Spiritual Crossroads

These are not necessarily powerful and strong individuals. Very often we make a mistake. We mistake charisma for spiritual development. Now the two are definitely not the same. Simply because a person can command attention, a following, because they speak well, because they have power, does not necessarily suggest that they are spiritually advanced. They're advanced in the ways of power, perhaps. But when Jesus said that the meek will inherit the earth, what he was saying was that those that have tremendous purity and a spiritual refinement are those who the kingdom of heaven, as he called it, or enlightenment, will open up to. But yet no one is denied. No one. Because that seeker has passed through the other stages. Because that seeker not long before then was in the middle section where they were very worldly in their aspiration, very volatile. Prior to that they were in another stage where they were very tomasic, they were just very heavy and very slow in their spiritual discovery.

So all of us, all of us and myself of course, have passed through these different stages or are passing through them. One stage is not better than another. We find ourselves in different worlds. What is important, though, is to recognize where you are and to make that your strength, not your weakness. A person in first grade is in no way inferior to a person who's in 12th grade, and they should never think so, but they should be occupying themselves with different subjects.

So a person who's very slow in their spiritual seeking, who's very earthbound still, has to be at this stage dealing with very basic questions of morality, of their lifestyle, and learning very simple disciplines. Persons in the second stage will be very mentally acute. Their minds will be sharp and they'll be very philosophical. They love the concepts of self-discovery. In the very early stages people tend to be rather devotional. When I say that they're heavy, I don't want you to misunderstand. I don't mean that they lack a certain purity. Sometimes they almost have more purity than the people in the second stage. They have a childlike simplicity and devotion that's unmatched. But in the second stage, in another succession of incarnations of spiritual seeking the mind develops and the intellect develops. That soul chooses a developed intellect in each birth. And they become very philosophical, and this is when the ego develops. In other words, in the early stages of spiritual seeking, an early seeker is much more instinctual in their beliefs. They don't need to reason it out. They have a simple, profound faith. And while they themselves may have a lot to still go through, their faith carries them. That's all they need. They don't need anyone to explain. They feel life. It's a very physical understanding, of perceiving life through the senses and through the body and perceiving God through the senses and through the body. The second stage is the most problematic. Because here the ego develops. Many people who teach in the world, who are not enlightened, are in the second stage. They're in love with the concepts, they can talk about it for hours, and there are many, many of these - in the west and in the far east. And they're evolving like everyone is. We're all on a large wheel, the wheel of dharma, and the wheel of dharma spins. We spin from lifetime to lifetime, from birth to death.

The third stage, of course, is one of spiritual refinement. And our particular center is for persons who are in the third stage. You might say that Lakshmi, and other places like Lakshmi, are spiritual finishing schools. What we do is show a person how to overcome the final rough edges.

Now, there are those who are spiritually advanced souls who are in that third stage of their evolution. And in that third stage of their evolution, in this lifetime they've become stuck in the illusory nature of existence and they have no conception of who or what they are. And so initially they go through a great, great struggle. And they usually feel very, very uncomfortable in this world. The world doesn't make a whole lot of sense to them - I've talked to you about it before. But yet there's a distinctive purity, a childlike simplicity to their nature. And they can "see," even when they're children they can "see." Sometimes they tend to be pushed aside by the world because they don't force themselves on others in the world. And many of them have no idea, very few of them have any idea who or what they are. There's no sense of their evolutionary level. Those who have a sense of their evolutionary level are normally in the second stage. Those who think that they're spiritually advanced - they're in the second stage. Those in the first stage - very humble. They're not even concerned about it. They're concerned about being with light and working for light and that's their concern.

Now, let's drop back from this perspective that I've given you. This is one frame of reference. There are many that we spin through. And let's think of a journey. Let's think of a long, long road that stretches nowhere! It doesn't go any place! And the reason we walk along the road is 'cause we find ourselves doing it. And that the journey can be wonderful or the journey can be horrible. It depends upon the impeccability of our spirit.

But let's say as we walk along the road, let's call it the road to truth. It doesn't go anywhere, in my opinion. But let's call it the road to truth. People like to have a sense that they're going someplace. But actually the whole road was truth. The place that they've come from was truth. Although if you look behind you when you're on the road there's nothing there. In the distance you can see some hills. Usually no houses, just hills. Sometimes a bird flies by. Oh! Sometimes a horrible monster pops in the road and you have to fight it to the death. Sometimes someone winks at you and you go off and have fascinating experiences for a lifetime or so. But eventually you go back to the road. This is the road to truth - it doesn't go anywhere. That's what makes it worth walking upon. Because every other road that you could walk on is going to take you someplace and then you're just gonna get there. What fun is that? Because once you get there, you're just gonna be in another place. And you've been to all of them before. But the road to truth is marvelous, because it just doesn't go anyplace. It goes through many places, but it doesn't have a defined stopping point or starting point. It's infinite. Otherwise it would get boring. Otherwise once you've seen where it goes, well, then what? But the road to truth just goes. There's no sense of frustration. It's not that it doesn't go anyplace in the sense that you're on a treadmill. No, it goes through every place. That's what makes it interesting. It goes everyplace - the road to truth. There's no place that it doesn't go! So I suppose we could say that the road to truth goes everywhere and nowhere!

