Are You a Spiritual Sampler?
by Hu Dalconzo
Many spiritual seekers have sampled a rich array of spiritual
practices on their... journey home to their Self. The world
does not make the journey home to your Self an easy one. It's
not easy to find your Self in a society that does its best to
make you believe that you are a body; where power and materialism
are valued above kindness and sensitivity; where technology has
evolved faster than our spiritual consciousness, and where during
the Christmas holidays the marketing of toys has made Santa Claus
more popular than Jesus.
In the Kabala, the ancient Jewish holy book, there is a passage
that explains that when a spiritual seeker is truly ready
to awaken, she1 must "dig one deep well" until she finds
the cool, clean water of the real SELF. She must choose one path
and follow it until she rediscovers her own unique inner Self.
Experience has taught me two things in this regard, the first
being that many seekers change spiritual methods as soon as the
emotional waters get too hot; by hot I mean when the seeker comes
face to face with the core fears that they have been battling
with their whole life. Secondly, many seekers don't know the difference
between enlightenment and empowerment.
In the East, the terms enlightenment and empowerment are used
interchangeably. However, I've found that when teaching Westerners,
these two terms needed to be differentiated so as not to confuse
a knowingness (studying, philosophizing, conceptualizing) with
a doing-ness (implementing, experiencing, actualizing).
Enlightenment, alone, only leads to intellectual faith
and faith without action is useless. It usually manifests into
SELF-DELUSION, and there is nothing worse than Self-delusion
for a person who is on a... journey home to Self-mastery!
The key is to find one spiritual method that feels right,
and then commit to staying with it, until you find the
TRUTH that dwells within you. This book was written to
assist those of you who are ready to dig their own deep spiritual
well.
Years ago I was listening to a lecture by Ram Dass2 on... Why
many seekers are hooked on the search for enlightenment, and
I realized that I was one of them! I enjoyed going away to spiritual
intensives and meditating with a guru, but it was hard for me
to feel my feelings that I had repressed since childhood. I was
a spiritually conscious person who spent much of my time getting
high on how enlightenment works, but I was unwilling to face my
inner dragons. I felt good as long as I was learning about various
spiritual methods, but as soon as I stopped and allowed myself
to just be... I would feel unhappy, sad, or depressed.
I was unconsciously using my search for enlightenment as a way
to keep my MIND busy so as to prevent me from facing and feeling
my fears. As long as I gave my mind something positive to think
about, I felt pretty good; but when I stopped, I would surface
feelings of discontent that were painfully undeniable. I was addicted
to spiritual study and research, and I used them as an emotional
escape!
To feel better, I started applying the four Self-mastery Disciplinas.
I stopped denying my feelings and I began to follow them to their
original source. It was quite a challenge for me to overcome my
feelings of insecurity that I had felt as a child but it was well
worth the effort! To quote John Bradshaw, "Your parents' intentions
don't count when it comes to your personal healing; the only thing
that does count...is how you feel!"
I knew that if I truly wanted to be Self-empowered, I needed
to surface what I had suppressed for forty years! I had repressed
feelings and beliefs such as... I'm not good enough; I don't belong;
I don't deserve success. My parents loved me, but they were poorly
educated immigrants who did not understand child psychology. I
finally realized that if I were going to feel better I had to
change me...not them! I needed to take full responsibility
for my feelings and forgive others and myself unconditionally!
I began to learn how to let my intuitive feelings drive my spiritual
bicycle built for two. I ordered my mind to sit in the back seat
and peddle. I was learning how to dis-create my negative mind
talk and I started listening to my HEART! I finally understood
the Zen proverb that, "The mind makes a great servant, but
a lousy master!"
Intellectually, I knew that I was safe, but emotionally I was
still scared to feel my hurt feelings. I was a spiritual seeker
who couldn't understand why his life wasn't getting any better.
I was confused because I studied Eastern spiritual philosophy
and in that philosophy, the term enlightenment encompassed both
the doing as well as the knowing. What I learned was that I, as
a Westerner, needed to differentiate between the two. My ego had
me hooked on the knowingness, that is, on the learning or enlightenment
aspect of my journey. I was confusing enlightenment with empowerment,
that is, with the actual implementation of what I was learning
in such a way that I internalized and emotionalized it. It was
this confusion that was keeping me stuck in the past.
Wow...what a realization! I had spent fifteen years of
my life learning how the game of life worked (enlightenment) with
little to no time invested into making it any better (empowerment).
I meditated on why I wasn't taking action on what I had learned
and I discovered that I was afraid to feel my repressed feelings!
Gradually... I learned how to make my Spirit the master of my
ego mind! I told my mind that it was now safe to feel again! Slowly,
but surely, my ego defenses surrendered. I learned how to eat
my emotional elephant one bite at a time until my emotional upsets
became less intense and less frequent. I felt like a spiritual
Rip Van Winkle who had finally awakened from an emotional nightmare!
Namaste, my soul friends..... Hu Dalconzo
Do You have a Question or Comment?
We would love to hear from you.
Very important: to ensure you receive our emails, be sure to
white list (aka “approve”) our domain name HolisticLearningCenter.com
in your email filter program.
Find out more: Receive FREE Holistic Times Magazine, a 78-Minute That Could Change Your Life CD and available on the website a Printable On-line Catalog
Or take action now and... Experience HLC's Courses Risk Free Now!
Read the article "Proof that Self-Help Exercises Work" based on HLC's 10 years of clinical research on Self-Mastery: http://www.holisticlearningcenter.com/download/clinicalarticle.pdf
Learn more about HLC's founder and author of Self-Mastery...A Journey Home to Yourself, Hu Dalconzo: http://www.holisticlearningcenter.com/bio.html
|
