Ruby – Face the Real
Our powers of perception allow us to make better decisions, and our navigation through life either enables joy to flow or woe to persist.
No one makes poor decisions on purpose and chooses the road of suffering unless they “enjoy” being a martyr, which we’ll cover in the Turquoise Doctrine.
We know, objectively, that death is inevitable. The body we now inhabit is a temporary home for the soul. The Lord provides many temporary “homes” as the soul grows through the chakras. Life is complex and spiritual growth through the chakras is not a single life event.
It may be difficult for the mind to conceptualize beyond next week, month, or year but the Atman within the soul is very aware of the amount of time leading to samadhi. How long is that? It very much depends on the soul’s actions.
Some pursue optimal sadhana, while others take detours. The soul is never stagnant, possibly two steps forward and one step back, but it’s still forward progress. The more we optimize our sadhana, applying spiritual instruction like the Black Lady Doctrines, the more optimal our progress becomes.
There are blessings with inhabiting multiple “homes.” It’s expeditious for spiritual growth since the ego forms attachments and we can practice sadhana without the memories of so many past mistakes.
There’s freedom in the newness of life when we can begin again and work optimally toward the goal of wholeness. If we really take death seriously, it only makes sense to want to optimize our progress through spiritual practices.
Those within the Muslim and Christian faith don’t believe in rebirth but not believing something doesn’t change the objective truth. However, believing either one may not change the outcome of a person’s sadhana.
Someone who believes in rebirth may say, “Oh, I’ll show obeisance and go to church, but I have more lives to work on myself, so I’ll worry about it later.” This isn’t taking sadhana or death seriously and, in the meantime, they fall into troubles of all kinds.
The other route is believing that we only have one life, which is lackadaisical thinking too, since the soul resolves that somehow, God removes the sinful nature. “If I can just get through this life, I’m home free and Heaven bound.”
This creates a false perception that through God’s goodness, we are saved from a worse outcome.
Denying the existence of the ego after conversion doesn’t make it disappear. Oh no, it’s not inside anymore, now the devil’s “out there,” who’s going to tempt when given the opportunity.
It reminds me of a game of tag or hide and seek. The objective of the game is to hide and when it’s safe, make a run for home base or the safe zone. Everyone is hiding because no one wants to get tagged and be “it.” In this case, “It” is the devil, and who wants to be a party to the bad guy?
The “backsliders” are the ones who didn’t see “It” (the devil) hiding in the dark waiting. They got tagged and now they’re as bad as the devil. Now, if they repent by tagging someone else (attaching ultimate blame to an external entity), they get to hide again. In the meantime, the devil wins since the ego was “It” all along.
We can only be “conquerors through Christ Jesus,” when we apply God’s principles in our lives. We can also be “conquerors through Krishna,” but it won’t happen with either if we don’t use spiritual practices to cleanse the unconscious mind of the “garbage” which is where the ego resides.
There’s no “back door” through “grace” that forgives the sinful nature of the soul. Karma, alone, attests to this, and we can’t live through Christ because God’s goodness doesn’t belong to us!
It’s as irrational as trying to live through our children or parents. It’s duality and the ego’s ploy for dominance that we can live on through our children or carry the legacy of our parents. Then it tries to masquerade its evil tendencies by “living through Christ!”
The concept that we should live by is that, like respect, venerability is earned. We earn our goodness through our spiritual practices and then (hopefully) choose our actions wisely, regardless of what we confess with our mouths.
We can confess Jesus Christ is Lord all day long, but other than using it as a mantra to initiate inner change, the soul remains untouched. There is power in repeating the Lord’s Name so do repeat it daily and as often as you can!
I remember as a little girl sitting in the church pew and the congregation singing, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know.” I remember those moments joyfully! My being became so ecstatic with love for the Lord, I wondered if I might fly away!
Repeating the Lord’s name inwardly during karma yoga is a wonderful way of remembering the Lord in all that we do. It lifts the mind when sad, angry, or even bored, and has a profound effect on the soul.
Jesus already knows He’s Lord, and “confessing” by the soul’s standard is like stroking someone’s ego. Expressing God as the Great Deliverer is like saying, “Oh, what big muscles you have,” and then walking away.
God already knows how big He is and says, “Hey, wait, don’t you want to know how to get bigger too, and be more like me?”
