The Trap of Devotion to God and Guru
The Trap of Devotion to God and Guru We fear nothing more than being truly independent. True independence does not mean in the social context in regards to individual job titles, nor does it mean in the collective sphere of nationalistic independence, though both may be derivatives. Real independence is spiritual sovereignty, meaning the individual truly lives psychologically from the Heart with no agenda and is free from the attachment to social, cultural, and religious programs which imprison our mind. Some may argue that we all need a philosophical framework psychologically to navigate our way through this life to give us a sense of meaning. And others may say that we need to eliminate all philosophical frameworks from our mind, whether it is social, cultural, or religious, because then we can move freely in the world and have a mind that Zen Buddhism would say “is a mind of no deliberation,” meaning that it doesn’t stick to any type of formula to understand life. From the opposing perspective this still may be thought of as a type of framework as Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor points out in his work by explaining that formulating and taking on frameworks may be inescapable for the mind. But this could also be viewed as just being extremely clever in an attempt to be victorious in this ongoing game of spiritual and philosophical one-upmanship, while also not taking into account the actual experience of the individual which is hard for anyone to judge from an external point of reference. No matter how you view both perspectives on an individual level is not the point. The real emphasis is about how we depend on philosophical frameworks that we were once naturally drawn to but have over time become a crutch that obscures our ability to perceive reality without names, labels, or a prior agenda. This conditioned habit is carried over into the spiritual and religious philosophies we turn to when we yearn for liberation. Paradoxically the spiritual and religious philosophies we convert to originate from different environments than our own. Essentially they are built on an archetype diametrically opposed to the one embedded within our psychosomatic organism. This is evident more visibly when we find Western people interested in Eastern philosophy and other esoteric wisdom traditions. In our search for enlightenment, or real independence in other words, from social, cultural, and religious mental concepts we discover the eternal depth of the East and its ability to reveal our underlying true nature beyond the claustrophobic walls of our ego. Yet the dependence we seek to transcend is projected onto the spiritual temperaments of the East. For example, the Eastern character and temperament of devotion and surrender to God or guru/master becomes a crutch for both Eastern and Western seeker if their dependence on either eclipses their real faith and union with the irreducible essence of the universe. Again this is more visible when we observe a Westerner trying to embrace and mimic the Eastern archetypal structure. None more so than when we witness Western spiritually inclined people diving at the feet of a guru to kiss their feet or put their forehead on the guru’s feet in a so-called gesture of respect through the action of wiping the dust from the guru’s feet with the forehead. Deep down in the sacred intelligence of the gut, which is not connected to the ego, we know this is not genuine and is basically spiritual materialism because it is based on how we should appear to look towards others in the outside world and also to fulfill an image of ourselves that we have in our head. Though some may argue that this external behavior has an internal effect, and it does to some degree considering we have to completely humble our ego to kiss someone else’s feet who we acknowledge has more wisdom than us, but the problem is the attitude of devotion and surrender to either God or guru is based on the imitation of the archetypal temperaments of the East. (Note that in Oriental iconography a common image is the two footprints that symbolize divinity. They represent the feet of the divine that we kiss and touch with our hands as this action symbolizes that we are reaching in and kissing God in our heart). The Westerner will take on Eastern philosophical thinking and dress sense, for example, to hide and suppress the psychological habits and latent tendencies that cause us suffering. We imitate in the hope that these habits and tendencies will be transcended. The Easterner in turn does the same form of imitation when they try to take on the Western archetypal framework of social and materialistic success, but that topic is not of importance here. A sincere spiritually inclined individual has no need to imitate nor do they to the contrary have to uphold their social, cultural, and religious programming. We can appreciate that kissing the feet of a guru is primarily an Indian archetype and is a sacredly beautiful aspect of India when we observe the people of India in their childlike innocence practicing such devotion and humility to God and guru. But this is not practiced anywhere else in the Far East, whether that be China, Korea, Japan, or even South East Asia. And astonishingly the Far East and South East Asian spiritual and cultural traditions are heavily influenced by India where Hinduism gave birth to aspects of Buddhism and Buddhism traveled over the Himalayas to Tibet then China to mix with Taoism which eventually became Zen Buddhism in Japan. All along the way the environment especially in the Far East never deviated unnecessarily from their archetypal temperament to show honor and respect to a master and each other with a humble bow instead of the Indian version of kissing the guru’s feet. We would think it is extremely strange if a disciple of Japanese or
The Science and Practice of Humility OUT NOW!
