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The True Spiritual Path
— What
it really means to live a spiritual life
Andrew Paterson—08/2004 |
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In the profusion of today's spiritual
teachers and teachings, it is easy to forget the
essence of the spiritual life and the true path
to God. |
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 FREE
SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE was
sent to me yesterday. It is one of the leading New
Age magazines here in the UK. I don't know why it was
sent to me as I am not a subscriber, but when I opened
it, out dropped a promotional leaflet for Richard Lawrence's "Realise
Your Inner Potential" workshops.
Lawrence is getting to be quite high profile here in
the UK, and is even a component of "The Field" workshops
and study course, where he is billed as "the UK's best-known
healer" (what happened to Matthew Manning?) and an
expert in psychic development. |
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| What is not mentioned about Lawrence is that he is
also head of the London branch of The Aetherius Society,
a religious UFO cult. This organisation was founded
in 1955 by a London taxi driver George King, who claimed
as a result of intense yoga and meditation to have
received cosmic communications from extraterrestrials,
who appointed him the Voice of Interplanetary Parliament
(based on Saturn). King quickly gained notoriety for
his teachings and moved his headquarters to the warmer
climes of Beverly Hills. At their peak, the Aetherius
Society had several thousand members, but the group
membership has been on the wane since King's death
in 97. |
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| There is nothing inherently wrong with cults, and
even less so with The Aetherius Society which is very
much service-oriented, focusing on helping individuals
and humanity as a whole. However, a cult is a cult,
and cults don't have the greatest press these days,
and so Richard Lawrence keeps his relationship with
and the nature of the Aetherius Society firmly in the
background (those that I know who have attended his
workshops were unaware and surprised to hear that he
is in fact a cult leader). |
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| You will find The Aetherius Society at the London
Mind, Body, Spirit Festivals every year, not ostensibly
recruiting new members, although like all cults this
is no doubt the hidden agenda, but selling dousing
pendulums and books that allow a person to develop
psychic powers. Visiting their stand, one would never
realize their true nature. But this is increasingly
how many cults operate - they put on a friendly "New
Age" and "healing" face to mask a deeper and often
darker motive to emotionally entangle the unsuspecting
into joining its organisation and thereby validating
its worldview (and in the process, the identity and
status of its founder). |
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| And this is the central point; this is the single
main reason why so many "spiritual teachers" are driven
to find new recruits. They are driven by their own
need to validate their beliefs and to justify their investment
in opting for those particular beliefs. After all,
what does the mind really have to validate beliefs?
Ultimately, it comes down to an emotional choice or
feeling, and we know how emotions and feelings can
change. The world of spirit is not the objective place
most would want it to be, and those who choose to believe
that it is, are always desperately trying to defend
their conceptual sandcastle form the rising tide of
reality by using every opportunity to persuade others
to collude with their fantasy. And people do collude:
whole groups huddle together around what appear to
others as the most ridiculous beliefs and practices,
often headed by the most unsavoury of characters. |
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| Identity of the leader is usually the focus of this
collusion, and its corroboration the reason to hunt
for new recruits. In the case of established cults
(called religions), such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism
or Buddhism, there is a wealth of tradition - their
teachings have evolved and have been fine-tuned over
centuries. This gives religions considerable authority
to describe the spiritual landscape, and ensures that
the teachings will always be bigger than its contemporary
teachers. Their founders or their main exponents died
long ago, allowing these spiritual leaders to attain
a mythological status that only the long gone can maintain. |
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| Contemporary cults (budding religions), however,
do not have this luxury of tradition, and because
their founding members tend to still be living, or
at least in living memory, it is much harder for
them to persuade others that they have the authority
to describe the spiritual or hidden dimensions. For
this reason, their leaders bestow upon themselves
hugely inflated identities and graces in an effort
to appropriate as much authority and respect as they
can. |
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| Examples abound, and the claims made, outrageous
- gods on earth or avatars (Sai Baba, Franklin Jones,
Meher Baba, Mataji, Swamiji); the return of Christ,
the Messiah, Krishna, the Maitreya Buddha or Imam Mahdi
(David Koresh, David icke, Sun Myung Moon, Ron Spencer,
Benjamin Creme's Maitreya); extraterrestrial incarnations
and appointments (Claude Vorilhon, Ron Hubbard, Drunvalo
Melchizedek, George King); enlightened masters or bodhisattvas
(Maharishi, Muktananda, Prem Rawat, Gurumayi, Andrew
Cohen, John de Ruiter, Brandon Bays); mouthpieces for
God (Neale Walsh, Brian Farnham, Elizabeth Prophet),
or for the disembodied or aliens (numerous channels).