But yet, along the road to truth there are these other roads. Which I suppose go to truth also, since all roads lead to truth. And these are crossroads. We're walking down the road, another road cuts across the road we're on. And at that point we can decide to turn left or right or keep going straight. You can't go back on the road to truth, it's a one way. If you try and go back they'll arrest you. (Slight laughter) Give you a ticket. You have to go to court. Superior Court. You might say the Supreme Court (Audience laughs). So you can't go back. It doesn't work. You can only go forward. Which is in your favor. That's the way that the river flows. Devolution is very difficult. Evolution is easy.

The first crossroads that you will come to, as a seeker, which you have already passed through, all of you who are here (Phew!) (Audience laughs) (Rama changes his voice) "I made it through one at least! Thank heavens!" (Audience laughs).) (Back to normal voice.) The first one that you're going to go through is the recognition that light is worth at least looking at occasionally. Now there are many people who don't have that recognition. At all. Oh, some people look at darkness and they say it's light. Maybe it is, I don't know. I don't think in the sense that you mean though.

Initially they decide they like to look at light once in a while. By that I mean they meditate. Until a person has started to formally meditate they're still early on. But once a person has started to formally meditate on a relatively regular basis striving to cease their thoughts, to gain a little bit of control over their life, they've made a decision, and that's to try. That conscious decision is the first crossroads. When you come to it, you could have stopped there and said, "Well, not this life." "I'm (Rama yawns loudly) kind of tired actually and I think I'll just rest, the next life I'll get there. What's the difference. We're all eternal anyway. I read that in one of those books." (Audience laughs) "Why should I try. I know I'm gonna get there. Listen, I'm just having a good time as it is. I like Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday night (Audience laughs) - or wherever it may be. I'm happy the way I'm not, I am, I'm not, I mean. So I'm just gonna stay here. It's nice and comfortable here. You know, that light can be blinding and annoying to your eyes, don't you think?" (Audience laughs) "No, I like it here. It's sort of like having my sunglasses on all the time."

(Rama returns to his normal voice.) So you've, you've gone further than that. You've started to meditate. Well, you know, you crossed another crossroads. There's another one after that, and you crossed that. And that was you joined an organic fellowship of beings who were walking together along the road. What we call a spiritual community. That's another step. You've decided to study with a teacher. So you went through a second one. Because some people meditate out there on their own, and they're doing fine. But they just feel they don't need the teacher, because they're not in a rush. Why rush? You've got all of eternity. Or at least till you die. Who knows, though. You're not sure, I can tell. Maybe you better rush.

So the second step is finding a teacher. But teachers are a complex issue as you're finding out now. It's not so simple. It is, actually, except that you make it complex. To find a teacher and be accepted by a teacher and start along the way in the spiritual community is the next crossroads. Now to have done this, you're still an absolute beginner. But you managed to get in the door. Step number two.

The next crossroads, ok?, is one that you come to, I would say, at about year one of studying with a teacher. Now, when I say studying with a teacher you understand I mean studying with a teacher who traverses the superconscious. What we call enlightened. Enlightened is a funny word. Hard to define. The less words used, the better. But I think you know what I mean. One who is consciously one with eternity. Not just in thought, but in action and deed, and yet still.

So the next step, then, is that - that first year. OK, now - now this is where it gets more interesting here, we get down to the basics, we're past the prologue. And in the first year of spiritual study with an enlightened teacher you are exposed to a variety of different energies which when properly used will accelerate your growth tremendously no matter what level of spiritual seeker you are. One, two or three; primary, intermediate or advanced. You will see tremendous changes in your life that first year. But - a person will have to make a decision, and that's whether to make it through the first year or not. And a lot of people don't. The first year is definitely the most difficult. Until you reach the second year. (Audience laughs) The first year is difficult in that suddenly the velocity of the energy gets to you. In other words, on the one hand - it's like a crazy roller coaster ride. You go up and down very, very fast. Your downs are not as far down as they were before and your ups are much higher, but it's very fast. Everything that you're going through is accelerated. To work with someone who's enlightened means that you step onto a faster field of attention. You evolve very quickly because you're in their energy. You shouldn't think for a second it's you. That's a terrible mistake. Because you saw how you were doing before. But you've moved into a faster field of attention. Yet it is you. Because your personal power and your choice in evolution brought you there. It's both at once. But don't think it's all you. Terrible mistake. A lot of egotism. And don't give all your own personal power away to a teacher and say, "Well, it's all them." It's not. It's two working together as one.