The Science and Practice of Humility is the new book written by Jason Gregory published by Inner Traditions in the US, who are one of the leading publishers on spiritual traditions east and west, perennial philosophy, holistic health and healing, etc. It was published on October 20, 2014 and has hit the bookstores worldwide. This is a monumental piece of work that has taken quite some time to finalize. The Science and Practice of Humility has been highly acclaimed by many authors, filmmakers, public speakers, and musicians with many well-known individuals endorsing the book. See the praise for The Science and Practice of Humility on this website here https://jasongregory.org/books-films/ On top of this, bestselling author Daniel Reid, who wrote the classic bestseller The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity, has wrote an unbelievable foreward for Jason’s new book which complements the profound content of the work. The Science and Practice of Humility is available to order now both in bookshops and online. To purchase the book below are the links to take advantage of the amazing offers online: Amazon US http://www.amazon.com/dp/1620553635/Kindle US http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1620553635/Kindle UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon Canada http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1620553635/Kindle Canada http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon India http://www.amazon.in/dp/1620553635/Kindle India http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/dp/1620553635/Kindle France http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon Germany http://www.amazon.de/dp/1620553635/Kindle Germany http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon Italy http://www.amazon.it/dp/1620553635/Kindle Italy http://www.amazon.it/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon Japan http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/1620553635/Kindle Japan http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Amazon Spain http://www.amazon.es/dp/1620553635/Kindle Spain http://www.amazon.es/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Kindle Mexico http://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Kindle Brazil http://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Kindle Netherlands http://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Kindle Australia http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00OBHCLLO/Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. http://www.innertraditions.com/isbn/978-1-62055-363-3Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-science-and-practice-of-humility-jason-gregory/1118592174?ean=9781620553633Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.com/Science-Practice-Humility-Jason-Gregory/9781620553633Powell’s Books http://www.powells.com/biblio/9781620553633Fish Pond http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Science-and-Practice-of-Humility-Jason-Gregory/9781620553633Books a Million http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Science-Practice-Humility/Jason-Gregory/9781620553633 At the moment Jason is in the process of organizing three new books for publication, but if you have any questions feel free to ask him on the contact page as he would love to hear from you. More information on the content of Jason’s new book will be shared in his upcoming 2015 UK & US Tour. Jason sincerely hopes that you can secure yourself a copy of The Science and Practice of Humility and share what is within the book with others. The Science and Practice of Humility Book Trailers
The Evolution of Perception
The Evolution of Perception In any attempt to save the world we are in one sense an immense help in changing the world, and in another sense paradoxically we are a hindrance and destructive burden upon the world. The world which most people seek is invariably based upon their own sense of pleasure with the exclusion of pain. The socially accepted freedom that we value and associate with liberation, the one that drives most us to change the world, is a separatist effort to impose our own individual agenda upon others and the world. German psychologist Erich Fromm would suggest that this is “freedom from” or “freedom to,” but not real freedom because it is based on the differing points of view that each and every one of us believes to be physical and psychological comfortability. This social and cultural motif that humanity perpetuates is only one dimensional for the sheer fact that we have excluded the reality of pain from our existence. We are suffering from an illness within the psychological and spiritual sphere as a result. An individual will do anything no matter how absurd to avoid their latent psychological and spiritual pain. We dissect and edit out of our life what is not in accord with our hypnotic conditioning, as we continue to try and bypass the inevitables in our life. Pain is experienced when we begin to break our psychological limitations. The very nature of our perception is contaminated as a result of spiritually bypassing our psychological pain, to the point that the root of our awareness is continually veiled from the excessive stimulation of pleasure within the physical and mental planes of consciousness. The arcane wisdom of the sages expounds to humanity that consciousness is composed of three planes of growth which is an evolutionary process our perception undergoes through sincere self-work. The wisdom traditions, the esoteric mystery schools of antiquity, the perennial philosophers both ancient and contemporary, and the metaphysicians