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Instant Gratification Vs. Long Hard Work
08 Nov 2001 [Regarding the path of spiritual growth and evolution] lynda ____________________ God I really hate these lies. Why is there such a common tendency to create distance between the various stages on the path?! There is no such distance. I think these kind of statements are the worst form of suggestion one can give to a fellow aspirant! So I would like to reverse the suggestion quoted above with the following: You don't have a long way to go - in fact you are already there. This doesn't mean that you won't have use for patience. The fact that your soul has evolved to the point were it is now, is in itself an amazing proof of perseverance! So don't worry about that. Just observe and expect the presence of the One. It is there already at the centre of your being, as it always were. Furthermore the Self is indivisible so it is not a question of some "divine spark". It is there, the lot, all of it, always. Don't run, there is nowhere to run to anyway. Blessings in L.V.X. to you all Joachim ____________________ Actually, I like those words. They are a reversal of what one would "expect" to hear regarding the work. Do not expect instant gratification. The words tend to discourage, which is a highly valuable suggestion: The "luke-warm" will be dissuaded from continuing and thus benefit. They will instead spend their time and energy on other more profitable pursuits as they find those other things which truly "interest" and "excite" them. The "ambitious" will be angered and will thus forge onward even stronger to their ego's needed awakening - thus they benefit also. I too was once an ambitious spiritual aspirant. Now, I'm just tired and lazy - and NOT DOING A DAMNED THING! RL ____________________ Joachim writes: > What's wrong with positive encouragement if that can make the Nothing is wrong. There is, however, a qualitative difference between sharing one's experience for the benefit of others, and Advertising instant gratification. Either way, one offers to others an exercise in discrimination. RL > > > >Now, I'm just tired and lazy - and NOT DOING A DAMNED THING! > > How come? found other things that truly interest and excite you? > YES, LIFE. RL ____________________ Red Lion wrote: > Actually, I like those words. ...which is SOMETIMES a highly valuable suggestion, Red Lion. Sometimes it produces the opposite effect. Your sentiment is quite ironic. Yet what would one expect if not irony from Red Lion? ;-) Sometimes teachers, not students, expect instant gratification. And those words you liked so much came from a teacher of mine. "Reverse psychology" does not always work, and it can be and often is damaging to the psyche of a practitioner. I've seen it happen to others, and I am living this very experience right now, desiring to turn my back on someone who insists on teaching what he refers to as "The Key 12 way" but, which to me just looks like pompous cruelty at times. Sometimes a duck is a duck is a duck. It amuses me to read so often the posts that say if it hurt you, look at yourself ... Brother A defending Brother B's projections ... as though all unkindness is defensible. I'd say that the person who gets off on discouraging others ought to look at himself/herself. Why would anyone want to Discourage anyone? Why would anyone want to place a cloud of doubt on the heart of an initiate? Why would anyone want to feed the hesitations of a new seeker, risking that those hesitations will turn into fear and avoidance? I expect this will instigate a round of posts in defense of the person in question. And that's fine. I'm entitled to my opinion and I have a duty to share my experience with those who may be experiencing similar challenges. Teaching is not a role we're all cut out for. Those who take it on as an active role have a burden to bear. Paul Foster Case bore that burden graciously. Is there anything Discouraging in anything he wrote? Yes, we get what we need, and apparently I needed the sort of teacher I got to get my motor running. But the mistake that can be made is to assume that the lesson and the manner in which it is delivered need to be the same. Contrariness is what it is all about, true. But it need not be delivered in a contrary manner. Any loss from our midst, even temporarily, because of the "discouraging words" of a teacher is an unnecessary delay to the growth of the whole. Lynda ____________________ No advice. No pop-psy tricks. Just an observation: We share our truth with others, and provide them and ourselves with an exercise in discrimination. This happens in all aspects of Life. You encounter something which your discriminative faculties tell you are not in harmony with your being or with what you want. Can you toss it without judging it Good or bad? RL ____________________ RL, Your great gift is perceiving obvious but unusual aspects of reality and presenting them in a non-religious, take it or leave it attitude. This makes it hard to resist. "Ve haf our methods," he says from his blockhouse. Joseph ____________________ Yes, Red Lion, all five senses are reverberating on the truth you are speaking. It is a lesson in discrimination. Discriminating between what I WANT and do not WANT. Between what I AM and the rest of what I AM, because I AM everything. In LVX Lynda ____________________ Dear Lynda Of course there are things to learn, and insights that reach ever deeper as time goes by, but no one gets anywhere in unlearning the illusion of separation by being told that they're 500 years behind with their work. And from my perspective, those who prefer to scare away "the luke-warm" might just as well miss the opportunity of their lifetime in learning something from this person at a later stage. I think Lon Milo Duquette had one of his really bright moments when he wrote: "The real work is always accomplished by the Aspirant alone. More often than not the student learns in spite of the teacher's effort to help, not as the result of it." I have been held back by "pissy mentors" myself, who did what they could in keeping the distance, and the self-esteem low. Why did I attract such a situation in my life? Maybe I needed the school of hard knocks for a while, maybe it was so that I could more easily feel unity with others with similar experience. To be honest, I have played the part of bullying pissy mentor also. Why did I do this? I can't think of any answer than because of unrecognized insecurities in myself. No more. With fraternal love in L.V.X. Joachim ____________________ JN: I feel slightly deprived, I never had a pissy mentor to learn from. Ann was my only mentor for 12 years and she was definitely NOT pissy. But she never suggested a damn thing for me to do which I kept waiting for.. I found she lied a lot as she said i was perfect. I finally learned that she mentored by drawing my observation to her actions but which left me with the responsibility of interpreting those actions. The inference was that actions spoke louder than words. I guess she never had any proper mentoring lessons or examples as Paul did the same non-pissy thing to her. She never taught but I sure learned a lot from her actions. I tried to do some mentoring some time ago when i was a young 75. I finally gave it up as fruitless but was tempted to continue because i learned so much from my efforts. But I just couldn't out-teach the lessons that life brought my students. If you have a personality, that is the ingress point of all the mentoring you will ever need. Joseph ____________________ Of course, even if the path does entail "long hard work", that does not mean that the process can't also be one of great pleasure and thus contain "instant gratification" as well. Both at the same time? Long hard work = Instant Gratification ? Discipline leads to Liberation (see K21). Another paradox! RL |