Living in the Truth of the Present Moment

Happy New Year--Self-Interview Part 3

2012-01-01T02:35:00.000-05:00

Q: So, it’s the first day of 2012, and you’re going to do the self-interview thing again? Why don’t you just wish them happy New Year?

A: Happy New Year, everyone! May the upcoming year be your most excellent yet.

Q: Sweet. So if you’re not going to write a New Year’s blog message, what sort of questions shall we go for? Do you want to talk about philosophy, Eastern religion, practical living, or yourself?

A: You’re a terrible interviewer.

Q: Okay, let’s start off with why anyone should bother to read this blog.

A: This blog is for people who are sincerely interested in living in the Truth of the Present Moment. There are a lot of people on a spiritual trip, who define themselves as 'spiritual people,' that have not yet gotten to the point where they’re willing to do whatever it takes to remain in the Truth of the existing moment, which is the only reality there is, the only true life there is. Most people live in their imagination, and to tell the truth, are hardly aware of what is actually going on around them. They live in a dream-bubble floating through time and space, occasionally bumping against other dream bubbles—objective humanity.

Q: Are you saying that the past isn’t real? It happened, didn’t it?

A: Well, yes and no. It happened, relatively speaking, but on a larger scale, it is essentially no different than a dream such as the ones we wake up from after sleeping. In reality, none of it actually happened. The ‘Yoga Vasishtha’ refers to this physical world as ‘an illusion of longstanding duration.’ When we leave this body, it’s like waking up to a subtle reality that is much more real and familiar to us than this world of karma, which is kind of awkward and clumsy in comparison. Instead of saying, ‘What a strange dream that was,’ it’ll be more like, ‘What a strange incarnation that was.’

Q: Are we in a dream now?

A: Again, yes and no. The dream is happening; it goes on in waking life, whether we take it seriously or not. If we are unaware of the changeless nature of the Self, then we are most probably caught up in the dream and think of it as reality, or ‘real life.’ If we are aware of the eternally changeless nature of the Self, we enjoy this karmic dream as we would a good movie or play. It is actually a performance for our own delight, but instead of lightheartedly playing along, the ego takes it all seriously and makes everything into distressing and stressful circumstances and situations.

Q: Where does the dream of life come from?

A: Mind. This apparent individual human life is a fictitious imagining of the Mind, which is creative in nature. Ordinarily, our life is an outer manifestation of the past conditioning of the mind, which we know as subconscious mind. Most of what we do, think, and feel, and how we act, is the result of subconscious tendencies, known in Sanskrit as samskaras. They are the original invasion of the body-snatchers. They make us say and do things we have no true feeling to say or do, and act in ways that we have no desire to be and would never choose to be. When we say, ‘I’m not going to be this way ever again,’ and then a while later we are being that way again, that is a samskara—a past impression that reproduces itself over and over even though we’d prefer that it go away.

Q: How do we break free from this? Are there ways to make it go away?

A: First we have to realize the truth of our predicament. Should the great majority of people read what has been written so far, they will either consider it new-age mumbo-jumbo, or will think there are some interesting ideas, but will have no sincere interest in pursuing any of it further—especially when it comes to actually changing anything. The ego is insidiously resistant to change. It insists on remaining as it is, and it wants nothing to do with change unless it’s in charge of the details itself. Even if one were to recognize a good idea, the ego, with one ‘excuse’ after another, would prevent him or her from ever actually applying it in real life.

So the first step is simply recognizing the truth of how it is—that we are actually chained to a fence of samskaras that will do everything in their power to prevent us from changing anything about ourselves or our life as it is. The samskaras only want to reproduce the past over and over in an endless cycle. This is why most people can never break free from the life they are presently chained in—because they cannot see any possibility beyond the samskaras, or do not understand the samskaras themselves for what they are. Most people are totally ignorant of all this. It is the state of the world we live in.

Q: So how is it possible to see that something greater than what we already know is actually within reach?

A: The soul (in Sanskrit, jiva) goes through its own evolution. It is what incarnates from one body to another, each incarnation taking up, in conscious development, where the last left off. At some point, when it is truly ready, it comes across someone who is happier and freer than itself, and it has reached a point, has suffered enough, that it wants to know how it is possible to be happier and freer.

That is when we find something that begins to reveal greater possibilities and a new direction to move in. We find a book that engages us in a new way, we come across a yoga or meditation class, we meet a teacher, or someone tells us about this blog and our Course of Training via email, which I can say without any fear of successful repudiation that there is nothing else like it anywhere.

This might at first seem like a great presumption, or even pompous arrogance, but after 50 years of sincere searching, and being fairly familiar with everything available on the ‘spiritual scene,’ I have found nothing even close to it, other than my own Teacher’s course written in the 40’s and 50’s. Any participant of the course will tell you that they have never seen anything that compares to it. It might sound strange coming from me, but coming from them it sounds like sincere appreciation. Read the comments of the blog, or the postings on Facebook, to get an idea of the ongoing dialogue among course participants.

Q: How can you account for the fact that you are associated with something unlike anything else available?

A: For the life of me I’ve never been able to figure that one out. I am fairly certain, however, that it has nothing whatsoever to do with me personally. It happens in spite of me, and certainly not because of me. I am sure that it has something to do with the teachers I have studied with and what they have passed on to me that is to be passed on to others.

Q: How is it that you are so certain that what you write about is actually true?

A: I have applied the principles of Truth in my own life, and have seen for myself that they are infallible and immutable. There is no question about their power once they are actually applied in real life. They are not something to ‘believe’ in. I encourage people to believe nothing, and to prove what is true in their own lives.

I am not interested in communicating something to only be believed or agreed with. Whether anyone else believes or agrees with something or not is of no consequence to either them or to me. I come from the experiential school. The principles of Truth explored in the Course of Training can be experienced right from the beginning, with Lesson 1, or for many people, just from reading the blog. There is no dogma, nothing to believe or agree with. Never believe anything you can’t prove true in your own life.

The course is simply a clear and modern presentation of the ancient principles regarding the Truth of Being. In a sense, it is an awakening of who we truly are. Participating in the Course changes a person’s life on every level. It is a process to be experienced, and one lesson leads to the next, so that there is a progression on whatever level of sadhana one might be on. The course can be taken on whatever level of understanding you have attained, and wherever you are, it will meet you. It is not ‘elementary’ for anyone, regardless of one’s background or previous experience.

Q: So what’s your perspective on the prophesized events for the year 2012? Is there anything real to it or is it all hype?

A: You know, I was just watching something on CNN that covered, in order, all the physical and natural catastrophes that happened somewhere in the world during 2011. My wife Kay and I were watching it together, and we turned to each other and agreed that if that had been foresight, or seeing events ahead of their time, or knowing in advance everything that was going to happen, it would have seemed very scary and possibly even unbelievable that all that could happen in a single year.

It has been prophesized by many different traditions that unusual changes will occur in the year 2012. Considering 2011 as a prelude, you’d have to think the planet is heading in a direction that includes a certain degree of upheaval, inwardly as well as outwardly.

Anything, you know, is catastrophic for whomever it’s happening to. My mother died suddenly at the age of 43 in a car accident. For me, who had just turned 21, that was as catastrophic as it gets. So anything that happens is a big deal for those it happens to, and for those who know them.

Probably we’ll see more of what we’ve seen in 2011. The worst could certainly be yet to come, but the good part is that the best is yet to come as well. I don’t have any inside information about it. I’m only an observer. My perspective, and what I encourage in those who work with me, is that whatever happens, even if it at first appears catastrophic, is gradually leading to something much better than anything we’ve yet experienced. In the end, as in the beginning, there is only perfection.

In my eyes, only something wonderful lies ahead. A new birth, on any level, is a wonderful opportunity for growth. If you are not interested in growth, then simply be content. Contentment is the highest state anyway. There is nothing that needs to be attained. All we need is the recognition of the Truth of the Present Moment.

In one of my responses in the comments following last month’s entry—which included some really good exchanges—I discussed the importance of understanding that the subtle world and the subtle body, in which we currently reside, are much more powerful and substantial than the physical world and the physical body. The subtle body entered the physical body at the first inhalation, and departs on the last exhalation. The connection between the subtle and physical bodies is the breath and the nervous system. Through the nervous system, the physical and subtle bodies merge as one.

If a powerful bomb went off next to our physical body—which strangely happens to some people in this world—the physical body would only return to the elements of the earth from which it came, while we would simply find ourselves once again focused on the subtle body and subtle world instead of the physical body and physical world. The actual experience would be somewhat like waking up from a dream.

Once we are fully established in the awareness that the subtle body and subtle world are more permanent and more powerful than anything in this physical existence, and that nothing in the physical world can affect the subtle body in any way—unless we allow it to in our own thinking, which would be a lack of discipline on our part—we lose our fear of anything bad happening; we lose our fear of death and destruction.

Physical destruction seems like a big deal when we are focused on the physical body and physical world, but when we are firmly established in our subtle reality, physical destruction is seen as just another apparition in the ongoing play of constantly-changing appearances.

Q: That seems like a lot to take in. Knowing all that, what do we do?

A: Knowing all that, we enjoy the simple delight of the present moment. Our experience of the present moment can be whatever we choose it to be, unless we only passively repeat the past over and over again, and then how will we ever experience something new?

We know we are following the path of Truth as long as we keep seeing what is new. Something ‘new’ for us is like a signpost telling us that we are on the right path. When everything seems old and familiar, when it feels like we already understand everything worth knowing, then we can rest assured that we have strayed from the path, and we need to come back to the present moment, back to the heart, and back to our love.

This is presented in the first 2 lessons of the course: Come back to the moment, come back to the heart, come back to your love. It is such a simple thing to remember, yet it is so powerful to simply remember that doing this is all that is required, and that it takes no time at all. It is a simple willingness to return to the present. All thoughts that distract us from the Present are dropped and noted as irrelevant.

The Truth exists only in the Present Moment. There is no other time to Be. Be in the Present Moment and you will be everywhere at once; you will pervade and permeate the cosmos. There is nothing more to do. There is only to Be. In our culture and society a great importance is placed on ‘doing,’ and very little value is placed on ‘Being.’ Yet, in a conscious, awakened community, ‘Being’ would be highly valued, while ‘doing’ goes on, as dharmically necessary, in the background

This is living in the Truth of the Present Moment.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, along with a free lesson, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

A Precious Holiday Gift Especially For You

2011-12-01T02:07:00.002-05:00

My mind is trying to accept that it is already December. Not only that, it is the last month of 2011. The year will soon be gone, finished, over with forever. We’ll refer to it as ‘Hey, remember what happened back in ’11?’ Coming soon is…ta! ta!…2012—the year of destined great changes that affect all.

Actually, from our own individual perspective, the primary thing that matters, isn't it, is how we and our loved ones are affected. This is only natural. And the very best part is, it is an infallible and immutable truth that we have the power to determine in advance how any situation will affect us.

We do not have the power to determine what happens to us. Whatever happens to us is determined by karma. However, thankfully, karma has no power over what happens in us. This is determined wholly by us alone in the present moment.

The trouble is that most people fail to recognize that they actually possess this power, and when we do not actually exercise our God-given free will, our perception and experience is determined by whatever patterns and tendencies we habitually live by.

In each new moment the universe presents us a completely clean slate to begin from. If we chose to, and exercised appropriate will power, we could create a beautiful new reality right here and now. Instead, we habitually bring the past over and superimpose it upon the present. This way, we never consciously realize we could easily change something if we simply used our innate and inherent power to determine our own intention--something new, more expanded, and more pleasant than before--along with the will power necessary to implement it.

It is all so simple. Yet, while knowing this and agreeing with it wholeheartedly, we rarely are conscious enough of what we are doing and thinking in the present moment to ever apply the principle in any practical way.

Yesterday on Facebook I posted, ‘Many people who come here think they already know that they create their own personal reality through the activity of their mind. They have accepted as a fact that thoughts are creative energy. Yet, few actually practice the principle in a practical way in their own daily life, and continue to deal with obstacles and problems that they create in their own mind, and then wonder why things are going so badly.’

I have been formally or officially communicating principles of Truth since 1975, and I began my studies and practice in 1960. Since then, I have seen and heard a lot. I have had the good fortune to know firsthand how the sadhana of many different kinds of people was going. I learned about people through what people openly and honestly shared with me over the years. I thank God every day for the great fortune of coming across and getting to know so many great people.

One of the primary things I have learned about people is that all of us are much more alike than most of us would ever think we are. Over the years I have had the opportunity to stay with many people of various types and lifestyles, including all areas of America and while leading weekend workshops in five other countries as well.

And I have seen beyond all doubt that we are all very much the same. We might look different, we might dress differently, we might be of various colors and cultures, yet fundamentally all human individuals are basically the same inside. Even the fact that we have such variant karmic conditions and situations to live in, such as one person is wealthy and famous, while another is a taxi driver, does not mean much at all in the grand scheme of things.

Each person only experiences what in going on in his or her consciousness, which is determined by the thoughts the individual is focusing his or her attention on at the time. There is no existing exception to this whatsoever.

If I could give each person who reads this a holiday gift—and I would dearly love to—I would give them the gift of knowing that they create their own personal reality, from one moment to the next, by their habitual thoughts and predominant mental attitude. This is truly the Secret of the Ages. There is no greater knowledge than this anywhere.

Many who see themselves as ‘spiritual people,’ which we discussed in depth in the previous (November) blog entry, look down on the teaching that thought is creative. They say it is only an ego-trap to go around making any attempt to create a greater life or to transform our own state, which includes our vision and experience from moment to moment.

Instead, they practice more advanced avenues of sadhana, such as focus on devotion to whatever they consider to be their higher Power, sacrifice, surrender, seva (selfless service), kirtan (chanting in Sanskrit), mantra-repetition, performing rituals, hatha yoga, meditation, showing up at spiritual gatherings (satsang), and so on and on—whatever we do to try to get to wherever we think we’re going.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with any of these practices. They are all divine and have profoundly beneficial effects on those who practice them. In fact I myself have practiced each of them at some point or another, many of them over long periods of time, otherwise I wouldn’t even know what I was talking about. They are all very valuable practices, and they each serve a great function for anyone who openly and sincerely practices them.

I will never put down another person’s practice or tradition. All types are required, and each type serves its own function. Different people are open to principles of Truth in different ways. Many who have experienced many paths and methods have found our Course of Training, for example, to be perfect and ‘form-fitting’ for exactly what is needed in this present moment. For other people, the lessons of the course would in no way be relevant or even sensible. They would require a different type of path.

There is a path for everyone, and it is important that we find our own path and never try to do another’s path. The Bhagavad Gita says, ‘It is better to do one’s own dharma imperfectly than to do another’s dharma perfectly.’ The paths of Gurdjieff and of Krishnamurti, for example, are completely divergent, yet at the end of each is the same goal or endgame. Ramana Maharshi was very different from Ramakrishna, and neither of them were anything like the Buddha. Yet they have all created or transmitted authentic paths for attaining knowledge of the Self, and even more so, the experience of the Self.

A true teaching does not simply impart information. A true teaching carries with it a certain energy or power or Shakti that enables the open and sincere student to actually experience the understanding inherent in the teaching in an experiential way, and not simply as theoretical knowledge.

No matter how ‘advanced’ we become in our sadhana, it still remains a Truth that what we think is what we get. What good does it do to meditate 20 years if we’re still going to think about what we don’t want, hardly ever focusing on what is actually preferred. If we’re going to indulge in unpleasant feelings when they could be replaced naturally and easily simply by changing the focus of our attention, what is the point of spiritual practices?

It is the ‘elementary, basic’ principle that everyone seems to know but few actually practice in practical ways in everyday, daily life.

Once again, my gift to you this holiday season is the reminder of what you already know, although the significance of your knowledge is much more profound that you might ordinarily think: Thought is creative energy in motion, a cause of an eventual effect corresponding to the nature of the thought that caused it.

This is the way the world works. The great text, the ‘Yoga Vasishtha,’ which explains everything about how the universe works and how the Universal becomes the individual, is basically transmitting this simple Knowledge over and over in many different ways—which is the only way it can truly be communicated or learned.

The Truth cannot be imbibed merely by agreeing with it. Sadhana is becoming so attuned to and aligned with the Truth that we finally realize that we ARE the Truth.

We are what we think,
having become what we thought.
Like the wheel following the cart pulling ox,
Sorrow follows an evil thought.
And joy follows a pure thought,
like a shadow faithfully tailing a man.
We are what we think, having become what we thought.
~~The Dhammapada (believed to have been written by the Buddha)

We have space for a couple of exchanges from last month’s comments. I truly recommend reading through them. The heart of the blog is the comments, not the entries. I look forward to the comments that will come in this month as well, and to interacting with you. Now I’ll post my responses to a couple of recent questions relevant to this blog entry.

Chris, there is no directive in the course to use creative power to change anything about your life, especially if it is perfect as it is and you have no desire to change anything.

That principle is only for people who are displeased with some aspect of how their life is currently manifesting, and who need to know the principle for the transformation of some condition or situation to something that is more helpful and dharmic—or what is for the good of all, which is in truth the primary aspect of dharma.

If you see everything as perfect all the time, then you can think whatever you want all you like. Or you might not think at all, who knows?

Of course all feelings serve various functions and purposes. This is explored with great clarity in the lessons of the course. Fear has a purpose, anger has a purpose. However, some people have the misfortune of fear and/or anger imposing themselves upon them unnaturally, and experiencing fear and anger when it is totally unnecessary and serves no purpose other than to bring them down to a more fearful and contracted state.

The principle deals with the unwanted and unnecessary fear and anger, not the useful and necessary kind.

When reading the lessons, it is important to read everything in the context in which it is presented, as well as seeing each statement or contemplation from the highest or most expanded perspective possible. Perspective is everything when it comes to how we see what.

Chris was not satisfied. He wrote back to say, , 'My whole personal beef with the whole "creating your own reality" thing is that it could be used as an ego trip.'

Neither of us knew at the time was that this would be the inspiration for the current blog entry. I responded:

I truly understand your 'conflict' with the 'creating your own reality' thing. It sounds like a lot of other things that have left a bad impression on some, like 'The Secret,' for example, which many people liked a great deal, but which many didn't, for the same reasons you bring up yourself--that it wasn't really the highest approach to spiritual development.

Here is the reason I present the principle in the early part of the course: We use this Creative Power all the time anyway, only we do it subconsciously, according to conditioned patterns—which are primarily and persistently thinking about and creating the very things we do not want and which do not serve us or anyone around us in any positive way.

Since we use this power anyway to create all our troubles and obstacles in life, why not be conscious of it and its true potential? Truly, most people are totally unconscious of the principle, even though they unknowingly use it to create their own personal life, including all that is difficult about it.

If you create your reality through what you predominantly think, don't you want to know about it? Don’t you prefer to actually know what you are doing?

The first year or two of the course, while presenting the highest principles of the Truth of Being right from the beginning, also focus on helping us to get our physical lives in order, so that we can enjoy harmony and prosperity in daily life. Only then are we truly ready, open, and receptive to delve into deeper principles.

We can't be committed to our own spiritual path if we are constantly distracted by egotistical melodramas in the mind, which result in a disorderly and largely dysfunctional life.

As mentioned, everything is revealed from the beginning. Nothing is held back for later. It's just that, two years after first reading Lesson 1, you go back and read it anew and you are amazed at all that is in there that you didn't even notice the first time through. This is because your awareness is now awakened and expanded to such a degree that you can literally see things that you once just couldn't bring into your consciousness. A greater clarity arises—which we know as ‘The Evolution of Wisdom,' which is an early section of the course that explores much that must be understood before true progress is possible.

Basically, it is that everything we know and understand can be known and understood on a more expanded level. That is why the course is not about ‘presenting new information.’ There is no new information available anywhere, unless you are interested in scholarly pursuits.

The course is about the generation and reception of an elevating energy that expands our perspective from the inside, and presents us with an entirely new vision and experience of life. Of course, this can neither be truly comprehended or accepted without the actual experience of the course. This is why Lesson 1 is freely available to anyone who requests it.

Enjoy your holidays.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email—along with a free Lesson 1 so that you can experience what happens for yourself—write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

The Eternal Serenity of All Things

2011-11-05T01:51:00.000-04:00

Not long ago someone said to me, ‘So these are the things I need to focus on to get my life more on track.’ And she started listing all these complicated and irrelevant things that she was going to keep in mind to do, so that her life would generally be better.

I finally interrupted her and said, ‘Please forget all of that, for none of it will do you any good whatsoever. All you have to focus on is the eternal serenity of all things.’

We make things so complicated and difficult for ourselves. Sometimes we wonder why life seems so hard, never realizing that we ourselves are the one making it hard. If we changed our attitude, our approach, our perspective of things, and our thoughts and feelings about whatever is happening, everything would be so much lighter, so much more fun.

All we need to focus on is the eternal serenity of all things. Nothing is going wrong anywhere. Nothing bad is happening to anyone. I know that it appears that such things are happening, but maya is very powerful and very convincing, and things are not as they appear to be.

Focus on the eternal serenity of all things.

Thank you for your great responses to the special blog entry posted about a week ago. It has already broken the old record for number of comments following a blog entry that was originally set following the entry of July, 2010, and it has only taken a few days.

My heart soared when I saw so many writing to say that they never realized how much uplifting activity was going on here, and how such a great feeling of community was in the comments, and promising to make a more regular stop here to keep up with and possibly interact with the others in the blog comments. I was extremely happy and grateful that you had truly ‘heard’ the message in that special entry, and if you haven’t yet seen it, especially if you participate in the Course of Training, please read the previous entry and all the great comments following it as well.

There have been some excellent Q&A exchanges in the comments recently, and some of them are good enough that they deserve a more prominent presentation, so that others can have easier access to them. If you have already read them, please be assured that reading them again will be surprisingly beneficial. Also, I have enhanced the answers for this blog entry.

Rico: 'How do you know what you see in another is actually there and not just a projection or a reflection?'

DRB: Good question. If you see something in another that is actually there, you simply notice it, but you have no feelings about it. There is no emotional charge. For example, you see a black cat, and you acknowledge that the cat is black. It's a simple fact and you have no feelings about it either way.

If you are projecting or seeing reflections, you almost always have corresponding emotional reactions. You might not like it; something about it might bother you; you might have an intense fear of or aversion toward it; you might tend to be defensive and to make wrong and be right. All these things come up with a projection or reflections.

Something about what we are seeing feels off to us. What is off is that we don't recognize that it is our own projection, or a reflection of something we don't want to acknowledge and accept about ourselves.

Anonymous asks how walking and sitting can be spiritual practices. Here is something very important to understand about my approach to sadhana: everything is equally a spiritual practice. Truly, what is not a spiritual practice? It all depends on the consciousness brought to it.

I can sit in meditation and think of all kinds of worldly things. I can go to a movie and experience deep meditation. So which is the true spiritual practice?

Walking and sitting are both ways to meditate. Why sit or walk if you are not going to meditate? This doesn't mean you have to walk with your eyes closed. Practice open-eyed meditation. This doesn't mean you have to ignore others during conversation. If you can't meditate while you're talking to another, then what's the point of meditating at all?

Everything is a spiritual practice. Simply carrying around this corpse waiting to happen is a spiritual practice. It simply depends on how you are directing attention.

All this, of course, is explored fully in the Course of Training.

Scott Uddhava Marmorstein—healer, personal guide, writer, and teacher, whose website is sparklingaura.com—wrote in several questions, including an observation about ‘spiritual people.’ This was my reply:

Excellent post, Scott. A lot to chew on there.

One question I have: Who are the 'spiritual people?' What distinguishes them from unspiritual people, or from just regular people? If we were around certain people whom I consider to be the most 'spiritual' of all, there might not be anything about them that anyone would consider 'spiritual' in the least. In fact, from appearances I doubt that anyone just seeing me or being around me might categorize me as 'spiritual' in any way whatsoever. So I truly wonder what a 'spiritual person' is.

As far as who gets what, aside from karma, it is extraordinarily simple, whether one is in the least bit 'spiritual' or not. When, as you say, 'someone wants something with a fervor,' they are obviously conscious of lack, of not having it—otherwise there would be no fervor to get it.

We don't get what we want. We get what we are conscious of having.

Even the most subtle desire is the consciousness of lack—of not having what is desired. This repels any opportunity we might have of ever getting it. To 'get' something—and personally I prefer to be cheerful with what comes unsought—we must affirm its existence, at least in subtle form, which will invariably be reflected physically if we have enough emotional intensity to feel it into existence.

If we are conscious of already having something, there is nothing that can prevent us from having it. If we are conscious of not having something, there is nothing that can make it possible for us to have it.

Regarding the 'spiritual people,' a lot of people can read a few books or articles on the Internet and pick up a bit of knowledge and think they have become 'spiritual' as a result. Or they might even attend a few yoga classes or meditation classes, learn how to chant in Sanskrit, and go on to practice these things at home on their own. They can do excellent hatha yoga postures, meditate for hours without breathing, repeat a mantra, either out loud or silently, burn incense from the local center or ashram, put up some pictures of saints, wear yoga clothes, dress in white, grow or cut their hair, change their diet and lifestyle, give up their pleasures, wake up in the middle of the night to do their practices before the day begins, and speak glowingly of the fruits of their practice to others.

Yet they know nothing of the creative nature of thought, do nothing to change thought patterns to be more uplifting and cheerful, or to do whatever is necessary to be in harmony with others at all times, or KNOW that their income is commensurate with their degree of CONSCIOUSNESS of wealth or poverty—which alone is the determining factor.

Just because one is a 'spiritual person' means nothing in regards to how proficiently they function in the world, or their capacity to generate an income that actually meets all their needs and more, which is easily possible if a person actually learns to think for himself instead of being a slave to past conditioning.