all refer to these three planes as the physical, mental and spiritual. Majority of humanity only perceive the temporal plane of the physical world, and are somehow under the delusion that this sphere is a permanent realm without ever undergoing vibratory and rhythmic transformations of change from the spiritual sphere. In John Holman’s The Return of the Perennial Philosophy he writes about this evolutionary process of perception through the three planes in relation to Christian Theosophy, There are actually three births. The first is the natural or ‘outward’ birth, the second is the birth of the soul in the human consciousness, and the third is the birth of the spirit or the highest divinity in the soul. In Christian Theosophy man – every man – is body, soul, and spirit, and the three births relate to each of these. At the end of the road, man sees through his highest spiritual eye. This ‘eye in the heart’ (a phrase also popular with Frithjof Schuon) was/is the eye ‘with which God sees himself through us’, says Versluis. The Fall of Man (or Adam) is a moving away from this higher (Aevertinal) consciousness to a lower (Character or earthly man) consciousness, so that instead of seeing transcendent reality, we see only the temporophysical world. The sincere spiritual seeker and esoteric student travel through these three planes of growth, where one’s perception begins to evolve from the physical and mental planes of material and intellectual orientated consciousness, onto the higher plane of spiritual consciousness. If one is sincere in their own introspected self-work, our perception of reality will embark upon a journey from matter to spirit where consciousness is perceived in all forms of life. British author and philosopher Philip Sherrard explains this journey from matter to spirit, I see the universe as a hierarchy of levels descending from the formless spiritual level down to the most dense material form. In Sanskrit the liberation of perception is known as moksha, and in The Science and Practice of Humility this is known as the “evolution of perception” where I thoroughly explore the philosophical, psychological, metaphysical, and spiritual knowledge behind this evolved perception and its relation to the three planes of consciousness. The spiritual plane of consciousness is a level of perception so reflective and transparent that one who dwells in this enlightened state can perceive eternity in the manifest and understand that matter and spirit could not be separate. The Taoist sage Chuang-tzu said, When there is no more separation between “this” and “that,” it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things. Residing in that unpolluted state of consciousness, the spiritual plane, Chuang-tzu could perceive the infinite irreducible essence of the universe, known in Chinese as Tao and Sanskrit as Brahman, in all forms of nature. This is a way of perception so subtle that one can perceive the formless reality within the world of form. This level of perception that Chuang-tzu attained cleared his mind and vision of what he once thought was a concrete reality built on separation and chaos. In this purification of one’s mind and awareness, an evolution of perception takes place naturally that leads one to the ultimate “sense of unity” revealed within. This evolved perception and sense of unity should not be misconstrued with the informational awareness one attains from alternative research of conspiracy theories or new-age misconceptions of oneness. The awareness and oneness that a sage imbibes is in the authentic wisdom of a sense of unity within consciousness that an individual has latent within and can experience as it is our original nature. The result of this mystical experience is a pure state of awareness not attracted or caught in the apparent drama of life. As a result of being lost in our daily dramas and general semantics of life, the most misunderstood and
The Artificial Human
The Artificial Human The destruction of an organism depends upon an element of that organism becoming neurotic to its place within the natural order of organic life. If a species builds their perspective of life only within a linear conception, that very species would naturally have a propensity to fall into an artificial disposition. Could we say that the human race has fallen into this artificial disposition? Humanity surely must admit that they have lost contact with the nonlinear circuitry of our minds which is the aspect of our mind that connects us to the natural rhythms of the planet. Remarkably, animals never lose contact with the natural order of life, and they all play their part in the constant unfoldment of organic life. Yet contrary to this, the human race has become totally dependent upon external influences which hypnotize the individual into a linear perception of growth through external means and pleasurable experiences. Our dependency upon acquiring a pleasurable experience or stimuli is enhancing a schism within the psyche which expresses itself as a constant pursuit of control that in reality leads to an artificiality within the human-being. Our use of technology is a testament to that fact. The excessive use of technology depends on the artificial aspect of the psyche. Evidence of this artificiality is rife within the current technological age. The average individual uses technology not in the essence of attempting to grow both naturally and spiritually, but instead majority are only concerned with using technology as a device for entertainment which keeps one in a perpetual state of hypnosis. Most individuals cannot go one day without turning