The Cosmic Game discusses the broadest philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual insights gleaned in Grof’s research concerning human nature and reality, addressing the most fundamental questions human beings have asked about the nature of existence since time immemorial.
Insights from research into nonordinary states of consciousness portray existence as an astonishing play of the cosmic creative principle that transcends time, space, linear causality; and polarities of every kind and suggest an identity of the individual psyche in its furthest reaches with the universal creative principle and the totality of existence. This identity of the human being with the Divine is the ultimate secret that lies at the core of all great spiritual traditions.
About this author
Grof is known for his early studies of LSD and its effects on the psyche—the field of psychedelic psychotherapy. Building on his observations while conducting LSD research and on Otto Rank’s theory of birth trauma, Grof constructed a theoretical framework for pre- and perinatal psychology and transpersonal psychology in which LSD trips and other powerfully emotional experiences were mapped onto one’s early fetal and neonatal experiences. Over time, this theory developed into an in-depth “cartography” of the deep human psyche.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment..
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Millions of people recognize the Holy Trinity, but few understand that the concept behind it goes far beyond any one religion or belief system. What if the Trinity was an ancient code, a formula, a SECRET so simple, yet so powerful, it could change the way we look at our relationship with the Creator, and with creation itself?
“The Trinity Secret” began with the simple discovery that a trinity or triune nature plays an integral role to all that ever was, is, or will be. From religion, mythology, folklore, psychology, neurophysiology, quantum physics, even the cutting edge world of Noetics and human consciousness âs the concept of a trinity is universal. The number three is a profound and sacred number that speaks of a secret older than humankind itself.
Just a few of the famous trinities include:
Father-Son-Holy Spirit
Earth-Hell-Heaven
Maiden-Mother-Crone
Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva
Birth-Life-Death
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion
Join best selling authors Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman as they embark on a fascinating journey to reveal the secret of the power of three and unlock the code behind the creative force of the universe: a force which each and every one of us has access to.
Marie D. Jones is the best-selling author of “2013: End of Days or a New Beginning,” “The Deja vu Enigma: A Journey Through the Anomalies of Mind, Memory and Time,” and “11:11 – The Time Prompt Phenomenon: The Meaning Behind Mysterious Signs, Sequences and Synchronicities.” She has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows worldwide, and has been interviewed for dozens of print and on-line publications. She is a popular public speaker and radio show host, and partners with Larry Flaxman in ParaExplorers.com.
Larry Flaxman is the best-selling author of “The Deja vu Enigma: A Journey Through the Anomalies of Mind, Memory and Time” and “11:11 – The Time Prompt Phenomenon: The Meaning Behind Mysterious Signs, Sequences and Synchronicities.” He is President and Founder of ARPAST, the Arkansas Paranormal and Anomalous Studies Team, one of the nation’s largest paranormal research organizations, and is a highly regarded public speaker. Larry has appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs, and in print and online publications. He is partners with Marie D. Jones in ParaExplorers.com.
The Trinity Secret with Marie Jones
Marie Jones: The Trinity & Destiny vs. Choice
Marie D. Jones joins Dr. Rita Louise on Just Energy Radio where they discuss the concept of the trinity (the occurance of the number three) in our world. Marie also delves into her book Destiny vs. Choice.
About Marie Jones
Marie also spent fifteen years as a field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network in Los Angeles and San Diego. She currently serves as Director of Special Projects to ARPAST, the Arkansas Paranormal and Anomalous Studies Team. She recently appeared on the History Channel’s “Nostradamus Effect” series and “30 Odd Minutes” television with Jeff Belanger, and has been interviewed on hundreds of radio shows all over the world. Marie is a highly regarded and popular speaker on science, metaphysics, consciousness and the paranormal and has appeared at major conferences and events
Spiritual bypassing—the use of spiritual beliefs to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs—is so pervasive that it goes largely unnoticed. The spiritual ideals of any tradition, whether Christian commandments or Buddhist precepts, can provide easy justification for practitioners to duck uncomfortable feelings in favor of more seemingly enlightened activity. When split off from fundamental psychological needs, such actions often do much more harm than good.