This is why we have a Course of Training. We can learn how to live in complete freedom and contentment whether we are 'spiritual people' or not.
Scott chimed in again with this: ‘You say to KNOW that you have everything at least in subtle form. I can at best 'know about' it (intellectually) but it does not equate to a FEELING as though what I KNOW is true. How to KNOW something that doesn't yet exist even in my feeling? Is that truly Creation? For example, I can know all about India, but it doesn't make me Indian. I can know all about money, but it doesn't mean I know I have it. I recognize that this is a global samskara for many, especially when one simply looks to our national economy, it is a reflection of the poverty consciousness at large. How is it possible to know something you don't really know? Or does one address whatever is resistant or unbelieving in the first place before the other can take root?’

I answered: It's not about knowing 'about' anything, like about India and about money and the other examples you mentioned.

You said, 'You say to KNOW that you have everything at least in subtle form.'

Then you went on to ignore the principle in several different ways. It's so challenging to truly understand a simple sentence, a simple principle of Truth. You, of all people, are skipping over the part about 'in subtle form' almost as though you don't recognize the significance of the words.

Can you visualize a candle flame, or a rose, in your 'mind's eye'? I imagine that you can do this rather easily. When I first started this path in my teens, one of the first things in my own sadhana was developing the ability to concentrate and to visualize. I practiced certain exercises diligently to develop these abilities. Without them, we have very little power in this world. With them, our power is unlimited.

Through practice, you can visualize a rose so clearly and vividly that you can bend over and actually smell it, the subtle fragrance of a rose. When you can do this, this rose does exist subtly. It is not mere 'imagination' as though your mind's eye counts for nothing. What you 'see' with your mind's eye is subtle reality.

You asked if this is truly Creation. Yes, it is truly Creation. It is the Creative Principle at work. There is nothing in this world that is more powerful. It's literally being aligned with the Creative Power of God.

So there is this question of prosperity. Funny, my original teacher that I came across at 15 had been sent by his Master in the Tibetan lamasery where he had lived for 17 years to America to teach the principles of how to get out of the depression and restore prosperity. Of course, this is exactly what happened. Now, in a sense, at least from your questions, the same thing seems to be repeating itself again. People need to once again learn how to create prosperity.

Yes, the international economy, the economy of the world today, is in the worst shape of our lifetimes. We see this reflected everywhere, to the boarded up stores on our streets to the long unemployment lines. It is not currently a time of mass prosperity, as we have experienced from time to time in the past. Such things always happen in cycles.

As you know, I encourage participants of the Course of Training to learn to be more focused on the subtle body and subtle realm than on the physical body and realm, which is very short in duration in comparison. It seems like we have a long life, but a bug probably experiences itself to have a long life also. On a scale of cosmic or even astronomical events, our lifespan is extremely ephemeral. We are here today, gone tomorrow. We don't even have that long of a half-life, which manifests in the form of the memories others have of us. Before long they are all gone too.

Regarding our finances. Obviously it is best to position ourselves where we don't collapse when the outer world collapses, where we remain unaffected and undisturbed no matter what happens out there. The only way to do this is to develop the sense of reality regarding the subtle realm, and truly getting it that it is not mere imagination. It is, in fact, much more real, and much longer lasting, than this world.

This physical incarnation is like the subtle body having a dream—the dream of the jiva. We never left the subtle world. We live there even now, only most of us are largely focused on the physical world only, like being hypnotized without knowing it, which is usually the case.

Each person has a 'feeling' regarding their personal financial situation. That feeling is our subtle belief about the state of our finances. The subtle world is a world of feelings; in fact, all our feelings take place subtly; feelings are not a physical phenomenon.

If we feel somewhat shaky about our financial foundation, then the reality of our situation will probably be a little shaky as well. If we live with the feeling that whatever is truly need always comes to us when, or before, it is actually needed, sometimes in the nick of time, then this is the reality we will experience.

To KNOW something as a subtle reality you literally have to deny the evidence of the senses. You have to see that this physical world as it is now, in all aspects, are the result of the past. It is the experience of seeing the past happening in front of your eyes, which happens all the time.

Subtly, however, in visualization and concentration, something entirely new can be created, something unprecedented. However, we have to ignore the apparent reality of the current physical manifestation. At first this feels somewhat like sticking your head in the sand to avoid outer reality, but by holding our preferred reality in our heart subtly, KNOWING that it is ALREADY REAL, as an emotional feeling, then there is no force in this world that can stop its manifestation.

Do not think of details of how it will be accomplished. Something much greater than the mind takes care of all the details. Simply create the feeling that you would enjoy if your greatest aspiration were already a reality. When you establish this feeling as your inner reality, then you are participating in the process of Creation.

Scott’s partner, Michelle Synnestvedt—hatha yoga teacher supreme, teacher of hatha yoga teachers, and owner of prasadyoga.com, and forms a team with Scott for healing, aura cleansing, and balancing of chakras—had this to say: ‘Volume 2 Lesson 9 is the most extraordinary lesson I have come to so far. It is an energetic PORTAL. It is an immediate experience of the most intense magic...it is altering in so many ways. We have access to SO MUCH...it is hilarious how small we keep pretending to be. Thank you for this lesson...it is my favorite so far...or at least in this moment, lol.’
I responded: Thank you for sharing your enriching comments with all of us, Michelle. Being such a respected teacher in your own right, it is a cool example to openly reveal your acknowledgment and appreciation of what you are being given through the form of the course.

That lesson is one of my personal favorites as well. Like you say, it is a portal into a whole new way of seeing and understanding things. It is a peek into the future that we are living into; a glimpse of where we're headed.

So many people comment about how they reach a point in the course and realize that the course is a whole greater thing than anything they had previously grasped, even though they already loved it and had benefitted so much. As our understanding deepens ('The Evolution of Wisdom'—the title of one of the early sections of the course, and something important to understand) we develop the capacity to see things for the first time that we had never seen before even though they were always present.

There are various levels of initiation. An initiation gives us a greater awareness and understanding of what we already thought we knew. It is an expansion of personal consciousness, as Impersonal Consciousness is already fully expanded.

What you experienced in that lesson is only a sign of what is to come. We've only explored the tip of the iceberg so far. Many great portals lie ahead to take us to greater depths of experience.

The average person would have no way of understanding or even comprehending what the course is actually about, or what level it actually takes place on. Others have some idea, but think they have to go all the way to India to get it.

I posted the following near the end of the comments following the previous entry: You guys have showed yourselves, shared of yourselves, introduced yourselves, and revealed something of your thinking in these comments. It is a very fascinating process. I truly appreciate your contributions in any form.

I also recognize that many of you are readers and not posters, and that it is a matter of one's own nature and preference, and that it is as perfect as everything else.

We are generating and creating a greater feeling of community, which is very important. Being a part of a community, a kula, while totally being yourself, and true to yourself in all ways, will soon reveal how your very presence contributes to the community.

It is important to share a sense of community, to know there are others out there just like you and involved in the same process that you yourself are. It creates the possibility for a whole new level of sadhana.

Thanks so much to all the new people who have come forward for the first time and revealed that you exist and that you actually do read the blog. Thanks for sharing in our Love.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com
French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

A Special Note to Participants of the Course of Training

2011-10-27T01:25:00.000-04:00

This will not replace the November entry to be posted on the 1st or at least during the first few days of November, and it will be a really good entry, so prepare to open up wide. We'll have a lot to cover.

The blog serves certain functions unique to itself. Any course participant who does not keep up with the current comments following the entry to the blog is simply not getting all they could be getting from the course. One way, of course, the blog is different from the lessons is that the blog is public. Anyone is welcome to come here, as we are all-inclusive, and not exclusive in any way. People of all traditions and backgrounds come here. The comments in the blog are a great way of seeing how much alike we all are.

I loved the dialogue in the comments last month. They were more like I had hoped the comments would eventually be from the very beginning--more personal, more open, more dialogue among each other and not just with me, sharing more openly and truly getting to know each other more deeply. It is important for participants of the course to be able to converse among themselves, to share experiences and insights with each other, to discuss the course together, to get to know each other better. Then the community truly grows, organically, naturally, and we come to realize just how much we are all the same, and why we are sharing the experience of the course together, and more and more, as we progress through it, we see and understand exactly what that means.

Yes, much progress has been made since the current course first started a bit over 3 years ago. By reading the sharings in the comments of the blog, and also on Facebook, where we have a satsang of a different nature, and which is even more public, we can easily see the impact the course has had in various people's lives. Many of you have done absolutely great, and have worked to make the principles of Truth your own, so that you can live according to them without any longer having to think about it. Many could not have done much better in any way; they have given it their all.

Others, though, could do better. I do not write like this often. I believe others are most helped through encouragement, support, and inspiration; not through being told how they could do better. Yet, every now and then, it becomes necessary in order for me to completely fulfill my own function in working with you.

A large number of you are not reading, or referring to, your current lesson often enough. You are not receiving full benefit of the course if you only read a lesson once or twice and imagine you know the contents. It does not matter how familiar your mind becomes with the ideas presented. There is a certain energy transmitted through the act of surrendering to read it, and simply by referring to a few paragraphs here and there during the day, or at night before bed, we tune into that energy as well as to the Truth of the Present Moment.

The course is not about learning ideas and concepts, like you would to be able to repeat them to another, as though you already knew it, or as you would for a test on the contents, like you had at school, to check out your memory and reasoning powers. The course isn't like that. It is a process that, through surrendering to reading it more often, tunes us into an incredible energy, as well as to an incredible Love and Light that is palpable and undeniable.

Even more than not referring to your current lesson enough, you have to be more diligent about applying the principles in practical ways in your own moment-to-moment life. I do not care to discourage anyone from writing what is going on with them, for when we share, especially in public, like in the comments here or on Facebook, we become revealed to ourselves in ways that wouldn't be possible if we hold everything in and never express ourselves to another in open, real, and honest ways.

Even so, questions come and descriptions of one's life often arrive when the very answers and solutions are in one's current lesson. It's like we don't see exactly what we need even though it is right before our eyes. We read something, agree with it, think how wonderful it would be if everyone else knew it as well, and then in a few moments or hours or days, we are acting completely contrary to the principle, as though we were completely ignorant of it and had never heard of it.

It does no good to simply 'know about' something, or to 'agree' with something. Neither does it matter in the least if we 'disagree' with something. It's only a certain stance the mind has taken. Either something is true or it isn't, and it matters not at all whether we agree or disagree. Instead of trying so hard to be understood, or to prove our point, it would be much more expansive to open up to discovering the Truth no matter where it leads. And we cannot see the Truth unless we see something NEW. Seeing what is familiar is not Truth. It is only familiarity.

A basic principle of the course, presented very early in the lessons, is to treat everyone with love and respect. I have asked that this be the mark of one who participates in the course: that he or she relate to all others with love and respect. Yet some are still argumentative, challenging, contrary, unfriendly, even hostile. Not to me, of course, but at your own home, around the very ones we are closest to and love most. Sometimes we are downright nasty. Yet, if we were asked, we would insist that we treat all others with great love and respect. We love to attribute to ourselves qualities that we haven't come close to fully developing.

We refuse to see certain things about ourselves; we are blind to certain tendencies. And if a loved one were to point out something to us that was obvious to everyone except ourselves, and which would be very helpful for us to know, we might only accuse the loved one of describing us in negative and limiting ways, for always seeing us in the worst ways. If we take this stance, we can never learn anything new about ourselves, and when this happens, no further growth is possible.

If you take the course, read the lessons more. See what happens when you tune into the energy of the lesson, which is on a completely different level than the written words. There are some who go into great states of bliss simply by reading their current lesson, yet afterwards they couldn't tell you a single word they had read. Don't ever think you 'already know it.' If you do, you miss the whole point of the course. It is not something to 'know.' It is a way of life, an approach, an attitude. It is meeting life head-on from the highest perspective possible.

Reading the lessons transforms the ways our mind works, and rewires our conditioned tendencies in ways that lead to breaking free from them, and to enter something new and more expanded than before. Still, mere reading is not quite enough. The principles must actually be practiced. It is not enough to simply agree that they are great ideas, and that they will surely lead to a better and freer life someday. They have to be practiced in real life, this day and every day. They are not something to try later, when you have more time, or when you are in a better mood. Practice the principles even when it is difficult to do so. This is when we experience the greatest growth.

Okay, something moved me strongly to write this. How many taking the course will even notice that it is here? Only those who check the comments regularly, to see what is new, to stay up to date. Those who assume there's nothing worthy of their time and attention until the November blog is posted might miss this altogether.

What I hope is for us to eventually reach the point that we could never possibly miss a message addressed to all participants of the course simultaneously, regardless of what particular lesson they might be on. This message can be understood and applied at any level of understanding. Open up and let it open you up on the inside; open up to something completely new. Only then is it possible to go on to the next thing.

The November blog entry will be posted in a few days, and I look forward to your comments both here and there. It will be well worth your time to give it your all, as many subtle teachings are being transmitted.

For information about the Course of Training, available through email, and a free Lesson 1, which comes in two parts, write to: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Skeptics and Cynics—Money—Kind and Wise Taxi Driver Revisited

2011-10-01T20:06:00.001-04:00

Occasionally on Facebook someone will put me into a ‘group,’ usually of a spiritual nature, which blends with my own nature, and I never know what to expect there. Some are mostly sincere, and that is good to see. However, what has stood out most clearly about many such groups is the amazing degree of skepticism and cynicism.

One group, with several hundred members, discusses spiritual topics and has posts or links for various spiritual teachers, and yet most posts on most threads contain some degree of skepticism and/or cynicism, which also includes doubt. In many, who think of themselves as 'spiritual people,' there is much more doubt than there is faith. It’s as though they hope the Truth is true but don’t quite yet believe the Truth is true.

On my own Facebook page, which maintains a dialogue of a certain level among people of all religions and spiritual traditions, there is very little blatant skepticism or cynicism simply because they wouldn’t be comfortable with the feedback they would get from the others. The little that comes out now and then is mostly of a very subtle nature, and the one expressing skepticism or cynicism or doubt on this level is not consciously aware of doing so.

In fact, in many cases, were I to point out to a person, ‘You’re being a little cynical aren’t you?’ the reply would almost invariably be, ‘No I’m not!’ Sometimes this is followed by something like, ‘You do not understand me. If you really knew where I was coming from, you would see that there is not a cynical bone in my body.’

People do not like to be told what they are doing. Well, their ego does not like it. The indwelling Identity doesn’t mind, but the ego hates to be called on what it’s doing. If you say to a person, ‘You’re being defensive,’ they’ll almost always immediately reply, ‘No I’m not!’—which is a totally defensive statement.

Or sometimes you can say to a person who is being grumpy, ‘You’re being grumpy,’ and instantaneously they’ll smile sweetly and ask in the gentlest voice, ‘Now what would make you think that?’ The ego has various nuances, and it transitions from one to the other very smoothly, without our even noticing. Like Gurdjieff once said, ‘The one who sets the alarm clock at night is not the same one that the alarm clock wakes up in the morning.’

Just as a fun exercise, observe yourself and see if skepticism, cynicism, or doubt come up in ways that you might not ordinarily notice or be aware of. You just might learn something valuable about yourself through seeing something new, as though for the first time. When you see something new about yourself, as though for the first time, it is the most valuable form of Self-Knowledge.

Someone wrote and asked if I could concisely explain the money thing to him. He admitted he was having financial troubles and having a hard time generating the income that he needs, and wanted me to simply remind him once again in a way that, hopefully, he could finally get it.

This is basically what I told him, for anyone who can use the same information. Money is possibly the most amenable thing in the world when it comes to manifesting according to our consciousness OF it. One reason for this is that it does not exist, it is not real; it is a conscious concept. These days people tend to pass money back and forth over the Internet. How would that be possible if it were a real, tangible thing? Do you think there’s enough gold in Fort Knox to cover all the existing ‘money?’

If the stock market goes up, the amount of available money increases. When the stock market goes down, money disappears. It doesn’t change hands; it disappears, it no longer exists. If we understand that money doesn’t even exist, that it’s only a conscious concept, we can somewhat grasp the understanding of how easily it is controlled by our consciousness OF it.

People with money have prosperity-consciousness. People without money have poverty-consciousness. The cause is in consciousness, the effect is our financial situation. If we feel in our own heart, in our own consciousness, that we don’t have enough money, there’s no energy there making it possible to generate any. If a person is conscious of having all that he needs, opportunities arise and situations develop that make it possible to generate money.

The secret to financial security is to KNOW without any doubt that you have all that you need. If you have the consciousness of having all that you need now, there is no reason that this condition should change later, in the future. Our consciousness of any quality determines the reality of it for us, in our own personal life. The objective world around us is only the mirror, the reflection of the Subjective world within. What we create on the inside determines what manifests on the outside.

All this and much more is discussed thoroughly in the lessons of the Course of Training, yet this is the concise answer, or explanation, or exploration, of how the money thing works.

You might remember Kind and Wise Taxi Driver. If you don’t, please see the blog entry of June 1, 2011—it is certainly worth a read. We had a visit from Narayana on his birthday last month, which is how he usually likes to spend his birthdays. This time he became 59. You have to understand that I have known Narayana since he was 16. And he hasn’t changed yet. He is still the same in every way, although his wisdom has evolved over the years, and there is a slight aging process happening physically. If I hadn’t seen him in those 43 years, however, I’d recognize him immediately.

Aside from his sister that lives in LA, (imagine her surprise to start reading the front page lead article and the first thing she sees is her brother’s name,) I am probably as close as anyone to being ‘family’ in his life. In October of 1974 I met an incredible meditation Master who transformed my entire life and made me into a teacher. He asked me to lead a meditation center for him. At the very first satsang in January, 1975, Narayana was there. Several years later there was a blizzard in NYC. It hit on the night of our satsang. I said to the person I was with then, while looking out the window at the utter intensity of nature, ‘It looks like no one will be here tonight. It’s too bad for anyone to go anywhere.’

A few minutes later the doorbell rang. Narayana had walked through several feet of snow to get to the subway, and then had walked quite a long distance with snow blowing in his face from the subway station closest to us. He was, of course, the only visitor present. The three of us had a wonderful satsang.

For many years now, he has driven a Taxi in Manhattan during the evenings. He could write a book about all his experiences. Maybe Martin Scorsese would even make a movie about himJ

Narayana presented us with a copy of the September 11, 2011, Los Angeles Times. The lead story on the front page was about the 9/11 tribute in Manhattan near Ground Zero. The first two words in the article was Narayana’s name. The writer of the article was the same man who inspired the character of the journalist played by Robert Downey Jr in the movie ‘The Soloist.’

Turns out, when this journalist came to Manhattan to cover the original 9/11 happening, he hailed a taxi and was picked up by Narayana. Narayana essentially became his guide for the whole time he was here, and he wrote an article about his experiences with Narayana then. Coming back for the 10^th anniversary, the writer called Narayana and asked him to escort him about and be his guide again.

So he wrote the 2^nd article about him, 10 years later. Narayana was quoted a few times, but what most sticks in my memory was when he was quoted as saying, at Ground Zero, ‘This place shows how we should never forget how quickly our lives can end. This present moment is precious.’

You have to understand that Narayana driving around New York City is like a mini-ashram on wheels. If you hail his taxi, you are in for satsang, regardless of what you expected or how big of a hurry you are in. He interacts with many different people on any given night, and you never know who might step into his taxi.

He was telling us that not long ago a woman stopped him and got in the back seat and that she seemed to have a frustrated energy about her. As he got a better look at her, he saw that it was the actress, Marisa Tomei. One ironic ‘coincidence,’ is that the movie that really kicked off her career was ‘My Cousin Vinny,’ and it happens that ‘Vinny’ is Narayana’s birth name. (Yes, he’s from Brooklyn, too, still lives there.)

So when she exhibited this frustrated energy, he asked her what was bothering her. She replied, ‘Just relationship problems. They get me every time.’ Narayana said, ‘Are you not focusing on the present moment?’ She sat up with a start and said, ‘What?’ as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. So they had a nice chat on their way to her destination, and by the time they got there she was totally calmed down and in a cheerful mood again. Of course, Narayana give her the address of the blog and encouraged her to take the course, as he does with many lucky passengers.

Anyway, just a quick note to catch you up on Kind and Wise Taxi Driver.

We have ‘space’ for an exchange or two from last month’s comments. Terry asked, ‘I really liked this paragraph: "Ego is not created by thought, as someone suggested. It is a sense of duality and separateness that exists even before the first thought arises. Impure or conditioned ego identifies with the thoughts of the mind, the feelings of the emotions, and the actions of the body, and believes itself to be the thinker, the feeler, and the doer of bad and good actions. I had "thought" that the ego arose in the moment with the "I" thought where i-dentification occurs. It seems a closer look is needed at the "sense of duality and separateness" which is prior to the I thought.’

The response was this: Terry, the primary philosophy behind ego coming before the first thought is mostly simply the fact that ahamkara (ego) is the 15th tattva, while manas (thinking, conscious, waking mind) follows that as the 16th tattva.

A deeper answer to your question, going higher up the tattvas, might be the 6th tattva, which is the Maya tattva. During the first 5 tattvas there is still no sense of separation, but various nuances of Awareness becoming aware of Itself. At the 6th tattva, the Maya tattva, there is a split between subject and object, where there appears to be a difference between the conceiver and the conceived, the knower and the known, the seer and the seen, the experiencer and the experience, which are in reality all the Same, and which is obviously so in the first 5 tattvas. Anyway, all this happens before the first thought.

Finally, a ‘comment’ shared last month, which was originally posted in a relevant thread on Facebook: The subconscious is formed and molded through conscious concentration and repetition. If we do something consciously often enough, it will be passed on to the subconscious. Therefore we have to make sure that we feed it the right 'food' in positive and uplifting conscious thoughts. So the process of 'conditioning' the subconscious happens through habitual conscious thoughts, and what we consciously accept as true. Then the process of sadhana is the purification of the subconscious impressions, which we know in Sanskrit as 'samskaras.'

Thank you for joining me for our chat this month. Hopefully you will read it more than once, as you can experience for yourself simply by doing so that it will be good for you. You can be sure that I, if no one else, will read it againJ

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, and a free lesson, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Living Without Electricity (Dancing in the Dark)

2011-09-03T15:18:00.002-04:00

     The strangest and most unexpected thing has happened. Kay and I have been without electricity for 6 days. We have altered our entire daily and nightly routine to adapt to a world without electricity, much like the days of yore during previous incarnations.

      We have adapted quite well, and it took almost no time, once we fully realized that on an outer level we truly had no control of our environment. We relied on the principles that have gotten us through all these years, and which we now share with you, and we have enjoyed a very happy time together. Kay says it was an unbelievable fantasy of her innermost dreams, where life was set up so that she didn’t have to do anything. Indeed, there was nothing for us to do, at least nothing that required electrical power.

      We could play, we could laugh, we could sit silently, we could simply be, but we could not do any of our usual work, which is highly dependent on electricity. We often dance to our favorite music, joyously shared with you on Facebook, as a regular form of exercise, but the music these nights was silent, and we were dancing in the dark.

It has been very interesting to be unable to go through any semblance of ordinary routine. We could not do our work. We knew we had a week’s worth of correspondence and new inquiries about the course, but we could not get to it, much less respond to anyone. Scott kept you informed on Facebook; my daughter Sara kept you informed on the blog.

All these people who have written to ask why their current lesson has not arrived really should keep up with the current comments of the blog. They exist primarily to keep everyone up-to-date with any current happenings that are helpful to be aware of.

Anyway, I have had a wonderful week of non-doership. I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone that many days without writing. Yet it was a great renewal and rejuvenation. I have much gratitude for those few days of extreme simplicity.

Another aspect of the comments of the blog is that we enjoy great Q&A exchanges. Being that I haven’t had a lot of time to write a completely new blog, as the Shakti would have it there were some very good exchanges in last month’s comments. I am happy to share them with you here. To expedite communication, I am including primarily the responses:

Rico, how to develop here/now awareness of the subtle body? You are right, this is explored extensively in the lessons of the Course of Training.

What to do here and now? Be aware that awareness is subtle only and has nothing to do with the physical body. Understand that all mental and emotional activity are taking place in the subtle body. In fact, the feeling of 'touch' we experience is because the nervous system reports it to the subtle body. The physical body is good for absolutely nothing other than experiencing our karma and realizing the Truth of the eternal Self that we all share in common.

"How could I have fallen so far. There have been a number of times that I stayed in very expanded states for long periods but it seems long ago. I am feeling very low. I have not experienced the bliss in an ongoing way in sometime. I think I have fallen from grace repeatedly. How do I get back?

Ah, truly the most poignant feeling of all. 'I've lost my way. How do I get back?' 'I was lost but now I'm found.'

We 'get back' to the present, to our heart, and to our love through amazing Grace.

Since you posted under 'Anonymous,' I have no idea whether you take the lessons via email or not. In the process of moving from lesson to lesson, the most amazing and unexpected transformation begins to take place.

Why? Because of some new facts? Because perhaps you'll get some astonishing and life-transforming information that no one else on the Internet is privy to? I don't think so.

In being committed to the process of the Course, grace happens. I don't know why. I am positive that it has something to do with teachers I have studied with, and that something is passed on that was once passed to me.

Contemplate 'who' is this 'I' that you keep referring to? 'Who' is the 'I' that is defining itself as manifesting in a low state?

Pure Consciousness exists fully, in all its glory, right NOW. There is no other 'time' it can manifest or even know Itself. It is the only Awareness there is. We all share the same Awareness.

Only the mind, ego, conditioning, and karma make us appear different as individuals, in the objective world around us. Yet we share the same changeless Consciousness eternally.

The only thing we lack is the awareness of the Truth of the Present Moment. Yes it is always totally obvious and right in front of us. It is not concealed. It is a matter of developing a more refined vision. Then things are even 'seen' differently, usually in a more expanded way.

