Self-realization is difficult work. There would be no need for spiritual teachers, esoteric schools, monasteries and ashrams, books, blogs and podcasts like this one if it were easy.
The ordinary conception of life is a trap. The Esoteric Teaching is designed to help you get out of this trap. But even with this help, to be successful you will have to make quite a bit of effort over a significant period of time.
If you don’t make this effort, if you don’t try to get out, certainly you will remain caught in the trap of material consciousness. And then, there is no escape from it except death. But if you struggle to attain the freedom of real spiritual consciousness, authentic self-realization is the greatest reward.
When I came back to the United States after studying for 12 years in India, I was shocked. There is very little freedom here. Anyone who tries to live simply, like I did in the villages of India, would starve or be arrested. You have to conform to the system or you are in trouble. There is plenty of material opulence, but the price we have paid for it is our self-determination, our self-expression, and our autonomy.
Similarly, the price we have paid for the so-called benefits of living in the material world is our spiritual freedom: the liberty to be who we really are. Instead, we have accepted so many false designations, built up so many shells of phony meaning around our real self, that we have actually forgotten who we are. Instead we have become identified with this material body and mind, and we are suffering.
We are all suffering the insults, embarrassments and degradations of material existence. Anyone who thinks that they are not suffering is just insane. Do you really want to live and work hard all your life, then lose everything you have worked so hard for at the time of death? No? Then how can you say you aren’t suffering?
Maybe you have forgotten that you are suffering; maybe you have deluded yourself and distracted yourself and intoxicated yourself into thinking that you’re not suffering. But when the time of death comes, then you will know the truth: this material existence is nothing but suffering.
Pride is a poor substitute for joy and authentic spiritual bliss. But in this material world, pride and vanity are all we can really enjoy. Our so-called enjoyment is all built on others’ suffering. We are going to have to pay for it someday.
Every native tribe forced from its land, every species hunted into extinction, every square inch of polluted land, every hole in the ozone layer, every bit of polar ice that melts, every act of economic exploitation, every political lie, every animal slaughtered to please someone’s lust for the taste of flesh and blood, every unnecessary war creates more suffering, more karma that we are all responsible for, because we enjoy the material benefits.
Do you really want to be held to account for the destruction that the evil of materialistic greed is wreaking on this planet? Then get out. Get out of the trap.
The Esoteric Teaching gives us methods that allow us to continue to live on this planet and pursue self-realization without creating any more karma. But first we have to accept the ideas that are the core of the Teaching, and we have to be willing to change our way of life in harmony with its principles.
Spiritual life means living without creating unnecessary suffering for others. It means clearing our hearts from the lust and anger that drive material greed, possessiveness and ambition. Real spiritual life is not a phony poser act put on to impress others; it’s a deep personal commitment to principles like truthfulness, nonviolence and the sacredness of love.
So don’t give up; don’t allow yourself to be seduced by the flashy lure of materialism, telling yourself that everything is alright. In this material world, nothing is alright, because it’s all a sham. Behind the opulence and chrome-plated extravaganza of Western material civilization is high weirdness and deep, deep moral decay.
As long as you participate, you’re part of the problem. Become part of the solution instead. Join us to explore the ancient Vedic science of consciousness given in the Esoteric Teaching, and free yourself from the trap of this false material life.
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