What Does Support
of Nature Look Like?
Once upon a time, some spiritual seekers took
a long pilgrimage to visit a great enlightened Master
in Tibet. They traveled by boat, donkey, and on foot.
They weathered severe terrain, cold, and storms. After
several months, they finally found the Master’s
ashram. When they were escorted in to see him, the Master
acted very strangely. Normally a quiet, compassionate,
and gentle man, he was wild and aggressive. He scolded
and mocked the weary travelers. They became very upset.
Then he sent them to their rooms for the night.
The Master’s closest disciple,
dumbfounded, asked, “Master, I have never seen
you behave that way before. These people traveled so
far to see you. Why did you treat them like that?”
The Master responded, “They came
here for truth. But what they believe they already know
about being spiritual prevented them from hearing truth.
I had to first shatter those beliefs. Now they will
be able to listen from a deeper place within themselves.”
“So that was all an act for their
benefit?” the disciple asked.
The Master looked down and quietly
muttered, “No, not really. They came here seeking
the support of nature. Sometimes it does not come in
the form expected. I just had to do it.”
It is completely understandable to
have ideas of what a life lived with the support of
nature (in other words, a spiritually advanced life)
looks like on a day-to-day level. It is easy to offer
simplistic descriptions that will pacify and attract
spiritual aspirants. However, those superficial notions
are just not the way things really are. My passion is
to offer as deep and valid an understanding of the subtle
ways of the universe as I possibly can.
Some people try to say that being more
spiritual assures a peaceful, happy, and harmonious
life. This is just not necessarily true. Some people
say your health will be assured and you will become
brighter, more intelligent, more successful, and have
more money. Again, it is not always true. Growing spiritually
is a very sublime phenomenon that nourishes life on
a level that transcends the ordinary criterion people
commonly use to assess success in life.
An analogy with leaves may help to
illustrate this. For this example, let us say that a
leaf connected to the branch is a spiritual leaf, and
a leaf disconnected from the tree has lost its way spiritually.
In a given moment, either leaf, whether connected or
not, can lean to the right, to the left, or be pointed
up or down. It depends upon the wind. So, if you use
direction to evaluate a leaf, you might say that connected
or not, there is no difference. You may ask, then, what
value is there in being connected? If you use superficial
criterion, it is difficult to tell the difference.
In an effort to motivate people to
grow spiritually, spiritual teachers can be tempted
to focus on the superficial results. Though there may
be some degree of truth to it, the essential nature
of genuine spiritual growth is underemphasized.
Another tree analogy may help. If a
tree is twisted, bent, and dying, you can make it healthy
by tilling the soil and watering the root. Nevertheless,
if you are evaluating the tree based upon whether any
twists exist, you will feel the tree gained nothing
from your effort. So, to truly appreciate what it means
to be spiritual, the individual’s vision must
expand. How does the person’s vision expand? By
becoming more spiritual. Admittedly, this is a paradox.
The universe is riddled with paradox. That is called
the cosmic joke.
Having said all of this, there is some
abstract connection, some carryover, between being a
more spiritual being and having the daily aspects of
your life flourish—just as there is some connection
between the trunk of a tree and its most distant leaves.
As people grow spiritually, they do tend to be happier,
more successful, healthier, more psychologically balanced,
etc. What is being addressed here are the expectations
of what a spiritual life looks like. Though there may
be a degree of truth to those notions, the real value
of spirituality is in awakening to the depth of one’s
being that transcends those qualities. Once an individual
truly awakens to a spiritual life, what that person
used to see as his life is seen just as a veneer or
tip of an iceberg. The surface may be of great value
and importance on its own level, but now the individual
has awakened to so much more.
What is the rest of the iceberg like?
In all honesty, it is indescribable. It is unlike anything
in the realm of thoughts or emotions. It has been said
that life is completely the same, but totally different.
Deep inside, you already know everything, so you certainly
have some sense, some inkling, however vague. Until
you have attained it, you don’t know what it is
even though you think you know what it is. Yet, it is
the sense of it that keeps you moving and propels you
forward.
Our nature is like the nature of trees.
Some healthy trees naturally bend to the right. Others
naturally reach for the sky. One of the biggest obstacles
to spiritual growth is the notion of “what spiritual
people act like.” Through translators and teachers,
groups of people have come to a simplistic consensus
of what spiritual Masters throughout time have said:
Buddha, Christ, Mohammad, Krishna, Moses—the list
goes on. People who reinforce those convictions and
spend their lives committed to imposing them upon not
only themselves, but other people, become the spiritual
leaders of humanity.
So, in order to identify what support
of nature looks like, first be willing to look deeper.
Look deeper than your current convictions. Look deeper
than even the translations and interpretations of the
words of the great enlightened Masters. To know it,
you must become it. To become it, you must abandon the
notion that you know it. I choose my words carefully
in order to clarify and deepen people’s understanding
of ancient spiritual teachings. Those teachings have
been misconstrued, misunderstood, and distorted. I point
no finger of blame here. It is simply the elusive nature
of truth.
So where does this leave you? Do you
throw your hands up in the air, say there is nothing
you can do, and just give up? Of course not. What you
do is your very best. Use your mind. Ponder the words,
even in this article. Examine your reactions. What are
they based upon? … Really. Reflect upon your identities,
your conditioning, your belief system, the state of
the world, the nature of human mentality. Ask yourself
where your feelings are coming from. Are they a result
of your conditioning, your fears, your insistence to
have something to cling to, or are they coming from
a deeper place? By doing this, you will be softening
your identities and conditioning so that nature can
well up through your physiology.
Your deeper place is not a place of
concretion. It affords you nothing to hang on to. It
is a place of infinite abstraction. No-thingness. The
sound of one hand clapping. The Tao. The unknowable.
Living in accord with that is what a life lived in the
support of nature looks like. It is barely discernable,
particularly if you are not willing to look to the subtle,
and to that which lies beyond your current beliefs.
Never forget: the path is profoundly elusive.
© Michael Mamas, 11/06 |