All these claims set up the claimant as an authority,
as someone the ordinary person should give their attention
to. (Please note that inclusion as an example here
does not imply fraudulence.) |
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| Often, the list of titles bestowed upon contemporary "masters" can
be as comical as they are grandiose. The followers
of George King, for example, bestowed upon their leader
(no doubt with strong encouragement from King himself)
the title: Sir George King, OSP, PhD, ThD, DD, Metropolitan
Archbishop of the Aetherius Churches, Prince Grand
Master of the Mystical Order of St. Peter, HRH Prince
De George King De Santori, and Founder President of
the Aetherius Society. His books are still sold under
the authorship of "Dr" George King. (Richard Lawrence,
King's successor, also has the title "Dr" before
his name, and so, no doubt, has inherited some of the
King's titles.) These titles serve a vital role for
the organisation, after all, who is going to devote
their life to the spiritual teachings and practices
of a London cabby?! |
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| The issue here is not that these teachers and gurus
are insincere: nearly all of them sincerely believe
they are who they claim to be (some knew from a young
age, whilst others have gradually inflated into these
roles), and many have helped their followers in certain
aspects of their spiritual development, although often
not in ways directly intended. The real issue is that
by teaching on an assumed authority that sets the teacher
apart from ordinary humanity, these men and women do
a disservice to our collective evolution — the
message itself may be good, but the context in which
it is conveyed is counterproductive. If each of us
realized the damage that we do to our own spiritual
development in accepting "outer" spiritual authority,
we would walk away from our guru, teacher or master
today. |
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| Nobody has the authority to teach the inner spiritual
landscape. Nobody can describe that landscape to us
because it is something which, by its very nature,
cannot be described, only experienced. And nobody can
give us the gift of this experience because only we
ourselves can do the experiencing. All a genuine teacher
can do is to allow, by example, authenticity, humanity
and open honesty to ripen within us, so that we have
the qualities that are an absolute requirement to live
a spiritual life. To teach humanity involves nothing
more than great humanity, humility and human dignity.
Everything else is just illusion. |
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| So living a spiritual life is about living a human
life; it is not about living a godly life. The human
condition itself is divine, provided that we have the
humility to walk "naked" in that humanity — no
pretences, no titles, no assumed authority, just simple
humanity. It sounds easy, but few in the Western world
have the courage to actually do it. We all try to be
something more, and in so trying we aspire to and conspire
with those who seem to be something greater than ourselves.
That is why so many are drawn to teachers with titles,
impressive identities, strong messages, and special
techniques. We are drawn to them because we do not
understand the nature of true human divinity. We have
forgotten that we ourselves, as humans, are
made in the image of God. |
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| When I think back to the men and women who have
touched my life the most, they are always those who
showed me the most humanity and the most humility.
I have met many "important" men and women with an assortment
of titles and identities, but whilst they have momentarily
impressed me or held my interest, they have never put
me in touch with what is genuine inside. That vital
role has been left to the "nobodies" that have, often
fleetingly, touched my life: the grandmother who told
me stories of the miracles that she directly experienced;
the old man in the hat who sat opposite me on the tube
train for just a few minutes several years ago steeped
in human dignity; the Franciscan monk that gave a talk
at my high school; the stranger who helped me lift
some heavy bags; the elderly woman with no hair walking
with great dignity down the street; and the friends
who have supported me through thick and thin. These
have been my spiritual teachers, the rest are just
entertainment. |
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| We spend our lives trying to escape the human condition
because we associate it with commonness, fragility,
suffering, old age, sickness and death. We are so desperate
to be special, to be above this human condition that
we live in constant denial of our humanity. And so
we are powerfully drawn to those who offer us an escape
from that humanity, the gurus, spiritual masters, the
personal development instructors and other individuals
who beckon us towards a "superhuman" perspective. We
have forgotten the gold that lies buried right here,
and search for it in countless philosophies, meditation
techniques, psychedelics, visualisations, readings
and beliefs. As Jung describes in his autobiography, Memories,
Dreams and Reflections, a Rabbi when asked how
men and women spoke so easily spoke to God in days
of old replied: "Only then could they stoop so low." You
need to stoop to reach your humanity, something that
is anathema to the hubris of modern men and women. |
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| You will not learn humanity from most gurus and
spiritual masters, and you will not learn it from personal
development instructors. (Most personal development
is actually classes in ego development: the construction
of a powerful persona that can bring us all the things
we want.) You will not learn it from the dowsers and
channels, who believe that they have a unique and special
access to God or the Divine. You will not learn humanity
from meditating in a special way, or saying a secret
mantra, or praying to a particular god. You will not
find it in ancient sacred texts, or on the internet. |
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| You learn humanity from ordinary and simple men,
women and children who have nothing to be other than
exactly what they are. They are the holy people - the
guides to the gates of heaven. In modern society, it
can be difficult finding these holy people, for when
you do find them they are themselves the very last
to know that they are holy. There is no self-proclamation,
no grand announcement. No title. The miracles are the
miracles of open heartedness, of pure humanity. You
can recognize them from the light in their eyes, their
raw authenticity, and the way they honour you by hiding
nothing that is human. You feel fantastic around them. |
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| So bin the promotional literature for any teacher
who sets himself or herself as different from you,
as special or superhuman. Bin it because it WILL damage
you; it WILL delay your natural spiritual unfolding.
Don't let the likes of Richard Lawrence bamboozle you
into trading that humanity for a few psychic tricks
and the allegence to his guru. The truth is that our
humanity is our most precious gift, and we will only
realize this when we see only the humanity in other
people. As long as we focus on another's "specialness",
we end up distorting our own humanity; denial of a
teacher's ordinariness is a denial of our own. It is
only in the realization of our own basic humanity,
and that of every other person on this planet, that
we truly become "wholey". |
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| I would like to give the last word to James Leigh
Hunt with his poem, Abou Ben Adhem: |
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Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe
increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An Angel writing in a book of gold:
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?" The Vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord
Answered, "The names of those who love the
Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee,
then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow men."
The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!  |
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| A religious man
is a person who holds God and man in one
thought at one time, at all times, who suffers
harm done to others, whose greatest passion
is compassion, whose greatest strength is
love and defiance of despair. |
| Abraham
Joshua Heschel |
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| Andrew Paterson is an independent writer currently living in London. He has no affiliation to any religious or political organisation. To contact him, please email . |
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