While other authors have touched on the subject, this is the first book fully devoted to spiritual bypassing. In the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa’s landmark Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Spiritual Bypassing provides an in-depth look at the unresolved or ignored psychological issues often masked as spirituality, including self-judgment, excessive niceness, and emotional dissociation.
A longtime psychotherapist with an engaging writing style, Masters furthers the body of psychological insight into how we use (and abuse) religion in often unconscious ways. This book will hold particular appeal for those who grew up with an unstructured new-age spirituality now looking for a more mature spiritual practice, and for anyone seeking increased self-awareness and a more robust relationship with themselves and others.
Questions about Spiritual Bypassing
In this video interview Robert address questions relating to his new book “Spiritual Bypassing”.
The questions answered in this video are:
1) What compelled you to write the book Spiritual Bypassing?
2) Do you think that Spiritual Bypassing will transform everyone who reads it?
Robert Augustus Masters – Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D., is the author of 11 books (including Transformation Through Intimacy and Spiritual Bypassing), a relationship expert, a spiritual teacher, and a highly experienced psychotherapist (and trainer of psychotherapists) with a doctorate in Psychology. His uniquely integral, intuitive work (developed over the past 33 years) dynamically blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing full-blooded embodiment, authenticity, emotional openness and literacy, deep shadow work, and the development of relational maturity.
At essence his work is about becoming more intimate with all that we are, in the service of deep healing, awakening, and integration. In all this he works side-by-side and in very close conjunction with Diane, his wife and partner in all things. His websites are www.robertmasters.com and www.masterscenter.net.
This book is a clarion call for an expanded vision of human possibilities. In it, many of the best thinkers of our day ask us to renew the perennial search for self-knowledge and to discover the deeper meaning of our lives.
For this, they offer the transpersonal perspective—which extends beyond conventional psychology and science to include the study of consciousness in its myriad forms, including altered states, yoga, dreams, and contemplation. This marriage of psychology and science with the spiritual traditions has borne ripe fruit: the transpersonal vision, which offers a uniquely generous and encompassing view of human nature.
The fifty essays that make up Paths Beyond Ego apply transpersonal thinking to individual growth, psychotherapy, meditation, dreams, psychedelics, science, ethics, philosophy, ecology, and service. The result is an integrated and comprehensive overview of the many dimensions of human experience.
In clear, accessible writing, the contributors suggest that our potential for enhancing human abilities is much greater than previously suspected and that our tools for this grand undertaking are widely available today. The transpersonal vision offers great hope for the future—and links us to the timeless wisdom of the ages.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION ONE
The Riddle of Consciousness
1. Psychology, Reality, and Consciousness
2. Psychologia Perennis: The Spectrum of Consciousness (Ken Wilber)
3. The Systems Approach to Consciousness (Charles Tart)
4. Mapping and Comparing States (Roger Walsh)
SECTION TWO
Meditation: Royal Road to the Transpersonal
5. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Jack Kornfield)
6. Meditation Research: The State of the Art (Roger Walsh)
7. Even the Best Meditators Have Old Wounds to Heal: Combining Meditation and Psychotherapy (Jack Kornfield)
SECTION THREE
Lucid Dreaming
8. Benefits of Lucid Dreaming (Judith Malamud)
9. Learning Lucid Dreaming (Stephen LaBerge)
10. Beyond Lucidity: Moving Toward Pure Consciousness (Jayne Gackenbach and Jane Bosveld)
11 Continuous Consciousness (Sri Aurobindo)
12. From Lucidity to Enlightenment: Tibetan Dream Yoga (Stephen LaBerge)
SECTION FOUR
The Mind Manifesters: Implications of Psychedelics