Avivit, the dharma is to do whatever we can to relieve suffering when we find it. When the kid is drowning in the pond, we don't just say, 'Tough karma, kid. That's the way the puck skids.' No, we jump in and save him from drowning. That is dharma—doing whatever is necessary now for the good of all concerned.

How can we help the starving in Sudan and Ethiopia or Darfur? How would we share some food with them? We see and hear about them through the media, yet, practically speaking, what can we do?

It is essential to remember that regardless of how things appear on the outside, every individual in this world is only experiencing his or her own karma and nothing else. We serve no good purpose by trying to prevent another person from experiencing his own karma, which balances and harmonizes processes happening deep within. We can't know from external appearances what is truly going on.

See everything as God's creation. He created pleasure and pain, light and dark, wealth and poverty--all the polarities or pairs of opposites. Each individual could not possibly ever experience anything other than his or her own karma, which is immutable law.

This physical body is a cycle of karma we have agreed to go through and experience. I have never come across a physical body yet that did not carry its share of pain, and when you consider entire lifetimes, that's a lot of pain indeed. The physical world is made of polarities, and one of them is pain and pleasure, whether we like it or not. As long as we are in a physical body, we will experience pain to some degree.

As you say, when we sleep, we don't experience pain in our dreams, so the subtle body is ultimately pain-free. In fact, as was pointed out in an early lesson, if we're in physical or emotional pain, or in the middle of a severe egotistical melodrama, we can go to an absorbing movie and forget all about the pain. Why is it that I can have pain on the way to the theater and pain when I come out, but there's no pain while I'm absorbed in the movie?

So it's primarily a matter of attention. If we focus our attention on our pain we will really suffer. If we focus our attention on getting rid of the pain it is like trying to get rid of the darkness. The only way to eliminate darkness is to turn on the light.

Among the major practices of our course is focusing on the subtle body that is even now free from pain. The pain is physical karma only. Sometimes we need the karma of physical pain or illness simply to keep us in the body. When we wake up from the dream of this incarnation and find ourselves back in subtle form only, we will discover to our great delight that we are once again pain-free. Of course, if we create it again with an undisciplined mind, then what can we do?

Focus on the inner bliss that is eternally present, focus on the exalted sense of well being that swells up from deep within, and that can be the 'light' that rids us of the 'darkness' of pain.

If I discover a better way, I'll be the first to let you know:)

Eddie, self-consciousness is simply focusing our awareness on the 'other.' We are being the seen instead of remembering we are actually the Seer of all that is seen. When we become established in being the Seer and know without a doubt we could not possibly be the seen, self-consciousness dissolves like a wispy cloud.

Subtle relationships are always more intense than physical relationships, even when we are very close physically. The physical relationship is simply an aspect of the subtle relationship manifested in physical form. It is the tip of the iceberg. The subtle relationship is much greater and deeper and longer lasting.

99.8% of relationships in my life right now are subtle relationships only. Physically, I see very few these days. For now, I prefer to keep it that way.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife said to him, 'Come to the party with me, Scott. I want you to meet some people.'

Fitzgerald responded, 'But dear, I already know some people.'

All relationships are karmic. You know when the relationship karma is over when it quits, stops, goes away, or you are able to simply walk away from it. It loses a certain charge and becomes more neutral energetically. As long as you cannot get away from the relationship, you can be sure that you still have karma there. If you don't have karma there, you can lie down in their pathway and they still won't notice you.

One major thing about karma--we're not in charge. It's already the backdrop of the play of our life. The only thing we are 'in charge of' is how we choose to see and experience karma as it is in this present moment.

Our current thoughts, actions, reactions, words, motives, and attitudes determine what we, as an individual in an apparent linear sequence of time, will experience as 'future karma', which will manifest when it has become 'now.'

If you slap someone and they slap you back, that is 'instant karma.'

There is no need for pushing or pulling where karma is concerned. We simply relax into an already existing flow. Maintain that light balance and harmony with your own love. Maintain your awareness of your own heart and your own inner love.

Our sadhana, our reason for being here, is simply to finally be in harmony with that which is, or the way it is. When we let go of our own agenda, we experience a supreme contentment and fulfillment, and that's what it all has led up to. And when we reach that state we will realize that we have been here all along.

Ego is described specifically in the ancient scriptures. In the 36 tattvas or levels of creation in Kashmir Shaivism, the ego is the 'ahamkara,' the 15th of 36 tattvas or levels of creation. The 16th tattva is manas, the conscious mind, therefore ego is greatly identified with the conscious mind, thinking it's the thinker.

In short, the ego sees itself as separate and different from the whole, describes itself and others, continuously describes what is happening and takes its descriptions to be 'reality,' sees and experiences its own 'life' as a seeming sequence of events in linear time, and gets so caught in its own self-created egotistical melodramas that it forgets its true nature—the Self, pure Consciousness.

All of 'sadhana' is to purify the ego and mind so that the ego (ahamkara), which can NEVER be eliminated or removed, can focus upward and identify with the highest, 'I am Consciousness, I am the Self, I am the Light, I am God.' The ego is neither bad nor good. It simply is what it is.

The battleground or playing field of sadhana takes place in the realm of the ego and mind, which go through a purification process until we fully and consistently live in the Truth of the present moment.

Ego is not created by thought, as someone suggested. It is a sense of duality and separateness that exists even before the first thought arises. Impure or conditioned ego identifies with the thoughts of the mind, the feelings of the emotions, and the actions of the body, and believes itself to be the thinker, the feeler, and the doer of bad and good actions.

Pure ego is breaking the identification with the train of continuous thoughts arising in the undisciplined conscious mind, and instead identifying with the highest Self: 'I am the Self, I am Consciousness, I am God.'

With impure ego you have a mistaken identity. With pure ego you recognize Who you truly Are. Love and honor your own eternal inner Self, for it is the Self of all.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, including a free Lesson 1 write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

The Misunderstood Relevance of the Subtle Realm Here and Now

2011-08-02T00:10:00.004-04:00

Before we begin an exploration of the subtle world, a couple of other topics are worthy of being looked at. A lot has been said in the yogic scriptures about kindness and patience. Even Patanjali in his ‘Yoga Sutras’ mentions the importance of kindness and patience in attaining perfection in yoga. (Understand, the Self is already pure and perfect as it is. Perfection in yoga is like perfection in the football field or on the guitar or any number of other examples.)

When we look in our life and around the world, however, we see a great deficit in both kindness and patience. Many people exhibit a great deal of both, yet many more spend too much time being unkind and (or) impatient, which drains them of any possibility for positive, uplifting energy. Not only that, it creates unpleasant future karma that could have just as easily been avoided with a little kindness.

It seems like we’ve heard these things since childhood, having nothing to do with sadhana or spiritual progress: Be kind; be patient. I know I was taught these things at an early age. Our parents taught them (but might not have been excellent examples), our churches taught them, our schools taught them, yet somehow the communication seems to have failed miserably. People of all religions recognize in some form the Golden Rule of do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This is not rocket science.

Participants of the Course of Training via email are advised to consider this blog and the comments following each monthly entry as a significant aspect of the course. They have a different perspective of it than most others, as they are used to the language and terminology and certain ways of considering things. Others might have different meanings for the same words or ideas. While the lessons that arrive twice monthly are the core of the process we share together, the blog and Facebook keep us up to date with each other, while allowing participants to communicate among themselves. This is an important part of the process.

You can be a good hermit only after doing extensive spiritual practices and having come a long way in inner development. Otherwise you’ll just be another unhappy hermit. For most of us, our relationships and encounters with one another are the crux of our sadhana. Many are currently in the section of the course titled, ‘Inner Growth Through Relationships,’ and we explore relating to others, in any capacity, quite thoroughly.

Being a hermit allows us to keep whatever samskaras (subconscious impressions or conditioning) we have that limits our experience, perception, and understanding of the Truth. Only when we have to deal with other people do these samskaras come out and reveal themselves. Ask any couple what happened soon after making the commitment, or after a short time of marriage, and find out what ordinarily, although not necessarily, happens.

ALL automatic reactions, for example, are related to samskaras. There is no exception to this. A person free from samskaras has no automatic reactions; only conscious responses in the harmonious flow of the present moment.

Two of the primary samskaras are the tendencies to be unkind or impatient. Those of you who don’t participate in the course can, of course, do what you want, but those of you who are enrolled in the course can add this exercise for this month: watch when you are automatically unkind, for no reason except that something triggered an old reaction. Even a very simple person can be kind simply by determining to do so, with some persistent practice to do so even when it feels difficult or challenging to do so.

Remember, there is no one other than the Self to be unkind to, so we are basically being unkind to our Self and it will return to us through others or some other in particular as karma down the road.

Impatience is simply refusing to enjoy the moment. When you’re driving 4 miles an hour in rush-hour traffic in NYC or LA, that’s the time to do sadhana. Can you be happy then? Can you enjoy life then? Can you remain connected to your inner bliss while the cars slowly, endlessly, crawl ahead in front of you?

It's easy to feel wonderful when we hear the birds chirping and the breeze softly offering the leaves a dance, which sounds so pleasant to us. When there is no challenge, it's very easy to do sadhana. This is because there is nothing to do. Sadhana is best done when it is very difficult to do so.

For at least a month, be kind and be patient. What is there to lose? Make it a conscious intent, and activate willpower to maintain your chosen inner state.

The title of this month’s entry is ‘The Misunderstood Relevance of the Subtle World Here and Now.’ I wrote a Facebook note not long ago about subtle life, the subtle body and subtle realm, and it stimulated several questions. I have collected some of the relevant comments I made then and will expound on them just a little, as is my wont. So, pretend that I am responding to others’ questions, as I am, only I am not including the questions:

Many of the ancient sages remarked that we should live with the awareness that death is following us around, peering over our shoulder. Have you ever dreamed of a person whom you don't know in real life, even though it felt that you were very close in the dream? I think I've had more dreams about such people than people I actually 'know' in this world.

Anyway, when we 'wake up' from sleep while dreaming of such a person, do we cry and get upset and sad because that person 'died' to our waking world and is no longer present? Since they are physically absent, they appear to be unreal. Do we mourn the fact that they are gone from our ‘world’ when we wake up from a dream and suddenly they’re gone? Probably this would seem a little extreme, no matter how much we enjoyed the dream. Even so, I have awakened from dreams and immediate felt like I missed the person or people in the dream, even though I never knew them physically in any way.

However, what if ultimately the dream world, the subtle realm, is actually more real than waking life, which is extremely temporary? In fact, what if the ‘deep sleep’ state is the highest state of all, outside Turiya itself, which pervades and permeates all the other states simultaneously?

There is no 'death' where Consciousness is concerned. It is not affected in the least when souls enter or exit bodies—it has gone on for eons. We come into physical incarnation with the first inhalation, live through a cycle of karma, and then exit this body upon the final exhalation. It is very common. Worldwide, approximately 300,000 people ‘die’ each day. Souls are constantly going back and forth from one realm to the next.

There is ultimately no such thing as 'death.' It is simply a transition to the next realm, which we have all experienced millions of times.

On the physical realm, where only the tip of the iceberg is seen, it seems like someone 'dies' and we miss their physical form, but if we open enough we will see that we are still in contact with them in subtle form. My stepmother, for example, before she left her own body, told me a few years after my father’s death, “I dream of your father every single night of my life, all night long.”

I've experienced the deaths of both my parents and several good friends, many of whom have shared the course with me. My mother died in an auto accident at 43, when I was 21, and that was emotionally very hard for me. We do have to go through these human emotions; we have no choice. To suppress them is even worse.

Never suppress grief. It will lead to much worse problems, including a relentless depression. If we allow ourselves to feel the grief until it’s finished, we free ourselves from years of depression.

If something happened to Kay or to one of my children, it would be very hard for me. It doesn't feel like I could take the death of a child. Yet I've experienced a lot I didn't previously think I could take, and I've only grown stronger from it. I guess that's primarily why we experience what we do. Not, of course, that I anticipate anything like that in my life. I see my children growing more mature, stronger, healthier, wiser, and eventually fulfilled and content, if not already.

We can be in contact in subtle form because, although ultimately we share one Consciousness, we do have different subtle forms just as we currently have different physical bodies. Subtle life goes on a lot longer, and includes a lot of physical dreams (incarnations) each taking up, as far as spiritual growth is concerned, where the last left off.

Seeing a body where the life-force has departed makes it very obvious that the Being, the Identity, the Occupant of the body that we knew and loved is no longer present. All that is left behind is the shell of the form they lived in and dragged around while they were here. Freedom from this physical body is a feeling of unequalled exaltation, a freedom like no other we can experience in this world. Don’t ever feel bad because someone has left this world. Rejoice in their new freedom

As Kabir put it: When I came into this world, I cried, yet those around me laughed. When I left this world, I laughed, yet those around me cried.

The Misunderstood Relevance of the Subtle World Here and Now. The subtle world exists right now, in a range of vibrational frequencies our physical senses can’t pick up. It interpenetrates the physical world. We are also in the subtle body right now; in fact, that is where thoughts and emotions take place, even though there are corresponding vibrations in the brain that scientists can now measure and isolate in one area or the other. The brain, however, is not the origin of mental or emotional activity. It only registers it.

Our time in the physical body is amazingly short. Many insects live only 24 hours. From another perspective, our own life-spans are just as quickly over. We take our first inhalation when we enter the body, and before we know it, we exit on the wings of the final exhalation.

Develop some here/now awareness of the subtle body, as before you know it, you will find yourself focused on the subtle world again, and this physical world as we currently know it will gradually fade away into irrelevance, like a dream you vaguely recall. Love remains; souls we love remain; but one day even our tombstones turn into dust, and no record or memory of us remains anywhere.

There is a great deal more to understand. I highly recommend the lessons of the course, where we deeply explore such topics, along with many others. Thank you for sharing this with me and for joining me here. Lots of love to each of you.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

So Many Teachers -- Who to Trust?

2011-07-01T00:51:00.006-04:00

Sometimes I visit the pages of various Facebook friends, especially those that maintain a dialogue of a high nature, just to see what is going on out there.

First of all, the fact that we can, at any moment, tune into various real-time dialogues actually happening among people in various places of the world, is like science fiction to me. Just a few years ago only a few visionaries knew that it was possible—science fiction never quite picked up on it before it actually happened. It was a well-kept secret. Today millions take it for granted.

The possibilities for the future are endless. We don’t have to be in the same physical space anymore to have a very deep and intimate communication, dialogue, or relationship. Participation on Facebook is one of the best ways currently available to keep up with all that’s going on in the spiritual community. It’s a way of keeping us aware of what is happening on the innermost levels. It performs a function that the media cannot provide, for it is not controlled by the same forces that control the media.

The views presented are not limited to one particular perspective, as you get to hear from people who come from all paths and traditions, at least if you have enough variety in your friends. It is a fascinating amalgamation of spiritual energies coming through in the present moment. Remember the present moment is the only reality.

The popularity of the Internet has led to a proliferation of spiritual teachers, each with his or her own little niche or specialty. We can’t keep up with all of them; we can’t practice/follow/read/hear all of them. How do we know what is best for us? How to trust a teacher? Which one to listen to?

So I visited the page of one friend, in my habit of arbitrarily picking out some friend’s page to check out what's happening, and there was a very interesting dialogue going on there. It was a long discussion of various spiritual teachers available today, and the various perspectives posters had of them. I was amused. It was an updated version of a dialogue I’ve overheard in one form or another since the 60’s, only the names have been changed. The primary teachers who were being visited and talked about in the 70’s are gone; today there are new teachers. Where’d they come from? Who to listen to?

Coincidentally (?) I next visited a Facebook group, ‘Satsang, and Spiritual Teachers,’ and at the top someone was sincerely asking who are considered to be the truest and best teachers available today. It was interesting to go to two different and unrelated pages on Facebook, and basically the same topic was being discussed. But this happens a lot.

Two ideas coming together often lead to an intuitive insight. As I saw these two related threads one after the other, I had an intuition that on some level some degree of this is probably happening with a great many of us, perhaps even more predominantly than anyone suspects. Who do we really trust, anyway?

Facebook has made it possible for anyone to become a philosopher and to present himself as a teacher. Just as I do, people voice their thoughts as though there is some profound truth to them. And, of course, something can usually be learned from them, because if we’re truly open, we can learn from anything and anyone. Still, since I’ve been active on Facebook I am amazed at how many self-proclaimed ‘teachers’ there are—those who have never been trained, prepared, and instructed by his or her own teacher to go and teach others the Truth of Being.

I was fortunate enough at the age of 15 to come in contact with a man who had spent 17 years in the lamaseries of Nepal and Tibet, and who wrote a correspondence course that transmitted a clarity of understanding and a palpable experience of the Truth of Being. He had left his body the year before I discovered his course, so I never had actual physical contact with him, except through his wife. He saved me from being attached to his physical form, for the whole training took place subtly.

His wife was 50 years younger than the teacher, and she continued to send out his lessons over the years, until she finally passed on several years ago herself, and I developed quite an interesting communication and relationship with her. (The 50 is not a misprint. He was in his 80’s and she in her 30’s when they married.)

Interestingly, I dreamed just a couple of nights ago of being with her, which probably brings all this up for me, and there was that same uplifting light-filled experience I’d always had in my dreams of the teacher himself—which were numerous and which happened on a regular basis for many years. I can still vividly recall certain discussions we had in those dreams, mostly in the form of him answering my questions.

I remember when he showed me with one glance how the entire cosmos was put together and how everything worked. It was a totally amazing experience, as it was not something that took time, but was an instantaneous revelation. I am reminded of when Krishna first revealed his true form to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

If I were to attempt to tell you who he was, or what tradition or lineage he actually represented, you would probably think I was about two french-fries short of a ‘happy meal.’ He wasn’t publically known. He was careful not to be. He didn’t have a mass of followers. He emphasized often that the value lies in the teachings, never in the teacher. Teachers will come and go; teachings of Truth always remain the same.

The well known and popular teachers that we all know about and discuss on the Internet might not approach the attainment or development of someone no one has ever heard of, except the small band who somehow come in contact with him or her and experience what comes through as a subtle transmission.

Such beings avoid becoming ‘public’ at all costs, for they know that public knowledge of them would only bring trouble. They deliberately remain secretive and known to only a few. It is the way of the world to take down a saint, just to put him in his place, just to prove he wasn’t so great in the first place. Once upon a time there were crucifixions; now there are internet sites that will give us all the dirt while happily continuing to look for more.

The more well-known and public a teacher becomes, the more scrutiny is placed on his (or her) personal life, and the more criticism he attracts to himself. The more well known you become, the more vicious the criticisms and personal attacks become. Internet sites spring up just to talk badly of you.

There are dark forces that come through the general public that act to bring such people down, leading to witch-hunts, crucifixions and such. The general media has never been kind to spiritual teachers—preferring instead to write an expose regarding some ‘inside gossip’ they picked up on. Seediness sells. The Truth doesn’t appeal to the masses, and in fact they look unfavorably upon anyone who purports to teach the Truth.

Do not assume a teacher can pass on something to you simply because he or she is popular or well-known, or have large followings and circus-like scenes wherever they go. Following the spiritual scene since the early sixties, I can assure you that the great majority of such teachers come and go. Don’t get attached to bodies, forms, or personalities, for none of these are the source of your true inner connection to your own Being.

The farthest we can go on the path, if indeed we ever really ‘go’ anyway, is to be fully established in our own inner Being. There’s really nothing else to do—everything else happens naturally and on its own accord. We think of it as our life. In reality it is a performance.

Never listen to someone who tries to convince you of something or win you over, or who acts and speaks so that you will think well of him. A true teacher is detached from the fruits of his work, and whether someone gains anything from him or not is according to their own karma. He has no interest in how another sees him or whether he is liked or appreciated or approved of. If others are attracted to him, it is because of what comes through him. He does not take it personally.

As the Christ put it, It is not I that doeth the works, but the Father within, that same Father that is within you.

A true teacher can’t go around being your best buddy. If she is true, she will never appease the ego, she will always keep the ego a little bit uncomfortable. Otherwise she is not fully functioning as a teacher, she is only a friend.

Especially don’t pay attention to teachers who explain themselves regarding anything. The Shakti (spiritual energy) doesn’t explain itself; to do so would be contrary to its nature. It doesn’t need to cause you to think in any particular way. How you think is up to you. A true teacher will never present a dogmatic system of beliefs. Rather, she will free you of the limiting beliefs that already hold you down. Specifically, he or she will free you from the shackles of the mind and ego, and teach you to think for yourself.

The saint can’t help having a human, personal life as long as he or she is incarnated in a physical body. She won’t have a halo, she won’t walk on water, she’ll only shatter your concepts about who you think you are. She might lovingly and compassionately smash your ego into pieces. In the end, she simply reveals the Truth of Being and leaves us established in our own Self, independent and free.

The primary thing regarding a spiritual teacher is your actual inner experience of contact with him or her. Your own heartfelt experience, and nothing else, tells you whether there is something to be gained or not. Your mind might think he or she is ‘off his rocker.’ It doesn’t matter; go by your feeling.

We recognize Truth from within. If something lights up inside us and feels ‘it’s true!’ then we recognize the Truth when we hear it or read it. If we don’t recognize the Truth of something within ourselves, then it is best to not readily accept it as true.

The greatest teachers come from the heart, not the head. The teacher’s words might not make any sense, yet you experience a profound opening in your heart. You experience something inside yourself—a light, an insight, an exaltation, some sense of new possibility, of pending new life. Yet you might not even remember what they verbally communicated. It is not something that happens physically or mentally. It is a subtle communication, a subtle transmission.

The words of some teachers might make perfect sense, yet there is no inner heart experience. They have only words, ‘recycled wisdom’ of what they’ve read or heard and then put into their own words. There is no transformation on the mental level alone. Transformation does not come through mental activity.

The connection with a teacher is always a heart connection, and there is no denying it. Falling in love makes no sense; it is not a rational happening. Neither does being attracted to a particular teacher.

A true teacher passes on spiritual energy that gives a palpable ‘boost’ to our sadhana and our state. If there are only ideas and words to be learned, and especially if they are simply ‘beliefs,’ there is nothing of value to be gained. Mental sadhana alone is not sadhana. It is only mental activity.

True sadhana is the opening of the heart to the experience of unconditional love, which leads to supreme bliss.

When a group of readers of an article I wrote for a magazine in the 70’s encouraged me to begin writing a course, I was led to call my teacher’s widow for a chat. We had communicated for many years at this point, and she knew me well. I asked her if I was actually ready to do this.

I can still hear her words, “Isn’t this what you’ve been prepared for all these years? You know the principles as well as anyone. Go forth and fulfill your destiny. He will guide you from within every step of the way.”

When I actually wrote the first lesson in the summer of 1975, I heard my teacher’s voice clearly in my head, (I have a copy of several of his radio talks from the 50’s, so I know his voice), and it has often been a simple matter of taking dictation. We can understand that our course is the modern or contemporary expression of the ancient principles that were passed on from this teacher and his ancient lineage.

As the vibrational energies of the earth become more intense, as the earth evolves, knowledge of the principles of Truth are needed more than ever. Those who do not live by them will be lacking in endurance and tolerance. Also, presentation of the principles has to be updated now and then or it starts to sound too old-fashioned, even though the teachings are eternally the same.

You might wonder, now what does all this have to do with the topic on spiritual teachers and who to trust? Surely he could have been more specific than this.

To me, the answer is quite clear, although I just wrote it and haven’t yet read it. It came through like a telegraph. You might have to read it more than once. I know I will. You might have to read between the lines. I know I will. As with all my writing, it is a subtle communication. It is not a communication from mind to mind in the usual sense.

Be most open to a teacher who is established in living in the Truth of the Present Moment. Yet don’t expect the teacher to be ‘ideal’ in any preconceived way. He, or she, might be or do everything you would never consciously want in a teacher. Yet be sure that he is real, sincere, and true to himself and others; see that he is in no way pretentious or pretending to make a good impression, for these are definite flags.

I love this quote from my first teacher. It expresses something so profound so clearly, yet it is so subtle I wonder how many will actually hear and understand exactly what is communicated. Come back to it now and then, for, like the lessons of the course, it can be understood in a deeper way with each new reading.

He, or she, is great who feeds other minds. He is great who inspires others to think for themselves. He is great who tells you the things you already know, but which you did not know you knew until he told you. He, or she, is great who disturbs you, irritates you, even affronts you, so that you are shaken out of your habitual ways - fairly pulled out of your mental ruts, lifted up above the commonplace. He may be a teacher, or a speaker, or a writer, a clergyman, or a scientist; or he may be a close friend. It makes no difference who or what he is, or may be, but it does make a great difference what he means, and can do, to you.

The writer, for instance is great whom you alternately hate and love- whom you cannot easily forget. In his private, personal life he may be proud, arrogant, crude, coarse, irritable, even absurd, or even immoral... I grant all that . . . . and yet be great. He is not great because of these reprehensible qualities, but in spite of them. The apparent inconsistencies and inequalities of his nature may contribute in great measure to his power, just as the rocks, boulders, chasms, woods, mountains and valleys make up the grandeur and majesty of the Yosemite, or Yellowstone Park.

To fully take in this quote, you have to accept, or at least consider, your own inner greatness. We are so shy about thinking of ourselves as great, thinking it to be arrogant and egotistical. Oh she thinks she’s so great! Yet it is not egotistical to think of ourselves as great; it is egotistical to think lowly of ourselves, to feel we are less than great, that we could never truly be great. That is what ego does. We often think of ego as patting ourselves on the back, but actually it’s more of reducing our own sense of worth, of seeing ourselves as far less than we truly are. It is the nature of the ego to focus on faults.

A true teacher, even though our ego reacts from time to time, ultimately helps us to feel good about ourselves and to see ourselves in the highest way. Someone who makes you feel even worse about yourself can never be considered a true teacher.

