Ted Cruz shared one of his father’s favorite lessons to him.
“No one bears greater responsibility for the condition of this country than do the pastors,” said Cruz, quoting Rafael Cruz, who is a pastor. “If the flock stumbles into a ditch, you don’t blame the sheep. You blame the shepherd.”
We can generalize this quote to include all religious, all spiritual leaders. However we must ask, “What’s the problem? What are they missing?” Firstly, I find it remarkable and humbling that, throughout history, so many people could know within themselves the true nature of life and existence without really having a clear understanding of it. That inner knowing transcends even their inability to truly explain it all in a manner that makes rational sense.
Now consider the skeptical group mentality, the group consciousness of our country and world today. For the condition of a country to improve, the deep thinkers must be able to convey their knowledge in a manner that can be understood, and thereby received and accepted, by the people. I am sorry to say that the pastors and other religious/spiritual leaders have failed to do this. To the majority of people, and certainly to a great percentage of the youth throughout the world, the spiritual message makes no rational sense and is therefore rejected. It simply does not hold up to the scientific mentality that has overtaken modern thinking. Be it traditional, alternative, new age, or eccentric in approach, an ever-increasing number of people look at those spiritual perspectives and shake their heads. Answers to deep questions fall short. Demands that you just must have faith do not satisfy. In fact, it offends, compelling so many to roll their eyes and turn away.
I get upset when I see most religious, alternative, and new age spiritual leaders speak on television. It would be better if they just would admit that they do not have answers to all-important questions. Even the intellectual types, those who relate spirituality to modern physics, are unsatisfying in their dry and woefully limited ability to put it all pieces of life’s puzzle together. The New Agers with their warmed over, reshaped, same old proclamations, leave real seekers of truth dismayed, giving even more reason to turn their backs on the foolishness. All too many well-intended and discerning people are thereby compelled to throw out the spiritual baby with the bathwater and decide they are atheist, agnostic, or just ‘socially religious’ on Christmas and Easter. I can’t tell you how many young people have come to me saying, in one way or another, that they would like to believe and have faith, but they just can’t.
I must underscore that what the truly inwardly spiritual know is valid. However, it is not known with a communicable clarity that can be heard by humanity. Thereby, the root of life has been severed from the tree. No wonder our country today ‘stumbles into a ditch.’
Fortunately, a deep rational understanding is there. It clears the cobwebs, casts out any superstition, and deepens the knowledge for all humanity – including the skeptics and spiritual believers. We offer that understanding, if only the jaded masses will take the time to reflect. Unfortunately, most have already made their decision based upon the irrational and unclear teachings that pervade so many traditional and modern spiritual perspectives.
Rafael Cruz was so right… It is not the fault of the people. The responsibility is that of the spiritual leaders themselves. It is our task to turn that around… to provide the understanding that makes perfect sense to our modern, discerning, and rational world consciousness.
In my life I was determined to understand the nature of existence, the nature of this world. I really didn’t care if it would be called spirituality or science. I just wanted answers. I wanted to know the truth. I was fortunate to come across some truly great teachers. My studies included undergraduate work in physics and math. My pursuit then led me to India where I sat with some truly remarkable spiritual teachers. It was through them that the pieces of the puzzle came together. I offer that understanding in terms that modern humanity can hear and receive. It deepens the knowledge and appreciation of all aspects of life. It puts all the pieces of life puzzle together in a manner that fulfills the skeptic and the deeply religious as well. No longer can people say that to be spiritual there needs to be blind faith. In that vein we can thank the atheists and agnostics for demanding that a deeper and clearer understanding of the true nature of life and existence be made available. It is our great joy and privilege that we find ourselves in the most fortunate position as to be able to bring that forth.
Once spirituality is truly understood, religion is understood in a new and fulfilling light that satisfies all aspects of life – all aspects of human psychology, mentality, morality, thought and emotion.
This reminds me of some discernment principles you teach. To know about spirituality is very different than embodying and living it. And, it is one thing to know something; it is quite another to be able to communicate it effectively to people in a manner they can hear.
These principles over the years have helped me select more wisely what I read, listen to, etc. No sense adding to the confusion.
The Knowledge you offer seems best suited to those with an undying passion and commitment to understand themselves, what life is and how the world really works. I wish persistence and discernment for those individuals. With dedication and good fortune, may their paths lead them from dirt roads to the express lanes of the “spiritual superhighway” headed for Truth.
In The Gita Krishna states:
“Whenever dharma declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to reestablish dharma.”
Is this time near? Have we as a society “stumbled into a ditch”? Has the “root been
severed”?
Sheep are sheep, the shepherd is (usually) human. If humans have made a decision to become sheep-like by giving their power away to another human, suspend their own sovereignty & discernment, then they deserve to end up in the proverbial ditch. The great & very safe part of the teachings here (meditation), is that I can test them myself & have direct experience of their truth.
these first three comments are so beautiful.
To Roy’s beautiful comment I say: The time is now!!
Spiritual re-awakening is not a sine wave. It is a saw tooth graph… straight up!!
‘Just like waking up from a weird dream…
This has been a lifelong struggle for me;always I knew and could feel the answers inside but had and still have difficulty matching them to comprehensible words. I am so amazed at the new YouTube series, “I’ts gotta make sense”. You communicate so well with so few words, I am humbled, Michaelji
I love that sentence: “I get upset when I see most religious, alternative, and new age spiritual leaders speak on television. It would be better if they just would admit that they do not have answers to all-important questions.”
Finally someone who calls things for what they are. I think people are longing for this kind of authenticity. Not only with regards to spirituality, but also in politics and other fields. Yet at the same time there is still a lot of resistance out there. Feels like it’s largely based in embarrassment. I guess having to admit as a society that we’ve bought into and perpetuated so much nonsense for such a long time is kind of hard to face.
thumbs up!!
Roy,
The time is now. It is happening…
Heidi,
Well said. A true teacher assists the students finding truth within themselves.
I still remember the feeling of relief I felt in my first Surya class. Someone finally made sense . . .
With the many tools that we have to help us discern whether or not the information we are given holds true.. for me there is really only one that I truly rely on. It is a very subtle feeling when I am quiet and still that is undeniably sweet and clear.I do not need confirmation from any other source..which is not a typical situation in life. It seems we all like a little confirmation that we are “right” every now and then. From my first experience with this knowledge..the fog of confusion regarding my existence began to fade. I never felt like I was being told something new..it was more like remembering the taste of chocolate ice cream after you had been told for 50 years that Vanilla is the only flavor available. I am sure of very little in life however the one thing that brings me peace at my core is having a “true teacher” to help me navigate this amazing journey we call life.
Than you Brahmarshi..your guidance is simply a treasure.
I think a lot of people think that spiritual truth is just not something that can be clearly known for sure, that their guess (or their culture’s guess or their family’s guess or their religion’s guess) is just as good as anyone else’s. Despite the best efforts of my family and culture to educate me spiritually, I feel like the best thing that guided me, before I got to learn the Surya Meditation and got to Mount Soma, was just my own inner “nonsense” detector, to put it nicely…
Beautiful Blog. The world needs what Dr. Mamas offers…