The Long Winding Road
A friend of mine named Andy shared this with me today and I felt that it was worth sharing.
“Over the years I have read a lot of stuff and have come to realize that there are no “one size fits all” program’s to enlightenment out there, which is not to say that one can’t learn (and I certainly have) from other peoples insights. I am always open to new ideas but most often, when I really explore them I find that the underlying principals of those ideas are already part of my spiritual foundation.
Each new idea is a stepping stone that can be laid on your path but once the path is clear I have found it best to just walk it. If you find that you often loose your way, you can always look for guidance but I will tell you from my own personal experience that I have learned a great many things on life’s little detours.
As long as your not walking in endless circles your probably not really lost.”
I originally posted this article with only the above text. I knew that it resonated with me and that it was an important observation. But today the importance of it became much clearer. Sometimes things need to germinate before they spring forth and bear fruit I suppose.
Aleister Crowley is attributed with the quote “Every man and every woman is a star.” He later explains that what he means by that is that “…every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion”. He goes on to begin to lay the framework regarding the meaning of true will by pointing out that “Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly…A man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment efficiently…man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.”
Herin lies the dilema of the guru, or for that matter the pupil. If the guru has found the path to enlightenment, he most certainly cannot share it with his pupil, because the path of the guru, and the path of the pupil must inevitably be different paths. While both may be able to reach the same destination, they cannot follow the same path in the spacetime continuum. It follows then that there are facts and then there are facts.
Crowley points out that “One asset in the Audit of a fact is the amount of knowledge which it covers.” he gives the following example:
(2 + 5)2 = 49; (3 + 4)2 = 49; (6 + 2)2 =64; (7 + 1)2 = 64; (9 + 4)2 = 169 are isolated facts, no more; worse, the coincidences of 49 and 64 might start the wildest phantasies in your head—”something mysterious about this.” But if you write “The sum of the squares of any two numbers is the sum of the square of each plus twice their multiple”—(a + b)2 = a2 + b{2} + 2ab—you have got a fact which covers every possible case, and exhibits one aspect of the nature of numbers them- selves.
So here we find the true value of an enlightened one. What sort of quality facts can he or she observe that begin to get to one aspect of the nature of man (and woman’s) existence. What postulates might the guru provide to the pupil that will enable him to order the more common facts into a framework that will allow that pupil to be what they are meant to be?
So, traveling through life and observing the experiences and cherishing the memories with an open heart and mind and in love, seems to indeed be the most basic “fact” of existence for those who follow the path toward peace of mind. But are there any things that can be said about the true nature of existence that will serve others as valuable signposts as they find and follow their own unique paths?