So the first year is a very trying time. For some people. For some people it's absolutely easy because they just watch their life changing. They watch the level of attention rising, and suddenly life becomes fun. But for some people it's very demanding. The reason: they're not really ready yet. Or let's say that power, or life gave them an opening. It gave them a doorway that they walk through. And they walk through that doorway. But in walking through the doorway, once they got in the room they decided that they didn't like what was there, and now they want to walk out, which is their privilege. Let's say that the reason you find a spiritual teacher, and you come into an advanced spiritual community has to do with your past karma. What you've done before. You get an opportunity. Otherwise you would just never find it. You could search the world over, and never find it. Life just wouldn't work that way. The cards would be dealt a different way. So, but finding it is not the same as staying there, nor should it be. In other words, a person's karma gets them to a certain point where they found a way - teacher, community, friends - but then the karma runs out. That's as far as it was supposed to go. That's how far they got in their previous life, and they stop. Now, at that point, if they wish to go further forward, they have to work at it. They have to sum up their limitations and overcome them. They have to listen to what the teacher says, as I have told you many times, the teacher is not just the body - nor is it an individual - the teacher is life. And while you may be in a community studying and there is "a teacher" who is showing you things, helping you, at the same time, all aspects of your life are teaching you, and you have to listen.

So, at this point, some people then, leave. And it's a very wise thing to do. Because they have walked into the room, but they found that the light is too bright there, they're just not comfortable in this life. They, perhaps, are not ready for such an advanced school. Perhaps there's another school, another community, where the rate just isn't quite as intense, where there's more structure. And if they go back there and do well there, then later they'll move up to the next level. Very easily. To go to college after you've done well in high school is not a problem. To go to graduate school after you've done well in college is not a problem. To try and go on to college after you've done a very poor job in high school is very hard. Better to go back to high school for a little while, do well, do some remedial work, and then go into college and do well.

Graduate school, of course, is much more demanding than either and a very small group of people go to graduate school. Maybe 10%, 9%, something like that, of those who graduate from college. They're not better, they've just chosen - that's their way of life. They want to be scholars. So the spiritual education is very much like that. All souls do not attain liberation in the same way. In other words, there are different types of liberation. Some souls reach a certain static plane and they stay there forever. And then they reincarnate and come back after that point in another cycle of creation, and so on and so on, infinitely. Some souls move beyond that. Why? No one knows. What's important is to accept your fate. One only gains power and life after you've accepted your fate. If you try and fight your fate you waste your power. Power only begins to work in your life after you've accepted your fate. Your fate may change, and then you accept that.

So, persons who find themselves in a school that's too advanced should have the humility to go out and find another school, which might be the school of life experience or another teacher, that moves at a slightly slower rate. Then, when they feel the time has come, they should go back to the advanced school. Those who are in the advanced school, OK, will do well their first year. They'll go through many, many changes, but they'll find at the end of the year they're still there. Usually about 75% will last through the first year. 60%-75%, it depends. Some teachers allow many students to come in - they feel they'll give everybody a chance - they're not too selective because they know that life itself will make the selection. Others feel that they should be selective. One is not right, one is not wrong. The dharma expresses itself in different ways. So after you've crossed that first year threshold, that's when the real opportunities begin and the real problems begin.

The first year, again, the student is really not quite sure what they're doing. They're just trying to learn to listen a little bit and assimilate the energy, and the teacher's doing a general clearing of their outer and inner being by exposing them to light, giving them tasks, and making general suggestions.

Now, the second year is a very difficult year for some people. The reason it's difficult is because they become complacent. They've reached a certain level. Their life has improved to a certain degree through association with a spiritual teacher who's enlightened and through association with others who are advancing. And now they've gone about as far as they want to go, so now what they'd like to do is sit back, and be observers, and not get directly involved with the process. In other words, they went through one or two transformations of the self, which occur in the first year. After the first year of study, you will be radically different. You will not be the person who started. In one year, the whole self that lived for 18 or 30 or 40 or 50 years will change. If it doesn't, something's wrong. There'll be residual traces, of course, but the actual personality structure will have radically altered.

In the second year, though, you won't want to go through it again. And this is where the resistance comes up. People feel, "I've reached a certain point, I'm kind of comfortable with it, and I'd like to make a little spiritual progress."

They don't think this, but this is going on inside. So they level. But this doesn't work in an advanced community. Because in an advanced community it's graduate school. People are always going forward. So what will happen at that point is they will begin to feel resistance. And what they should do is make a very simple decision. They should decide either to advance and dissolve their self again and die again and be reborn again and go through this endlessly, or they should choose to step out of school for a while.

Because what happens, is, they will feel this resistance and they're not quite powerful enough to overcome it yet or they don't want to, actually, and now what they do is they go backwards. Instead of stepping out at that point and saying, "Well, I've gone as far as I wanted to, I was in this school for a year, a year and a half, My God! Look, I became a whole new self. I learned so much. Now I'm just going to go out on my own for a while and just practice what I've learned and be this new me and try it on for size." Instead they stay there, heaven knows why, not liking it. Because there's a pressure there and they can feel it. There's a pressure to evolve quickly. And it feels like that for them, it's a pressure and they resist it. And their resistance begins to manifest in anger. They get angry at the other students, angry at the teacher, angry at the structure, angry at themselves. And this anger turns into hate, self-pity, complacency, self-importance.

