BY OBSERVING EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WITHIN THE SEEKER THERE ARISES A DEEP COMPASSION.
On the 10th and 11th of August: a celebration of those spiritually blind who have decided not to see.
Those of us who are on a spiritual path, a path of healing, of transcendence or transformation, are moving towards a watershed moment where nothing and indeed no one can help us anymore. Getting to this point is quite a feat. Currently we are undertaking the path by way of some method, technique or accompanied by some guide.Everything that makes it possible for us to cross this path is of temporary and finite use. It’s something we truly need to comprehend so that we can reach that wonderful point successfully.
THE MEANS IS ONLY THE MEANS, NOT THE END
The bridge that takes us to the other side can become a permanent fixture, something definitive, and in this way we become stranded in the process without being able to advance. The bridge is transient, it’s not a place to build a house or to stay and live. We can become addicted to the techniques, the method, the teacher, the means that allowed us to move forward. The means is only a means, it is not the end.
We can become dependent on the effectiveness of a technique, the reliability of a method or the love of a teacher, and due to that addictive bond we may therefore miss out on the possibility of reaching the other side.
Love, meditation, yoga, tantra, entheogenic visionary experiences, are all bridges that lead us to mystery but don’t allow us to reside within it; they only bring us close to it, they help in the approach, to ready us for making the leap, but they cannot make the leap for us.
If we cannot relinquish the means that brought us to the other bank, we will remain on the threshold, without ever crossing over it; thus being unable to enter the temple.
Every method must be forgotten and abandoned at that moment, all in good time, neither before nor after, because if some kind of bond or external dependence is preserved we will not be able to reach the place our soul seeks.
Buddha spoke about this topic, he said that each method is like a raft or a boat, you can use it to cross the river, to get to the other side, but then you must leave it there, forget it, abandon it in order to follow your path. I would go even further and suggest that the boat be burned as a farewell, so it can never be used again.
Most people who use a method become trapped by it, they become addicted to techniques, media, addicted to therapy, to a particular medicine, to a philosophy, to a religion… addicted to something external that gives them security and allows them to continue in the comfort of passivity. And many other people get off the boat before they reach the other shore and drown in the depths of life and the complex situations that arise from them. Getting off the boat early is to forsake the method before it has brought you to the right place from where you can make the leap. Self-deception will play tricks on us. We think we’ve reached the other side, yet we haven’t even crossed the river.
I leave you the words of the Sufi named Janai, who in the book THE WALLED GARDEN OF TRUTH wrote about this situation that I am describing:
“I fear that ignorance and stupidity may leave us stranded on the bridge”
Ignorance combined with stupidity reeks of sleepiness, or as Sanai also said: “To be blind to that which is obvious.”
Life and circumstances show us the path in so many ways, but by not wanting to acknowledge it, we become stupid and ignorant, put another way: voluntarily unconscious beings who decide to accept their conditioning, who choose to be immovable and continue to resist transformation, people who have not been able to abandon their dependence on loyalty towards their own low self-esteem. And when dependence on self-assessment is not exceeded, they develop another addiction to the method in which they believe they will heal, but in turn the method does not give them what was intended, so they are naturally disappointed, even before reaching the other side.
Abandoning the method prematurely displays an addiction to the past, to suicidal unconscious, to mistrust; not abandoning the method when it has already taken you to the other side displays an addiction to all that is comfortable, known and safe.
THE POWER OF THE NON-METHOD
It’s delightful to be within a method that from the very beginning announces to you: “I won’t accompany you forever” “I won’t heal you or help you reach transcendence” “I don’t have the power to transform your life” “I can’t do for you that which you can only do yourself.”
The method I have created has the very characteristics of a non-method, therefore I can affirm that my method does NOT WORK, so that you can begin to free yourself before even starting, I like to support you from the very beginning to be free from any addiction. But I can also assure you that if you don’t give in to this method or any other boat that brings you closer to mystery, you won’t get anywhere, you’ll simply get lost somewhere along the way. Without surrender nothing is possible on this path of awakening. And while being stranded can have a solution later on, if you can see it right now, you’ll aim straight for that end point, you’ll focus on the path that lies ahead and you will reach that turning point from where you can make the leap, just for you; or rather, to abandon your own self and be reborn in to who you really are.
Regaining our sight in order to see what lies before us, is the challenge faced by millions of people around the world. For this very reason, on Saturday the 10th August 2019 I will celebrate my 59th birthday in Marbella, right by the Mediterranean Sea. I’ll host a dinner in honor of all those who are blind, whether they are present or not, whether they are aware or not, because I feel that the work done by those who are spiritually blind is admirable, a real miracle that I admire. How can one sustain an inner blindness that is so acute in the face of a manifestation of truth that is so obvious and blunt, that which is offered to us by our consciousness?
One deserves a celebration.
Alberto Varela