By not meditating, a Christian is really responding, “Oh no, that’s okay, I’m sorry that my nature is sinful, and through your unfortunate and cruel demise, I don’t have to get bigger to go where you are.”
Confessing Christ or Krishna means using spiritual practices, such as meditation and contemplation to cleanse the unconscious mind. It prepares the soul for a much greater and divine destination that does get bigger and continues to expand indefinitely.
We can gauge our meditation or contemplation periods by watching our actions through karma yoga. After a few months, do we find ourselves kinder and gentler towards others? Do we react less and respond more appropriately to life’s situations?
If the teaching doesn’t emphasize meditation or contemplation, then it relies on karma yoga alone and the effort in growth is much slower and more toilsome.
It becomes even more difficult through the higher chakras, with more dangers for those who don’t use these practices since the level of creativity increases with spiritual growth from one life to the next. If we’re not using our creativity for good, then the ego within the unconscious mind will use it for evil.
Prayer, by itself, has a negligible effect, since it suggests that God somehow magically changes the soul through words, which is unreal. It can help us center our mind on the Lord, but it doesn’t cleanse or increase one’s venerability, without added spiritual practices.
The Christians are right that the Lord assists through the Holy Spirit, but It doesn’t do everything. While we’re praying for God to do more, our growth stalls to a snail’s pace, since we don’t do anything else, but go to work and maybe church, which is karma yoga.
Reading scripture has a more cleansing effect if we contemplate deeper meanings and how we can apply them in our daily living. If we memorize scripture and focus on each word slowly for a half hour every day, that’s passage meditation and one of the most fruitful and life-changing practices.
There’s a country song that grates on my mind every time I hear it. It’s called, “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” The singer has a beautiful voice, but the song is completely irrational. The lyrics are about a girl driving in the snow too fast, with a baby in the back seat, and she loses control of the vehicle.
If she followed the doctrine of obeying common sense, she wouldn’t have needed to pray for a miracle. In fact, I’d say she has a better chance of getting struck by lightning than receiving one.
It’s just as irrational as driving down the road on a sunny warm day and taking my hands off the steering wheel and saying, “Jesus, take the wheel.” Who wouldn’t end up in a ditch or worse?
Was a miracle more in order because she had a baby in the back seat? Babies are cute, vulnerable, and very impressionable in the early stages of life. We should do all we can to protect them from danger.
The world is full of neglected children due to poor parenting. This is a classic example of how God is supposed to fix a careless decision because now a baby is involved.
Wasn’t the baby a miracle enough? She never thought of that when she put her foot on the gas, and now the baby must suffer the consequences of her actions.
Babies may be cute and defenseless, but they’re not innocent. They’ve had a very long history and they were also someone’s parents, many times. If parents make poor decisions, their children will naturally suffer from it, and that’s a painful legacy to leave them.
Is she really talking about the wheel of life? God doesn’t want our life. That’s why He gave it to us so we can stand on our own two feet and face life rationally. We would never learn and grow if God rescued us from our weaknesses.
There is a place for prayer and is a wonderful activity for children. They can be taught prayer and japam, reserving meditation for those who are older. Children should be running, playing, and exploring the world with the new body they’ve been given.
When we become adults, our security blanket should change from prayer to karma yoga, japam, meditation, and contemplation. Combining karma and raja yoga is what stands the test of time through life’s difficulties.
These are the routes to cleansing and preparing the soul for Heaven, Nirvana if a Buddhist, or Enlightenment if Hindu. The Mother’s Way acknowledges that indeed, there is a Heaven, but it can’t be reached until the ego is extinguished.
The difference in the religions about our eternal destination isn’t important to God. It’s living a life of ahimsa that brings joy to the soul and the world that matters. The earth is a preparation ground, and our life is a flow of actions and decisions that either increase our level of joy or sorrow.
Heaven is for the pure in heart and the ego wants to conquer and destroy. It was needed earlier in our sadhana for survival in the world.
As we progress through the chakras, we come to understand that the ego’s purpose is no longer to help us survive but to shatter and obliterate everything in its path, even at the soul’s expense.
As our understanding increases, we discover that the ego that we once relied on for survival, has now become the enemy of the soul and the true cause of all suffering.
We can easily affirm this by witnessing all the destruction in the world. Hell doesn’t need a Lucifer and fallen angels, with eight billion egos in the world and ninety percent of them creating havoc and destruction.