13. Do Drugs Have Religious Import? (Huston Smith)
14. The Varieties of Consciousness: Observations from Nitrous Oxide (William James)
15. Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (Stanislav Grof)
PART II
THE FARTHER REACHES OF DEVELOPMENT
SECTION FIVE
Transpersonal dimensions of development
16. The Spectrum of Transpersonal Development (Ken Wilber)
17. Becoming Somebody and Nobody: Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (John H. Engler)
18. The Varieties of Egolessness (Mark Epstein)
19. The Pre/Trans Fallacy (Ken Wilber)
SECTION SIX
Problems on the Path: Clinical Concerns
20. Spiritual Emergency: The Understanding and Treatment of Transpersonal Crises
(Christina Grof and Stanislav Grof)
21. Addiction as Spiritual Emergency (Christina Grof and Stanislav Grof)
22. The Shadow of the Enlightened Guru (Georg Feurestein)
23. The Spectrum of Pathologies (Ken Wilber)
SECTION SEVEN
The Quest for Wholeness: Transpersonal Therapies
24. The Spectrum of Therapies (Ken Wilber)
25. Healing and Wholeness: Transpersonal Psychotherapy (Frances Vaughan)
26. Assumptions of Transpersonal Psychotherapy (Bryan Wittine)
27. Integral Practices: Body, Heart and Mind (Michael Murphy)
PART III
FOUNDATIONS AND APPLICATIONS
SECTION EIGHT
Science, Technology, and Transcendence
28. Different Views from Different States (Gordon Globus)
29. Eye to Eye: Science and Transpersonal Psychology (Ken Wilber)
30. Science and Mysticism (Fritjof Capra)
31. Transpersonal Anthropology (Charles D. Laughlin, Jr., John McManus, and Jon Shearer)
32. The Near-Death Experience (Kenneth Ring)
SECTION NINE
The Philosophy of Transcendence
33. Transpersonal Worldviews: Historical and Philosophical reflections (Robert A. McDermott)
34. The Perennial Philosophy (Aldous Huxley)
35. The Great Chain of Being (Ken Wilber)
36. Hidden Wisdom (Roger Walsh)
SECTION TEN
Minding Our World: Service and Sustainability
37. The Nobel Peace Lecture: A Call for Universal Responsibility (The Dalai Lama)
38. Compassion: The Delicate Balance (Ram Dass)
39. Conscious Love (John Welwood)
40. Transpersonal Ecology (Warwick Fox)
41. Deep Ecology: Living as If Nature Mattered (Bill Devall and George Sessions)
42. The Tao of Personal and Social Transformation (Duane Elgin)
43. Transpersonal Experience and the Global Crisis (Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof)
44. An Inner Manhattan Project (Peter Russell)
SECTION ELEVEN
Envisioning the Future
45. Paths Beyond Ego in the Coming Decades
46. The Adventure of Consciousness (Roger Walsh and Frances Vaughan) Ph.D.Frances Vaughan: Spirituality and Psychology (excerpt) — Thinking Allowed
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a 30-minute DVD.
http://www.thinkingallowed.com/2fvaughan.html
True psychology is incomplete without an understanding of the spiritual yearnings of human beings. Frances Vaughan, Ph.D., is a transpersonal psychotherapist and president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. She is author of Awakening Intuition and The Inward Arc. Dr. Vaughan stresses that all spiritual traditions ultimately offer a means toward transcendence of the limited self.
Stan Grof, M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist with more than fifty years experience researching the healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. His groundbreaking theories influenced the integration of Western science with his brilliant mapping of the transpersonal dimension.
The full-length film “2012 Time for Change”, premiered last month in San Francisco at the Lumiere-Landmark. It projects a radical alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee Joao Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest for a new paradigm that integrates the archaic wisdom of tribal cultures with the scientific method.
Acharya David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri) is a unusual western born knowledge-holder in the Vedic tradition. He carries many special Vedic ways of knowledge (vidyas), which he passes on to students in India and in the West. In India, Vamadeva is recognized not only as a Vedacharya (Vedic teacher), but also as a Vaidya (Ayurvedic doctor and teacher), Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer), Puranic (Vedic historian), a Hindu acharya (Hindu religious teacher) and a Raja Yogi.
