This has been a post most needed and Jerad's statements ring true, both experientially and conceptually. Since many of us have not found the font of blessing a valid teacher. We too must be equally valid students.
> Find someone with really deep, real experience to teach you!
This has been a post most needed and Jerad's statements ring true, both experientially and conceptually. Since many of us have not found the font of blessing a valid teacher. We too must be equally valid students.
> Find someone with really deep, real experience to teach you!
REPLY: We the unqualified are to select a valid teacher for us. We the unqualified are then to follow the instructions of our first choice as a teacher who teaches (as do all teachers) that our respect and trust in the teacher is to be unconditional and complete.
We the unqualified are then profoundly troubled should we for any reason begin to doubt our teacher. Some should be doubted and examined in minuet detail.
Thus for me the root teacher is life and we need to examine our doubts with rigor and candor, likewise our chosen teacher. If both withstand the inner teacher and the outer teacher withstand the rigors of your sincere inquiry, we can trust we have found the correct teacher for us.
Still life is a maelstrom of change. Life as teacher will bring new lessons to deepen our understanding and wisdom, the experiences should withstand continuing robust inquiry.
Thus for me the ancient American Indian path of vision quest is valuable in finding ones core inner teacher. Connecting with life. Having found our core inner teacher, we are better able to find our outer teacher.
REPLY Thanks Jared. The answers to those questions depend on the disposition of the individual seeker and their veracity and integrity. And those aspects should always be integral to ones practice.
It is hard to be honest and clear in the beginning. And recognizing one is delusional makes it harder to trust oneself as the distinction between self (embodied being/one with all) and the Ego is almost impossible at that point.
Sincerity is a good beginning for us to proceed. Many of us have very little else to rely on.
We are beginners without a teacher and without a grounded practice. Where to begin? Sincerity of intention is a good start.
I agree about the difficulty of finding a good teacher. One has to sift through all the charlatans without the requisite discernment. Not easy. I have found (like you) that LIFE is the best teacher, as long as one has a way of interpreting the signs - but this is part of the process, trial and error (which usually means lots of trials and lots of errors). Well, this is boot-camp Earth-School after all, so about par for the course.
> Well, this is boot-camp Earth-School after all, so about par for the course.
REPLY: very true.
Still a vision quest may be the best way to get connected to the inner teacher/life. Why? In the old days a brave (squaw too) went out alone with little to sustain him. He could not return to the tribe without a vision. Meaning one could not "see" without the support of nature. If nature did not support you. You die. A vision quest is no trivial quest. So making a true connection is all that keeps you alive. Delusion will get you killed.
If there is another way to know yourself in short order I do not know of it. If you do, I appreciate your sharing.
Thank you wm. I went on vision-quest in 1999 (in the north-american-indian tradition) high up in the mountains somewhere in California. As a result, on day(night)-1 I found myself on a spontaneous shamanic journey - feeling very 'at home' and more 'alive' than ever with this experience. Over the next two years I would (out the blue) suddenly have to go and lie down and I would 'travel' into some other world. It also included some 'remote viewing', dreaming in one gulp whole novels & plays, entering an echo-chamber where people composed music, and sensing some history-changing event was about to happen (3 days before 9/11). I tried to train myself to initiate and focus these possibilities but the spirit-of-life would have none of it. All spontaneous, or not at all. Gradually this capability fizzled out and I felt utterly bereft. (I've never smoked anything or taken any drugs, by the way).
In 2000 I quit my very comfortable academic professorship to see if whatever had been stirred in me needed to find some new creative expression. (You can read my 'story' here on substack, as an interview with 'Unbekoming' -- https://substack.com/@unbekoming/p-143061568)
I'm not sure if there are any short-cuts to 'know thyself' (other than a Near-Death-Experience) but I increasingly live in an interactive mode with Life itself, and Nature -- and have given up on trying to change the world for the better - quite a relief I can tell you :)
> I increasingly live in an interactive mode with Life itself, and Nature -- and have given up on trying to change the world for the better - quite a relief I can tell you :)
REPLY: Yes it is a relief. I was never able to go on a vision quest as the years I was able to go my mentor didn't have enough questers to defer the cost.
His method was quite a process. First you did a 3 day test run in a remote canyon in near San Juan Bautista. There was a sweat lodge that all participated in. Those that survived that experience then did the real thing at very remote places also in California.It was another 3 day journey. No food just water. Quite a rigorous experience. People come back changed for sure.
I know of no other way to get in touch with your true self quickly. Yes near death experience should wake one up for sure. I am guessing as I have not had one of those either. But a vision quest is almost a near death experience.
Finding a true teacher remains a daunting task of those who do not know themselves and do not know they do not know.