In other words, they come up to the point where they were in their last life. And the same things they didn't overcome in their last life will come back again. Each one of you is dealing with that. It takes at least a year to get back. The first year, again, is a general clearing by the teacher. But then after the first year, the residuals of this life have been somewhat broken up. They're not all gone, but they're somewhat broken up. And the samskaras, which means how far you've come in a past life comes up again. And the things that threw you last time are all ready to throw you again. Takes at least a year to get there, though.

So at that point, what you can do, is, say, "This is how far I went before, and I'm not ready yet for this challenge." And there's nothing wrong with that. That is a very, very astute observation which has a great deal of personal humility and dignity. At that point the person steps out of the school and goes on with their meditation, of course, because they've reached the point where that is their life, and they give themselves time to think about things and to change. Because the resistance and the hate will drive them backwards and they will come in, they will then reach a point that's actually a lower level of consciousness than when they started at the beginning of their first day with that teacher. They drop, because it comes back, the karma bounces back, the hate and so on.

On the other hand, the majority of people, after their first year will find it very smooth sailing. And it will be a much easier year. And each year will get progressively easier. In the sense that they build up velocity. It's like a snowball effect, where the snowball's rolling down a mountain and it gets bigger and bigger, only it gets smaller and smaller in this case. And the snowball is self. You unravel. And they will continue very eagerly to go through dissolution after dissolution. And each self that the teacher dissolves will be followed by a more refined self. Now, naturally, it's not smooth. That's what makes it an adventure. And there are many dragons to save, and many maidens to slay. (Audience laughs) Along the way. And all of them are your selves. But it takes a while to realize that.

So, I would then say, the second year is a time when many people check out. And wisely so. Because the first year gave them a new self, that's as far as they want to go. Their enthusiasm has run out. But out of a sense of spiritual obligation, moral obligation, because they think that there's something wrong with leaving when they've come a certain distance, they stay, doggedly fighting when it isn't fun anymore. They should go then. They would do themselves a great service and they would not prohibit the possibilities of growth later in that lifetime. But if they get all meshed up in their doubts and hates and project them on innocent spiritual seekers or teachers, all they do is, they drop to such a low level of evolution that in this life there'll be no other possibility of real spiritual advancement. It's a karmic situation. Perhaps for many lives to come. So they're very wise when they step down.

[Long pause on tape...]

For most people, though, the second year will involve several dissolutions. Several new selves will appear and disappear in that year. And they will begin to get - just get a slight sense of what the teacher is doing. And that the teacher is not the body. And that most of the information that the teacher is addressing to them is not in discourse or one-on-one conversation, but it's happening on another plane of attention. While they'll miss most of it consciously, they'll begin to get the sense that that's happening.

Now, in the second year, it's very necessary for the spiritual seeker to begin to come to terms with their physical life. In the first year of study it's just enough to be there and sit there and learn to meditate on a regular basis, and learn to just become aware of other levels of attention. And of course to try, with enthusiasm, to evolve and just learn about this new world.

But in the second year, it's time to begin to draw your attention to your physical life and to place it in order because as I've suggested before, the two must go hand in hand. Every step you take forward spiritually must be followed by a step in the material world. Meaning that your life becomes tighter, prettier, your consciousness of beauty in your environment increases in your personal self. You become aware of the types of thoughts that you think during the day and you begin to eliminate those thoughts that are not helpful, that are not happy. You begin to make changes in the structure of your life, selecting your friends more carefully. You assess your position in life, your career. You begin to look at life, in other words, with new eyes. You got those new eyes in the first year. A certain amount of this goes on in the first year, but it becomes much stronger in the second year. And the connection between the student and the teacher, in most cases, really begins in the second, and particularly the third year.

But in the first year, unless there was a past life connection between the student and the teacher, which is almost better to ignore in the first year, in my estimation, and not think about it at all - but sometimes that's there and there's a great deal of love between the student and the teacher. Because they're old friends. But even so, one doesn't want to ride the friendship, because it's a new life, and it's a new world and it's best to start over again. And even though you're friends with the teacher, you don't want the teacher to give you good marks simply because you're friends, but because you're doing a good job. Because otherwise you won't learn. So you shouldn't ride the friendship. In friendship we don't ride it, we better it by bettering ourselves and doing more for others.

So then the student will then turn their attention in the second year to their physical life and the teacher will suggest certain things that they should do. Now, in advanced spirituality there are no demands. If we were in the first or second level in the schools for people in their earlier stages or intermediate stages, a lot of lifestyle suggestions are made. Mostly in the second. In the first it's just enough to kind of come to church on Sunday. But in the second more discipline is involved in those lifetimes. But in the third, the teacher no longer says, "Listen, you must live this way, you must think this way, you must dress this way." Rather the teacher will make casual suggestions.