on the television, or checking their emails and social media networks. People are constantly clinging to a smartphone, laptop, tablet, etc., which is detaching one from what really “is.” The artificial human is always striving for fame and fortune through a glowing monitor which fills that empty void in their lives. Nobody is truly that popular that we need to be checking our smartphone every five seconds. An individual does this because most people long to be accepted by others which proves that the majority of humanity has self-worth issues deep within. Even the spiritual charlatans who appear on numerous television programs are addicted to their smartphone, yet they arrogantly parade around like a guru telling people to go beyond the limitations of the mind but they themselves fail to understand that to be incessantly on a smartphone is over stimulating mental activity and thus is an act of the mind. Our belief that we do not belong to each other and the planet is the very reason we seek acceptance from others. Seeking acceptance from others is again to depend on external influences, as if we were a machine rather than human. The predominant use of technology then is to desensitize and dehumanize the individual into an artificial machine. Machine in this case, is the artificial robotic function of an individual’s psychology and physical welfare. Our entire world is built on the premise that society and culture is what helps the individual grow rather than the individual growing of their own volition. Culture and society themselves and all of their apparatuses, such as government and politics, are all built on the maintenance of the linear concept of the world. So culture, society and everything that holds them together are artificial because nature’s constituents abide by the nonlinear realm of the cosmos. Culture and society in this sense are what is being mythologized through many artistic outlets, such as film, because culture and society is depicted as the artificial machine which dictates its influence over the natural human. The external influence of culture and society is what creates an artificial robotic human, as all machines are controlled from the outside. We all feel this either consciously or unconsciously, and this is what drives most into the comforting arms of a cyber-world which is not tangible. The social and cultural machine teaches the individual that they can never be like the celebrities that the culture promotes and so to be “successful” one ought to mimic those celebrities to gain acceptance from others who are under the same hypnosis. This kind of parroting lasts a very short time as most figure out that they will never attain the fame and fortune of those so called celebrities they are mimicking. So one variably retreats into an online world where they can build another artificial persona to hide behind. The online cyber world that most are drawn into is transforming the way we interact and express ourselves to others. Increasingly, people are finding it hard to communicate to others face to face without the assistance of a social media chat box. This form of cyber communication tends to develop false habits and tendencies on the part of those who are engrossed by that world. People develop habits and tendencies of being rude, arrogant, a sense of always being right, machoism, etc., which are all attributes that most would not express to another face to face. In the field of psychology, this sort of behavior would be deemed schizophrenic, yet humanity parade around as if this sort of behavior is perfectly sane. No one can be sure where we are heading as a species, but if we lose our sense of communication, we will continue to deteriorate as our faculty to sympathize and understand another will be completely lost to our own individual agenda for the world. The miscommunication has already begun between society and the individual, as for thousands of years we have had a cultural and social machine that only imposes its Will over the individual rather than listening to their needs of the time. In the perpetual tyranny of society and culture over the individual, we discover that humanity is only attracted to the artificiality of the hand that supposedly feeds them. The artificial world imposed on
Unveiled and Lifted Documentary (Featuring Jason Gregory)
On May 31st, 2013, the highly anticipated documentary Unveiled and Lifted was released. Unveiled and Lifted was co-produced by Canadian radio host Cari-Lee Miller and US editor, filmmaker and musician Justin Jezewski. Both Cari-Lee and Justin have been working tirelessly with a group of authors, filmmakers, artists and freethinkers for six months in this larger than life collaboration. This is the second time Jason Gregory has worked with Justin Jezewski and the first with Cari-Lee Miller who are both good friends of Jason. Other than featuring Jason Gregory, the film also includes a wide variety of inspirational individuals such as Kathy Fontecchio, Derrick J Freeman, Rob in the Page Family, Elina St-Onge, Vinny Eastwood, Thomas Sheridan, Dayna Martin, Nabil Shaban, Liam Scheff, Max Igan, Charles Shaw, Truther Girl Sonia, Joe Martino, Thema Azize Serwa, Derrick Broze, Karen Sawyer and Brendon Culliton. Unveiled and Lifted is quickly becoming an internet blockbuster and is featured on Top Documentary Films website using Jason Gregory’s transcription as the description of the film. Hit the link to view http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/unveiled-lifted/ Cari-Lee and Justin are looking forward to more feedback about the film, so please watch share and enjoy the film.