Ultimately no one can tell you who your teacher is. At some point it becomes obvious. And most of us have more than one teacher, perhaps during different periods of our life.

Recognizing a teacher is like falling in love. So here’s a tip: fall in love with your Self and be your own Teacher. This is my truest and most sincere advice. Yet, actually doing this is often difficult to achieve on our own. We all need just a bit of guidance from someone who’s been there and done that.

Ultimately, of course, we will live in love with our Self and be our own Teacher, for there could be no other conclusion. It is simply a recognition of the way it always is. The Truth always exists within and never without. Look within and you will know the Truth without any doubt. Look outside and you are lost, and doubt will haunt you at every turn. Remember love. Love is always the best bet in any case.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

The Kind and Wise Taxi Driver

2011-06-01T18:40:00.103-04:00

I’ve heard many funny and intriguing stories about how people discover what we share here, regarding participation in the blog and the course and dialogue and whatever forms the process takes at any given time. Recently we received an email from a person who said she was experiencing a personal crisis in Manhattan and she ran out to get a taxi.

She described the taxi driver as ‘kind and wise,’ and he listened to her story, shared some soothing and insightful words with her, and soon she felt much better. As they arrived at her destination, he pulled out a piece of paper, and handed it to her saying, ‘Go to this address online and take the course if you can.’ On the paper was written the online address for this blog.

She couldn’t believe that a taxi ride in the midst of a crisis would lead to participating in a course such as ours. I’d love to share many such stories with you, as people have come to be here in many strange and unexpected ways. We are represented by no particular lifestyle, and come from all areas of life.

The course and blog represent no particular path or tradition, and we are not affiliated with any other teacher, although many teachers of many paths and traditions participate in and benefit from the course. One fellow described it as a ‘multi-path approach.’ All are included and none are excluded. It could be the ‘pathless path.’ Or just as easily it could be ‘the path that includes all paths.’

There is only one goal, but many paths and trails can be taken up the mountain. Since they all lead to the same Source, they are equal. It’s not so much a matter of ‘choosing’ a path, as it is simply recognizing the one you are already living. We don’t select a path. The path selects us.

There have always been certain divine guidelines that contain the dharma of the times, and teachers who function during certain times need to understand the guidelines in order to be practically effective as a teacher during this particular time.

If we don’t understand the Truth of the Present Moment, we don’t know what is going on; we don’t even know what we are doing. We're in a waking dream.

For now, I'd like so share some of my favorite exchanges in the 'comments' of the last few months. I am sure you will find something relevant to your own sadhana.

Deb, the Self is most pleased when we ourselves are most pleased. The Self is most pleased with us when we are most pleased with ourselves. Not in an egotistical way, but in the same sense as a parent being pleased with the child.

No matter how often we read or hear the same Truth, it is challenging to fully realize that the inner Self of all is no different from our own Awareness. It’s hard to believe it’s actually inside when we are so conditioned to thinking of it as outside us.

The Self experiences what we experience. Therefore, the Self is most pleased when we ourselves are most pleased.

Marc, this body we find ourselves in has a certain amount of karma that we experience as our personal life. The Shakti, simply speaking, is the Universal Force that makes things happen. So of course in a sense the Shakti delivers our karma to us so that we experience whatever we need to experience to grow stronger or freer. It can be truly said that whatever in our karma doesn't kill us will definitely make us stronger.

Understanding karma is much preferable to thinking something ‘bad’ is happening or that something is going 'wrong.' There is no chance of anything ever going wrong at any time or place. Everything happens by cosmic design.

In our thoughts and actions we create karma, and in the conditions and experiences of personal life we experience the effects of the karma we created. Nothing more happens, and no one else causes anything to happen to us. Deep down we are One with the supreme Creator of all.

Lotus, your comment is a great example of the poignancy of the human predicament. In our course we explore the relationship between poignancy and compassion. Compassion is an essential aspect of why we are here and what life is all about. For most of us it is an essential lesson to be learned as we experience our own sadhana.

This physical life is not like a vacation. It is a cycle of karma that from time to time will seem difficult as well as poignant.

I know of several people participating in the course with very similar circumstances. Some recently lost their partners, and others have partners who are very ill. It is amazing how many of us do not enjoy ‘ideal’ lives. Truth is, I've never known of anyone like that.

It is wonderful that you wish to help your husband; yet a lot of your ability to help depends on your capacity to maintain your vision of the Truth.

In the subtle body your husband is what we would think of as 'at his peak.' There is no illness, suffering, aging, or dying on the subtle plane. All those things exist in the realm of physical karma only.

If you can remember to consciously see him as he truly is, as youthful and vibrant and strong, that is the most you can do to help him have an experience of resurrection. If you see him as healthy and full of life, you give energy to his resurrection, to his rejuvenation, and even to a greater rebirth.

This physical life is not set up to be ideal. It's set up to see how much we can take. And then when it gives us as much as we can take, it's our work on ourselves to be as in harmony with it as possible. Instead of resistance, we accept it as a temporary karmic reality, knowing that everything will be different again soon enough.

The inner Self, or pure Consciousness, was never born and will never die. It is indestructible and indivisible. It is ageless, and it always remains as it is, even though it takes innumerable shapes and forms here and there in the karmic journey through time.

It has always been my experience and observation that everything happens for the best. We simply have to balance this certainly with the compassion for the poignancy of life. No one can avoid poignancy in some form or another. Therefore compassion is such an essential quality to develop, otherwise the poignancy of life will be difficult to deal with.

Jo-Ann, the course actually has very little to do with new facts. Oh, sure there might be tidbits to come up that you've never been aware of before, but the course is primarily a reminder of the Truth of the present moment, and a way of understanding our own knowledge in a new and more expansive way.

A relative beginner might read a couple of lessons of the course and think, 'Oh, I already know all this. The same knowledge is available in the book I read last week,' and totally dismiss the lessons as being repetitive of what they 'already know.' You can also be sure that they will never actually apply the 'knowledge' they imagined was in the book in any practical way whatsoever.

Someone with a little more awareness might read the same words and experience an unexpected upliftment, an inexplicable exaltation, and perhaps a surprising insight that seems to have nothing to do with the written words.

So we share a process of continuous refinement of awareness. For myself and many others, sharing this process together is one of the most profound, transformative, loving, and intimate things we could ever share.

Vandita, that is a good question: Who plans the plan? The answer requires a very subtle and refined understanding.

In the highest sense, everything is a play of Consciousness. There is no one separate from that to decide anything.

We're all a 'work in progress' when it comes to sadhana. Yet we are also pure Consciousness, without beginning or end. It is a strange and fascinating game.

When we fully understand what is the play of Consciousness, we see that no one in particular is doing anything. There is no planner, and also no plan. There is no one making a decision; everything happens in absolute balance and harmony, except in our own conditioned minds. There's the Truth of the Present Moment, and in reality that's all there is.

Sukala, everything you say is very true. Vigilance is an extremely important word when it comes to sadhana or spiritual development. The body, mind, and emotions all presume to have a life of their own, and they follow their own patterns, and the ego gets identified with these patterns and thinks they're a part of who we are. So we have to be very vigilant regarding our thoughts, feelings, and inclinations. Let's make sure they come from an uplifting place within ourselves and that they always have an uplifting effect on others around us.

It is great that you aspire to cheerfulness. Cheerfulness is a very high spiritual quality that is often underrated and under-appreciated. Yet genuine cheerfulness comes from an open heart.

It is also great that you are learning more about creation and speech. If we wish our lives to go in a certain direction, it is important to make sure all our thoughts, feelings, actions, and words resonate with that direction. Otherwise instead of a gentle flow we have a chaotic mess.

If we sit around thinking about the very things we don't want, we will make ourselves miserable. Why should we think of what we don't want? This is silly, yet it contributes our energy toward the creation of the very things we don't want. Whatever we think about most attracts these very conditions and traits to ourselves. What we think, and what we speak, is what we get.

Words are creative. This is one of the most important things in the world to understand--the power of matrika shakti--yet most people are not the least bit interested in this, as it doesn't fit into their conditioned way of thinking and seeing things.

There is a great deal more to life than most of us are aware of. Yet we must be ready for what is unexpected and new. For the awareness of a principle to be impactful, it must be new, unexpected, surprising, sometimes even shocking. Then we are jolted awake and aware of a more refined level of being than before. This is the work we have taken an incarnation to do.

You are doing very well. I am happy you are enjoying the lessons of the course.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com
French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Remaining Present in Rapidly Changing Times

2011-05-01T00:22:00.002-04:00

The last few weeks have been intense, and many of you may have felt as though you were in a ‘pressure cooker.’ However, by time this is posted, most of you will be feeling much more settled and secure, more content with yourself and your life, and more optimistic regarding the future. There will be more vitality and less stress.

It is all a part of rapidly changing times. When ‘the times are a changing,’ it is extremely important to remain present, as a living, aware, conscious entity, fully alert in the existing moment, remaining inwardly still. Otherwise we might get caught up in changing times on the outside and forget our true nature on the inside.

To be honest, and which you might have already concluded, this is a challenging time for those living on the planet Earth. We are facing changes unlike anything that has happened in our lifetimes, and unlike most of what we know as ‘recorded history,’ which is exceedingly more limited than most have any idea. A lot has happened on the planet that our current so-called ‘civilization’ has no idea of, as there are no records from the past in the sense that we recognize as such.

Records have been left, such as the pyramids and the sphinx from ancient Egypt, for example, but modern people have lost touch with the secrets of correctly interpreting them. I wonder what will be left of our ‘modern age’ for future generations to puzzle over. What would they think of us if all that is left, for example, is Disneyworld?

To make it through this time of intense changes, it is very important that we remain consciously present and that we focus our awareness on the Truth of the present moment—not on what is happening on the outside, for that occurs in time, which is of the physical world only. The Truth is never anything that can be described in words as a story, for that is one definition of an egotistical melodrama. The Truth, although eternal, doesn’t ‘continue’ in the linear way we ordinarily experience life.

A fellow recently wrote: "You say to replace unpleasant feelings with pleasant feelings. Yet sometimes it feels as though there is nothing present other than the unpleasant feeling, and that there is no one around interested in replacing it or doing anything about it at all except mope around in it.

"My own thing is sadness. Sometimes it gets very intense when I let myself get involved in some poignancy that I have taken personally. My wife’s thing is anger. Sometimes she becomes the embodiment of anger, and there’s no one else at home. Later she herself says, ”It was as though I could do nothing about it, like someone else had completely taken over.”

"So she gets angry at me when I’m sad, because she thinks I’m being weak, and I get sad when she gets angry at me, because I feel like she doesn’t even like me anymore, much less love me. How can someone be so mean to the person they supposedly love?

"‘So, Ram, what’s the way out of this? How do we gather the power to replace all this heavy stuff with something more cheerful and uplifting? Doing so sounds great as philosophy or theory, but often it doesn’t feel the least bit realistic."

Let’s return to the paragraph preceding the letter: To make it through this time of intense changes, it is very important that we remain consciously present and that we focus our awareness on the Truth of the present moment—not on what is happening around us, for that is in time and of the physical world only. The Truth is never limited to anything that can be described in words as a story, for that is one definition of an egotistical melodrama. The Truth, although eternal, doesn’t ‘continue’ in the linear way we ordinarily experience life.

The letter, as sincere and honest as can be, was still only a story. Sure, the emotions he describes are very heavy, very overpowering, and can fill us so full there is no room for anything else. Anger and sadness both have the capacity to take over and dominate our psychic system. They are triggered and nurtured by describing stories, inwardly to ourselves or outwardly to others, that seemingly confirm the reality of the perceived ‘cause’ of our unpleasant emotion.

Unpleasant emotions are a great hindrance to sadhana, especially when one becomes a habitual pattern, triggered by anything of even the slightest relevance. There will be sadness, there will be anger, there will be grief—though grief is not truly in the category of ‘negative’ emotions.’ It is something deeply human that must be completed once it arises, or the energy of it branches into other problems of a physical or psychological nature.

This is why we urge you to be as cheerful and lighthearted as possible. These states are like lights keeping the darkness away. Don’t seriously consider anything that seems that serious. Remain true to your lightheartedness and you can never go wrong.

As Bob Dylan said, The times are a-changing. I was a teenager in 1960. I remember life then. By 1970 life and the world seemed very different. Back then, we couldn’t have comprehended the world as it is today, with our instant messaging back and forth, even writing this blog and knowing that others will read it within minutes—not long ago that would have seemed like science fiction, yet even science fiction never came up with this one, or with many of the things that we take for granted today.

Speaking of different ‘times,’ it is important to honor each period of time for what it was, understanding that each time was complete as it was without necessarily having to be ‘continued.

Sometimes we cause ourselves great unhappiness because we want to mix up times, we want to bring another time over into this time, or think this time should be different from how it ended up, and we can never be content or fulfilled as long as we persist in our dissatisfaction with the present moment.

As a personal example, I enjoyed being a father and a family man when my children were growing up. Sometimes I tend to feel as though my children should be still young, still running around outside, still needing me in the same ways, still being around where it feels good just to watch them. So I need to honor that time for what it was, knowing that it was complete in itself. Honoring it for what it was, I can be happy about it, I can be in harmony with the natural order of things. I can be content in knowing my children are all very happy, all enjoying their lives as they make their way in this world. They have what they need and their future looks bright. I have much gratitude for that.

The best time, the most perfect time, is NOW. Yet we find this so hard to believe, so threatening to accept. How could now, this ordinary, uneventful life I live, be the most perfect time? That’s ludicrous. Either we think the past was better or we think the future will be better. We have a hard time believing that right now is the best time possible.

If we only understood that what we know as ‘God,’ or pure Consciousness, or the inner Self shared simultaneously by all, is beneficent in nature. Whatever created us and sustained us until now is still looking out for our interests. Yet we lose awareness of this and we forget gratitude for all that we have. God is a loving God. We are love. We have so much love within our heart. Imagine how much love is in God’s heart. Of course, ultimately, we share the same heart. So the source of love is quite vast—even supremely infinite.

The Truth of the present moment cannot be described in words or comprehended as concepts. It is the deepest, simplest, and most fundamental experience we have from moment to moment, although it remains very still. It is our own Awareness of Being, which exists ONLY in the present moment.

The Truth is not about whether have a headache or a backache or not. It is not whether we’re feeling good or not either. Neither is it whether we’re thinking a true thought or not. Regarding this, we have a tendency to assume that what we’re thinking is true, yet we rarely investigate it to be sure. What is currently happening in the physical, emotional, mental, and even psychic realms are included in the Truth of the Present Moment, but none of them, in themselves, represent the full Truth.

Awareness cannot be described; it can only be alluded to.

The Truth is that which enables us to see and know what is happening on all those other realms. In the Upanishads it is said that pure Consciousness is the Witness of the mind. Indeed, It watches over all, without description or judgment, appreciating the perfection of it all.

The Witness, or inner Observer, sees nothing going wrong anywhere. With great equanimity, and with supreme compassion, It watches the cosmic movie of life, not only appreciating it, but actually delighting in it.

We do not live in a time where life on earth is intended to be easy. Over time, it will get more and more challenging, although the beings being born now are up to the challenge. For now, however, certain planetary tensions have released a bit, and everyone should find it easier to feel better for a while, to rest up and rejuvenate—even as we go about our daily activities. Gather your energy now, when it is relatively easy to do so, for later on we will be challenged.

If we remain attuned to that in us which is always perfectly present, and ignore the apparent changes happening all around us, we live in the awareness of the inner Self, which is very comforting and blissful. If, however, our attention is pulled into the ever-changing outer world of objective humanity, it will be challenging to even remember who we are.

Deep within is a great light. It is the light of pure Awareness, illuminating all that is perceived. Truly, it is the light of the world; without it the cosmos could not exist. Meditate on this light, even while performing daily activities, and soon you will light up the room you sit in, you will radiate light into your environment and to all who know you. Focus on light in the heart and you will become lighthearted. Become aware of the light that fills your head and extends above it as subtle rays of energy, often perceived as an aura.

As you practice focusing more and more on the inner Light, and seeing the Light pervading and permeating the universe, even your inner worlds, including your dreams and beyond, you will become more and more established in your own conscious Presence right here and now, just as you are. And you will become more and more detached from the constantly changing world all around you, the world perceived by the five physical senses.

Practice being present and still inside, while simply noting, with great equanimity, the constantly moving and ever-changing world on the outside, and your life will be transformed in ways you could never imagine.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Subtle Relationships in a Subtle World

2011-04-01T16:51:00.001-04:00

The other night Kay and I were sitting in our den where we enjoy our nightly ‘satsang,’ and devote our energy and attention to something of an uplifting nature. We might read aloud from a book or a lesson; we might listen to one of the great communicators of Truth available on video or vocal recordings. We might discuss something that seems relevant to sadhana at the time. We might play music and dance and stretch in that disco-yogic way of ours, dancing like no one is watching, dancing like we wouldn’t care even if they were.

Usually, following our ‘satsang’ time, we have a time of restful recreation, which is rejuvenating, before time for bed. We might watch a movie or one of the better TV shows (‘better,’ I suppose, being totally subjective.) We live like most other people in our age range, although there might be some things that they do that we don’t, and there might be some things that we do that they don’t. After Kay goes to bed, I often stay up and participate for a while in dialogue in the comments of the blog or on Facebook.

The other night Kay said, ‘During our satsangs, it feels like there are many others here with us.’

When she said that, I too became aware of them. Suddenly I felt as though I was in one of my dreams. I have frequent dreams of being with or around large crowds of people. Sometimes it seems we are working together for some common purpose that I can’t quite consciously grasp. Sometimes we are in huge halls of an extremely large ashram or temple. Other times the location is very other-worldly.

Last night we were scattered about an exquisite palace. The entire place was extraordinarily beautiful and glowing. In my dream I looked into what was perhaps the most beautiful room I had ever seen. I thought, Wow, even though this is only a dream, the details of the room are so vividly clear. I was deliberately focusing on the details of the room, amazed that they were so clear even in a dream. I could not identify any objects; there were designs and brilliant colors that did not correlate to the objects of waking life. I do not always remember that I am dreaming at the time of the dream, but this night it was quite vivid.

Anyway, when Kay said it felt like many others were present, I had the familiar sensation that I experience around the huge crowds in my dreams. There was a sense of Wow, we’re all here together after all, as though my affirmation was already true.

Many years ago I was at a meditation gathering in Tucson. During one of the chants, I sensed very vividly the presence of Native Americans in subtle form. During a break I went to a host of the gathering, who himself was Native American, and told him of my experience.

He responded with a smile, “They’re here for the programs a lot. They come down from the mountain that overlooks the city. Many of the local Native Americans believe that when they leave the body they go to live with their ancestors on the mountain. They seem to particularly like the chanting.”

Subtle beings are all around us. Many more souls are in subtle form than in physical form. Yet, even now we are also in subtle form. The subtle body doesn’t go away when we take birth in a physical body. It is the subtle body that animates and enlivens the physical body. The physical body is like a spacesuit that enables us to live on the planet Earth for a little while.

After my father’s funeral in Albuquerque in the early 90’s, I sat in a chair near his grave. I was very aware that it was easy to communicate with him, even more so than it had been physically. I sensed his confusion and started explaining to him, in terms he could understand, what the process of exiting the body and returning to subtle reality was all about, so that he might more easily and harmoniously flow with what was happening.

As I was ‘talking’ I began to sense other subtle bodies from around the cemetery gathering, as they were also interested in the same topic. So we had a little subtle workshop for the confused souls still hanging around their bodies not knowing what to do next. It was a deep and moving experience for me.

Last month I wrote this in the comments: Today I was going through the mail—both online as well as the traditional mail that arrives in paper or manila envelopes, and such a feeling of gratitude welled up inside me as I read the messages from participants of the course. And I want to thank those of you who participate in that process and who support the course and make it possible. I can't even express how much you mean in my life. I truly want you to know how much gratitude Kay and I both have that you participate in this process with us and help support this work.

A large part of most days we spend on the computer; Kay keeping up with participants, practicalities, and 'business' stuff, and me writing one thing or another. For example, now, there is this.

In a certain sense this means we stay in almost constant contact with you in a subtle yet very powerful way. You can be subtly in contact with us simply by tuning in to the space the lessons come from, the space of the present moment, the space of the heart, the space of love.

Our subtle relationships are much deeper and longer lasting than whatever physical karma we might share—which for most of us is simply sharing the course and perhaps meeting online like this. It might seem like a simple process physically, but in subtle reality it is huge, powerful, and significant.

Subtle reality is not limited to time or space. Therefore it doesn't matter where you are or when you read this. Subtly it remains the same in all times and places, simply because it is beyond time and space. When we tune into this together, we meet in the space of the heart, the subtle heart where higher feelings originate, even though we might be in a different time or place physically. It is the inner experience that counts, and that goes with us when we exit the physical body on the wings of the final exhalation.

Perhaps I will explore this more in the April blog entry. For now, I just wanted to say thanks for your love and support on all levels. If not for you, I would be living a completely different life. I like this one. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Scott Marmorstein, who has done his part in helping to cleanse and purify our subtle bodies and chakras, immediately responded: “I would love to read your take on the subtle reality of relationship in your next blog. I am sure it would be of great benefit to everyone who reads it. It is something that is not only 'interesting' but also profoundly valuable.

“I wonder how many people understand the awesome nature of the subtle body and subtle realms and how it threads everyone to the greater Self.

“So many people think they know or have an idea what it is you offer here, but I assure you they only know a tenth of the power involved in the Course and what is really coming through.”

I always enjoy Scott’s input as he is very attuned to the subtle world, and it also amuses me that Scott is always the first to want to hear more about subtle reality, even though he might be one who experiences it the most. See Scott’s site at sparklingaura.com.

The subtle body animates and enlivens the physical body, and ‘feels’ all the things that we ordinarily attribute to the physical body. Our subtle reality is much more who we are than this temporary physical manifestation. In subtle life, a hundred years or so is like nothing, being that the subtle world is free of time and space—which exist as vital aspects of the physical world. In the physical world we live in a relative reality, and we need time and space for things to have any relativity. Otherwise there would be only formless reality, yet the physical world is anything but formless.

The subtle body goes through no ‘aging process.’ This thing about ‘growing old’ is a physical phenomenon only. Do you have dreams where you are ‘younger’ than you presently are physically? Probably so. Do you ever have a dream where you are 'older' than you are physically? I bet not. When we ‘wake up’ from this physical dream, this current cycle of karma, we will be the same age that we always are.

I was going to explore subtle relationships with you, and then all that came out. Obviously, most people who read this share subtle relationships, or there would be no reason to meet here and read this. Through the course, we relate on a subtle level. Everything that happens through the course, and its adjuncts, this blog and my Facebook page, takes place on a subtle level. Transformation must first take place subtly before there can be any form of physical transformation.

Some of us knew each other physically in the past, sharing carbon footprints together, and now we relate subtly, manifested in the lessons of the course and online. Most of us have never met physically, and the entire relationship is of a subtle nature. Such was the same as my relationship with my first primary teacher, who left behind an amazing correspondence course, but who had left his body a year before I came across his course. Yet I have enjoyed many dreams and subtle experiences with him.

This physical life is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything actually going on in any given moment. The subtle world is much larger, much more diverse, and lasts a great deal longer than anything of the physical world. All kinds of stuff are happening right now, in this very moment, yet our ordinary conscious awareness has access to only a small portion of it.

Consciousness remains even when all traces of our carbon footprint are gone, when even our tombstone has returned to dust, when there is no longer any memory of us in any living person. This is why our true focus in life is, or should be, awareness of our true and eternally changeless nature. This is the great central reality that gives meaning to everything else, and around which all else revolves. Without it there would be absolutely nothing, for it has become everything.

Swami Ram Tirtha was a great Indian saint who took Mahasamadhi at the age of 33. Right before he left his body, he wrote a note in his room before he went out for his final bath in the Ganges. In his note he wrote:

Oh Death, take away this body if you please, I care not. I have enough bodies to use. I can wear those silver threads, the beams of the Moon and I live. I can roam as a divine minstrel putting on the guise of hilly streams and mountain brooks. I can dance in the waves of the sea. I am the breeze that proudly walks and I am the wind inebriated. All these shapes of mine are wandering shapes of change. I came down from yonder hills, raised the dead, awakened the sleeping, unveiled the fair faces of some and wiped away the tears of a few weeping ones. The bulbul and the rose both I saw and I comforted them. I touched this, I touched that, I doff my hat and off I am. Here I go, there I go, and none can find me.

There is much more to understand about all of this. If you take the course, you already know that it will be explored much more deeply in your lessons. If you have specific questions, please write them in the comments that follow this entry.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com
French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Self-Interview -- Part 2

2011-03-01T00:38:00.001-05:00

Several readers, including my wife Kay, have requested that I write another self-interview following the popularity of the original interview posted September 1, 2010. It was fun writing the first one, people seemed to like it, and I have no reason not to, so here goes:

Q: So why would you accept the challenge of writing another self-interview?

A: Having specific questions to answer gives me something to write about. Otherwise I have to wonder what this month’s blog entry will be and can I once again come up with something new. This relieves me of being concerned with that. I can simply focus on answering your questions.

Q: You don’t think it’s being overly egotistical to interview yourself?

A: Not really. Who is ever asking who questions anyway? And who is it that answers? If I took the process personally none of it would be very interesting to anyone. Thinking of myself as egotistical would be a very limiting view of this particular expression of Consciousness. Everyone should be careful about how they describe themselves. We become what we describe ourselves to be. Such descriptions as being 'egostistical 'exist only as an element of objective humanity, akin to what yogis might think of as ‘duality,’ or what most people think of as ‘others.’

