Youare generally not conscious ofthe fact that youare immensely rich. The inner self is filledwith everything you need; there isnothing else to seek.”

Charity, kindness and sympathy emanate fromthe heart of a realized being. In the words ofSaadi: “The Path is none other than service of the people.” Compassionate human actions bearfruit only whenperformed selflessly; there should be no sense of “I amthe doer,” “I amhelpingothers.”

Real service is sensitive to the needs of the people involved, the situationand circumstance,and the larger context of humanity’s spiritual evolution. It is the natural reflectionof theawakened state: “The solemn truth is that you can’t begin to help anybody until you yourselfhave becomewhole through the experience of Self-realization. When you have seen into thenature of your True-self and the universe, yourwordswill carry convictionandpeople will listento you.”

Wisdomand compassiondevelop and express themselves simultaneously. The fully maturespiritual life is characterizedby a warm, open heart anda flexible, adaptivemind. Zen teacherMaurine Stuart: “Become the noble soul, and live in this awakenedway, not imitating anyone.Whatever the circumstances of your life asks of you, respond to themin your own individualZen-inspiredway. Don’t cling to yesterday, towhat happened, towhat didn’t happen. Anddonot judge today by yesterday. Let us just live today to the fullest!”

Self-realizationalso unlocks the vast storehouse of creativity that lies dormant in everyhumanbeing. “In this openness you find yourself adequate to every situation. There is nochoice in this position, and you canunderstandwhat is spontaneously. The solution comes toyou like an intuition, anapperception. When you are open, free fromthe past, creativity comesto you. It takes time to realize it in time and space, but the insight of this creativity is constantlypresent as a background.”

Following Self-realization there is a return to the world of everyday life to help others on theroad to enlightenment:

As Buddhists, we have twodirections towardwhichwe are reaching: one is theattainment of enlightenment, the other is to render service to others. Attainmentof enlightenment is the attainment of wisdom, prajna; to render service to othersis to complete our love, karuna. Wisdomand love together is our aim. But wisdomis the Buddhist’s faith, the foundation, and love is our aim. We educate ourselvesto attain enlightenment; only then canwe bring happiness to the world, to our home,and to ourselves. There can be no peace in the world, no happiness in the family, noquietude in one’s self if one fails to attainone’s ownenlightenment . . . Buddhismteaches us to realize both these aims. Enlightenment and rendering service to othersis a twofold teaching. (41)

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Self-realization is the direct experience of our true nature of stillness, peace and pure aware-ness. It is ever-present andalways available. The only barrier is our false identification of theSelf with the not-Self – body, mind, feelings and sensations. When the not-Self disappears, theSelf alone remains. RamanaMaharshi: “Realization is ever present, here and now. The Self isalways as it is. There is no such thing as attaining it. Realization is permanent and is here andnow.”

Q: How shall I reach the Self?

A: There is no reaching the Self. If the Self were to be reached, it wouldmeanthat the Self is not here and now but has yet to be obtained. What is got afreshwill also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worthstriving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self; youare already That.Therefore Realization is for everyone. Realizationmakes nodifference betweenaspirants. This very doubt whether you can realize and the notion “Ihave notrealized” are themselves the obstacles. Be free fromthese obstacles also. (42)

Liberation fromthe ego-centered self is amovement away fromthe known to the unknown.When themind is purified of its past conditioning it naturally reflects its true nature of pureawareness andbeing. Sri NisargadattaMaharaj: “Youare universal. Youneed not and cannotbecomewhat youare already. Only cease imagining yourself to be the particular. What comesandgoes has no being. It owes its very appearance to reality. Realize that you are the eternalsource and accept all as your own. Such acceptance is true love.”

Q: The experience of reality, when it comes, does it last?

A: All experience is necessarily transient. But the ground of all experience is im-movable. Nothing that may be called an event will last. But some events purify themindand some stain it. Moments of deep insight andall-embracing love purify themind, while desires and fears, envies andanger, blind beliefs and intellectual arro-gance pollute and dull the psyche.

Q: Is self-realization so important?

A: Without it youwill be consumed by desires and fears, repeating themselvesmean-inglessly in endless suffering. Most people do not know that there can be an end topain. But once they have heard the goodnews, obviously going beyondall strife andstruggle is themost urgent task that can be. You know that you can be free andnowit is up to you. Either you remain forever hungry and thirsty, longing, searching,grabbing, holding, forever losing and sorrowing, or yougo out wholeheartedly insearch of the state of timeless perfection towhichnothing canbe added, fromwhich nothing – takenaway. In it all desires and fears are absent, not because theywere given up, but because they have lost theirmeaning . . . There is nothing to do.Just be. Donothing. Be. (43)

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Our very nature is peace and happiness. “Whenever love and kindness are in your heart, youwill have the intelligence to knowwhat to do andwhenandhow to act. When themind seesits limitations, a humility and innocence arise whichare not amatter of cultivation, accumula-tion or learning, but the result of instantaneous understanding. It is this reality that transformsyourmind, and not effort or decision.”