In high school they watch over you and they tell you what to do with your homework. In grammar school they don't ask too much. It's just enough to kind of get by. But in high school, there's much more discipline and the teacher will yell at you if you don't do your assignment. In college the teacher doesn't do that because the teacher feels if you're there, you've already got that together, and you're there because you're very motivated and you want to be. And if you don't come to the lectures, fine. If you do, fine. It's entirely up to you. The teacher's going to come in and do their very best job to aid you. But you need to be self-motivated and you should be by that time, otherwise you're not ready for college. And then, of course, graduate school. Takes us all the way back to the beginning again.

So, then, in this particular school of self-discovery, at this level, at Lakshmi or other places like Lakshmi, the teacher will make general suggestions about lifestyle for their first and second year students, and so on, if they haven't mastered it by the first or second year, the suggestions still pertain until they're done. And these are made as suggestions. The teacher won't say, "Do this, don't do this" because they don't feel they have to. They should feel that automatically the student will respond and do it without having to be admonished. Otherwise the student is not ready for that level of study. No one has to stand over you and say, "Be a vegetarian, don't smoke anymore, be kind to people, straighten out your relationships, live in a very clean and beautiful environment, work hard, and do your best. Be kind and courteous to others," and so on and so forth. You know, "Always have a nice vibration because it's a form of spiritual service to others," the teacher will mention these things casually and also give very explicit suggestions which will vary according to the teacher, and the student, and the culture. But again, most of this will not be done on an individual basis. The teacher usually will not sit down with you in those first years and give you a talk as to what you should do. It's very unusual. And if the teacher ever does that, if the teacher walks up to you and says, "Charles, or Ellen," or whatever, "Please do this," you should listen to them because it means they've seen something. It's very unusual for an advanced teacher to walk up to a student in the first few years and give them specific instructions. If they do, it means that thy have seen something, it's an exceptional situation. It doesn't mean you're an exceptional person. But you should listen very carefully. You should know it's unusual. Therefore, it's very, very important.

Again, in sophisticated spirituality you are free to do whatever you want to. No one is going to insist. But the teacher is making a point. And the more advanced the teacher, the subtler will be the point. In other words, the teacher will not say, "You must do this" or "This is dangerous." The teacher will just very casually mention as they walk by you, "Oh, why don't you do this. That might be a nice idea." Feeling that if you're aware enough, you will hear what they say, and put it into practice very quickly. And if you're not that aware, then you're not ready yet. And then you wouldn't have understood, even had they explained it to you. You would have heard their words, but missed what they couldn't say in words.

So the teacher will then observe. We're going to then go through a period I would say from about year three to year five. And during this period of time, year three, four and five, again these are general outlines of time, it varies, sometimes there are exceptional cases, the teacher will observe whether you are actually implementing the suggestions that he or she has made. You'll come and meditate with the teacher if you live near the teacher, you'll meditate with them physically on a weekly basis, if you don't live near the teacher physically, you can have as much contact inwardly, but you should meditate at the times they meditate with their students, if possible, and try and connect with them every day inwardly. And learn from them. And realize that you're dealing with a magical being who is not particularly logical or sensible but who is ultimately much more logical and sensible than anyone else you'll meet. And this is something you should have learned in your first year. In your first year you should have determined whether this was your teacher or not. In your first year, you should have seen, "Is this person really enlightened. Do they really have powers and abilities to help me transmute my consciousness?" And if you found out that they didn't, of course your first year you should have gone elsewhere. Unless there was no one else available, and they never claimed to have those powers.

If someone is just a yoga teacher, or something like that, and an inspirational individual, well, you can study, and you'll learn more by being around them. They may have a purer level of attention than yours. But they'll have the humility not to claim that they're enlightened. And you can learn a lot, and they are a friend.

When you deal with someone who claims to be enlightened, if they're not, of course, then you are with someone who will be harmful to your evolution, and your first year will tell you if they're real or not. Now, naturally, just because they are, doesn't mean you're capable of working with them. In reference to our earlier discussion a few minutes ago, you will make the decision yourself. You can find an enlightened person, and it's very baffling then to find your being reject it all. Well, you shouldn't be mad at yourself or ashamed of yourself. You were a good warrior to get as far as you did, and maybe that's as far as you're supposed to go for now, and now you need to go back and work on some other basic things.

Time is a wonderful healer. Sometimes we just need time. We need time in the world. Things have to work out. Sometimes there's nothing wrong - in my own study with the teacher I worked with for many years - I at one point took about two years off, and just went out into the world, got married, had a lot of experiences, you know, I continued my meditative practice and my spiritual search and my reading, but it was a very good period for me. It just gave me some time and some room, because I had reached a point where I had roped myself in, because I still wanted to be in the human world. And I had to find out that that wouldn't work for me anymore. And even though I could say it, I had to have the experiences. So for me it was a valuable experience. I learned a lot. It was the most painful period of my life. (Rama laughs) It was terrible! But I put myself through it, me and my ego! So it was an interesting experience, and I decided that was definitely where I didn't want to be, but I had to have that experience to know that. Sure I could appreciate the idea, but I needed the visceral experience. Life gave it to me. Life is wonderful. Everyday I meditate on Mother Kali - Maha Kali - and she treats me well. She's given me the short path to evolution. And I love it. I wouldn't live any other way.

