Different spiritual paths
in Spirituality ·
shadownomad4 said:mistygull16 As stated by:
Question for shadownomad4
How many years have you been practicing meditation—if I recall correctly, you mentioned Transcendental Meditation—and just how consistent has your practice been?
I believe we all understand that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to spiritual practice; as human beings, our needs are inherently diverse. If a particular technique isn't resonating with you, it simply suggests a need for a different approach—it doesn't mean the original method was flawed. In your specific case, it seems your inclinations might lean more heavily toward the bhakti component, which would naturally call for meditative techniques that align with that devotion. However, I must offer a word of caution: what is most likely to distance you from God is your own exclusivity.
Let me try to illustrate this point by sharing a story.
There was once a student who was taught by his guru that God resides within the heart of every living being, and he was instructed to live his life in accordance with that truth. This sentiment echoes the teachings of Jesus, who pointed out the hypocrisy of anyone claiming to love God while failing to love their neighbor. After all, how can someone claim to love a God they cannot see if they are unable to show love to the person standing right in front of them?
There was once a student who lived strictly by the instruction to honor every living creature, believing that God resides within every single heart. On one occasion, he traveled into a bustling city, only to find the streets deserted. People were fleeing in terror because a massive elephant had gone rogue, charging through the streets and demolishing everything in its path. Despite the chaos, the student remained unmoved. He ignored the frantic warnings of the locals, refusing to seek cover simply because he held fast to the conviction that God dwelt within the heart of that very elephant. The citizens continued to shout at him, pleading with him to get out of the way before the beast reached him, but he found little reason to listen to mere mortals when his Teacher had already declared that God is present in all things. Ultimately, his unwavering devotion offered him no protection. When the elephant finally closed the distance, his singular focus proved useless. As it turned out, even the elephant seemed amused; it appeared quite content to find that it wasn't the only mad thing in town—there was now a student even more irrational than itself, standing his ground against a rampaging beast.
What else could one possibly expect? Our naive little student barely managed to escape with his life before fleeing in a rage to his teacher, demanding to know why he had been told that God resides within all living things. He was, quite understandably, livid after the ordeal he had just endured with that elephant. To this, the teacher simply replied that he had failed to recognize God in the very people who had tried to warn him, choosing instead to acknowledge the divine only through the lens of a maddened elephant.
Common sense always takes precedence over written doctrine; that is where true wisdom begins.
The concept of scripture is fundamentally irrational; it is nothing more than a mechanism for exclusivity.
I’ve been dedicated to this practice for two years now, only missing a single evening because something urgent came up. I have always been an incredibly disciplined student, and my goal was to move on to the advanced course, but at the time, I simply didn't have the funds to make that happen—you might be familiar with the Flying technique. It was honestly discouraging to realize I needed to shell out $1,100 just to advance my spiritual journey when I was so hungry for growth. In reality, though, I’ve learned that chasing spiritual phenomena is a distraction. Miracles, whether they seem to come from God or from the devil, don't actually lead us closer to Him. What truly matters is a devotion to the truth; once you establish that, everything else naturally follows. Don't fall into the trap of thinking a Christian can't have profound spiritual experiences at a higher level, or that someone can only experience out-of-body sensations through meditation. I have had those experiences myself, as have many of my friends who remain open enough to receive them, and such moments are never without purpose. However, that sensation itself isn't the ultimate goal, nor is anything similar to it. The true objective is His presence through the Holy Spirit—a state where you can simply sit in one place for hours, abiding in Him, and receiving everything you need directly from the Lord.
The fundamental difference is this: when you walk with Him, you have the absolute certainty that you are on the right path. He is the only one who declared Himself to be the Way. When you operate through Him, you carry His power within you; you lay hands on the sick in His name, and they are healed. But after you meditate, you find you can no longer simply lay hands on the suffering in some arbitrary name just to see what happens—you can only look upon them with compassion, realizing you have no power of your own. Now, go ahead and try to tell me that "bioenergy" is a viable alternative. I’ve actually practiced it myself; I worked with people and they genuinely felt better, right up until the moment the illness struck them again. Because they had relied on a mere energy rather than a Name, they had nothing to stand against the sickness when it returned, leaving them without healing. It simply doesn't work that way. Attempting to heal through such means only breeds dependency on the practitioner instead of reliance on God. The ultimate goal for any Christian is to help others become self-sufficient—to ensure they are reliant solely on God, rather than on any mere human being.
I am quite far from there, my apologies.
Just another example of how Jesus' words get butchered in translation. If you actually dig into the Greek, it tells a completely different story. It suggests Jesus was stating he was the sole current teacher to that specific people, but not necessarily the *only* one ever. This leaves room for spiritual teachers to have existed before him, or even to exist elsewhere on Earth right now, just not in Palestine. It lines up better with the idea of God's universal nature—that God is the father of everyone, not just some exclusive club. (God isn't just the father of humans, but all living things. Every living thing has a soul, and consciousness is the proof)
So, to be fair to the original Greek text that keeps getting mistranslated: "ego eimi ha hodas kai ha alatheia kai ha zoa; oudeis erketai pros ton patera ei ma di emou".
The key is the word "erketai. The verb tense here is heavily present-focused. A more accurate translation would be: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one can now come to the Father except through me."