In India, Vamadeva’s translations and interpretations of the ancient Vedic teachings have been given great acclaim in both spiritual and scholarly circles. In America he is known as a teacher and practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine and of Vedic astrology (Jyotish) and has done pioneering work on both these subjects in the West. Most recently the integration of Yoga and Ayurveda has come to the forefront of his work.
Pandit Vamadeva (Dr. Frawley) presents authentic Vedic knowledge in the Western world and in a lucid presentation recognized by the tradition itself. He has worked extensively teaching, writing, lecturing, conducting research and helping establish schools and associations in related Vedic fields over the last thirty years. He has studied and traveled widely gathering knowledge, working with various Vedic teachers and groups in a non-sectarian manner.
Vamadeva sees his role as helping to revive Vedic knowledge in an interdisciplinary approach for the planetary age. He sees himself as a teacher and translator to help empower people to use Vedic systems to enhance their lives and aid in their own Self-realization. He sees Vedic wisdom as a tool for liberation of the spirit, not as a dogma to bind people or to take power over them. For him, Vedic knowledge is a means of communing with the conscious universe and learning to embody it in our own life and perception.
Though Vamadeva has worked in several different fields, he has endeavored to approach each of these with a great deal of specificity and precision, providing both the background philosophy and deeper practices. For a good overview of his work and background, it is best to examine his book Yoga and the Sacred Fire: Self-Healing and Planetary Transformation (2005).
KAISA PUHAKKA, PhD, teaches psychotherapy and its integration with Buddhist practice as a core faculty member at California Institute of Integral Studies.
She also works with clients and supervises students and interns in private practice. Her ongoing personal inquiry draws from Dzogchen texts, Krishnamurti, and vipassana and Zen practices, among others.
Interview
ANDREW COHEN: I’d like to begin by asking you: Who is the most enlightened person you know of? Who has touched your heart the most and in whom do you have the greatest faith—alive or dead?
KAISA PUHAKKA: The Buddha would be one. Ramana Maharshi comes to mind. And I would say that I get that feeling from some of the Tibetan masters. And in the contemporary world, H.H. the Dalai Lama and Sasaki Roshi.
AC: Okay. So now what I want you to do is to imagine—even though I know this is impossible—but anyway, just for fun, imagine that you’re some conglomeration of the Buddha, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Ramana Maharshi and Sasaki Roshi. Imagine that you have embraced their minds. You have become one with their minds and one with their enlightenment—and one with their profound wisdom that comes from beyond the mind.
KP: Alright. Sounds wonderful.
AC: Kaisa Puhakka has stepped aside and now she’s just an empty vehicle for enlightened mind. So now, Enlightened One, I would like to ask you a couple of questions.
The first question is: Transpersonal psychologists seem to be in a double bind. On one hand, they have become experts in using the mind to conceptualize, communicate and facilitate the subtleties of the unfoldment of the evolution of consciousness. On the other hand, in order to truly know the real meaning of the spiritual path, we all have to be willing to give up not only the need to know but also the need to be the one who knows. Enlightened One, what do you have to say about this intriguing double bind that the transpersonal psychologists are in? What do you have to say about the enormous challenge of renouncing the great temptation of the intellectual and personal empowerment of transpersonal psychology’s all-encompassing, profoundly clarifying, intellectually satisfying theories of human development?
KP: The predicament that the transpersonal theorists find themselves in is kind of a heightened human predicament—the human predicament being that we really want to know. It’s very hard to legislate against this instinct to want to know, or this desire or longing to want to know, which is very fundamental and has to do with our desire to touch directly what is real. And so this is just one other expression of it.
There is something very funny about this, of course, because, as you said, in order to really touch enlightenment directly or be enlightened, you have to give up the need to know. So how do you get out of that? It’s a very profound predicament. Because if somebody tells you, “Just give up the need to know and that’s how you’ll get there”—it ain’t gonna work.
AC: So, what would you say to transpersonal psychologists? What would you tell them from your perspective of enlightened mind?
