Stumbling off the path.....

wil

wil

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The path...the path to spirituality....or is the path of spirituality??

the path to enlightenment....or the path of righteousness....

The path that my or your beliefs or religion prescribes...

Following the path has its obvious benefit....in the constraints of your belief, and hopefully has its obvious benefit in your life....


BUT....

but...

to me falling off the path, stumbing off the path, is where I learn my lessons....about life, and about the path I am on.

tis the obstacles, not the clear path that I learn from....

walking a tightrope, it is falling off that teaches me where my balance point was, and what it feels like to not be able to hold it....the warble and getting back on balance is what teaches me what I need to stay on line... The pole, a crutch, is a benefit, even needed at times....of long stretches between guy lines/my support team....needed in cases of wind, outer influences which attempt to remove me from my path....needed in fog, when I can't clearly see my goal....

I like the path, and I love it when it is like a perfectly designed waterslide, traversing effortlessly and thrillingly along....but I benefit most when I stumble, when I hit my head in the darkness on the cabinet door....when I stumble off my path and my friends are there to remind me....or when trouble befalls me and I get to understand a portion of the bigger picture...
 
Your path in life does not lead to spirituality - it leads to death. Enlightenment begins with your realisation that you are on a path. Spirituality is staying dedicated to an awareness of your place in the universe.

IMO. :)
 
I feel like I'm standing in a think forest, I see people waling along in groups or by themselves. They say they are following the path they stand on, but when I look at their feet I don't see any path to follow. I wonder what they see that I don't. I hope to see one before I die, and to walk one would be a worthwhile experience, I think.
 
a mantra....


I don't recall looking through the course selection and wanting this class. I don't recall standing in line to sign up fo it....but I do want to learn what I am supposed to and pass the class....as I don't wish to have to take it again.
 
It is impossible to stumble off the path, what you describe is only the path not fulfilling your expectations. This is, in itself, an important lesson, for it shows us truth has nothing to do with what we wish it was. We cannot dictate to life, we can only fight it or permit ourselves to flow with it.

Simply trust that every moment life is teaching you something, then decide whether you want to apply the lesson or not. Eventually we all learn the drop cannot defeat the ocean, but to the extent that you still think there is a path going somewhere, you will continue to try walking it.

One day you have to ask who is aware of the path though, who is fueling the journey.

When this happens you realize the path existed within the destination, what you are was always home.
 
I said:
Your path in life does not lead to spirituality - it leads to death. Enlightenment begins with your realisation that you are on a path. Spirituality is staying dedicated to an awareness of your place in the universe.

IMO. :)
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Hence spirituality remains one sided, it is concerned with you.

Truth includes spirituality as well as all material contexts, ultimately what is found is we are the whole playing a part, we are the infinite pretending it is finite. To realize this, all temporal appearances must be questioned. Believing you are the part is Maya, realizing you are not is leela.

This is why often the enlightened find themselves laughing hysterically, looking for yourself, how lost you get, until you realize it was the very thing looking for it that it was seeking. What better hiding place than the very seeker itself?

There is an old Sufi story:

Walking home from a busy day, a man noticed an elderly woman frantically searching for something in the street. Approaching her, he asked what she was doing, and she told him she had lost her keys. Being a kind man he offered to assist her, and asked where she last saw them. The woman told him she had dropped them in her house, puzzled he asked why then she was looking in the street. She replied "there was more light out here".
 
We think our seeking is bearing fruit, we think some light is being shed on our search, but no matter how much light there is, if we are looking in the wrong place the search is going to be unsuccessful.

Eventually we have to turn our attention back to the seeker, for some this necessitates confirming it can't be anywhere else, some are blessed to see it sooner.
 
A Cup Of Tea said:
I feel like I'm standing in a think forest, I see people waling along in groups or by themselves. They say they are following the path they stand on, but when I look at their feet I don't see any path to follow. I wonder what they see that I don't. I hope to see one before I die, and to walk one would be a worthwhile experience, I think.
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A Sufi master, looking at the current situation with regard to the pursuit od spirituality, observed:
'The Way used to be a Way without a Name; today it is a Name without a Way.'

It used to be that one found (or was born into) a Way, and shaped oneself accordingly. In any tradition the first step is always ascesis (self denial disciplines the body, meditation disciplines the mind).

Today the orientation of the West is consumerism, which is utterly opposed to ascesis, so the industry that has sprung up around 'spiritual development' and 'realisation' highlights such notions as 'freedom', 'autonomy' and 'self-determination' as necessities of self-realisation — this is, in fact, close to the truth but falls on one point (which makes the lie so attractive) which is that 'freedom', 'autonomy and 'self-determination' are the (apparent) fruits of the ascetic struggle, not the precursor to it.

So one invents a Way according to oneself — what is pursued, and what is realised, to a greater or lesser degree, is not the 'Spirit' (however it is determined in its tradition), but the spirit of one's own psychic potentiality and capabilities.

Put aside, before the work is even begun, are the the two most necessary steps to begin any path according to every authentic traditional teaching: humility and detachment; ascesis and prayer/meditation.

As Matthieu Ricard states in his commentary on meditation — most people's idea of the exercise of 'personal freedom' is actually the mark of the undisciplined mind, which demonstrates its freedom by being led by every whim and fancy that crosses its path — not free at all, but they've bought the consumer ideal.

Thomas
 
"I don't recall looking through the course selection and wanting this class."

--> I don't recall signing up for this lifetime and requesting all the problems I have to deal with in this lifetime!
 
Nick the Pilot said:
"I don't recall looking through the course selection and wanting this class."

--> I don't recall signing up for this lifetime and requesting all the problems I have to deal with in this lifetime!
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You have repeated him in more gross terms.

Why do you look so negatively on your situation? What expectations do you have that are going unmet? What are you comparing your life to that makes it anything but perfect?

Imperfection necessitates some ideal we view as perfect, and seeing its distance from what is. Your own thoughts have created your disdain, and you have likely perpetuated through avoidance of some lessons existence wants to teach you. It is dangerous game you are playing, for the more you fight, the more you bring it in.
 
The problem with ideals, with notion of perfection, is that they cause us to overlook the miracle we experience with each breath. They are the product of dissatisfaction, yet it seems to me that ideals seem to create only bigger problems. Arriving at one, we place the bar higher, and eventually we come to the top and realize it was all for naught, we are no more fulfilled, we remain essentially the same.

Some die still striving for more, the lucky ones are content when they leave, the blessed ones find contentment long before death, and thus enjoy the fruits of bliss even in this place - this very earth becomes paradise, heaven.
 
Aupmanyav said:
Well, AdvaitaZen, the enlightened do not laugh hysterically. They simply laugh a good-natured laugh or smile.
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I laughed till my belly ached, the absurdity.

How you respond cannot be restricted to any preconceived notion, some cry, some are simply awestruck, and there is nothing there to try to affect the response.

Perhaps I was too specific, I apologize.
 
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