What do we really need to realize oneself?
This is a delicate and necessary question for the seeker to put into perspective, as there is a vast amount of information now available promoting different paths for self-realization. The sincere seeker needs to decide in a smart and deliberate way what and who is going to coach them toward their final destination, the self.
Any incorrect information about spirituality (e.g. what meditation, yoga, satsang is) will create a grove of inner responses. about what is meditation, yoga, satsang, ect. will mark the seeker mind to a point of view and it will create an initial grove of inner responses.
In ancient times, seekers were exposed to teachings through the nearest recognizes teacher or master, whose responsibility it was to ensure that the candidate was safely guided. The traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Zen all presented a specific path with clear steps.
Today, the modern seeker is offered so many different versions of spirituality that one can easily become a student of many things and a master of none. Your first step is to select a master; once you have made your selection, stay committed and endure the different flavors of their lessons. Recognize the master as one without dogma, without affiliation to any single religion, and as one dedicated exclusively to teaching. While each master will have their own flavour and preferred ways of teaching, they all point you toward truth and inner freedom.
It is very true that when you are ready, when your heart has really prayed for your own freedom, the teacher will appear, either by coincidence, by birthright or through your pain. There is no need to mentally select a master; they are not in a catalogue, but will appear exactly where and when you need them most.
What are the ways of the master?
The master sees the seeker (or the candidate) like a garden. The seeker comes with many weeds, attitudes, past experiences that are incomplete or repressed, concepts about himself and, of course, concepts and values about the teacher.
In meeting the candidate, the master evaluates the quality of the soil, the inner climate and the regularity that the garden will be visited. If both parties agree to the sacred contract of self-realization, a series of initiations take place.
- The master tests your commitment: If you are true to your word, you show self-commitment. In your own capacity, you show your interest in the studies, you complete the lessons that the teacher suggests and you confront your laziness and inner rebellion. You show up to yourself, regardless of your limitations.
- The master teaches at your level: The master is able to see where are you coming from and uses a vocabulary that you can respond to. The master respects your experiences, your colour and gives freedom to your own expression. To this end, the master will suggest activities to mature your natural tendencies or to allow you to complete experiences that have not been completely embodied.
- The master will test your limits: While the ego sense is limited, self-realization is limitless. The task of the master is to point out your self-imposed limitations and to somehow orchestrate situations and teachings to allow you to confront them. The master points towards your infinity in a constant and direct way
- The master teaches through presence. The emanation of the master represents infinity. Self-realization is the act of offering all the vibrations of each cell of the body and all the bodies of the structure to the Divine Order. This embodiment can speak (through teachings), can walk (through actions) or can rest (through meditation).
The seeker must recognize that the master is a continuous living embodiment of essence and that their personality is irreverent. Many seekers select a teacher based on a personality (e.g. “She’s nice”), when in reality, a teacher is free to express and to mold through all flavours of the divine reality.
The focus of the seeker must be on the master’s emanation. The synchronization with the master’s emanation provides an opening which bathes the seeker in a frequency beyond words. The teacher’s emanation is their true force of direction
Some teachers prefer to use a direct method to test your commitment and stabilize you, while others will bathe you in their own presence. Most teachers will use a combination of approaches.
Kriya: A kriya is an act of purification. This is the first stage of the seeker, where your garden needs to be dug, weeded and be given a basic structure, so the waters of your experiences can be directed toward your goal. Kriyas are actions that usually involve breath, movement, meditation, diet and a lifestyle which induce peace and inner stability. Kriyas are practiced daily and this action is called sadhana. Your initial sadhana is designed to cultivate equanimity, detachment from your inner storms, and sensibility towards your own self. Kriyas will not liberate you, but they will set the foundation for the proper understanding of spirituality.