KP: What I would tell them is that in making maps, as they do—they characterize their theories as maps—if you do it like a child who is building sand castles, then there’s nothing wrong with it. The child in his or her most creative mode is excited when the waves come in and wipe out the castle; the child screams with joy as the whole thing crumbles. Then they get the chance to build another one. If we have the appreciation that these maps are something that we have fun doing and that stimulates our minds, but that there are always an infinite number of other ways of drawing maps, then there’s nothing wrong with the map-making activity, just as there’s nothing wrong with the child playing in the sand.
Now the trouble with the map making is when one takes one’s map very seriously and says, “Well, this is the correct road map, and there’s no other map that is as good as this one.” That’s when you are implicitly making the claim that you actually know the territory, that you have walked it, and that there’s some kind of correspondence between the territory and the map. As soon as the map making ceases to be fun and play, as soon as we take the maps too seriously, I think it actually becomes a hindrance to walking the terrain. If you are reading a map when you’re walking, you’re missing everything along the way. As Sasaki Roshi says, “You’re running around thinking that there’s some kind of a spiritual path or great way laid out in front of you like a road. You are fools. There is no road in front of you. The great way comes into being as you walk.” There is no road that is ready-made, let alone a map that will describe the road. The road itself comes into being in the walking.
AC: And besides your advice on making the maps, what would you tell them?
KP: Besides being map makers, as human beings who are concerned with becoming enlightened, they also need to sometimes just do the walking.
AC: Without the maps?
KP: Yes, everybody needs to do the walking without the maps.
AC: Enlightened One, do you think that because of their professional role, there is a strong potential in the ego of the transpersonal psychologist to take refuge in knowing in a way that protects them from the raw, undefended vulnerability of not knowing or having no idea? What I mean to say is: Do you think that it’s possible that the subtle, comprehensive and all-inclusive developmental theories of transpersonal psychology could be, from a certain point of view, the most sophisticated ego defense mechanism ever evolved?
KP: Well, certainly it has the potential to be a very powerful way of making you feel comfortable that you really know the lay of the land and also that you have all but arrived.
AC: Do you think that the challenge of letting go, for the transpersonal psychologist, could potentially be that much more difficult because, in their case, there is that much more to let go of? Indeed, the direct experience of profound letting go, of having to radically abandon identification with knowing or being the one who knows, could be that much more terrifying?
KP: Yes, that is true. Though I find that basically to be true of all intellectual-type people. With them it’s the philosophies or intellectual constructions that get in the way, and with other people it’s something else. But certainly, here the irony of it is heightened because here we have people who essentially are seeking to free themselves from all these trappings—whereas other people may not have that as a goal. In wanting to pursue freedom and enlightenment, the theories become the trappings, and they become very, very powerful trappings.
If somebody had to live my life, why did it have to be me?!
As a young woman on the spiritual path, I was always both intrigued and bothered by the concept of karma. It just didn’t seem accurate that everyone I knew who remembered a past life was a princess in Egypt or a king in medieval Europe. Or perhaps they had done something really terrible in a past life and they were being punished by God by not being able to get pregnant or running into continuous relationship landmines. The deeper principle of karma called to me, while many of the explanations seemed superficial and overly linear. So I did what any diligent young spiritual journalist would do, approaching each spiritual teacher or great yogi I met on my travels, and asking “What is karma?” and over the years try to sift through it all.
My conclusion, to date, is twofold: 1) The deeper principles of karma are so subtle and intricate that a lifetime of skillful inquiry and practice are necessary to begin to near a real understanding of it; 2) Viewing karma through the lens of deep psychology provides a means to approach the question of karma in a user-friendly and practical way.
Our personal psychology is how our karmic patterns show up in this lifetime. A general Buddhist or Hindu perspective on karma suggests that the individual soul moves through consciousness lifetime after lifetime, incarnating again and again in the school of life in order to complete various tasks and lessons, and to release contractions of consciousness.