I don’t have to bother to wonder if something is true or not, because whatever is true remains so forevermore, no matter what I think, and is not worth checking up on every few minutes just to feel that all is well. The Truth is already true, always has been, always will be. It is far beyond our agreement or disagreement, and cares nothing for whether we ‘believe’ in it or not. Our beliefs include our most rigid limitations. True freedom includes freedom from beliefs.

Q: You don’t ‘believe’ anything? Don’t you believe the things you write about?

A: I don’t have any beliefs in the sense of dogma. I write by taking dictation from this voice I hear clearly in my head. My mind used to sometimes question what came up, but over the years I found that everything is practically applicable, so I’ve given up questioning it. It is what it is. I see it as the inner voice of all.

Q: You occasionally use this term, “objective humanity.” Can you explain what you mean by that?

A: Basically, it’s the sense of ‘other,’ or there being ‘someone else.’ According to the conditioning of society, this concept seems perfectly logical and normal. Of course there are others. I see them around me all the time. We even talk to each other. I have significant relationships with these other people.

According to the scriptures and the Masters of all traditions (not to be confused with religions) (except the one Wisdom Religion which remains eternally undivided and unchanged) there is only one Being, one Self, one Consciousness permeating and pervading the cosmos and simultaneously taking the forms of all these appearances, including ‘other people.’

When we give these ‘other people’ an external reality, and see them and relate to them as though they are different from us and they have some independent reality, they become ‘objective humanity’—which is invariably in error because it is based on illusion. Freedom from objective humanity ranks right up there with freedom from ego.

Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of thing we can fully understand simply by having it explained to us. Certain levels of understanding are attained as a result of a process, not from learning new facts. To get the full answer to your question, from my perspective, you’d have to take the course via email. Not because the answer is exclusively available to participants of the course, but because the process of participating in the course is what leads to the answer. That is the nature of the course. Yet it can only be experienced and never adequately explained.

Q: You seem to feel strongly that the present moment is the basis of life.

A: Show me the existence of another time and I’ll consider otherwise. Where is it? Is another time over there somewhere—perhaps behind that wall? Another time never actually exists. It is either a memory or a presumption. We can never truthfully say, I finally escaped from the present moment. We’ll always be here now.

The awareness of the present moment at least gives us an opportunity to enjoy a fulfilled and content life. If we are ‘lost in thought and lost in time,’ as Pink Floyd put it, we are missing out on the reality of our own life, which exists only now, in this present moment.

The future is a presumption, since any moment could be our last. The past is the interplay between memories and emotions based on melodramas that seemed important at the time. We can bring up negative feelings simply by remembering them from the past. Be free from memory except when it’s uplifting or useful in a practical way.

Q: Can you give an example of the present moment?

A: I’ll rather tell you how absurd that question is, but it’s probably easier, and in better taste, to simply give you an example:

The other day I walked into the kitchen and Kay was standing still, like in some combination of tadasana and samadhi, her head tilted slightly backward, her arms raised upward and outward.

I said, ‘What on earth are you doing?’

She replied, ‘I’m waiting to remember.’

I said, ‘Remember what?’

‘If I knew that,’ she answered, ‘I wouldn’t be waiting.’

So that is an example of the present moment. We’re in a state of waiting to remember, although we’re not actually ‘waiting’ for anything. Being fully present has no anticipation. More specifically, we’re in the space between thoughts, whether we ever remember anything again or not.

The space between any two thoughts is the present moment, and this continues undisturbed throughout eternity. One who can live and function in the space between thoughts, lives in eternity, completely unaffected by temporary appearances.

Mental and emotional activities often take our awareness out of the present moment and back into the story of our so-called life. Then we think we are these people and that these things are going on in our lives. And when we reach this point the Truth has been forgotten. It has even been forgotten that the Truth was ever of any true significance or relevance. We once again consider ourselves to be a part of objective humanity, and we get caught in mass thinking.

On the other hand, we can reach the point where thoughts and feelings are simply something happening in the present moment, so that we are free from identification with them and are no longer affected by them. They no longer disturb our state. We simply observe them pass by. If the thoughts, words, and actions of others no longer disturb our state, we are free from objective humanity.

Q: There is so much information available on the Internet and elsewhere. Out of all this, what makes this course so special? Couldn’t we just as easily get the same thing elsewhere?

A: You might be able to get the same thing elsewhere, but the chances of that actually happening are much slimmer than you might believe. The course isn’t about communicating information, although that happens too. The course is a process of transformation that happens through participation.

Participation consists only of referring to one’s current lesson, for the two weeks devoted to that lesson, as regularly as possible. Also, of course, it is highly beneficial to actually apply the principles of that lesson in practical ways in one’s own daily life. This way it becomes part of our being, an aspect of our inner wisdom, and not simply something that we ‘know’ in an intellectual way, which is of little value and will probably be soon forgotten.

It’s not like you take a written quiz at the end and then you’re graded according to how well your mind learned it. It’s more like you simply live your life differently, more freely and easily, more harmoniously and flowingly, and more enjoyably than you were able to before. It’s not like the mind can explain why this happens. Besides, there’s no one to explain it to except the ego.

Like you said, there is plenty of information out there. There are plenty of teachers and groups who will happily fill your head with new facts, according to their own interpretation of things. Participation in the course is a dynamic process, not a study of new facts. Yet talking about it doesn’t capture the experience of the process of participating. That would be like wanting a banana, and instead someone comes and tells you about how it feels to eat a banana. This is never satisfying. We want our own banana.

Q: And this transformation through participation in the course happens why?

A: It has a lot to do with the teachers I have studied with over the years, as a lot is being passed on to others that I received from my own teachers. Many things aren’t fully received until they are sufficiently passed on.

Q: Do you think this blog is read only by participants of the course?

A: I certainly hope not. If it is, the participants aren’t doing a very good job of letting others know about the blog. It’s very simple to forward the link to a friend or post it on their Facebook page or wherever interested people might see it. It’s not going to do anyone any harm to read this. There’s nothing that weird, nothing too offensive. It’s just a certain take on the ways things work that makes perfect sense to certain people.

To certain people, the course speaks to their heart, it awakens inner awareness, it reminds them once again of the Truth of the Present Moment. Some people have taken the course for many years now. Why, after all this time, are they still looking forward to their next lesson? It’s not because they’re hoping to learn a new fact. It’s more because they know they’ll experience the Truth once again, or in some new way. The Truth, with a capital ‘T,’ is always new, even though it is also ancient.

Q: Any final words for us at this point?

A: I am happy to know you; yet I have known you deeply for a long, long time. We each share the same Self. This is not a theory or an opinion. One day you might be amazed at how obvious it is. I invite you to meet in the space of love, which is eternal. All temporary phenomena passes.

Everything is available through the openness, willingness, and commitment to actually begin and then to keep going. Very soon the most amazing and unexpected process begins to happen, and it continues to happen more and more expansively for quite a long time. And there’s nothing really to think about—it’s either intuitively obvious or absolutely meaningless. And ultimately it doesn’t matter either way. It just depends on what we are ready for now.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com
French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Why Do We Meet Here?

2011-02-01T16:22:00.005-05:00

There is a certain space we can tune into that is independent of the words or whatever meaning we give to what is being written. To tune into this space, we come here and share it together. It is a space of the heart. It is a place of inexplicable and unconditional love.

There is a transmission from a higher (more expanded and refined) realm currently happening affecting the population of the planet Earth. There are those that are attuned to and aligned with this transmission, and there are those who are oblivious to it and would smirk at the thought of it.

The Transmission of Truth expresses through various channels and teachers. Some are clearer than others due to the purity of their own understanding. Some are able to bring life to a principle so powerfully that it comes alive inside our own heart and we are transformed. We can absorb something of value from whomever we come in contact. Each person we know adds something to us, each teacher we come across has something to teach us. The meetings do not happen by coincidence or chance.

The principles of Truth are not about individual teachers or personalities. They come from a higher Source. Various teachers each have their own style and personality when it comes to the presentation of the Principles, yet to some degree they are tuned into the same Source. All lineages come from the same Source. There is already vast agreement that the Truth is the Truth. There are not two or more Truths out there.

The Truth is vast. Yet in our personal lives we often find ourselves caught in trying to figure out the most insignificant details. This is why, in our course, we place a priority on priorities.

Tuning into the Truth of the Present Moment is the primary reason that we meet here.

There is so much to doubt in this world, so little to actually trust, how do we recognize a true channel of live knowledge?

The answer is through our own experience. Something happens inside us, something inexplicable is stimulated or awakened in us, there is some mysterious stirring that leads us to believe something new is possible. Otherwise there is only a peculiar selection of words with no actual meaning whatsoever. There is no in-between the two—it is either intuitively obvious or completely nonsensical.

Some will read this and it will make absolute sense. Others might read it and find it absolute nonsense. Our ways of understanding things and our readiness for new knowledge are quite varied. We are each ready for what comes next, but we are not all ready for the same thing.

The Transmission of Truth happens on a realm far beyond individuals, personalities, religions, philosophies, and paths. We recognize it when we feel its power in our heart, that feeling of knowingness, of infinite possibility. There is no doubt whatsoever, except possibly in the conditioned mind.

The Transmission of Truth happens when we become aware of something completely new. It is often accompanied by an exalted sense of well being.

This is such a simple point that it is challenging to consider that it has any significant meaning. Also, because we don’t totally understand the past conditioning of ego and mind, we might not fully grasp what is meant by ‘new.’

Our Course of Training via email is a guided process of opening up to what is new. It is being attuned to the process of awakening. The lessons sent by email twice a month are the primary outer form of the course. When the lessons are read, however, more is happening than mere reading.

There is no homework. Participation in the course is simply reading the lessons, and referring to them on a regular basis during the time of each lesson. This leads to a transformation in the way we see and understand things. Also, it is essential to actually apply the principles of each lesson in one’s daily life—and to never consider them to be mere philosophy. We break free from dogma and begin to see things as they truly are.

If you are open to the transmission, you are already receiving the transmission. It is not something that will begin later. It is a matter of being alert and paying attention to what is already real. You already feel something stirring inside, some transformation that hasn’t yet fully revealed its essential nature.

Ordinarily the mind hasn’t been conditioned or molded in a way that accepts significant transformation as a possible or likely reality. We are strongly conditioned to feel that everything will remain very much the same as it already is, even if we vaguely ‘hope’ for something more.

In reality, everything remains the same on one level only: the level of the highest Truth, the Self, pure Consciousness, the Awareness of Being. Only on this level does everything always remain the same. On other levels, there is continuous movement, motion,growth, and transformation.

Living in the Truth of the Present Moment has various elements. One, for example, is the understanding of exactly what is meant by ‘present moment.’ Another is the understanding of exactly what is meant by ‘Truth.’ When we live with the simultaneous understanding of ‘Truth’ as related to the ‘present moment,’ we experience contentment and fulfillment.

I know this to be true: When we generate a feeling of how we would feel if everything in our life were already perfect, it will feel uplifting and enlivening. That feeling, strange as it seems, is the Creative Principle. Once generated, that feeling creates or attracts an outer reality corresponding to the nature of the feeling.

Our feeling, our consciousness, creates or attracts a corresponding reality around us that will seem very real. It's actually not real at all, because as soon as we change what we are conscious of, the corresponding physical reality changes accordingly. What we are conscious of inwardly is reflected outwardly as our personal life.

Of the basic laws regarding how life works, the primary one, as far as the individual is concerned, is the law of cause and effect; thoughts are causes and the conditions and experiences of personal life are the results or effects of the power of the corresponding thoughts.

It is important to understand that we are creating our own reality through our own mental activity, and especially when thoughts are accompanied by intense emotional feelings. This is basic stuff, and if we don’t understand this much we won’t pass ‘Life 101.’

It is important to understand our part in the process of creation. Then we can live to contribute to harmony and gain freedom from suffering. Otherwise, unmindful of how life works, we unknowingly generate the very things we don’t want.

We meet here to be reminded of the Truth. This includes being reminded that thought is creative, and that our habitual and predominant thoughts create the details of our personal reality. This is a most essential basic step, understanding that we create our own life through what we think, and yet many people on the ‘spiritual’ path dismiss the principle as though it were not good enough for them, not spiritual enough somehow.

There is a delicate balance of new approaches to ancient truths. The Truth of the present moment is never going to change, yet the methods that awakened or stimulated our awareness of Truth in the past might not be as effective now. It’s like we become immune to them. So the Truth must be approached in not only new but also unexpected ways.

We ‘wake up’ to some degree when we are surprised or shocked, and this element is essential in the process of expansion and development. Surprises are like subtle growth spurts. One of the greatest surprises is learning something new that is absolutely unexpected. When we stop being surprised, we stop growing.

I would love to hear from you in the comments at the end of this entry, your perspective of Why do we meet here, the transmission of Truth, and the process of transformation. I’d truly appreciate feedback on these topics, just to see your various perspectives. If you have any questions, write them in the little box, and we will enjoy interaction and discussion.

See you in the comments.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

Spanish: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

French: drbutler.course@gmail.com

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Returning to Love

2011-01-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

Let’s share this meditation together

to begin 2011 in the highest way.

Returning to Love

Sit comfortably and take a few long, slow breaths.

Go back to recognizing the pure, undefined,

undifferentiated, unmodified, formless Awareness of Being—

That in you which knows that you are, which knows, “I am.”

Understand that this Awareness is universal—

it permeates and pervades the entire universe at all times.

It is not different from the ever-present nature of Grace.

It is beyond all circumstances and situations.

It is beyond all karma. It is beyond all samskaras,

all tendencies to describe or define.

It is free from that whole play—

unmodified, undifferentiated, and undefined.

There is nothing to think about Consciousness.

To think is only to contract Consciousness.

Go back to being aware of your own Awareness.

Be conscious of Consciousness.

Think of your heart as being filled with love.

Be aware that love is pouring into you

with each breath, expanding the area of your heart

far beyond the space of your body.

See it as a warm, golden, liquidy love.

Feel its warmth and soothing nature.

Let everything you have heard or read so far

be dissolved into it.

Fall in love with your Self.

Live in love.

Understand that the same Self within you

exists in all others.

Love the Self in you and love the Self in others.

The Inner Self is The Divine,

Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent—

All-knowing, All-powerful, and All-pervading.

Seeing the Divine in all, life becomes very simple.

Everything is very easy

once this becomes the primary focus and emphasis.

Melt into the golden white Light of the Self

and be absorbed in your own love.

Keep returning to love as the highest priority.

Live in that love.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com for English or French translation

For Spanish translation of the Course, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

How I Stopped Searching for Love and Became What I Was Looking For

2010-12-04T00:15:00.002-05:00

I wanted it so badly, even desperately. I’m sure it started at the beginning, but it seems that I first consciously noticed it around the age of 12 or 13. I wanted something, and it was so vague I couldn’t describe or define it, couldn’t capture it in words, and yet it persisted as a mysterious ache in my heart.

It became even stronger as I moved into my teenage years and early 20’s. It had to do with other people. I wanted something from other people. I wanted to be liked; I wanted to be loved; I wanted to be accepted; I wanted to be appreciated; I wanted to be noticed and recognized; I wanted to be respected; I wanted others to want me to be their friend. I could go on and on, but you get the point.

This desire, this inexplicable craving, continued for a long time. At some point in my 20’s I remember talking to an older friend, who was a spiritual teacher in the lineage of Paramahansa Yogananda, and I told him that sometimes I had this strange emotionally painful feeling of wanting something from someone.

He replied, very wisely I always thought, “Sounds like growing pains to me.”

When he said that, something fell into perspective that actually eliminated that particular pain from my life. I could understand that it was only growing pains. This friend and teacher also encouraged me to see a meditation Master from India who would be visiting Manhattan, where I lived at the time. I did and ended up being with him for the rest of his life.

From this Teacher I learned that our own inner Self is the true source of all that we seek from others. If we want more respect, we need to be more respectful. We especially need to respect our own Self. Respect from others is worthless if we don’t have our own respect.

I also discovered that the source of love is within, and could not possibly lie outside or in another. If we want to be loved, we need to love ourselves. Being loved by others is very unsatisfying and mediocre compared to the fullness of loving ourselves, of being the one to love instead of being the one hoping to be loved by another.

The Buddha once said: You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Within the heart exists a great central sun that illuminates the inner and outer world. We can rejuvenate ourselves at any point by visualizing this resplendent sun in our own heart to the degree that we actually see and feel the light.

See the light radiated, feel the warmth emanated, allow yourself to flow into the current of bliss—the pulsations of the divine exaltation within you. Feel the bliss in the heart right now. It is always present. Even when we forget about it, even though we remain unconscious of it, bliss remains. Bliss is an aspect of our eternal nature.

Everything in the outer world is a reflection of the inner world. There is no exception to this whatsoever. There is no reality outside of the one Consciousness we all share simultaneously. This is an essential principle that one day will be so obvious to us we’ll be amazed that maya could be so powerful as to cause us to think there is an outer reality independent from our inner reality.

Our true nature is Light. This physical body is animated and enlivened by a body of Light, which is much more substantial and long-lasting than the physical body. The identification with the body is an aspect of ego, which is an aspect of maya—the 6th tattva where there is a split between subject and object, where the perceiver sees the perceived as different from itself.

Recognizing and appreciating Light to be our true nature, we live in the Truth.

Inner Light is reflected outwardly. It is the Light of Being. This Light has a feeling, and the feeling of Light is love. Light and love pervade and permeate the observable universe, and the unobservable universe as well. Don’t get lost in the darkness of this world.

Live in light. Be one to carry a torch through the darkness, so as to be a light for others as well.

We all share the same inner Light. There is only one Light, and not two or more. Individuals are like beams of the one Light. In one sense they are different from each other, yet in a greater sense they are the same. When we become fully aware of the inner Light that illumines the entire cosmos, we finally experience our unity as well.

At this point we experience oneness on a whole other level. The idea of oneness gradually becomes the experience of Oneness. A wise person lives in the awareness of the Oneness of all things.

However we see or treat someone else, we are actually seeing or treating our own selves that way. After all, the same one, the same Awareness of Being, exists in all other bodies as well as our own. Therefore, however we treat others, we experience the consequences accordingly. All actions and intentions return to us like boomerangs. This is how karma works.

If we do what is possible to help others to be happy and free, we will experience great happiness and freedom ourselves. If we love others, we will experience great love. When we put out our best, the universe returns its best to us. If we give importance and priority to petty matters, petty matters will consume us, and we will lose sight of the inner light and lose touch with our inner love.

More than anything else, the Truth of the present moment is love. Love is the underlying feeling of the inner Self. When we experience God, when we experience pure Consciousness, when we experience the fullness of our own inner Self, our primary experience is that of that most profound love. And that love is felt within the radiance of the inner light. Relaxing into this love and light is the most profound bliss.

When we understand that the true Beloved is our own inner Self, the Light of Consciousness within, which is also the Light of the world, then we stop searching for love and become what we were looking for. The transformation is well worth the journey.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

The course is also available in French. Let us know if interested.

An Overview of the 'Spiritual Path'

2010-11-01T00:21:00.003-04:00

Someone wrote, “I’ve been on the spiritual path for over 20 years now, and I am at a point where I question exactly what a spiritual path is. It blends in with the rest of life so much that it’s hard to tell where regular life ends and spiritual life begins. Can you give some kind of overview of the spiritual path for people like me who’ve been doing it so long that they’ve forgotten what they’re doing?”

We begin this life conditioned by parents, peers, and society to see the world in certain ways and to have certain understandings regarding what’s going on, what’s out there, and what we’re supposed to do. What we’re taught to be our ‘reality’ depends largely on what culture we are born into and the times that we live in.

A 21st century American lives in an entirely different world than, say, a 17th century Japanese nobleman, or a 14th century Arabian peasant. The circumstances of our birth, including time, place, family, and close friends, are determined by karma. It does not matter whether we choose to believe in karma or not. It is true nonetheless. For more than half the earth’s population, it is a simple matter of fact.

We get caught up in a world of duality, and as we mature into adolescence and adulthood we become focused on the outer world and the ‘other’—or the realm of objective humanity. Since everyone else around us sees the same reality, we collectively agree that this is the way it is. Someone who challenges this, or says that the Truth is different from how we have always believed, is criticized, ridiculed, persecuted, and sometimes even crucified.

For this reason most true Knowers of the Truth keep it a secret among themselves. Attracting the attention of the masses only brings the madness of the world upon you—why bother? Most Masters or advanced Beings currently embodied on Earth are very difficult to find. In this current age they exist primarily in the ashrams of India and the lamaseries of Nepal and Tibet. Only occasionally does one venture to the West, and even then it is rare for anyone to hear about them or to know about their existence.

Even if one should come across such an advanced Being, chances are that we would not recognize him or her, as he or she would not fit our expectations of what such a one would be like. Instead, he or she might appear to be just like you or me, only he or she would be living in a God-absorbed or Self-enlightened state, yet who would know? It’s not the kind of thing that shows on the outside.

At some point we realize that there must be more to life than what we have previously understood. All the ordinary teachings and doctrines grow stale, and there is no life in them, nothing that will take us further if we wish to go beyond our present state. Ordinary religion does not satisfy, as it primarily points to the next life instead of working for spiritual advancement in this one. There are even those who feel that working for spiritual advancement in this lifetime is blasphemous.

There are many possibilities for getting from there to here, many viable paths available according to our individual type and needs, but skipping from there to here I will state that, based on 50 years of experience, study, and observation, the primary essence of ‘spiritual life’ is living in the Truth of the present moment.

There are many paths, many practices and methods, many seminars and retreats. There are all kinds of yoga and meditation teachers, all kinds of Buddhist teachers, teachers of advaita Vedanta, teachers of radical transformation, teachers who say ‘only this’ is real, and even teachers that teach that what is essential is beyond yoga or spirituality altogether.

Regardless of what one teaches, or what path one follows or promotes, eventually we reach the point where all that’s left is to live in the Truth of the Present Moment. What is the Truth of the present moment? It exists at the end of descriptions, for it does not exist in words. It exists at the end of time, for it does not exist in time. It is pure Awareness.

The Truth of the present moment is living while being conscious of Consciousness and aware of Awareness even amidst the dramas of daily life, while not getting caught up in them.

The ‘overview of spiritual life,’ is the journey from one who identifies himself as an individual in this world of time, space, and karmic circumstance, and who is identified with the body, mind, and emotions, to one who identifies himself as pure Consciousness, pure Awareness of Being, even while observing ordinary life go by, as the Witness of a movie. It is the karmic movie of life, and our true Identity is the Witness of that movie, which contains all the dramas.

The ego (ahamkara) and the mind (manas) are the 15th and 16th tattvas in the 36 tattvas of creation, going from the Universal to the individual. The 36 tattvas of Kashmir Shaivism offers the clearest delineation I’ve ever seen as to how the Universal becomes the individual. What we know as ‘sadhana,’ or what we refer to as a ‘spiritual path,’ takes place entirely on the 15th and 16th tattvas, which we experience as the purification of the ego and mind.

Once this purification takes place, awareness of the pure Self arises naturally and spontaneously. Only the conditioned ego and mind prevented us from experiencing it all along.The ‘Yoga Vasishtha’ states that being bound or deluded is nothing more than mental conditioning, and that once that conditioning is removed, the state of enlightenment or liberation already exists in its own right. This is our most natural state. Everything was leading up to this.

So many people worry about the direction the world is taking. This worry, of course, has gone on for many centuries. It is not a new worry. Throughout history people have been worried about the apparent bad state of the world. This is the illusion of maya at its best. Forget the world. When you leave the body you won’t care about it so much anyway. You’ll be amazed at how quickly it becomes totally irrelevant.

Eventually we come to a calm and peaceful state. It is also a state of madness. The true Self manifests as giddiness. The poet saint Rumi said, Let your LOVE be Disgraceful....Crazy...and WILD. If you're TOO Holy and careful...God will escape you!

It is definitely not good to be too holy. My Teacher once said, 'Please do not try to impress me with your spirituality.' Be real, be true to yourself, be sincere in all ways. Don't be pretentious; don't try to make a good impression; and never worry about what others think of you. Be free from these things if nothing else, otherwise objective humanity sucks you in and you start thinking that you're one of them.

Be true to your Self. You are your own God, and the divinity you have always searched for already lies within you. Contemplate this and understand what it means.

As is our tradition, let’s conclude this entry with something from the comments last month:

DRB said: Daniel, you seem to have one real question: 'Are the lessons further on in the course more advanced than the early lessons you are reading?'

You realize that all such terms like 'advanced' or 'elementary' are totally relative. 'Advanced' as compared to what? And if we get into comparing, what's that all about? Somehow the ego has gotten involved, because only the ego compares. To the Self everything is one and the same. Duality exists only from the ego's perspective.

From the perspective of the Self, there is only One.

So, about the course, the thing is, as you have apparently noticed, once you sincerely participate in the course, you begin to advance within yourself. I say 'sincerely' participate because there are definitely different levels of participation. Some people read stuff from many other sources as well, and they read a lesson and think, 'that's interesting,' and they perhaps never come back to it, imagining that they already 'know' the contents after one or two readings. Such people miss the point of participating in the course, and fail to value and appreciate what it actually is and how it actually contributes to one's life.

The course is not about words. Something 'more advanced' is happening.

When you begin to sincerely participate, and make the lessons a high priority in your life, you find that your understanding and vision of things is more expanded, more elevated, and much freer than before. So in truth something in yourself advances. This is the only reason we do sadhana, for that matter. We desire, on some level or another, to move from one state of Being to a greater, freer, more expanded state of Being.

So by time you get to the lessons you will receive in two years, you will be more advanced yourself. So of course the lessons will seem more advanced as well. You will be amazed at how somehow the lessons keep coming up with something completely new and unexpected. These surprises, or even, sometimes, shocks to the system, cause a transformation in our own Being and an upgrading of our level of understanding.