So then, the teacher will observe how you're doing in year two, three, four, five. And let us say that after the second year, the observation will grow a little more intense. The second year, from the teacher's point of view is still something you just have to pass through to prove that you're at all interested in the higher aspect of the study. This is again, even in a sophisticated spiritual community. That's just like, sort of a letter of intent. After the second year, except in unusual situations where the teacher will step in directly into your life on the physical level, then the teacher will begin to look a little more closely.

Now, this comes to the subject - What is it that creates spiritual advancement? Is it a nebulous process, is it just fate, is it just karma, or can we actually get involved in it? Well, I would suggest that for the first year, what's required is enthusiasm, and that you will ride your enthusiasm through the first year. In the second year, having survived the first year, if you have then what's necessary is to begin to circumspectly examine and begin to make structured changes following this suggestions of your particular teacher, and to not be disappointed when you find that you're not capable of fulfilling all of those suggestions. The teacher may make hundreds of suggestions and you may be only to implement one or two at a time. What's important though, is to see yourself making progress in the second year, and to feel good about that. You need to begin to love yourself and accept yourself. You won't accept your fate yet, it's too soon. And if you think you have it's egotism. It's too early yet, that comes after you're five, I would say. But rather to just begin to feel good about the fact that you're making progress, even though it doesn't seem like you are sometimes. But what will happen is when you are alone, when you're alone, which is the only time you can really tell, you'll notice that you're more sensitive. When there's no one else around you can feel eternity more, very simply. That's the sign that you're making spiritual progress. Somedays you're happier, somedays you're not, it depends on the world, your aspiration. You still fluctuate a great deal in the second year, up and down, radically. That doesn't matter, but when you're by yourself you should see more stillness. You should also begin to experience more compassion for others, and begin to be more interested in listening, and not talking.

If you survive the second year then as you enter into your three through five that's when the real separation occurs. That's when you will determine how far you want to go inwardly. It is during these years that you begin to get to know your teacher. Only because in the first years, unless there was an unusual situation, you simply didn't have the sensitivity level to have any idea what the teacher was talking about, even though you heard the words and you did your best with them, and you didn't do a thing wrong. You did everything right. But the teacher doesn't speak to you with words. Mostly it has to do with their other sides, the teacher is not a person, they're a field of energy, they're a series of levels of attention. While they have a body, and appear to be there, they're not. Not in the way that we normally understand, anyway. So it's only after practicing what the teacher has said and bringing your physical life together learning to meditate well, developing the ability to be happy in almost all circumstances, learning to control your emotions, your depressions, deciding that this is your way, and this is your teacher, and being so confident about that that nothing else could interfere with that. That's your sense. Once you've reached that point which I assume a person would after their second year, even though their meditations, individual daily meditations will fluctuate widely, their life style may not be totally together, but they're having fun implementing these suggestions. It's not that wild enthusiasm, perhaps of their first year, but at the same time the progression continues, and they're very confident about their way. They feel there would be no other possible way, no other possible teacher, at this stage. And they're right, at that stage.

Then when they cross the border into the third year, the teacher will begin to examine them more carefully to see if they continue to change, if they continue to grow. The teacher is then beginning to look for some stability in their life. Their meditation level should be improving their vibration, there should be more humility, more purity, a sense of commitment to the study, and to light. They should be seeing a person, in other words, who's happy - starting at around the third year. It takes two years just to remember that life is fun. And as they see the smile grow and increase, not even necessarily outwardly, but inwardly, regardless of what they're going through in life, whether they're in a crisis situation or not. The time you show your spiritual strength is in a crisis situation, if you've learned anything. A balance begins to develop. And that balance should increase every year. And those are the working years, those are the years when you will determine your fate. I would say years three to five. One and two aren't that intense, but the velocity each year is stronger. Your own inner being demands more from you, not the teacher, the teacher is content to sit back and watch, unless you're creating a terrific problem for others. But you want more, and that's when you determine what will happen for the rest of your life. If during those years you fully apply yourself, if you actually learn to meditate well, if you become patient, if you don't expect attention, if you do all of the things we talk about all the time, then when you reach year five which you most certainly will, something happens. Now it could be year four, it could be year three, it could be year nine, I'm using five as a general figure for most people. You loose your human form. When you loose your human form traditionally at that time you are given a spiritual name. The spiritual name suggests not at all a high level of advancement, but it suggests that at least for a period of time you have so radically transformed that you are no longer the same person. It is possible, and I've seen it happen, to receive a spiritual name, and then jump backwards, and go right back into the form, that's unfortunate when that happens. Simply because a person has a spiritual name doesn't mean that they are staying beyond the human form. It means that they did, at least for awhile. Sometimes as soon as a person receives the name it becomes an ego object and they go right back, it's terrible. But that's not the teacher's fault. Some teachers give out new names immediately, as soon as a student becomes a student of theirs, that's not what I'm speaking of. Uh, some teachers initiate and give a mantra right away, as soon as a student becomes a student of theirs, that's not what I'm speaking of. I'm speaking of a formal teaching process in which one moves towards completion. The end of the cycle of rebirth and death. And when the name is given it's a very serious thing. Unfortunately, most people who receive their names don't take them seriously. The name is an opportunity, it's a doorway which they can walk through, and they should never be as they were before. They have to move into a different level of attention, it's a crossroads, another one. But remember simply because someone has a spiritual name is no indication of their advancement, unfortunately. It means once they were there. But what matters is what's current, not what's past, in self-discovery. We remember what's past, and we don't forget it, and we value it, but what's current is what's important. The current level of awareness.