Ceremonies: On specific occasions and at specific times, ceremonies can be used when the seeker is ready to make subtle but permanent alignments in their structure of being. Ceremonies renew the seeker’s inner commitment, bring purification to a more subtle aspect of their reality, and serve as a courteous offering to their devotion. Ceremonies (or inner worship) remind the seeker that they are the creator of their own reality, and that they can redirect and refresh their reality through intention, equanimity and concentration.
Ceremonies incorporate symbols which help the seeker to relate to their own qualities, but the true understanding of inner worship is quite different. The seeker should contemplate that their essence (their divine presence) lives in the intelligence of their body. The functions and faculties of the body serve the intelligence of essence, just as a consort serves their lover. The mind is the messenger of essence, who offers knowledge of the 3 powers of creation (wisdom, love and alchemy). The diverse aspects of the 3 powers of creation are the ornaments of ceremonies. The organs of actions (hands, voice, feet, genitals and rectum) are gates where the Divine energy enters and directs it to the outside world are gates which allow divine energy to enter into the body, and to exit and express in the outer world. In a way, ceremonies reaffirm “I am the infinite self, which is indivisible. I remain also full and finite.”
A seeker who can contemplate ceremonies in this way becomes equanimity itself, expressing equanimous behaviour guided by an undivided vision. He has reached the state of natural goodness and inner purity and he is beautiful in every aspect of his being. He worships his Divine nature as the intelligence that pervades his entire body and life.
This type of ceremony is not only for a single occasion. In this way, ceremonies are not only for special occasions, but are being performed perpetually, day and night, with the objects and qualities that come effortlessly.
True ceremony only offers what has been attained through effortlessness and equanimity. Our own essence should worship everything obtained without effort. One should never make the least effort to attain that which one does not possess.
The teacher will direct your devotion toward a simple state, where your daily life becomes worship and you become a functionary. The expansiveness and understanding of what ceremony is creates a space of subtle refuge and inner conversation with your own divinity. Ceremonies will not liberate you, but will create a strong relationship with the subtle, infinite part of yourself. Ceremonies will give you a different ground of understanding of your reality and cultivate the diversity of your divine qualities and potentials.
Most teachers suggest the inner ceremony of meditation as a way to purify your subtle self and to destroy the separation between your inner and outer world. Whether you are sitting or walking, asleep or awake, the state of perpetual meditation is a profound ceremony that connects the one seated in the depth of your heart (essence) with your outside experiences.
Perception, The One That Sees the Truth of Who He Is
The correct perception of your true nature liberates you. Correct perception has equanimity, contemplation and unquestionable inner knowing. One should contemplate on truth in the following manner:
- The combined forces of the solar and lunar energies illuminate truth.
- Truth is intelligent, and lies eternally within all material objects in all material substances. Its extroverted awareness flows through the avenues of the body (the organs of action) to the external world.
- Truth is alive, and through the forces of prana, moves to the external world giving meaning and the opportunity to draw wisdom from all our experiences.
- The seat of truth is in the secret cave of the heart, from where it directs all actions and from where all thoughts arise. It is the knower of that is knowable and the experience of all experiences. Truth is also seated in the throat, in the middle of the palate, in the middle of the eyebrows and on the tip of the nose.
- Truth is without parts, but it is all. It dwells in the body, but is omnipresent. It enjoys and does not enjoy. It is the intelligence of every limb.
- Truth is in all beings, just as oil is in every seed. Truth is everywhere. It is the pure experiencing of all experiences,even if what is presented comes in the form of polarities.
- The seeker is the altitude of truth and the master is its representative.
- We are truth, light and free at all times, for infinity. It is our choice whether to dwell in this or not.
- Truth informs you of the right meditation at the correct time. There is no need to further question the nature of existence, or to intervene in its wisdom.
- Truth is established when it is effortlessness.
This perception, once given, does not need further contemplation. Once you get it, that’s it.
The seeker must understand the steps of liberation and pursue the effortless path with patience and commitment. Nothing can be attained through their own efforts. It is through grace, proper timing and one’s inner readiness that brings the seed into full bloom.