by Robert Wilkinson
I was on a site dedicated to the Ageless Wisdom teachings this morning, and realized as I scrolled through other posts that almost all of them were about following the Masters and their teachings. A response arose within me that we must BE the Wisdom we seek, and not just follow the words, however venerable, of another. While we can be taught and inspired, we must walk our walk since we each have our own ticket to ride.
I thought about writing something reminding the earnest students on the site that living the life of an Arhat, or Paramahamsa, is far more important than knowing scripture and being pious. Instead, I offered this:
I have found beyond the books, beyond the teachings, beyond the speculation, and beyond the imagining of things which might be, life itself simply requires that we become more aware of "All That Is." Because we are Eternals having a human experience, we must learn all we can about this temporary state of perception.
We must go through difficulty to learn right action; we must go through emotional pain to learn to eliminate fear, vanity, desire, and the need for extreme sensation; we must go through suffering to learn detachment, dispassion, discernment, and claim our ability to generate "the will to good." There are no Masters which can do this for us. There is no book which will substitute for our Eternal Self's need to experience all we can to become more aware as loving living Lights in this impermanent world and lifetime.
And those who have found themselves on a mountaintop must inevitably return to the world and pay forward what they have experienced. There are no exceptions to this, since that's a universal of this human existence.
Then I added a piece which I deleted, not because it's untrue, but because it takes us in an entirely different direction. I do believe that when we are suffering and feel the most confused, abandoned, bereft, and alone, it's a perfect time to be grateful to the Lipika Lords (the Lords of Karma) that they think so highly of us that they have accelerated our awareness of pain so we may reorient our view to the Eternal.
Worship of and belief in some external thing is an illusion. There is no refuge here except for "the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha," known in the West as the Wisdom, the Way, and the Community. And because this world is impermanent, everything is forever in a state of change. That's why we must learn to reference the Eternal Self and not the many objects of perception we learn to identify with from the time we are born. We ARE an Eternal having human experiences. Our job is to renounce the lesser, and by training the ego to be the vehicle of our loving wise Self, we can bring heaven to Earth.
No book, no Teacher, no worship, no belief can make this happen. While the teachings and the Teachers may inspire us, open doors of perception we never imagined before an instant flash which changes our life forever, in the final analysis only we can make these things happen, moving from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality, one moment, one hour, one day, at a time by our awareness of "All That Is."
The Light is eternal. We are eternal. We are Limitless Light being the Light in our world. Remember that, and live well!
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
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