Essence of Your Being

Many years ago, I read a book about a businessman that did a lot of traveling. One of his characteristics was to show up at his destination a day early so he could see the local area before meeting with his prospective clients. He found that on his appointed arrival, he would always be shown the town, or business from the other persons view or spin. But, the real feel and valuable knowledge of the area would come when he would tour the town by himself. In the past, I have gone on tours at museums or of local interests and I have found some of the best parts of the tour by "ditching" the tour guide to go exploring to what interested me, or where I was led. Guru's are similiar to the tour guide, or person that shows you around, in that they show you what is of interest or best to see from their perspective. But, you can only go deeper, or delve into your own perspectives by exploring on your own, without the bias of a guide, or the time constraints of the tour.

Life, in the exploration of its outer weavings and the introspection into the inner mind that perceives it, is much like that museum or tour. You can easily latch onto a preacher, guru, or philosopher and get a guided tour. There you will encounter much of interest and of value. But, precisely as with the museum tour, you will have the certain, if often subtle, bias of the guide presenting his particular angle, teaching, or thinking on things.

Without question, a yogi, preacher, guru, or philosopher might have a value to his message; such as pearls of wisdom garnered from these and others that may be far less oriented to focusing on truth and meaning in life. But gems and precious stones can be plucked from the mountain trail without having to first buy the mountain. Hear their truths, ponder them, then move on -- what you are seeking is a perception of your Being, what you are, who you are. This essence of your Being is perceptible only by you. The more you absorb of the teacher's perspective, the farther away from your essence you travel.

No teacher, mystic, philosopher, priest, pope, yogi, psychologist, guru, seer, or metaphysician ever had innate quality of higher consciousness than you. Consciousness is not a variable quality like strength of muscle or intelligence. Your higher consciousness is an inherent attribute to what you are. The mystic may have cleared or intensified, or more likely, simply reoriented his awareness in some fashion so that he seems so elevated in spiritual qualities. However, only by going within can the journey to higher consciousness be realized. No one else can make that trip, or tell you what truth you will learn, or where your path or charted course will take you.

How can you ever grow beyond the level of the guru you set your ideal to? How can you become ever wiser if you consciously build into your self-image in the image of the one that sits across from you?

You can never attain higher consciousness/enlightenment by following anybody, only by following your own spirit do you attain this goal. By setting clearly in your mind the self-image that you are a perfect creation in the image of God, only then will you grow to approach that ideal. Only by learning to trust your inner impulses/intuition and your own innate wisdom will you travel surely down the path towards clearly seeing and being your Self.

Explore the chronicles that are your life and set sail for that far off land within, only you as skipper can chart the course, hoist the sails, tack the winds, and find the new world of the promised lands.

namaste ~ Jim