Hi Unbekoming and Jerad,
This has been a post most needed and Jerad's statements ring true, both experientially and conceptually. Since many of us have not found the font of blessing a valid teacher. We too must be equally valid students.
> Find someone with really deep, real experience to teach you!
REPLY: We the unqualified are to select a valid teacher for us. We the unqualified are then to follow the instructions of our first choice as a teacher who teaches (as do all teachers) that our respect and trust in the teacher is to be unconditional and complete.
We the unqualified are then profoundly troubled should we for any reason begin to doubt our teacher. Some should be doubted and examined in minuet detail.
Thus for me the root teacher is life and we need to examine our doubts with rigor and candor, likewise our chosen teacher. If both withstand the inner teacher and the outer teacher withstand the rigors of your sincere inquiry, we can trust we have found the correct teacher for us.
Still life is a maelstrom of change. Life as teacher will bring new lessons to deepen our understanding and wisdom, the experiences should withstand continuing robust inquiry.
Thus for me the ancient American Indian path of vision quest is valuable in finding ones core inner teacher. Connecting with life. Having found our core inner teacher, we are better able to find our outer teacher.
REPLY Thanks Jared. The answers to those questions depend on the disposition of the individual seeker and their veracity and integrity. And those aspects should always be integral to ones practice.
It is hard to be honest and clear in the beginning. And recognizing one is delusional makes it harder to trust oneself as the distinction between self (embodied being/one with all) and the Ego is almost impossible at that point.
Sincerity is a good beginning for us to proceed. Many of us have very little else to rely on.
We are beginners without a teacher and without a grounded practice. Where to begin? Sincerity of intention is a good start.
I agree about the difficulty of finding a good teacher. One has to sift through all the charlatans without the requisite discernment. Not easy. I have found (like you) that LIFE is the best teacher, as long as one has a way of interpreting the signs - but this is part of the process, trial and error (which usually means lots of trials and lots of errors). Well, this is boot-camp Earth-School after all, so about par for the course.
Thank you Joshua,
> Well, this is boot-camp Earth-School after all, so about par for the course.
REPLY: very true.
Still a vision quest may be the best way to get connected to the inner teacher/life. Why? In the old days a brave (squaw too) went out alone with little to sustain him. He could not return to the tribe without a vision. Meaning one could not "see" without the support of nature. If nature did not support you. You die. A vision quest is no trivial quest. So making a true connection is all that keeps you alive. Delusion will get you killed.
If there is another way to know yourself in short order I do not know of it. If you do, I appreciate your sharing.
peace
Thank you wm. I went on vision-quest in 1999 (in the north-american-indian tradition) high up in the mountains somewhere in California. As a result, on day(night)-1 I found myself on a spontaneous shamanic journey - feeling very 'at home' and more 'alive' than ever with this experience. Over the next two years I would (out the blue) suddenly have to go and lie down and I would 'travel' into some other world. It also included some 'remote viewing', dreaming in one gulp whole novels & plays, entering an echo-chamber where people composed music, and sensing some history-changing event was about to happen (3 days before 9/11). I tried to train myself to initiate and focus these possibilities but the spirit-of-life would have none of it. All spontaneous, or not at all. Gradually this capability fizzled out and I felt utterly bereft. (I've never smoked anything or taken any drugs, by the way).
In 2000 I quit my very comfortable academic professorship to see if whatever had been stirred in me needed to find some new creative expression. (You can read my 'story' here on substack, as an interview with 'Unbekoming' -- https://substack.com/@unbekoming/p-143061568)
I'm not sure if there are any short-cuts to 'know thyself' (other than a Near-Death-Experience) but I increasingly live in an interactive mode with Life itself, and Nature -- and have given up on trying to change the world for the better - quite a relief I can tell you :)
Hi Joshua,
Thank you for the Link, I will read.
> I increasingly live in an interactive mode with Life itself, and Nature -- and have given up on trying to change the world for the better - quite a relief I can tell you :)
REPLY: Yes it is a relief. I was never able to go on a vision quest as the years I was able to go my mentor didn't have enough questers to defer the cost.
His method was quite a process. First you did a 3 day test run in a remote canyon in near San Juan Bautista. There was a sweat lodge that all participated in. Those that survived that experience then did the real thing at very remote places also in California.It was another 3 day journey. No food just water. Quite a rigorous experience. People come back changed for sure.
I know of no other way to get in touch with your true self quickly. Yes near death experience should wake one up for sure. I am guessing as I have not had one of those either. But a vision quest is almost a near death experience.
Finding a true teacher remains a daunting task of those who do not know themselves and do not know they do not know.