We would get nowhere if everything happened just as we expected it to. If you knew what was in the next lesson, what good would that lesson do you? It has to be a surprise. Something has to be different about it from all other lessons. And in that way something NEW happens, for only in the NEW do we discover 'advanced' aspects of the Truth.

Once we learn something ‘new,’ we can be assured that it will also be more ‘advanced.’ The two go together.

Every lesson of the course can be read on whatever level of understanding the reader already has. The more spiritual understanding you have, the more 'advanced' Lesson 1 or Lesson 2 will seem. In two years from now, go back and read a lesson you received two years earlier. You will be amazed at all the 'new' stuff in there that literally didn't seem to exist the first few times you read it.

This is because the more advanced we ourselves are, the more advanced the lesson seems to be. When we read a lesson our understanding of it corresponds to our own state. When our state changes, come back to the same lesson and you will see so many new things in the lesson you never noticed before.

If someone in the highest state were to read the lessons, he or she would simply see them as expressions of the way it is. The course is a new or 'modern' presentation of something extremely 'Ancient.' But, of course, we can only discuss such things when we get to 'more advanced' lessons.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

The Sadhana of Relationships

2010-10-01T00:52:00.003-04:00

‘Sadhana’ is the process of consciously participating in spiritual growth, or the exercises or methods we practice for personal development and Self-mastery, leading toward what is thought of as ‘enlightenment’ or ‘Self-realization.’

There are as many different forms of sadhana as there are types of people, and no two have exactly the same sadhana. We have different dispositions, different personalities, and different needs on the level of the soul. Yet everything is amazingly arranged for each of us to get exactly what we need at the exact time that we need it.

One of the primary forms sadhana takes for almost everyone is that of relationship. This does not necessarily mean that we are in a committed or ‘romantic’ relationship, although we might be. Even monks and swamis live in relationship to each other, if no one else. Whether we are involved in a committed relationship or not is determined entirely by karma, and not by the luck of the draw. Nothing in this world is random or purely coincidental; nothing happens by chance or accident. The karmic web we have spun for ourselves, and which we undergo a cycle of during this physical incarnation, is structured very exactly according to immutable, infallible, and undeviating natural laws.

In the broadest sense, we are ‘in relationship’ with everyone we come in contact with, with everyone in our karmic sphere. While we are in line we come into relationship with the clerk at the store. Paying the toll as we drive on certain highways, or to cross certain bridges or tunnels, we are briefly in relationship with the toll-taker at the toll booth. If the car breaks down we come into relationship with the mechanic who hopefully gets us going again.

So the exploration of the principles of relationship should not be thought of as being limited to ‘real and lasting’ relationships (everything is permanent as long as it is happening), but in terms of our interactions with everyone in our lives. Even so, many of us function as a vital member of a ‘couple,’ and it is especially good to understand the underlying elements and factors of relationship in such cases.

For many people, their primary relationship contains the most intense sadhana that they are faced with. Truly speaking, relationships are a great sadhana, equal in intensity and effectiveness to the sadhana of sannyasi. Successful relationships do not come easily, and maintaining the harmony and balance of a relationship can be an exquisite sadhana taking place on the very highest and most expanded levels of our being.

Now for a brief announcement relevant to those who participate in the course by email:

In the very first blog entry, posted July 14, 2008, the titles of the sections of the course were listed as:

Living in the Truth of the Present Moment
What You Think Is What You Get
The Evolution of Wisdom
How Feeling Creates Reality
Attention, Conscious Intent, and Will
Our Amazing Capacity to Change
The Incredible Power of Feelings
The Importance of Priorities
The Greatest Game Ever Invented
The Ego and Beyond
The Inner State
The Art of Flowing
Love Is Where the Heart Is
Growth Through Relationships
God in Human Form
The Mastery of Life
Attaining the Highest Now
Living in Your Own Secret Heaven
Entering the Stillness
Establishing Joy in Your Heart

So far, during the first two years of the course, we have followed this outline exactly, as people entering their third year are in the section titled, The Incredible Power of Feelings, which has been a very powerful section of the course for everyone.

However, with relationships on various levels existing in the lives of everyone save perhaps the most secluded and dedicated hermit, we are moving up our extensive exploration of relationships, titled Growth Through Relationships, to come immediately following The Importance of Priorities, and now preceding The Greatest Game Ever Invented.

I know that many old-time participants simply see the next lesson as the next lesson, and many of them might have no idea, were we to press them for an answer, what section of the course they are in. Other people, however, like an overview of things, and this ‘announcement’ is simply to keep such people up to date.

We are indeed involved in many relationships to various degrees, so we might as well be afforded the opportunity to practice the highest principles of relationship without any further delay, and while we are younger instead of when we’re older. This way we won’t go through life wondering, Why wasn’t I aware of such knowledge when I truly needed it?

On the subject of relationships, I recently received the following letter. Since the writer touches on many points I have heard in various ways from other people, I am quoting from her letter rather extensively:

“After many years of studying and practicing the principles laid out so clearly in your course, my husband and I have each reached a miraculous level of freedom on the inside, a level of contentment and the pure joy of life I never would have believed possible if I hadn’t lived it in my own life. I’ll always be grateful for the huge part you’ve played in that.

“But here’s the thing, and when it’s up it’s a really BIG thing, and it’s up a LOT these days (like whenever we’re in each other’s company for more than a few minutes): Seems like there’s always been this obstacle in relationship with ‘the man in my life’ (whoever he might be at the time) that comes up at a certain point and eventually leads to the demise of the relationship.

“I recognize that it’s a samskara and yet no matter how strong my intention to catch myself going into reactive mode before it escalates into a full-blown screaming match, I still take what my husband says personally, go into a hurtful feeling that blindsides me, and then turn all that fury I perceived in him back on him.

“So here we are, still reading our lessons, still determined that our marriage-as-sadhana be as free of reactivity as humanly possible, yet still reacting to each other’s words/silences, reactions/non-responsiveness, tone of voice/facial expressions, and various other slights (imagined and otherwise) and excuses for diving into the samskara once again.

“And then the bickering that we both hate so much starts as if there’s nobody home to make a choice about it and on many days escalates into explosive anger. So imagine all that, right in the middle of a life that is otherwise wonderful, and you see why I’m writing to you.

“I know that we both desire only to live a life of freedom and fun and loving compassionate service in each other’s company, yet here we are after all these years still wasting our precious time and shakti bickering like the people you describe in my current lesson. And there I go, saying ‘we’ again. I know I should focus on what ‘I’ am doing and not what ‘we’ are doing if I actually hope to change anything.

“I’ve already tried everything except writing to you, and it’s frustrating and embarrassing to realize that no matter what I do I can’t seem to get past this obstacle on my own. I need help before this one takes me down yet another road to a split-up (which sometimes feels like the only compassionate thing we could do for each other if old dogs really can’t learn new tricks).
Please help. I remain,
Your Loving and Grateful Student”

Let’s look at this letter and see what we can learn from it. A significant clue is found right here: ”Seems like there’s always been this obstacle in relationship with ‘the man in my life’ (whoever he might be at the time) that comes up at a certain point and eventually leads to the demise of the relationship.”

In that one sentence alone she sets herself up and creates the possibility for all else to follow. There’s ‘always’ (key word) been this ‘obstacle in relationship’ (key phrase) with the ‘man in my life’ (another key phrase) that ‘eventually leads to the demise of the relationship’ (the crux of her particular pattern.)

Then she describes the process perfectly: ‘I still take what my husband says personally, go into a hurtful feeling that blindsides me, and then turn all that fury I perceived in him back on him.’

Finally she brings up the scourge of relationships: ‘the bickering that we both hate so much.’ Oh, the endless bickering. How many of us would love more than anything to finally be free from that one, while at the same time enjoying the company of a pleasant companion and playmate? So often it seems we can’t have one without the other.

I have often heard that ‘it takes two to bicker.’ However I beg to differ. It only takes one to bicker. If one goes into bickering mode, the only thing the other can do is deal with it the best he can. From the bickerer’s perspective, the other trying to deal with it is perceived as bickering back. In truth, if the first ceased to bicker, all appearance of bickering would cease as well. It just takes one to bicker, and then we get the mirror. If we’re the one bickering, we should at least be spiritually mature enough to take responsibility for what we are doing.

Anyway, our letter writer says there is ‘always’ an obstacle with the ‘man in her life’ that leads to the ‘demise of the relationship.’ Well, she’s certainly set up things to flow right along with their usual patterns. Of course, her concept itself, this whole chain of thoughts and this description she’s presenting as her reality, IS the obstacle. The whole problem is established in the words of this one sentence of hers, which she accepts as her reality.

Then, she acknowledges, she takes something her husband says personally, is ‘hurt’ by his words, then unleashes the full fury of her anger upon him in retribution, to punish him for what he said that hurt her—even though she actually hurt herself by hearing or interpreting his words in a habitual and predictable way that is her pattern of being ‘hurt’ so that she can more easily justify her ‘anger’.

You can believe that she is highly identified with anger as an essential aspect of her true nature, and something that she feels she can’t do a thing about as it’s such an ingrained aspect of who she thinks is. To keep it going she has to come up with a lot of imagined slights.

She has to stop thinking of herself as a potentially angry person. And, to the same degree, she must stop projecting that anger onto anyone else, seeing it as ‘their’ anger, or ‘their bickering,’ or even ‘our bickering.’ As long as any problem or conflict is ‘ours’, or a matter of something that ‘we do,’ we set it up so that we don’t actually have to work with it or change ourselves in any way. For actual transformation, we have to first own it, and recognize that it is ours alone, not something we share with another. She must stop seeing anger altogether, or allowing for the possibility of anger within the sphere of the relationship.

Anger is perfectly natural and in certain situations the healthiest and most dharmic route to take. Yet, when it becomes such a primary feature of a relationship to the degree that it leads to habitual bickering, then it’s not true anger. It is more accurately ‘hostility.’ Hostility is not a verb, not something we ‘do,’ nor is it something we are. It is a state that we sometimes resort to, or if we’re really afflicted by it, a state we habitually live in as though it is the most natural way for a person to be when having to deal with this world.

If the husband had written me and described what was going on from his point of view, I am sure it would have been a totally different perspective, and who knows what I might have said to him? Since she was the one to write, however, the only response is to let her know what she most needs to understand about herself and what she can do to help transform the situation.

Remember that in relationships it is never a matter of who is right or wrong. So you prove him wrong and yourself right, so what? What has been accomplished or attained by that? Did it escort you right along in your sadhana? Actual spiritual growth happens to a greater degree when we are proven wrong than when we are proven right, so why be so attached to being right? When we are proven wrong, at least we can learn something new and grow. If we are proven right, what have we gained other than an inflated ego?

She closes her letter by saying: “I need help before this one takes me down yet another road to a split-up (which sometimes feels like the only compassionate thing we could do for each other if old dogs really can’t learn new tricks).”

Once again she is focusing on the ‘road to a split-up.’ This is behind everything for her. This is the substratum from which her mind operates. She won’t simply relax and enjoy what she has and accept being together as a happy couple.

I happen to have known this couple for many years. I know her husband, and I am certain that he’s never once considered the idea of ‘splitting up’ with her, as he has told me as much. It is all her thing, centered around her predominant samskara that ruled all past relationships. It has nothing whatsoever to do with her husband. He himself is a happily married man. All this stuff she writes about, she does to herself. She creates the whole thing from scratch, based on her own past, and having nothing to do with her actual existing relationship.

So the only true answer is another question: when will she stop doing it? When will she stop projecting some future split up? She affects herself, she impacts her husband, and she also affects their relationship by inflicting this. She must realize that it is her own old pattern, as she herself knows that her husband is her ‘current man.’ Even from how she uses that particular phrase, with the word ‘current,’ you see how she doesn’t naturally think in terms of stability. It’s ‘current’ now but will be something different later, according to her thinking.

She has been given a wonderful relationship. Hopefully she will wake up and enjoy it and finally appreciate it for what it truly is.

And she better not dare think, Or what? Does this mean that otherwise it will be over? After all this discussion, that would just be taking things a bit too far. I’d have to advise him, She’s right, you’d better leave her. Otherwise she’ll drive us both crazy.

We have room for one exchange from the comments following the September 1 entry:

Rico: I've noticed that emotions often arise with no apparent external stimuli. When the emotion is pleasant, contentment is usually experienced. But if the emotion is unpleasant, the mind kicks in with reasons for the feelings or a search for where this emotional "attack" came from. What's making me feel this way? If I follow this where the mind leads, the feeling usually gets stronger. If I ignore the mind the unpleasantness often dissipates in short order.

DRB: Astute observations as always, Rico. This movement of emotions is actually the activity of the subtle body or astral body. We explore this in depth in our course, as you know. Feelings most definitely have a life of their own, relatively speaking.

As explored thoroughly in the course, we can think of the natural progression of the Creative chain from the Universal to the individual as beginning with pure, unmodified and unconditioned Consciousness. From here is a 'link' to higher mind (in Sanskrit, Buddhi), which we recognize consciously as 'intuition.' If we are open and receptive to intuitive guidance, we allow that to gently influence will, which is the next realm, from which we act and move and have our power (either consciously or subconsciously).

Hopefully we apply will to use vigilance regarding what we think, since thought is creative energy. Either conscious or subconscious application of will directs the conscious mind (manas in Sanskrit), and from there the flow of manifestation goes to the emotional realm (as experienced within the subtle body), and finally from there directly to the physical body. It is quite a chain of events, and the above delineates the flow of creation from the Universal to the individual.

You are absolutely right, when we inexplicably feel good, we don't associate those feelings with patterns of past thought. We might wonder if we unknowingly digested something wonderful or if someone slipped something into our drink, but usually we simply accept such blissful feelings as natural and unrelated to cause. We think, "I feel good today. Must be good vibes in the air." Actually, the 'good vibes' exist within our own subtle network.

When negative emotions come up—which are among the chief obstacles to sadhana or spiritual growth—they are immediately associated with all the samskaras and vasanas we have stored up that we think are the 'cause' of our unrest and discomfort.

Truly speaking, they are exactly the cause of our unrest and discomfort, but not in the way we ordinarily think, which is to 'blame' persons or circumstances. Blame is totally misguided energy and we will do well to be rid of that one, in all its forms and manifestations, as soon as possible. Breaking free from blame introduces more integrity and less perversity in our lives.

For this reason, and the practical point of all this, now that you got me started, is when unpleasant feelings arise, it is VERY IMPORTANT to not associate or attach those feelings to thoughts or memories, because once we’ve done this, we are entangled in their net until we finally manage to break free once again, usually only after some help.

If we can refrain from associating the unpleasant feeling with thoughts of any nature, and simply observe the feeling itself—watching it as a vibration along the nervous system—we immediately distance ourselves from it. Once we can simply observe it as a nervous vibration without any reaction to it, and without attaching any significance to it, we withdraw all power from it, and it becomes helpless and impotent right then and there. If we maintain our observation with great vigilance, the unpleasant pattern will never come up or bother us again.

In a sense, this can be understood as a microcosm of the process that leads to eventual freedom or liberation even while in this body.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

Self-Interview

2010-09-01T00:58:00.001-04:00

I originally wanted to interview the Self for this month’s entry, but it didn’t say anything. It spoke to me, yet it was wordless.

As a poor man’s substitute, I decided to interview myself. It seems like a good change-of-pace. (First he writes his autobiography and then he interviews himself—what an egotistical maniac.) It’s a little longer than usual, so feel free to quit reading whenever you feel too bored or tired to go on.

Q: Have you ever interviewed yourself before?
A: Last time was when I was in college, I did a self-interview for the school paper, which appeared as a ‘guest-editorial’ and was titled ‘Turtle Soup.’ Eudora Welty was the writer-in-residence at the time, and she told me it was one of the best things she’d ever read by a college student. She was very inspiring and encouraging to me.

Q: Is it true that you blasted the tradition of fraternities and sororities in that college interview?
A: Nah, it was organized independents that bothered me.

Q: So why do another self-interview now?
A: Why not? What else is there to write? Do you have any idea how much stuff is already in this blog, not to mention the lessons of the Course of Training that people get through email? It’s challenging to come up with enough variety to make it fun for myself, and if it isn’t fun for me, it definitely won’t be fun for anyone else.

Q: Then on with the show. Could you say that you have your own path?
A: Perhaps the pathless path. Not really though. I have no desire to be identified with any particular path. If I have a path, it is the path of all-inclusiveness. No one is excluded; no one is ever left out. There are no outcasts on my path. Sometimes we are our own outcast, and think we are left out when no one is leaving us out, but that’s an ego thing. Ultimately all are embraced. There is no ‘them.’ There is only ‘us.” If I were to create a path, I’d simply want everyone to see the highest and the best in everyone, and to stop thinking anything is ever going wrong. Yet a person has to do a lot of work on himself to actually be able to do this. One might think he can do it simply by deciding to, but he’ll quickly discover that this isn’t the case.

Q: Has anything surprised you since you started writing the new course?
A: Oh, many things actually. One thing that surprised me was that many people I thought would be excited about the new course had no interest in it whatsoever, while many that I presumed would have no interest whatsoever are participating with great enthusiasm. This reminded me to never assume anything regarding another or to think you really know someone. Of course, there are also those whom there was no doubt whatsoever about, people who will remain in my life and dear to me as long as I am in this body, and beyond. Kay and I refer to them as 'course people.'

Perhaps what has surprised me most has been the power of the lessons themselves. They seem much clearer and more powerful than anything I have written before, and I feel this intense power (Shakti) flowing through me as I write. By time I actually complete a lesson, my mind is totally blown all over again.

Q: Let’s examine your writings on the Internet and in your course. What’s the point? Why do it? What’s behind it? And what keeps you going?
A: There is no point to it; it just is what it is. Why do it?—because writing has been the most joyful and fulfilling thing for me to do since I was a young teen. Most people don’t know I published my first short story at age 20. I originally thought I might write novels, but Truth became stranger than fiction.

What’s behind it?—the divinity inherent in the universe—the ‘Force’ is with me (as It is with all of us once we open to its omnipresent beneficence.) What keeps me going? Probably feedback from people who mysteriously enjoy and benefit from what I write. How do people enjoy and benefit from it? Beats me—ask the ‘Force.’

Q: So you started your quest for Truth, and the practice of yoga and meditation, in the early 60’s when you were a young teen. How did that happen?
A: You got me. I remember walking out of the Southern Baptist church when I was 13 when the preacher said we’d all burn in hell for eternity if we did not accept someone who supposedly lived at some point as our personal savior. I felt extremely smothered, and had never felt so uncomfortable in my life. I couldn’t take it. I just got up and walked out, took a breath of fresh air, and never went back. I tried every church in Vicksburg, but obviously none of them quite did it for me. Of course this was Mississippi in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Hopefully things are presented more positively and joyfully now. There’s nothing worse than a gruesome religion.

I think I originally discovered yoga and meditation in some books I found at an old book store. I read ‘Autobiography of a Yogi.’ At 15 I discovered a delightful book by Robert Collier titled ‘The Secret of the Ages,’ and it impacted me more than anything else had at that point. I signed up for a few correspondence courses and ended up dropping them all except for one that made total sense and spoke to my heart. That’s when I first started feeling that I wanted to write a similar course someday.

Q: Objectively speaking, your writings have been well-received and consistently popular for many years. Any ideas on why that might be so?
A: It might be because I am honest and say what I feel and how I see things without sugarcoating anything or trying to live up to anyone’s idea of ‘PR’ or how things should be properly presented. I was never much of a proper person, and I tend to do things incorrectly.

I’ve been told by many that they feel they can trust me regarding spiritual matters, because they know that, if nothing else, I’m at least honest about what I say, whether anyone actually likes what comes out or not. I spent enough time around the Guru to no longer cater to another’s ego, and if they’re serious about sadhana they appreciate that and recognize its value.

Also I’ve been told that my writings are very clear. I have some kind of innate ability to communicate principles of Truth in ways that others actually experience what I’m saying. It happens beyond mere intellectual give and take. Yogis might think of it as a siddhi. But all this is simply feedback I get from others. To me I just write what feels good and what I enjoy reading as I write.

Q: Do you honestly feel true transformation is possible through simply reading words, as in the lessons of your course? Isn’t there some kind of inherent limitation in the written word?
A: Well of course there’s a limitation to written words, but who says the course is limited to written words? They are only the apparent outward form. Any path, any practice, has an outer form, and then, behind the scenes and between the words, there is Essence, there is Being, there is Presence, and this is quite palpable. No one has to take anyone’s word for anything. The written course is only the tip of the iceberg. Also, people gain a lot through our interactions, if they are open to putting themselves out there and not protecting the ego at any cost, especially in a public way. The sooner we realize there is nothing to hide, the freer we will be.

Q: You do have your detractors, though. I’ve read some stuff about you that borders on the obscene.
A: I can’t believe all the stuff I’ve heard and read about myself, or whoever used to be me, over the years. I can’t believe how many different people I am in the eyes of different people. My Guru once said, “I am as you see me,” and more and more I understand exactly what he meant by that.

Apparently you can’t be popular with some without simultaneously being attacked by others. I’ve been called everything from a sexual predator to a snake-oil salesman. I can see why people who are really famous have to totally give up caring whatever anyone else says or writes about them. It isn’t worth it trying to correct all the untruths, and you finally have to simply let them be. Thankfully none of it affects anything that truly counts.

Q: What about the girl?
A: Yes, the girl. I experienced an indiscretion of sorts 16 or so years ago that had unexpected consequences. Warren Zevon, on writing his classic, ‘Lawyers, Guns, and Money,’ said that before he wrote the song he had experienced a day of “improbable and grotesque mischief.” I thought that captured the story of my life quite nicely.

As far as ‘the girl,’ however, she contacted me a while back for the first time in many years to apologize for what she had written. Now she takes the course, reads this blog, is a friend on Facebook, and has an ongoing dialogue with Kay, so her story written all those years ago hasn’t much merit or substance anymore, if it ever did. I certainly wouldn’t recommend that anyone rush out to read it, and neither would she. It was just one person’s perspective of something that once happened, a karmic hiccup along the way. We all do strange things when we’re young. And look at me—I am stranger now than I was then.

Perhaps one day she’ll write her own comments here as she readjusts to the course community and reassumes her rightful place in it. Who knows? This world is strange and unpredictable. I always knew she’d be back when she came back to her heart. She still is who she always was, only, like all of us, more mature and a bit wiser regarding what life is truly all about.

Also, genuine remorse must be honored. If it isn’t, then what honor is in that? How can we live a life of respect and integrity if we refuse to forgive when sincere remorse appears? Forgiveness is the key to the experience of oneness and unity. As long as someone remains unforgiven, that’s a part of us that we are holding separate from God and making less than God. We cannot truly experience God until everyone is finally forgiven for everything (including ourselves). Forgiveness is a great sadhana all in itself.

Q: You recently wrote on your Facebook page, ‘In the process of dissipating the power of personal history, so to reclaim my true life in the present moment, I am tossing out all personal secrets.’ What did you mean by that?
A: Our personal history has a certain power to it. Not in itself, per se, but in our identification with it. If I am still identified with my life of 20 years ago, then I am limited to who and what I was then. If someone else sees and relates to me as I was 20 years ago, then they are limiting me to who and what I was then. If I try to hide any of it, and hope no one ever discovers something about my past, then I am bound by that and it becomes more heavy baggage to lug around. I want to travel lightly, so I do whatever is necessary to break free from the bondage of personal history. To be free from the bondage of personal secrets, reveal them in appropriate ways, and you will be free. This applies only to your own secrets, though. It is adharmic (against dharma) to reveal another’s secrets that you might be privy to.

Q: So you’re tying all the ‘loose ends’ of your past, and, as you sometimes say, bringing everything into a ‘coherent and harmonious whole?’
A: Really, what else is there to do at my age?

Q: Can we ask about Kanti, the mother of your 3 children? How is she?
A: Kanti is living in Manhattan and is doing absolutely great. She never ages, and pretty much looks the same as she always did. She’s like Richard Alpert in ‘Lost’ in that way. We have remained great friends and have mutually determined to maintain a happy family environment for our 3 wonderful children, who are all doing so well in their own lives. She is still offering astrology readings and is excellent at helping people to understand the nature of their karma and to get some perspective on the focus of their own personal sadhana. Kay and I get readings from her every few months to maintain some perspective on what’s happening in our own karmic play. If anyone wishes to contact Kanti for astrology, or for old time’s sake, contact her at nadinekennedy1@gmail.com. This also contains her Facebook name if you care to friend her there.

Q: The Internet seems to be a great place to contact people and groups that exist to promote spiritual evolution on the planet, yet there are also sites that basically post all the dirt that can be gathered regarding spiritual teachers and groups. You’ve made it clear before that you have a bit of disdain for such sites, comparing them to ‘ticks, mosquitoes, and skunks.’ Any further comments on that?
A: I can’t believe they think they are providing a service. I guess they think they’re helping people to not get duped by dubious teachers and groups, and there’s some merit to that, but the problem is that they’ve lumped all the good guys in with the bad, and no one can really tell which is which anymore. My Guru once told me that there are so many false teachers around that it makes it very difficult for anyone to recognize or appreciate the genuine article when it comes along.

Still, if you’re focused on digging up all the dirt and gossip you can gather about everyone, you end up throwing the baby out with the bath water. Even the greatest teachers end up with disgruntled former students whose egos couldn’t take the fire, or who couldn’t accept some aspect of the whole, and who are quick to publically turn against the very ones that most tried to help them.

More essentially, and relevant to all of us, my Teacher said that if more people like you and say good things about you, it won’t help you, and if more people dislike you and say bad things about you, it won’t hurt you. Like everything else he ever said, I have found this to be very true.

I have been the golden boy, loved and respected by so many I didn’t really have time for any of them, and I have been the rejected and frowned-upon outcast who led the whole world in mistakes. I was surprised to learn that it didn’t matter much either way. As far as my inner experience went, I remained the same under both extremes. This actually surprised me, but it was one of the greatest teachings I have had the grace to receive.