From there the study becomes very personal, sometimes it does before. But at one point, let us say, a personal relationship will begin to develop between you and the teacher, very often it happens before you receive the name. I have some of my closest uh, students, have not received their names yet, who have much more spiritual potential than some of those who have received them. It's just not time yet, it's not eternity's moment. I have given out maybe eight or nine spiritual names at this point. But many of the students I've work with very closely over the years still do not have their names. It's because they still haven't overcome one or two things that are necessary for that transit. But on other levels they may have advanced much further than those who received their names. So I'm trying to suggest it's not a simple process, receiving the name means that a certain level has been cleared, let's say of four or five major points. Whereas a person may still have one point there which is preventing them from receiving their name, but not only have they cleared those four other points, but now they have cleared on several other levels, entirely, but still one point is hanging them up, and they won't receive their name until that happens. Then once they get their names, as I've suggested, they can use that as a marvelous excuse to go right back down again. Or, they can ride it as a vehicle to eternity. So receiving the name is symbolic, but it's more than a symbol, if it's used properly by the aspirant it's a new identity. It's a fluid identity, it means they've lost their human form, by that I mean that they're no longer a structured human being. They see that, or some part of them does, even though their mind may not yet be fully conscious of it.

So as I've suggested, after year three the relationship begins to develop. If it doesn't there's a problem. The relationship between student and teacher though is not always sitting down and having conversations, it's sitting down and having conversations, but not necessarily physically together. But let's say there should be a very deep communion taking place between the student and the teacher. They become no longer student and teacher, but friends. It's not so formal any more, but the student must keep it formal, in other words they have to keep the formality to keep their own aspiration high. Just because the teacher now is more casual with you and is your friend and plays around with you doesn't mean that you should become casual. That's a terrible mistake that some people make, they misunderstand the intent of the teacher. The teacher is just saying, "look, I'm kind of like you too." So you can feel comfortable with yourself and not judge yourself. But at the same time they're not at all, they're just assuming that form as a gift. You've done something well and they want to be your friend, and make it more casual for you, but also it's a test, on the part of the teacher, for the aspirant. The test is, if I relax with them now or give the semblance of relaxation will they just let go and go backward, or will they take it with humility as an opportunity to go forward. Another crossroad.

The teacher will from time to time, as you advance, and it's a very healthy sign if your teacher does this, give you a task. Be very aware when the teacher gives you a task - the teacher may just say something very lightly like uh go to the Himalayas and bring me back some snow uh, so we can have it in our drinks during the intermission at our meeting. Cuz you just sort of mention it casually. I'd be on the next plane if I were you. (Audience laughs) Usually the tasks are not quite so awesome. Usually it's a very simple suggestion, initially, regarding your life style. The teacher will say, "Gee, you'd look really wonderful with a new hat." Now you may think well God, what does this have to do with anything, oh that silly old teacher. You don't understand that they've seen something, that for some reason, if you perform that action even though they just mention it very subtly, you will completely change. It's not because of the action, it's because of your intent. And sometimes it is the action. If you succeed, the teacher will then give you another task, and another, and another. Each one is an opportunity for you to step up. Sometimes the teacher will give you a job in their spiritual center, which is a tremendous opportunity for, again, as all things are, to go up or go down. For egotism, and to get lazy, or to see it as a tremendous doorway to be of service to others. So what I'm suggesting is it becomes a kind of fun association, where the teacher will, in spiritual montessori, give you the next step after you've completed the previous one. But no steps will come until you finish the one before. So if a person is still not accomplished basic life style changes, which will raise their level of attention into a higher degree of purity, then they won't receive the next step. And they'll keep working on that until they do. There are no in groups around teachers. It's unfortunate, once in a while I receive a letter saying "Well gosh I used to be in, and now I'm not." There's no such thing. People who spend time with a teacher either do so because they have worked very hard and cultivated a spiritual level of refinement, or because they're very very very slow. It can be either. If they worked very hard and cultivated a level of spiritual refinement they may still have many things to go through. Association on a close level with the teacher, spending time with them physically, doesn't mean that a person is really advanced. It just means that in one respect they are advanced. They've purified their being to a certain extent. Someone else in the center may meditate better, someone else may be more advanced, but they still haven't learned spiritual refinement. Because that's necessary, because for a teacher to spend time with some one, the teacher being a very refined luminous being, on a regular basis, the person has to have a certain degree of vibrational refinement, which comes with time, practice self giving and following the overall suggestions of the teacher. The other case, of course, is when the teacher just wants to work on someone very closely for a short period of time. The student is showing very good signs but they're very slow. So the teacher wants to speed that up through maybe a week, or a day or a month or an evening of interaction, knowing that even an evening of interaction can be so intense that the person will change, but then they'll let go of them, and just leave them maybe for another six months, or maybe a year or two. They've given them a terrific boost, no more's required, they couldn't deal with more. It would be too much kundalini, too much energy. It would overload their circuits. So then the teacher then would watch and see what that did, in other words, what I'm suggesting is four hours or three hours in close association with an Enlightened person is enough for years and years. Very traditionally, very often a person will come to a teacher, and a teacher will spend a few minutes with them and then send them away and say come back in two years, feeling that they gave them enough light in those few minutes and now it will take them a few years to assimilate on it, to work on their consciousness, and then if they refine it, and come back, the teacher will show them the next step. Naturally we do it a different way here, we have continual association, but the principles still apply.