The conditions and circumstances of each incarnation are based on forces far greater than most of us can conceive of. These forces determine the quality of consciousness we are given, the culture and families we are born into, the bodies we have and the significant experiences and relationships we encounter. “The accumulated imprints of past lives, rooted in afflictions, will be experienced in present and future lives,” writes Patañjali in The Yoga Sūtras, the text that outlines contemporary Classical Yoga. If we want to unravel the karma we have accumulated in past lives, we need look no further than our present life circumstances.
Whatever we are experiencing in the present moment is both the fruition of our previous karma and the planting of seeds for future karma. The circumstances we encounter are our karma, are the expression of our consciousness, are the seeds of our future. We are in a great hologram of karma, and our lives reflect the intersection of our family or genealogical karma, the collective karma of our culture and, in many cases, a particular set of karmas that is expressed through the teachers and communities we encounter on the spiritual journey.
There are confrontational moments of bare honesty in life during which we perceive clearly that we are reaping the seeds we have sown at an earlier time, whether through accident, illness or misfortune. An illustration is the case of the father of a friend of mine who ran drugs for many years. When he tried to get out of the business, he was brutally tortured by a group of hit men who had come to his house looking for his hidden stash of cash. He could change his karma, but he could not evade having to experience the karmic seeds he had sown.
More commonly, many of us have found ourselves in a situation in which a seeming white lie, innocent exaggeration or an act of ignorance or indulgence comes back to haunt us. At other times, there is a nonlinear ripening of certain past karmas arising from a time or circumstance that is beyond our conscious capacity to perceive. To even consider that the psychological and practical circumstances we face are powerfully influenced by karmic forces requires a willingness to significantly broaden our viewpoint; it also offers the possibility of accepting a degree of self-responsibility that can be simultaneously daunting and liberating.
It is possible to trace our current psychological challenges not only to our parents but to our grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and even earlier. We discover that so many of the deep challenges we face on many levels, and that sometimes feel so devastatingly personal — not only emotional challenges but relational, physical and circumstantial ones — are literally passed down through generation after generation and result from a degree of conditioning that is totally impersonal and unconscious.
We may be shocked to realize that the essence of many of the powerful experiences we have are influenced in an immediate way by our great-great-grandparents and even further back in history. These include depression, relationship patterns, illnesses, divorces and even the age at which we die, as well as many “choices” we experience ourselves making, such as how many children we have, having an abortion or who we choose to be in relationship with. Only now, they are being lived out in a different circumstance and moment of history. For many people, it is easier to understand and believe the reality of karma when perceived in this tangible and practical way than through the vague notion of a soul moving from lifetime to lifetime.
It is not easy to open ourselves to a wider perspective of reality in which challenging questions of justice, victimization and fairness are seen through such a wide lens. Yet, as with everything, even this perspective can be misused. Here is one example: A woman I know was kidnapped, badly raped and almost murdered. Her New Age boyfriend persuaded her to drop the charges, convincing her that she had attracted the situation to herself. Later, she suffered for this premature psychological “bypass” of the trauma she had endured. We cannot presume to understand the full complexity of karma, as it is vast and difficult for anyone to grasp.
The implications of this perspective are manifold: On the one hand, we are not at “fault” for many of the thoughts, feelings and challenging circumstances that arise in our lives; on the other hand, we are totally responsible to our lives in the present and for the implications of our actions. We release shame and self-blame, while strengthening our personal accountability and responsibility.
A number of therapies concern themselves with past-life traumas, and spiritual students are endlessly fascinated by who they might have been or what they might have done in their past lifetimes, but from a practical perspective we need look no further than our present circumstances in order to address our karma: It is all right in front of us. Whether we were a farmer in Mesopotamia, a slave trader in the American South or a bus driver in the 1940s is irrelevant for most of us. What is important is whether we are able to meet our present circumstance with a clear and discerning perspective and refrain from taking actions that further the endless repetition of unfavorable and limiting aspects of our karmic conditioning. From this perspective, psychology becomes a tool we can use to unlock, work with and evolve our karma.