Jesus was pointing to the East when He said, “Heaven is within,” and we must search for it inside first through spiritual practices before we can bring our little part of Heaven to the world. It’s the most selfless action we can do in life.
A fellow once said that 2,000 people gathered in the same city to meditate and crime decreased by 40 percent that night. I don’t know how accurate the percentage is but there is a positive change in society through collective meditation, and much more effective than 2,000 gathering to pray.
Facing the real is observing that the Real God is above all else, Rational. We can’t make foolish decisions and then try and bargain with God later. We can lessen karmic repercussions, though, which will be discussed in the Steel Doctrine.
When we seek to be like the Lord, we also want to be rational. Through meditation, our powers of perception increase, and we make better decisions in life that are more rational, thus pleasing to the Lord. Even the act of meditation is rational!
Striving to be more like the Creator is rational and holding onto irrational beliefs that feed the ego bring dysfunction and sorrow in our decisions. God doesn’t want our sadhana to be one of suffering. We can find real joy and purpose in living!
The more we pursue spiritual practices daily, the closer the date of reaching the Supreme Goal, along with supernal joys that fill our days with happiness and fulfillment!
Struggles in life are certain, but so are the joys in spiritual practices that overshadow life’s difficulties with the one who’s committed to daily practices; meditation being the most optimal.
We can gauge our level of growth in sadhana by comparing the joy versus pain ratio within ourselves. Do we have an internal sense of joy that follows us throughout the day or a sense of despair and sadness that this is all there is to life?
Emptiness doesn’t have to be a way of life for the Lord blessed us with all the resources inside that don’t rely on the external world for spiritual growth, approval, and love. It doesn’t leave us dependent on God either as we empower ourselves through our own spiritual practices and God delights in our efforts!
I watched a video recently of a fellow who converted from Zen Buddhism to Christianity. As a Christian teacher, he talked of how sinful it was to meditate like “those guys.”
He said, “It was an addiction. Many of them were meditating anywhere from two to six hours a day.” Wow! Where are these people? That’s serious and powerful sadhana!
Of course, those with children don’t have that many hours in a day for meditation, but that is truly impressive.
He should have stayed with the meditators and worked on figuring out why they were meditating this long and how he could optimize his own joy, too. Instead, he took the ego’s path of looking down and tapped out for the “lord of the imagination” who’s going to do it all for him.
There are things that we do rely on in the world for positive sadhana. Everyone needs a place to live and if a person struggles with homelessness, then it will affect their sadhana. We can’t be joyful and at the same time, wonder where we’re going to reside from one day to the next.
Swami Ramdas did this during his life while in divine madness, and the result proved fruitful, but how many more died from accidents, starvation, homelessness, and bandits? We never hear about them.
Using karma yoga to provide for our bodies is not worldly since we need a place to live and food to eat. God doesn’t compartmentalize or separate our physical and spiritual needs and say, “Oh, this over here is spiritual, and the physical needs over there are worldly.”
Meeting our physical needs is spiritual and adds to joy’s inexhaustible supply. We can use karma yoga to increase our level of happiness by providing what the body needs for positive sadhana throughout life. We don’t have to live in a monastery or ashram to be spiritual giants unless we want to!
Of course, physical needs should always be met through upright means. No one gets away with cheating someone or capitalizing on the suffering of another. Karma will return with a boomerang effect later, whether we acknowledge its existence or not.
Through our daily actions, we can live in the world, but not be of the world, by using spiritual practices. It increases our level of joy, which improves our daily decisions and how we interact with others. Through meditation, our understanding of ahimsa deepens over time.
Those who carry joy follow ahimsa naturally, not wanting to inflict harm on another. The opposite is evident in those who don’t by inflicting suffering on others. Or it’s directed inwardly, making poor decisions that create sorrow for themselves and those who love them.
Finding our path in sadhana through spiritual practices is facing the real, and so is meeting the needs of the body. Through karma and raja yoga, we can live life to the fullest which doesn’t require earthly riches or giving the “wheel” of our life to God.
Each day, we can bring Heaven to earth through our own efforts in self-purification. This is where Heaven begins and the only place on Earth we’ll find it.
God made the soul so that fulfillment in life can’t be found anywhere else except through spiritual effort. Meditate, and find your Heaven. The world will be a happier place, too, because of your good deeds and perseverance, that flows from a heart of profound joy and a rational mind.