At a certain point you will accept your fate. When you accept your fate that simply means that you won't fight anymore. You won't fight against light. That's a very fine achievement, if you can do that in this life, that's remarkable. That's the sign of humility. It means that you are completely committed to light, you will always work for it, without complaint, to the point of death and beyond, to the point of life. Without any sense of worry about your own advancement, your only interest is the welfare of others. You develop tolerance, patience, and commitment. Beyond that there are many many points, which we'll discuss perhaps sometime, when they'll be relevant. Having to do the Samadhis, their intricacies, advanced stages of the rebirth process, and so on.

The way is very joyous and very happy, and very complete. For those who enjoy the way. But there are definite stages in one's progression, and you need to gain a sense of these. You need to honestly evaluate where you are and not think poorly of yourself. And if you do, you'll do very very well. But what I'm suggesting is there is much more to this process than meets the eye. You're dealing with the complete restructuring of your being. When I say that what I do is bring a person through a thousand lifetimes in one lifetime, I'm not speaking at all metaphorically. Sometimes more, any enlightened person does that. But yet we just seem like an ordinary person, just sitting there talking, unless you can see. If you can see, of course, you see that you are not dealing with a person but with a vortex of light. Something that's incomprehensible and that you are becoming yourself. What we do, in other words, as teachers, is we take our luminosity and we put it into the bodies of others. We give it to them. We give them our own life force. Our own energy, and then we watch what they do. And if they cultivate it, they grow. If they waste it, then they don't. If they abuse it and think poorly of it then they regress. If they share it with others, then they become magnificent beings and warriors of life. But we have to be very very detached in this process. While one gives one's own life force, literally, to others, at the same time one must be very detached and observe what they do. And if they show the proper signs, over a period of time, then you give them more and more, committed beyond understanding to this unusual process, which is life, which is self giving, which is giving everything you have to others, without regret, without thought of importance or notice, in complete abandon, yet within very definitely restricted guidelines, the guidelines being only engendering the welfare of others, and never hindering it. And when this spirit is understood then life becomes not at all common, but a constant magical circus in which you see yourself reflected in all forms, and all formlessness. One day you will pass through these stages, you will straighten things out, the house will be orderly. You will move into the superconscious realms, which we haven't discussed tonight, which will just enter into meditation now, in a minute or two, and experience. But remember you experience is generated not by yourself at this stage but by someone else. Which engenders your progress. It's a free ride for now. But only to interest you in creating that for yourself. So try and gain a sense of what matters. What matters is your commitment to yourself, but don't think that you're further than you are it's a terrible mistake because you loose your humility, and without your humility you can't grow. If you find you've reached a point where it's not working for you, where you're very frustrated and very confused, where you're getting angry then step out of the process for awhile, it's a very healthy thing to do. Perhaps you've gone as far as you should in that life, and have the humility to accept that. Otherwise you prevent your future possibilities from occurring, or at least you delay them. On the other hand, if the process is working for you, if you're having fun with it, if your life is getting more joyous all the time, if you've lost your suspicions, then engage in it fully and you'll find what it can do for you. The world is magical my friends. There are no limitations except those we set for ourselves, and that's what you will discover. You need to have the humility to accept your limitations as long as they're there, and have the humility to accept their end, when that time comes. But it's only with that feeling, with that essential spirituality, with that terrific love of God and light that you will progress. Otherwise you delay yourself by fooling yourself, so take each step in turn, don't be in a rush, do each thing well, and that which will follow, will follow. But be aware that this is a very sensitive process, where only slight suggestions are made, but it's necessary for you to respect those suggestions, and do as you will. Always follow your own common sense and your own heart in the matter. But realize that when a teacher makes a suggestion if it's not followed no more usually follow. It will take quite a awhile to bring yourself back to that level of attention, where they will be made. It's a curious balance between being yourself, and between loosing yourself, that each of us has walked through in many lifetimes, whose reached this point in which you're walking through now. But if we did it, you can certainly do it!