Adapted and updated from “Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path” (Sounds True, 2010)
Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick
Co-directors, University of Santa Monica; authors, ‘Loyalty to Your Soul: The Heart of Spiritual Psychology’
Henry David Thoreau, in the mid 1800s, wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
A century and a half has passed, and Thoreau’s words still strongly echo in our lives. Consider the current levels of war, poverty, sickness, starvation, etc. present in the world today. We understand that a recent United Nations study1 reported on the status, or well-being, of the people of member nations regarding challenges those people face daily. They took all the responses received and boiled them down to one word to describe the overall condition of the people of these nations. That word is “meaningless.”
And lest we egotistically think that such studies are only descriptive of so-called underdeveloped countries, do we not have ample evidence much closer to home that reflects this same condition? Consider distressingly high teen suicide rates, bulging prison populations, rampant family disharmony and pervasive political dissension. Imagine, for huge numbers of people alive at this time, perhaps including you, that life is experienced as meaningless.
But Thoreau said “most men,” and “most” is not “all.” Who, then, are those who did not, or will not, die without fully singing the song they were born to sing?
They are the ones who realize that true and lasting happiness and fulfillment can never be won on the battlefield of material success, no matter how powerful or wealthy one becomes, or how adept one is at surrounding oneself with the “right” people or circumstances.
The songsters among us are those who have come to know that, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin reminded us, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” That one sentence has profound implications, for how does one live in the conscious awareness of his or her spiritual nature?
The single message of those who have realized such potential has always been the same, and basically, it comes down to this: True and lasting happiness and fulfillment are an individual affair and can only be found by going deep within, where one’s true essence is vividly and stunningly revealed as love — and then living into the reality of that awareness.
For those of us alive today, this realization is actually good news and explains the rapidly increasing interest in spiritual activity worldwide. More people today than ever before in human history are waking up into the awareness of spiritual reality. In terms of the UN study, more and more people are coming to the realization that what they are truly seeking is meaning in their lives. Let’s be even more precise: it’s neither gold nor land nor even being right for which we truly yearn; rather, it is that our lives count for something a good deal deeper than the latest electronic gadget. it is not surprising that the number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide continues to grow and provide enormous amounts of compassion-based service in various parts of the world.
From our 32 years at the University of Santa Monica educating several thousand people in the newly emerging field of spiritual psychology, we’ve become aware of an extremely important dynamic that ties together psychological well-being and spiritual evolution.
Who would have ever thought that resolving the seemingly endless experience of emotional suffering would be a measure of spiritual evolution?
The Persian poet Rumi had a clue when he stated, “Your task is not to seek for love, your task is to seek and find all the barriers you have built against it.” And to that we would add: “And to dissolve them.” At USM, we refer to Rumi’s “barriers” as “unresolved issues,” which are at the core of almost all emotional suffering.
It’s our unresolved issues (barriers) that keep us asleep and unaware of who we are: divine beings whose essential nature is loving. And what’s an unresolved issue? “Anything that disturbs your peace.” And we do mean anything. In fact, we’ve devised a simple, foolproof test for identifying unresolved issues. Ready?
Do you ever find yourself in an attitude of “I am upset because [fill in the blank]“? Consider the possibility that anytime you are upset about anything, regardless of all your well thought-through reasons, your school has gone into session and an unresolved issue has been surfaced in your awareness. Further, when viewed from within the context of spiritual psychology, such instances of moving into “upset” are sacred opportunities for healing the underlying, unresolved issue for the last time.
And how do you do it? One of the principles of spiritual psychology is that “healing is the application of loving to the parts inside that hurt.”
If ever there was a way to transform a life of quiet desperation into a life of effective peaceful living, healing inner hurts surely ranks right up there. As you resolve issues, you stand up in who you truly are and find purpose and meaning in sharing your unique contribution.
The more issues you resolve, the more you evolve spiritually, the more peaceful and caring you become, and the more you contribute to the evolution of consciousness of the human species. As we say at USM, “Every time one person resolves one issue, all of humanity evolves.”
Meaning is a natural and automatic by-product of a life filled with acts of love. If you want to live a life filled with meaning, start expressing from your essential loving nature. Start singing your song.