Q: Why bring up the past at all?
A: To help bring closure to anyone who’s ever been affected by reading (or writing) such things. To resolve and harmonize all that has come before now. Besides, you’re the one who brought up the past.

Q: So, getting back to the present, how would you currently describe your course, your writings in general, your philosophy, and what you have to offer others?
A: The lessons of the course offer people something to do with their minds instead of habitually following their usual mental routines. It gives a certain focus in an expansive direction. Simply reading and rereading the lessons expands the ways we think and see things. It causes the mind to work in different ways than it’s used to, as well as offering it new avenues to explore instead of repeating the same old parrot-like patterns without ever once recognizing what we’re doing or that our thoughts aren’t even our own.

The lessons are a means of opening up within and discovering and consistently experiencing who we truly are, instead of the dream we’ve had about ourselves ever since we were programmed as children. It’s a way of ‘waking up,’ as the scriptures put it. It’s not for everyone, but for many it’s the best way they’ve yet found.

My writings in general, including the course, the blog, and Facebook, present the Truth of the Present Moment as I have come to understand it after 50 years of seeking, studying, training, being whipped into shape by various teachers in various ways, having my ego obliterated over and again by the Guru until I couldn’t be anyone other than who I am, and the experience gained as a teacher, writer, speaker, answerer of innumerable questions, and leader of many classes, workshops, and retreats over the 30 years I functioned in such a role.

The past is a memory; the future is a projection; neither exists now except in our mind. What is the Truth of the existing moment? Is it the pain in my back and hips? Is it the confusion in the mind? Is it the continuous emotional ups and downs? Probably it’s not any of those, as they all come and go; relative truth is only temporary, or for this time only.

The Truth with a capital ‘T’ is the one Principle that never changes in a universe where everything else on every level of being constantly changes. The body changes, thoughts change, emotions change, the world around us changes, ‘others’ change, but the Truth of divine Awareness within never varies in the least. It is eternal, all-pervasive, and all-inclusive. Nothing exists outside it. It includes the entire cosmos of the waking world, the innumerable realms of the dream world, the vast world of deep sleep, and the Turiya state that simultaneously permeates the other three. It is the only Truth there ever is, ever has been, and ever will be. It is without beginning or end. It is an unmodified, undifferentiated, unconditioned, formless Awareness of Being.

Did you know that scientists are now discovering that perhaps there never was a ‘big bang’ that began the universe? Those on the ‘cutting edge’ are now discovering that, wonder of wonders, the universe had no beginning and has no end. Welcome to the Vedas, the Upanishads, and all the other scriptures that have existed for thousands of years saying the same thing.

As for my ‘philosophy,’ I’m not sure I really have one that could be put into words other than, in my own experience and observation, all of life, and all spiritual seeking, leads to eventually living in the Truth of the present moment. I don’t have any mental speculations. The mind is only the 16th of 36 Tattvas (levels of creation); what does it know? I wouldn’t put my trust in thoughts or concepts. The only thing concepts are good for are to be broken.

My philosophy is to be real, be sincere, be who you truly are, live according to your own heart and your own nature, feel good about yourself as God made you, even manifests as you, just as you are. Drop all pretension. Give up your fake veneer and your hypocrisy even when you think you’re being genuine. Stop playing your phony games that you’ve been playing so long you don’t even remember that they are phony games.

Give up the endless desires to impress anyone or to improve anyone. Please, please stop explaining yourself. There’s nothing worse than someone insisting on explaining something to you and thinking that you’ll understand something about them better after they complete their explanation. We all already get it. Get over yourself.

Rip off your mask of propriety and hurl it into the ethers. Forget everything you’ve ever been taught you should or shouldn’t do. Free yourself from the shackles of conformity. Stop worrying about being good enough for anyone else. You already are all there is. All you lack is this understanding.

Whatever you do, at least don’t feel guilty about it, because the guilt you feel is much worse than whatever you did to feel guilty about. In fact, the secret to truly enjoying a fulfilling life is simply to love every single thing you do during every single moment. Of course, you have to greatly value your own life in order to do this, but then that’s the point, isn’t it?

You are already divine; there’s nothing to become. Don’t do anything to seek the good opinion of others, to make others like you, or to attract others to you. Otherwise you will only lose yourself and fade into oblivion in the objective world of humanity, thinking you exist yet being only a floating reflection of how others see you. This greatly reduces you and in fact dissipates whatever Shakti, whatever inner power you might have gained, by caring how you are perceived by others. Love them, honor them for who and what they are, for whatever function or role they play in your life, and remain in harmony with whatever arises from one moment to the next.

No one needs to see you except yourself. Others need only to see their own Self. No one will ever understand you except yourself. Others have to understand their own Self. When we all do this, when we really get it that we’re the only One here, and that everyone around us is an individualized aspect of the same One, we’ll realize that deep within we share the same Self.

Spirituality is a matter of realization or recognition of the already existing Truth. Many have the delusion that it’s about becoming something or attaining something we don't already have. My Teacher said the Self is already attained. The only reason we do sadhana (spiritual practices) is to purify the mind and ego. Once they are clear and no longer prone to projection, delusion, and false identification, the Truth reveals itself within us naturally and spontaneously.

What have I to offer others? In myself, there is nothing. I love and honor all, but there is nothing I can offer anyone except to share what I have learned from the universe in the forms of all my teachers. If I can do or say anything to help anyone recognize their own inner Self, their own inner value, then I am immensely fulfilled. I am fulfilled anyway, yet there is a great dharma in helping others to recognize their own Truth and to enjoy their own freedom, and it is very gratifying.

On Facebook, I offer lighthearted friendship, a humorous perspective, some words of wisdom, and even some good music. On the blog, I offer all that anyone can or will accept. However, due to the nature of the way things work, one is limited in how much he or she can or will open up to accepting and receiving until there is some degree of commitment to the process of uncovering and dismissing all that is false, and some contribution to the source of the possibility of new knowledge and an expanded sense of being.

My friend Baba Rampuri, an American who was the first Westerner to ever be initiated in the glorious tradition of the ancient Naga Babas in India, and who now functions as a guru himself—and whom I hope Western yogis will come to know better, for he has much to offer us—recently wrote that people have this delusion that knowledge should be free, yet knowledge is the most expensive thing there is, and it has to be highly valued before it can actually be received and used in meaningful and transformational ways.

(I recommend Rampuri’s excellent book, “Autobiography of a Sadhu,” and you might also enjoy his website: rampuri.com. Obviously I like him a lot, as you know I don’t recommend people lightly. He has experienced over the past 40 years a life that most of us could hardly imagine. If I didn’t have my own peculiar karma, I’d probably be a Naga Baba. Or perhaps it’s just fond memories of another incarnation.)

In the lessons of the Course of Training via email, I offer all that the universe is willing to pour through me. Everyone starts out on the level of his or her own current understanding and perspective of things, and with each lesson, on the 1st and 15th of every month, we take another step in the process of breaking free from all that we’re not and opening up to all that we truly are.

In one of the lessons there is a quote from Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian saint and sage. Let’s end with his words for now, for to me they perfectly sum up everything:

"There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the Truth is gained...A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.”

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

The Story of My Life (Autobiography of a Nobody)

2010-08-01T00:39:00.004-04:00

I feel like doing something a little different this month. Ever since sometime in my 40’s (and it still feels weird to me that I’m older than that now) I’ve had this title in my mind, ‘Autobiography of a Nobody.’ If I were to ever write the story of my life, it seemed, it would be the perfect title.

I doubt I’ll ever get around to the long version, but I decided I would finally use the title in the August entry of our blog, and instead of resorting to my usual impersonal approach of focusing on the principles of Truth, I would share my memoirs here and now—just as a change of pace—and probably much to Kay’s great chagrin.

I was born in the same room, and delivered by the same doctor, that had delivered my mother 22 years earlier. My first two years were spent in the middle of cotton fields. After that, my parents moved to the city of Vicksburg, MS, where I grew up and attended high school. My home overlooked the mighty Mississippi. At that time it seemed like the most perfect place in the world to be a child and teenager.

I discovered yoga and meditation at the age of 15. Even to this day it is somewhat of a mystery to me how I actually discovered it or began. No one I knew practiced it or knew anything about it. I told one of my friends that I was practicing yoga, and he said, ‘Oh, that’s where they lay on a bed of nails, isn’t it?’

I began taking a correspondence course at 15 that I continued until its completion when I was 29. It was written in the 50’s by a man in his 80’s, who had spent 17 years in a hidden lamasery in Tibet, until his Master told him to take the teachings of Truth to the West during the years of the Great Depression, and to help the people learn to prosper again and get free from the poverty, lack, and loss of the times. He did this, and many of his students are today well known names.

In high school I also read ‘Autobiography of a Yogi,’ by Paramahansa Yogananda, which opened me to a different sort of world than I was used to, and also inspired the title of my own ‘autobiography.’

I continued my education in Jackson, MS, at Millsaps College, a private Methodist liberal arts college that was the liberal stronghold in Mississippi at the time, as well as the state’s most prestigious academic institution. I took a ‘creative writing’ course taught by our ‘writer in residence,’ the great Eudora Welty. The first interracial marriage in Mississippi took place in our chapel when I was a student there, and we were all very proud of that. I majored in philosophy and English literature. I never knew why, or how I would ever ‘use it,’ until years later.

At 22, about a year after the unexpected death of my mother in an automobile accident, I moved from Mississippi to Greenwich Village. Actually, on my 22nd birthday, my girlfriend at the time took me to see the original cast of “Hair” as my first ever Broadway play. I don’t think, up until that point, I had ever enjoyed anything quite so much.

I worked for 3 years as a magazine editor in NYC, and then decided to focus on free-lance writing, of both articles and short stories. I had published my first short story at 20 while still living in Mississippi. During this period I was one of the very few people I had ever known who actually supported themselves as a writer.

I was gradually pulled back to my roots and my true love and began writing more about yoga and meditation and the creative power of the mind. I still feel it is important to understand the relationship between our thoughts and the process of creation—otherwise we don’t understand how and why things happen as they do.

One article was titled “As You Think, So You Are.” There were a great many people who wrote to me via the magazine to ask if I had any books, or if I wrote a course, and where could they get more of what I had written. The first lesson of the original course was mailed in August, 1975, in response to the people who had enjoyed the article and encouraged me to begin a course. So I began a more elaborate exploration of the principles presented in the article, and the course began to grow through word-of-mouth.

Around the same time, a Yoga Master from India, an authentic Shaktipat Guru, was going to be in Manhattan for a few weeks. All the teachers I most looked up to encouraged me to be sure and go to see him, insisting that he was very special and ‘the real thing.’ A friend of mine, and at the time one of my teachers, was a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. He told me that this one was the first genuine yogic Master that had come to the West since his own Guru.

Having no interest in a ‘Guru’ of my own, and feeling that I was already doing quite well in my sadhana, I went to see him out of curiosity. The first day I met him everything changed. My experience of myself changed. My perception of the world changed. The depth of my understanding was totally transformed. It was like entering another dimension of life. This was at 29, the ‘Saturn return,’ when we seemingly go from one incarnation into another.

I would spend the next 26 years writing a course exploring the principles of Truth, as I understood them, from the perspective of that particular path and lineage, as my seva or service offered to the Master and the mission. I traveled many places and led weekend workshops. I even taught meditation classes in India. I became a ‘spiritual teacher.’

My second Saturn return brought just as much change into my life as the first one had. In 2002 I ‘retired’ from the official position I had held all those years. I had a strong pull to ‘retire’ into privacy and seclusion. My life and my sadhana had been under public scrutiny for many years. I did not want to be anybody, and I certainly didn’t want to have to live up to being anyone in particular. I just wanted to relax and be me, take a breath, and not be needed.

I spent the next six years in virtual seclusion except for seeing immediate family. I spent as much time with my 3 children as I could. Kay and I married in 2003, after knowing each other since 1976, and her two children (and now two grandchildren) have become part of my own family.

Interestingly, Kay attended an Intensive I led at Ananda Ashram, in Monroe, NY, in 1977, when she was nine months pregnant with her daughter Tiffany, who today is maturing as a hatha yoga teacher and leader of others in her own right. Kay also was my children’s primary ‘babysitter’ all their lives—so our families always seemed to be a bit intermingled.

We currently live in a village of 90. There are actually more people in the cemetery, which we walk through from time to time, just as a reminder of how everything comes and goes. One of the original families that settled here were part of the famous ‘Tiffany’s’, and the tombstones of their descendents lie crumbling in the cemetery. You can actually see dates going back to the late 18th century, and then the names and dates sort of fade away. You see that when your tombstone finally crumbles into dust, you are truly ‘gone,’ almost as though you were never here. It gives some perspective.

No one in our village, which has one of the world’s smallest post offices, would dream of what I actually do or of what I spend my time writing. I honestly don’t know if they would be able to put the two together—my work and me—in any kind of comprehensible way. I imagine only people who participate in the course can actually grasp the essence behind the apparent paradox.

In 2008 I began the current course and this blog. I had given up being anyone’s ‘teacher’ six years earlier, and no longer cared to be in any such position, but I could still write, which has always been my first love. And what would I, now in my 60’s, have to say after starting all over from scratch? What would be my approach now? I couldn’t imagine, and was as curious as anyone to find out.

At that point, in the beginning, I couldn’t imagine that I had any more to say to anyone. Really, I had written years and years worth of lessons—which a swami friend once referred to as ‘the world’s longest book,’ and now I was to begin all over with Lesson 1? What to do? What to say? How to begin now? And what on earth would actually be worth anyone’s time to read when so much good stuff is already available?

Once I began, it was like riding a bicycle, and the words started pouring out of me. I don’t write with my mind. I don’t think about what I’m going to write beforehand. I cannot imagine outlining a lesson before I write it. I go to the computer and start writing, and I’m as amazed as anyone else at what comes out.

Sometimes I am ‘writing’ (which is more like taking dictation) and I find myself thinking, ‘I never heard that before. I wonder where that comes from?’ Yet it is always intuitively obvious and not worth doubting.

I have said for a while that I have reached a point where everything is either intuitively obvious or not worth thinking about. I don’t think a lot. I find that useless and purposeless thinking tends not only to dissipate creative energy, but also ultimately leads to agitation, and it’s no longer worth it. The secret was to lose interest in the constant activity of my own mind. I replaced that with maintaining a strong center in the heart, a center of feeling. I enjoy love and light much more than being lost in perpetual thought.

I usually direct my thinking process into this blog and the lessons of the course. And now there’s Facebook, an amazing phenomenon I never anticipated, especially regarding the inherent possibilities of an ongoing real-time satsang—meeting together in the heart and mind for the purpose of experiencing the Self we all share.

August is the beginning of the 3rd year of the course and blog. We have come a long way and accomplished a lot during the first two years, on the level of coming and going and accomplishing. For those about to complete their first two years of the course, a solid foundation has been established, so that what is to come next can be strong, stable, and unquestioned right from the beginning.

My Teacher once told me, “Make the course so strongly rooted in the principles of Truth that no one can ever legitimately question or doubt it.”

The beauty of the course, to me, is its constant ever-awakening into something new—even for me. For me, what’s new is really new, even if it’s ancient. If you’re one who takes the course, you know that spiritual growth or personal development of any nature can only take place when we see, acknowledge, and appreciate what is new.

Focusing on what is old only makes us old before our time. Seeing what is new rejuvenates us and keeps us young.

As per my custom, I will conclude with a Q&A exchange from July’s comments. There are many outstanding exchanges among those comments, and I sincerely urge you to read through them. It is a great community that meets and shares comments here. However, it will be challenging to choose only one. This is a comment I posted July 22:

Amazing as it might seem, I've been busy. There are more and more participants beginning the course each month, more stuff to respond to, more questions to answer, and a lot of other life-stuff as well, as karma kicks its way through this physical entanglement we call our life.

We've already broken our all time record for number of comments following an entry. So there is more and more activity here, which is fantastic, and which obviously can sustain itself for a while even when I'm unable to contribute or respond. Others seem to fill in nicely at the perfect times, and the Shakti takes care of all. For now, however, I'll see if I can 'catch up' a bit.

Renee, a relatively new participant, asked: "My questions are, what is the difference between the ego and samskaras? And, how do you convince someone you are taking them seriously when you now are able to see the situation as amusing? Do you keep the amusement to yourself and maintain a serious affect?"

The samskaras enact their influence and power over us through the tandem of mind and ego. Therefore, purifying the mind and ego is the same process as breaking free from samskaras. It's simply two different ways of understanding the same thing.

I don't do very much at all to convince people that I am taking them seriously, as I'm rarely taking them seriously in the least—and almost never as seriously as they are taking themselves. I can be appropriate; say if I'm at a funeral or a wake or something, I don't go around all jolly and encouraging people to see the humor in things in their grief.

I actually don't ever try to convince anyone of anything. If they're happy with their own understanding and vision, I'm already happy. Even so, sometimes I do keep my amusement to myself. Sometimes it actually is best to not display your amusement. So I spend a lot of time secretly amused.

Karen Jo, when I first read your beautiful poem I was so moved that I wanted to respond poetically in return, but things kept coming up and I never found poem-time, so since you've now resorted to prose I'll at least address your question.

Yes, the question is hard to put in words, and the answer is hard to put in words as well. Perhaps that's why I waited so long before I began to procrastinate.

You see, the thing is that no one has ever yet been separate. There has always been only Oneness. Even when we are totally lost in the apparent reality of duality, Oneness is real all the time—whether we consciously recognize it or not.

So our loved ones—the ones we hope to spend eternity with—are only expressions of that Oneness, or of the eternal Beloved. The Beloved is ultimately always the same One, no matter which form or forms we recognize It in. In truth, It lives in and animates all beings, and there is no one else, and certainly no one separate from it.

The outer, objective world is only a mirror of our own subjective consciousness. The One lives in all, and all are in the One.

In the 'Spanda Karikas,' a major text of Kashmir Shaivism, it is said: One who knows the Self sees the entire universe as a series of reflections in a mirror.

Since there is no true separation between you and your loved ones now, why should there come to be any separation later? Will we be less aware or appreciative of our loved ones in the next realm than we are in this one? No, we will be more aware of them, much closer to them, and we will experience more intimacy than what is possible in this dense physical world with its limitations of space, time, and circumstance. These bodies can only get so close. The subtle world is far-out and limitless.

Love is eternal. We are love. We are eternal. All that exists is the Truth of the Present Moment. The trick lies in understanding the fullness of exactly what that means on the very highest, deepest, and most expanded level.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available via email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

Happy Birthday!

2010-07-01T01:06:00.003-04:00

July is Happy Birthday month around here. My own birthday is July 4—I came in with a bang. Kay’s birthday is July 20. And the first ever blog entry and introduction to the beginning of the new course was published here on July 14, 2008, so the blog is two years old this month. Lesson 1 was emailed to participants for the first time from July 15 to September 1, 2008.

If you’ve never read the original entry of the blog, I invite you to do so. It was the first introduction to the course and the blog and everything that we do here. It also contains an outline of the topics explored in the course.

If you’d like to read that introductory entry, simply click on the link below this paragraph and scroll to the bottom to the July 14, 2008 entry, which is where it all began (if it doesn’t come out as a link, simply copy and paste into your browser).

http://truthofthepresentmoment.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-10-14T23%3A00%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=11

So July is a month of celebration around our place. We invite you to join us, and to enjoy the month in the spirit of celebration. Anything can be celebrated. The moral of the story is to live all of life as a celebration.

Just yesterday I told Kay, “Every day is a party for me. All I do these days is party.”

You see, simply sitting here writing to you is a party for me. I’m enjoying a great time. Writing has been the most fun thing for me since about the age of 14, when I wrote my first short story of a utopian existence. Of course at the time I’d never heard of ‘Utopia'. It was just a story of how I thought life could be.

I'm still working toward that utopian existence. Actually, I feel that I already live in my own Utopia. I cannot think of a single way my life could be improved or made better. Do you have any idea how freeing that is?

There is a story that my Teacher told many times over the years. The story was very mysterious to me at the time, and I found it very interesting that he seemed to make such a point of it.

In the story, a Master and his student were traveling, the student supposedly taking care of the Master on the journey. The Master was elderly in physical form, and from all appearances, seemed to be a simple and humble man. The disciple was a young man who was eager to get somewhere in his sadhana, and he was happy to be traveling with his Guru.

It was evening and they were both very tired from walking all day when they came upon an inn. The only problem was, they didn’t have enough money to pay for the night. The Master suggested that they go in and find a place where they could get some sleep, and said that if they were quiet and stayed to themselves they’d be able to rest without disturbance.

He gave the disciple only one instruction: “No matter whatever happens,” the Master said, “don’t become anyone.”

The disciple thought that would be a very easy task, and they quietly went inside and each found an empty room to sleep in.

In the middle of the night, some men came into the room where the disciple was sleeping and woke him up rudely. “What are you doing here,” they demanded. “You haven’t paid for the night.”

Half asleep the disciple cried back, “Don’t you know who I am? I am the disciple of a great Guru. He is so famous, so adored by many, yet I alone am traveling with him.” He told them his Guru’s name over and over, so they’d be impressed and understand how important and worthy he was, but they only became angrier with him and threw him out.

Outside, the disciple spent the rest of the night on the ground. It was cold, and the ground was hard. He slept fitfully. In the morning, as the light came up, his Guru came out of the inn, well rested and refreshed.

The Guru laughed when he saw the student. “Did you remember what I told you?” he asked first thing. The disciple answered sheepishly: "Telling them I was the disciple of a great Guru was the only thing I could think of that would impress them enough to let me stay.”

Then he looked at the Master and said, “How did you get away with spending the whole night in the inn?”

“Oh, the same men came in my room also,” the Master said. “They woke me up roughly and demanded to know what I was doing there. I was very feeble and humble in their presence. I said I was just a tired old man who hoped for a few hours of rest, with their blessings. So they said to each other that I was a harmless old man and to just let me sleep.”

I have no idea, consciously, why this particular story comes to mind now. Perhaps it is related to certain comments that have been made here in the comments and in the threads on my Facebook page. The story seemed somehow appropriate, and it makes a great deal more sense to me now than it did when I first heard it. For one thing it reminds me of something the Guru once said to me directly: “Never become anyone.” I feel I have done nicely in this regard.

Let’s consider a couple of exchanges from last month’s comments. There are over a hundred comments a month now following each month’s blog entry, and I only have room here for 3 or 4 at the most. It is impossible to select the ‘best’ so I can only be representative. I sincerely encourage you to check out all the comments for yourself, for the essence of the blog lies in them.

Ben: asked about specifics regarding the course, including the cost.

DRB: Ben, regarding the cost of the course, we ask a minimum donation of $15 a month, and you can save by signing on for a year for a minimum donation of $150.

We are well aware of the relative costs of things in the world, as well as the relative costs of things of a spiritual or transformational nature. I know you can pay a lot more and receive a lot less than what is asked in exchange for the course.

We are also aware that many people are experiencing financial difficulties these days. For this reason I prefer to keep the price low enough so that anyone can afford it. I know that if certain of the people who take the course now are managing it, then it is managable for anyone if they are dedicated enough to inner growth and transformation.

There are participants of the course who are able to afford more than the minimum suggested donation, and they send more simply because they can, and due to their appreciation and gratitude for what they gain through the course. Because of their generosity, we are able to keep the minimum fee low enough for those who are on limited incomes, so that the course is essentially available to everyone who is willing to learn and practice the principles of Truth.

As far as what is involved in taking the course, you get a lesson of around 10 pages on the 1st and 15th of each month, and all that is asked is to read the lesson at least 2-3 times during the two weeks, referring to the current lesson daily if possible, and simply applying the practical principles explored in the lessons in your own daily life.

As far as what you get that is unavailable on the blog, you get step-by-step guidance to progress from wherever you find yourself now to wherever you want to be next, spiritually speaking, and then onward to spaces and places that you might not now even imagine. It is challenging to imagine the impact of the course in advance, for it is similar to a child attempting to imagine what it must be like to be an adult.

Anyone can receive the first month of the course free of cost, simply by writing and requesting it (drbutler.course@gmail.com). Please do not request it for others, however, as it does not have the same energy exchange, and chances are that they will pass it off as being of little or no value. This type of information and guidance is available only to those who truly want it. (Having said that, it is always appropriate to share the link to this blog with anyone you think might be open to it.)

Stuart: asked about the conflict he feels between his actual experience of reading the blog--which he describes as 'very powerful'--and some ‘unfavorable’ things he previously heard or read about the writer.

DRB: Stuart, your comment amuses me more than most, and I am easily amused. I am a fairly even-keeled guy, but this one really made me laugh. Of course, I'm usually prone toward laughter, no matter what happens. Mostly I laugh inwardly, however.

You know, people say all sorts of things. One of the first things my Teacher warned me about was gossip, and the dangers of listening to it or passing it on. He taught to stay immune to gossip and to remain unaffected by such conversations. Yet, the ego gets all excited to hear the latest juicy gossip, so what to do?

There has never been a universally popular figure in the field of spiritual growth or self-development and transformation. All of them had those who resonated with their presentation of the principles and were totally open and receptive; yet all of them also had their detractors, those who were against them and focused on the seeming imperfections in their personal lives.

In the past there were crucifixions; today there are Internet sites that spread the worst gossip anyone can come up with. And, in their delusion, they think they provide a service.

I will be 65 on July 4th. I have enjoyed a long and full life. In all that time, surely there are some things you could pick out to make me sound really bad, if you wanted to focus on those things. I can't think of anyone for whom this might be different, regarding their own lives. We are all very human. We can come up with a highlight film of our life or a lowlight film. I'll take the highlight version every time.