What you fundamentally are is always here, always complete. It needs nopurifi-cation. It never changes. For the Self there is no darkness. You cannot discoveror become truth for you are it. There is nothing to do to bring it closer, nothing tobe learned. See only that you are constantly trying to go away fromwhat you are.Stopwasting time andenergy in projecting. Live this stopping, not lazily and pas-sively, but live in the alertness that that is found in the stopping of expectationandanticipation. There is no roomfor improvement in reality. It is perfection itself.How could youpossibly get nearer to it? (44)

References

(1) P.D. Ouspensky The Psychology ofMan’s Possible Evolution (New York: Vintage Books,1974), p. 115.

(2) Sri NisargadattaMaharaj I AmThat (Durham, NorthCarolina: AcornPress, 1982), pp. 118-119.

(3) JeanKlein Transmissionof the Flame (Santa Barbara: ThirdMillenniumPublications,1990), pp. 180-181.

(4) Idries Shah Learning How to Learn (London: OctagonPress, 1983), p. 28.(5) Idries Shah A PerfumedScorpion (London; OctagonPress, 1983), p. 179.(6) Idries Shah Knowing How toKnow (London: OctagonPress, 1998), pp. 9-10.(7) Philip Kapleau TheWheel of Life andDeath (New York: Doubleday, 1989), p. 250.(8) OmarAli-Shah The Sufi Tradition in theWest (New York: Alif Publishing, 1994), p. 131.(9) JeanKlein BeyondKnowledge (Santa Barbara: ThirdMillenniumPublications, 1994), p. 61.(10) P.D. Ouspensky In Searchof theMiraculous (New York: Harcourt, 2001), p. 32.(11) Charlotte Beck Nothing Special: Living Zen (San Francisco: Harper, 1993), pp. 113-114.(12) P.D. Ouspensky In Searchof theMiraculous (New York: Harcourt, 2001), pp. 229-230.(13) P.D. Ouspensky In Searchof theMiraculous (New York: Harcourt, 2001), p. 347.(14) Charlotte Beck Everyday Zen (San Francisco: Harper, 1989), p. 41.(15) Jean Klein I Am (Santa Barbara: ThirdMillenniumPublications, 1989), p. 143.(16) Jean Klein The Ease of Being (Durham, North Carolina: AcornPress, 1986). P. 10.(17) Idries Shah TheCommanding Self (London: OctagonPress, 1994), p. 171.(18) Idries Shah “Sufi Spiritual Rituals and Beliefs” in Idries Shah (ed.) Sufi Thought andAction

(London” OctagonPress, 1990), p. 10.(19) Thomas Cleary NoBarrier: Unlocking the Zen Koan (New York: BantamBooks, 1993),

pp. xxii-xxiii.

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(20) Sri NisargadattaMaharaj I AmThat (Durham, NorthCarolina: AcornPress, 1982), pp. 240-241.

(21) P.D. Ouspensky In Searchof theMiraculous (New York: Harcourt, 2001), pp. 365-366.(22) G.I. Gurdjieff ViewsFromthe RealWorld: Early Talksof Gurdjieff (New York: E.P. Dutton,

1973), pp. 84-85.(23) Jean Klein The Ease of Being (Durham, North Carolina: AcornPress, 1986), pp. x-xi.(24) Idries Shah “Sufi Spiritual Rituals and Beliefs” in Idries Shah (ed.) Sufi Thought andAction

(London” OctagonPress, 1990), p. 22.(25) Idries Shah The Sufis (London: OctagonPress, 1984), p. 296.(26) Jean Klein I Am (Santa Barbara: ThirdMillenniumPublications, 1989), p. 102.(27) Idries Shah TheWay of the Sufi (London: OctagonPress, 1984), p. 233.(28) DevarajaMudaliar Day by DaywithBhagavan (Tiruvannamalai, India: Sri Ramanasramam,

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asramam1984), p. 487.(39) Jean Klein WhoAmI? (Dorset, England: Element Books, 1989), p. 34.(40) Maurine Stuart Subtle Sound: The ZenTeachingsof Maurine Stuart (Boston: Shambhala,

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