Ready to begin? Here’s a simple process that you can try out and experience the result for yourself. For the next week, everywhere you go and under all circumstances, consciously choose to see the loving nature in everyone you encounter. That means resisting the urge to succumb to the negative habit of judging them.
And oh, there is one small guideline you’ll need to follow: This way of seeing extends to everyone, including yourself, regardless of any considerations.
Spiritual Psychology: Can my own spiritual curriculum bring harm to others?
Video from University of Santa Monica Special Event: President and Chief Academic Officer, Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick answer a question about Spiritual Curriculum.
Another saint has passed. Spiritual leader and Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba died on April 24, 2011. Was he more saint or more sinner, who can ultimately say? He was, above all, a human being, just like every other significant spiritual teacher on the planet.
Although I never met Sathya Sai Baba, when I learn of his death, my heart saddens. For the hundreds of thousands of people who considered him to be their guru, the countless lives benefitted from his service, the glory and suffering of this man’s life, as well as the grace and challenges that faced all who surrounded him.
I remember learning about Sathya Sai Baba as a 25-year-old woman living in India. I had traveled there on a one-way ticket and was finding my way around, not even willing to use a guidebook less the “Inner Voice” I was seeking to follow be thwarted by the influence of those who had traveled before me.
The first wanna-be guru I spent several weeks with there considered himself to be a guru in the direct lineage of Sathya Sai Baba, though they had never met in person. Sathya Sai Baba was known for his miracles, and those devoted to him often found a sacred ash called vibhuti on their altars. So when a gray ash appeared on my bed in my tiny room alongside the Ganges River, I reported this to my new teacher. It was quickly assumed that I had been the recipient of this miraculous ash and word quickly spread that I was to be an important disciple of my new guru.
Something felt … well, wrong about this. After a few days in my newfound local fame, I returned to my little room, borrowed a broom, moved my bed to the middle of the room and promptly stood up on it and vigorously swept the ceiling. Lo and behold, cheap gray Indian paint rained upon me.
I was relieved somehow — I didn’t need to be the recipient of miraculously manifested sacred ash. I was just looking to find happiness, love, and whatever this longed-for enlightenment might be, but not ash. My popularity diminished almost instantly.
Most believe that Sathya Sai Baba did indeed possess the magical power, or siddhi, to manifest fancy objects and jewels for his followers. Others suggest this was entirely fraudulent. But let us assume it might have been true — this would not mean anything about his enlightenment or lack of enlightenment, but rather that he possessed a great power. If this power was somehow fraudulent, but faith was healed among disbelievers and people found themselves closer to love of the Divine, could it be said to be altogether bad? The benefit is that this power awakened tens or hundreds of thousands of people from the disbelief in the divine. It healed their cynicism and opened their hearts. Praise to any gift that can open hearts, let us just not mistake this for enlightenment.
Many years ago I felt the need for a great book to be written about what happens to spiritual communities when a teacher dies. I asked a writer friend if he could do it as I could not find the time. Sadly there are few resources written for support on this trans-cultural challenge that is timeless in its nature, and contains cultural and historical variables given the complexity of the times we are living in, the immensity of projections onto the guru, and the distinctions regarding the Eastern and Western psyche. It is such an important transition for each student or disciple, so many predictable challenges regarding power, leadership, loss, reorganization of the community. I wish his families and followers ease in their grieving, all of us spaciousness and forgiveness around any of Sathya Sai Baba’s weaknesses, and most of all, integrity to those who are charged with the responsibility of spiritual leadership.
I have tried to write about these issues extensively in my forthcoming book The Guru Question: The Perils and Rewards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher. However, the fact remains: discernment is a lifelong process, and there are more questions than answers. Each life, each relationship is distinct. We can simply cultivate greater discernment as we journey through a labyrinth of increasing subtlety.
Another historical figure, renowned guru, and servitor of our time has passed. Praise to his goodness and may his great influence continue touch lives and promote healing on the planet.
About this author
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