My understanding is that my seva, my dharma, my duty, my work, my thing to do in life, my service, my contribution, what I do, and what happens, is to write the course that goes out via email to many around the world, and to keep this blog up to date and answer questions in the comments. Whatever comes through, whatever is received by others, happens through grace. Their own readiness and receptivity attracts it to them.

The process of inner evolution happens due to the grace of the Universal Uplifting Principle—the initiating, awakening, expanding, and uplifting force of Nature, called by various names throughout time and place. Whether we call it 'the Shakti', the 'Holy Spirit', the 'Guru Principle', or by any other name, it awakens in us through the grace of God and stays active in our lives through our intention and effort to stay attuned to it at all times. It is the way it is; it is what happens.

If I were you, or if I were to advise anyone, I would say to definitely go with your own experience over the words of others. 'Objective humanity' is invariably in error. Don't even go there.

Laura: asked if the most convenient thing is really the most practical thing, as she’s always felt that doing the ‘highest’ thing is not always so easy.

DRB: It's always seemed to me that the most convenient and most practical were often the same thing. You have been conditioned to think that the highest is not always so easy? At least you are honest and seem to know yourself somewhat.

What is the 'highest'? If there is high, there is also low. How do we do the lowest things, and what are they? What are the 'highest' things? In reality, what we call the 'highest' is the 'most expanded,' as opposed to existing in a state of contraction.

The Truth is simplicity itself. The 'highest' thing to do is nothing, because the highest state is effortless. It's about remaining aware in the present moment. In complete effortlessness life happens; the karma of the body happens as though it has a life of its own, and we are just along for the ride.

True sadhana is living in the Truth of the Present Moment. We are always in the present moment; this is an eternal reality, it never changes.

If we are aware of the Truth (pure formless Awareness of Being) right here and now, we live in a state of supreme contentment, and it is totally effortless.

In this thread we have discussed the upayas. The 'highest' upaya, Anupaya, is effortless. Anava upaya, on the other hand, which we work in to purify the anava mala (the original taint that causes us to feel small, impure, and unworthy) and in which we make use of the body, mind, and prana, does require consistent self-effort and, in fact, self-discipline--the effort to continually 'come back to the present moment, come back to the heart, come back to our love.'

Anava upaya includes those things you could think are not so easy. And it's true—our conditioned ego does not want to do those things: meditate, keep the body strong and flexible through the practice of hatha yoga or other means, think well of others as well as ourselves, maintain a positive attitude, see all things as the play of Consciousness, remember the love that dwells eternally in the heart, and all the other things we do to rid ourselves of the ties that bind us.

Anyway, you are on Lesson 2. You have much to look forward to. Thank you for joining us here on the blog.

Lorna: writes that while she is benefitting greatly from the course, she has multiple sclerosis and asks what to do about the first half of her life that might have led up to living in a wheelchair for the last 20 years.

DRB: Lorna, unfortunately none of us can do anything about the first half of our life. It was what it was, it was all karma, and every aspect of it was necessary to lead up to this. Nothing was ever done wrong, and there were no mistakes. All those are human judgments that have nothing to do with the Truth of the Present Moment.

I strongly advise to meditate and focus on the subtle body, the body of light and energy that animates and enlivens this physical form (which is basically, for all of us, a corpse waiting to happen). The subtle body is pure and perfect, and in it you are always at your peak, at your best, quite independent of physical age. Through reading your lessons and applying the principles in your daily life, become familiar with the subtler aspects of your being.

The physical body is so temporary. It is our dharma to keep it in as good shape as possible, but we don't have to aim for unattainable ideals. In a hundred years from now, what will it matter?

You obviously have good understanding. You understand the importance of 'purifying' the ego. Part of that purification is realizing that we are not the body; we are Spirit temporarily occupying a body, which has its own karma. The most we can do is remain in harmony with the karma of the body exactly as it is, without feeling a need to change or improve anything. Harmony is always the key and the goal.

Focus on your inner perfection, purity, beauty, and divinity. This is the reality of you. One day we will 'wake up' from this physical life as though it were only a dream, and on one level that's all it really is.

Thank you for your question, and I am happy that you are enjoying the course.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

Living in the Truth of the Present Moment

2010-06-01T00:56:00.004-04:00

I began studying and practicing yoga, meditation, and learning of the creative power of mind at the age of 15 in 1960. In the years since then I have spent time with and studied with many teachers from many paths and traditions. My first teacher, a man who had lived 17 years in a lamasery in the Himalayas of Tibet, wrote a correspondence course, which I began at 15, a year after he had left his physical body.

I never met him physically, although I have had many dreams and meditation experiences with him. They always have the same lighthearted, uplifting feeling. He wrote his course during his late 80’s summing up all he had learned during his extraordinary lifetime. His course lasted 14 years and played a major role in my own training and development. Sometimes even now I feel he speaks through me in the lessons of my new course, Living in the Truth of the Present Moment, available via email (please inquire at drbutler.course@gmail.com

I met the physical Guru in 1974, received Shaktipat (divine initiation), and began writing my first course in the summer of 1975. Among other things, I strongly recommend the physical Guru for anyone who feels he or she needs work on the ego. There is no better cure anywhere in the world. Also, of course, there is the supreme initiation, which is an awakening, a rebirth.

When it was time to write the new course and blog in 2008, I wanted to sum up what I felt, after all my years of study and practice, was the absolute essence of the spiritual path. So I titled the course, “Living in the Truth of the Present Moment.”

To live in the Truth of the present moment is truly all we can do. Years back, when I was traveling and leading workshops, I would ask for volunteers to come up to the front of the room and demonstrate how they did sadhana (spiritual work; inner work). No one ever outwardly did anything, since all we can do is live from the highest (most expanded) perspective in the present moment, from one moment to the next.

The course via email is for those who are truly committed to their own spiritual growth or self-development, who want to progress step-by-step to establish a solid foundation on which the Higher Principles can be imbibed as one’s own, and actually practiced in one’s daily life, and not simply be a philosophy to agree with or believe in, which results in no true transformation.

Here in the blog is where we stay up-to-date with each other, and in the comments we have an ongoing Q&A session. I heard my wife Kay remark recently to someone that the comments of the blog was like the workshops of old, complete with sharing sessions, Q&A sessions, and a general sense of camaraderie and the feeling of a family reunion that used to pervade the workshops when I was still a traveling man.

The blog is open to everyone, and while presenting suggestions and tips for spiritual opening and reminders of the Truth of the present moment, and offering positive energy that anyone can tune in to from anywhere in the world, it also serves as the primary introduction to the course. We do not advertise, and the course grows completely from word-of-mouth, which I feel is the purest form of growth.

So I feel that ‘Living in the Truth of the Present Moment’ is the essence of the spiritual path because, when you come right down to it, it’s the most we can do. I know many people who practice various paths and believe and agree with spiritual principles, yet they are rarely consciously present in the existing moment. Instead, their minds wander through the past, future, and fantasy-worlds, and while this is the case, they literally do not know what they are doing or what is actually going on around them.

This requires a conscious presence which can’t be merely agreed with or believed in. It is the work of the present moment, of maintaining awareness of the existing moment, which is the only time we are actually alive, or actually here for that matter.

The past exists in memory (in Sanskrit, chitta) and only influences the present to the degree that we allow it to through our own attention. The future does not yet exist; it is the ‘now’ we are currently living into. We can live into any future we like, but if we only repeat past patterns and habits we will only create new versions of the past, over and over again.

Whether you take the course or not, please make extra efforts this month to maintain an awareness of the present moment. We can never, no matter what we do, get out of the present moment. We will always be here and it will always be now. ‘There’ and ‘then’ are points of reference only. The only time we are alive is right now. The only time we can live life to the fullest is right now.

What’s more, the higher, more refined feelings—love, compassion, cheerfulness, lightheartedness, joy, peace, contentment, fulfillment—are only available now, in this very moment.

Unfortunately, many of us habitually focus attention on ‘past’ feelings, which are generally negative emotions—fear, worry, anger, jealousy, envy, the sense of unworthiness, resentment, blame, and any other unpleasant feeling you can think of. These all have their origin in the past, and do not exist in the present unless we ourselves bring them into the existing moment by focusing our attention on them, which many of us do habitually.

Living in the Truth of the Present Moment affords the opportunity for a new life, a clean slate, and the availability of all the greater feelings and experiences accessible while in human form.

In the Present Moment there are no limitations. In the past or future there is no freedom.

Now for some Q&A from last month’s comments:

Martha: Would you share something about finding/identifying true spiritual guides/teachers?

DRB: A true teacher first needs a true student—one who is open and willing to learn something completely new and different from anything she's ever glimpsed. When you are at this state of openness and receptivity, be absolutely clear about what you want to learn from a teacher or guide. What is your highest goal? When you are clear about this, you will intuitively recognize the true teacher.

Everyone has a true Teacher, Guru, Guide, Master, Elder Brother--by any name--on some level and in some form. Sometimes more than one form is used. The Guru Tattva (principle of awakening, initiating, expanding, deepening, freeing, liberating) is in no way limited, and will use whatever means is karmically available and convenient through which to reach us.

We recognize the true Teacher, in whatever form it appears in the moment, through our own inner experience. There is a simple and subtle 'knowing' about it that transcends any aspect of doubt or hesitation.

You can't tell another who his Teacher is any more than you can tell him who to be in love with. We simply fall in love because that's what's happening. In the same way, we recognize true teachers and guides as they appear for us along our journey toward the Light.

Many have led and guided me, and helped to expand my vision; my major teachers and influences can be counted on one hand. The true Teacher is One. The 'how' or 'why' of it is a simple matter of recognition, just as we recognize our own inner Self. It is a higher vision than what we ordinarily use.

Shanti: I remember when I was doing seva, telling myself: 'I'm not the doer.' What do you do to remember this?

DRB: I don't do anything to remember that I'm not the doer.

It doesn't occur to me anymore that I am the doer. I know better than that. I learned all the easy ways and also all the hard ways. May you only learn through the easy ways.

I don't (listen to me saying 'I don't') do anything to affirm that I am 'not' anything.

Using 'not' in an affirmation is not truly an affirmation. It's simply the denial of what we actually (perhaps subconsciously) think is true.

We don't ever have to 'not' be or do anything. It is much more productive to focus attention on what we are actually doing or being, and seeing only the best in it.

At least focus attention on what is pleasant and what feels good. There's no reason to focus attention, which is our connection to the Creative Power of the universe, on what is unpleasant or on what feels bad. Because if we do, guess what's next?

If we focus on knowing we are the Self of the universe, we could not possibly think we are the doer. Therefore the pointlessness of thinking we are not the doer.

How can we not be what we never were in the first place?

We use the vast power of the mind to complicate things. The Zen teacher and writer Alan Watts said: "Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."

Anonymous: posted his or her experience when he or she became ‘enlightened’ and ‘Self-realized.'

DRB: Referring to the previous comment by anonymous, it is beautifully written and perfectly expressed. I do not see or feel anything delusional in it, as it feels very sincere.

I would be very careful, however, about referring to oneself as "enlightened" or "self-realized." Anyone who has truly attained this state is firmly established in it, to the degree that one's state never fluctuates and is never disturbed on any level. It doesn't take 'time out' from its enlightened state.

We can't be Self-realized when we see a flower but something else altogether if someone bumps into us on the street and calls us an idiot.

Also, 'who' is making the assertion of being enlightened? The ego can't be enlightened. It can only be deluded. I have been asked before if I was enlightened, and I couldn't find anyone inside myself that the question could either be directed to or answered by.

Who would answer, 'No'? 'No, I'm not enlightened. What kind of fool would think I was enlightened?'

We certainly don't want to define or describe ourselves this way, for it is obviously very limiting.

Yet, who is there to answer 'Yes'? If someone answers 'yes, I am enlightened, I am Self-realized' then who is it defining or describing oneself as such? The Self doesn't use words to describe itself. For this reason the Self cannot be contained in any particular description or definition.

The Self exists in a non-verbal space.

To ask the question is to presume that there is someone to answer the question, and there is no one like that.

The Self doesn't go around thinking, "I am enlightened, I am Self-realized." The pure Self, or Consciousness, is beyond descriptions, beyond words and concepts. It simply is.

I realize the comment was posted by 'anonymous,' so we can't assume anyone is describing anyone as anything. This is just what came up for me when I read the comment. I appreciate the comment. Thank you.

JP: refers to a quote from a lesson regarding how we tend to manifest in front of others according to how they see us, and how her ego is concerned with controlling how others see her.

DRB: We simply accept it as the perfect play of Consciousness. When someone treats us like we're great, we become very magnanimous. It's like they draw it out of us. If someone treats us like we're a deadbeat, there's not very much to live up to. Everything we say and do will be interpreted through their view of us. What to do?

Nothing. Who cares?

You said, "Most of all I would like to feel OK within myself regardless of how another sees me."

Another only sees the projections of their own thoughts, unless they have the capacity to see the Truth in others, and then they will only see the Self manifesting in your own peculiar way.

Give up the idea of controlling how others see you. It can't be done. Be yourself, live true to your own nature, and above all else, be the Seer and never the seen. Remain content within yourself.

People have said great things about me and treated me as though I was a wonderful person. Others have said terrible things about me and speak as though I'm a horrible person. None of this affects me anymore. My Guru treated me like the greatest, and no one else could possibly make me feel any greater. My Guru also treated me like the lowest, and no one else could possibly make me feel any lower.

There is only one Consciousness peering out of all these pairs of eyes simultaneously. Any particulars exist in the mind only. See the same Self equally in everyone all the time, and you won't even care what you think, much less what anyone else thinks.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.comLi

Focus Attention on Perfection

2010-05-02T13:01:00.004-04:00

Thank you for meeting with me here this month. It means a lot to me that you come here to be a part of our ongoing dialogue. Last month we had a lively discussion of the Guru, with many insightful questions and responses in the comments following the entry. Please feel invited to participate in our ‘satsang’ we share in the comments following each blog entry, where we maintain an introspective level of dialogue.

As you have seen, this month’s entry is “Focus Attention on Perfection.” The first part is ‘focus attention.’ Ordinarily even the most intelligent and educated among us do not notice that our attention determines our entire experience of life. From one moment to the next, our experience depends on how we focus our attention.

If we place our attention on our aching back, then we will experience the utmost degree of aching back. If our attention is on our confused state of mind, then confusion is indeed what we will experience. And if our attention is focused on some transitory and momentary anger, guess what, we dive into the innermost angst of anger. If our attention is focused on depression, we experience an award-winning depression.

If our attention is focused on love and light, we experience love and light no matter where we are or what we are doing. If our attention is focused on beauty, we see and experience the beauty of all things wherever we go. If our attention is focused on perfection, then we see and experience perfection from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep. Indeed, there is nothing in God's universe that is imperfect to any degree.

Why focus on perfection? Well, in the present degree of spiritual evolution on the planet, the vast wave of humanity has focused their attention on imperfections, on fault-finding, on seeing flaws in others and noticing others' mistakes. We almost think it’s a sign of cleverness to find something wrong with something. On the contrary, an idiot can find something wrong with something.

It takes one willing to see the Truth wherever it leads him to see the perfection of all things.

It is hard for the mind and ego to grasp the concept of perfection, because the whole world that tandem has created is devised around the reality of imperfection. If we accept the perfection of all things, many of our cherished concepts are blown. All of our grievances suddenly collapse without any support.

Our usual anger and contrariness doesn’t know where to look to find an appropriate object in order to justify itself. Our agitation is suddenly stuck with nothing to be agitated by. Our egotistical drive to find what is wrong and to improve things is left with nowhere to go once it is confronted with the reality of eternal perfection.

The more expanded our perspective, the more we will see things as they are—the ultimate perspective being the Truth of the present moment, which includes the perfection of everything as it is.

There is nothing wrong anywhere in your life unless you first think something is wrong. You are encouraged to refrain from making someone wrong for something they said or did, and from finding things wrong in the world around you. Seeing everything as already perfect as it is, you will experience the already existing harmony and perfection of the cosmos.

There is no reason to take anyone’s word for anything. You can prove this truth to yourself simply by applying the principle, by using your God-given power to see perfection in all that is.

If anything is troubling you, it is because you are thinking that something is wrong. Embrace the already existing harmony and perfection of all things and you will enter a state that seems like floating, as though you are weightless and all tension and effort have suddenly left you. The notion that anything is wrong is diffused like clouds becoming clear space again. Then you live in that simple play of Consciousness, in the Tao, in the harmonious flow of the constant change of all things, as well as the awareness of your eternally changeless inner Reality.

The illustrious Buddha said: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."

Now a couple of questions from last month’s comments, with added remarks in my responses:

Kay: I am in my mid-60’s and I have a question regarding your response to the earlier question about lust. Can you make a distinction between "sexual desire," which you spoke about in your response to the question on lust, and "sexual energy," which might continue for many years past our sexual prime?

DRB: Sexual desire, as I recall, is the feeling of really wanting to have sex with someone. Certain hormones act to inform us that the time is now.

Sexual energy is quite different. It is a certain aspect of universal energy, or the Shakti, or Kundalini energy, or the all-pervasive energy that creates, sustains, and eventually dissolves the universe. All of Tantric philosophy and practice is based around this universal energy, which is the creative force behind everything in this world, and indeed this world itself.

Sexual energy is ordinarily experienced in the second chakra. The same energy can rise to the third chakra and enable us to become an egotistical maniac, and to the fourth chakra which we experience as love.

When we make sex into a meditation, the same energy goes up into the ajna chakra, the sixth chakra, in the center of the head between and above the eyes. When we focus the same energy, which on one level is sexual energy, and which is in truth the divine Shakti that manifests the entire cosmos, our head fills with white or golden white light that expands into the heavens, and we experience our formless nature, as well as an exalted sense of well-being.

Sexual energy in itself is not affected by age. It is a matter of how alive do we maintain the Shakti within us through certain practices, including a certain consciousness we have of ourselves. We outwardly experience ourselves as we inwardly conceive ourselves to be. Different people experience Shakti to varying degrees, usually depending on their degree of awareness of the Truth of the present moment.

At least that's my experience and understanding of sexual energy. If I learn more I will let you know, but I truly feel my lessons are finished in this particular realm.

Michael: Please help me understand more fully letting go, emptying out. Is it the mind that lets go, or the ego, or both?

DRB: Emptying out and letting go ultimately includes giving up your concepts of what the mind and ego are.

Of course, it is important to understand the mind and ego, which is why they are explored fully in the lessons. Letting go and emptying out, however, is allowing your being to be cleansed of all mental and egotistical activities, so that you rest in pure awareness and equanimity.

You can't mentally approach the subject of letting go and emptying out. That would just be more entertainment for the mind.

To live in this world, of course, we need the mind. Without its use we might end up in an institution to be cared for. In a certain way we also need the ego, although it is necessary to identify ourselves correctly and accurately, instead of with all the stuff we ordinarily identify with.

Our true state is an unconditioned, unmodified, formless Awareness of Being. If you can let everything go, this is what remains. This is what you live in when you give up everything else. Then, knowing yourself to be pure Awareness of Being, you can live in the highest way without having to think about it or figure out anything. This is letting go and emptying out.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com

What About the Guru?

2010-04-07T18:07:00.002-04:00

Interestingly I’ve received quite a few notes and questions regarding ‘the Guru’ recently. As you probably already know, I rarely use the term ‘Guru’ in the lessons of the course via email or in the blog. Yet, a lot of regular readers have had previous relationships, interactions, and encounters with the Guru principle in some form or another, and apparently some of them still have unresolved issues. In almost all cases, it is because of some flaw in their understanding of what the Guru principle actually is.

Since my own sadhana and spiritual history include the relationship with the Guru, I cannot exactly dismiss the questions that come here. People deserve some sort of answer. As for participants in the Course of Training, part of our relationship is that all questions will be answered.

When I met my own Guru in 1974, his primary instruction to me was to teach people in the West what a true Guru is.

I told him, “I have no idea what a true Guru is.”

He laughed and said, “Don’t worry, you will!”

He told me to open up a meditation center and to teach people what a Guru was. I asked, “But what if they have questions?”

He said simply, “You will answer all questions perfectly.”

In my mind, this takes all blame off me—it’s on him now. It relieves me of the responsibility of getting my mind involved. He’s the one who told me to answer questions, and through his grace they get answered.

36 years into the future following that dialogue, my observation is that most people, not only in the West but in the East as well, have a very limited understanding of what a Guru is. For this reason, I receive inquiries from people whose physical Guru has transitioned from his or her body, or who for some other reason is physically unavailable or inaccessible.

In the Eastern scriptures, it is said “God, Guru, and Self are the same.” They all refer to the same Principle. It is very important to understand this point. If we truly understand this simple principle, then we can never fully experience or believe that the Guru is not present.

The true Guru is not someone we might know or have known as a person. The Guru is not a particular personality or a physical body. It clearly states in the scriptures that the Guru is the “grace-bestowing power of God.”

The true Guru is that aspect of the Self that awakens, initiates, uplifts, expands, deepens, enlightens, liberates, or in some other way allows us to experience our fullest potential as an individual being.

One comment in particular following the previous entry was very heartfelt and clearly expressed a question shared by many in various ways:

Ghayas: Something very ironic is happening to me. This course is all about being in the present moment, and as I am starting to read the lessons and getting involved once again in this learning process, some reminiscences of the "good old days" of the old course keep popping up.

What I call "good old days" is that period when the course used to be a tool, on a specific path, helping students to understand, among other things, their relationship with the Guru, the sangham; in that time, I would read the lesson, and, in addition to practicing it in my daily activities, I would also attend workshops, intensives, programs at the center and go to the ashram, and test what I have learned in the lessons within the physical environment of the ashram and around the Guru.

The old course used to be the cornerstone of my sadhana in the sense that it used to fulfill, among other things, this function of strengthening my understanding of the relationship with the Guru. I'm feeling, now, a pain of separation! It feels like this era of being around the Guru, getting together for the summer in the ashram, has gone away without previous notice and honestly I'm being very nostalgic.

Now, it's ironic because this new course that you are generously offering to the whole world and multi-paths practitioners is all about being in the newness of the present. So I'm feeling somehow off track because this nostalgia of the past period of my sadhana is showing up when in every lesson I'm invited to come back to the present, to come back to the heart. I guess I just have to witness this nostalgic feeling (which has always been a familiar samskara), as well as the feeling of being off track (another familiar companion) and keep coming back to the present.

Any advice, though, would be most welcome to understand more clearly the evolution of sadhana from one particular form to another.

DRB: Ghayas, I feel your letter, and you can know that many other people feel the same way. I have heard or read the same thing in many different ways.

I started the original course in 1975. Among the principles I stated from the beginning was that the outer form of sadhana (spiritual practice, work on self-development) would always change. I also stated that many, many things would change over the years--where we lived, who we lived with, our work, our name, our lifestyle, our outlook, and especially the forms sadhana would take from time to time, but that the one thing that would never change is the Guru Principle.

The teaching has always been very clear: "The Guru is not a particular person or body; the Guru is the grace-bestowing power of God."

It was great fun in the "old days" that you speak of. Many of us remember them fondly. I have my own nostalgia. I'd love to go back and see everyone face to face once again. It was a magical time. Yet times have changed. The world has changed. People are more suspicious now. 'Foreigners' are especially viewed more suspiciously.

There is an ugly mood about, and it's simply the sign of the times. It was all prophesized long ago. People are quick to look for something to be angry about, something to attack, something to see as evil.

The result is that authentic spiritual teachers and groups are more low-key now than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Groups are smaller, teachers are less well known. And many of us have had to grow up and develop a strong relationship with the inner Guru.

We have had to actually practice the Guru’s teaching and learn to do puja to our own form, worshipping the divine inner Self that dwells there in each new moment.

My Guru said, "Do not think the Guru is a man sitting here in front of you with a beard and a cap on his head. The Guru dwells within you as your own Self."

My own seva, or service to God, has changed from teaching about the Guru to focusing on the principles of Truth that are immutable, infallible, and applicable to all people in all times and places. As Ghayas eloquently put it, the course is now for 'multi-path practitioners,' as we focus on the essence of the Truth of Being and not on any particular path or way of being or thinking except for being true to our own Self.

As the lessons say, come back to the present moment, come back to the heart, come back to your love. From here is a good beginning. Let us do our sadhana from moment to moment, remaining focused in the present, honoring the past and all the old experiences for what they were, for they helped us become what we are today, and have prepared us for all that will come.

What will come tomorrow, we have no idea whatsoever. Everything changes except the One thing that never changes. This changeless One is our true and eternal nature, the inner Self of all. If we recognize and remain aware of our own Self here and now, then everything leading up to now will have served its purpose, everything will be perfect, and even the future will be wonderful.

Someone else asked if it was possible to fall from grace. Here is the response to that:

I can certainly understand where the question comes from. I have gone through the 'dark night of the soul' when it truly feels as though we have fallen from grace and are lost and forgotten.

Ultimately the only true fall from grace is if we turn against ourselves in our own thinking. For example, every time we give into negative thoughts or emotions, we experience a loss of grace. If one were to insist on the path of negativity for a long period, then it would surely feel as though all grace had been lost forever.

Ultimately there is only the grace of our own Self. There is no external source of grace. Even the true Guru, the grace bestowing power of God, is a manifestation of our own Self. If there were an external source of grace, we would live in a world of duality, and the world of duality is only a temporary illusion.

Don't fall from grace in your own mind. Know that the source of grace is within you, and open yourself up to the grace of God that surges from within your own Self.

In the long run, there is no rising or falling. All that is the play of Consciousness. In Truth there is only eternal stillness. The apparent movement and motion is the play, the leela, the dance.

Know your true nature, live in the awareness of your own divine Being, and grace will follow you around and bestow upon you a charmed life.

For information about the Course of Training written by D. R. Butler and available by email, write: drbutler.course@gmail.com

For Spanish, write: drbutler.cursoesp@gmail.com