Something that has been central to my practice for a long time is integrity. It wasn't always a central component but over the years I have come to the conclusion that dishonesty, with oneself and with others, is antithetical to spiritual practice. This really came to a head though my Practicus period when a couple of times my integrity, both intellectually and morally were put to the test. Since then I have been more or less compelled to absolute honesty with myself.
In case I am misunderstood I should be clear; this has little to do with morality and everything to do with expedience. The universe itself is based on truth, it is itself, this is often not as we would wish it to be or as we imagine it to be. If we wish to uncover its mysteries then we need to base our examination on truth. Truth for us, as explorers of the self and its relation with the universe, must begin with self-honesty. You cannot understand the self if you are in denial about the self, and you cannot understand the universe if you base your understanding on a false premise. This is why I assert unequivocally, that if you are not being honest, you are not on the path.
One of the reasons I essentially washed my hands of most of the occult scene, is the tendency towards believing things that from what I could see, were most likely not true. People saying things and acting in ways that made me think they didn't really believe it themselves. Another aspect was the prevalence of conspiracy theories. So many people practicing the western mystery traditions are also espousing ideas promulgated by David Icke and other fabricators of misinformation, literal enemies of truth, weaving factoids and popular ideas into enticing narratives that offer the cold comfort of being 'in the know'. Such people, while they talk about spiritual things and claim to be aspirants, are using the language of spirituality as a pose, a mask. They are not really interested in the truth of things, only in having their worldview confirmed. This bias is becoming more and more obvious with the advent of social media. People don't want reality, they want to be entertained and validated.
More recently they are also the same people who espouse climate change denial, deny that the coronavirus which has killed millions, even exists, and deny the efficacy of vaccines and seem to willingly distort things to fit their narrative that 'the man', some evil cabal of nefarious people, are trying to kill us all, or some such nonsense. You need only look at the data to see this isn't so. And by data I don't mean memes and YouTube videos.
"Aha", cries the believer, "maybe that's what 'they' want you to think".
Perhaps, but we have to have a standard of judgement, and either we accept that the whole scientific and medical establishment is lying to us, or the talking heads and rando's of YouTube are.
But then, as a member of the scientific establishment myself, maybe I'm lying, another shill for big climate.....see how the logic goes?
With such people, I can only draw a couple of conclusions. Either they are gullible or dishonest, and reading the literature on such things it seems that people of that mindset will believe anything if it supports their worldview. People who believe one conspiracy theory are more likely to believe others, because that's how their minds work.
It seems that conspiracy theorists often have a persecution based mindset: somebody is doing things to me/us, they are out to get us, or keeping the truth from us. The reasons for this are unclear so I don't like to speculate too much. Narcissism and paranoia seem to play a role, as does lack of social currency, as if holding fringe beliefs offers some sort of consolation.
The same goes for a lot of spiritual theories and faiths. One of the reasons I could not countenance Christianity, aside from the hypocrisy, was the requirement of faith in that which I knew was almost certainly not true. Pretty much all religions have elements of this, and one reason I settled on zen Buddhism was that there is no requirement for faith, only practice. It has a 'come and see' attitude, although Buddhism too has various sects who espouse things I don't believe and see no reason to accept as truth. When I was active in the A.'.A.'. there was this unspoken faith in the HGA, and in the lineal succession of the Order so that we all got hung up on who was the real deal, and who was a faker. I have come to realise that the fakers are those who twist things for personal gain, irrespective of their paperwork or claims. There is also the idea that there is no illumination outside the A.'.A.'., a sort of faith that 'we are the real spiritual people', and all the rest, other religions and philosophies are somehow outside the temple. Exclusionary thinking if ever I saw it. I cannot accept that the A.'.A.'. has exclusive access to anything, it's just an idea that some people identify with, even I did for a long time, blinkered as I was.
Without critical appraisal of both the information you take on board and the faith you accept, and without absolute honesty with oneself, there can be no real spiritual practice. In the words of Nishijima Roshi: We are living in the universe, which is based in truth. Truth and honesty are bound together. If we are not honest we can never know our real situation in the universe.
Adhering to things which you have no basis for adhering to other than they sound nice or pander to your prejudice. Or worse yet, deliberately, misunderstanding, misconstruing, or disseminating false information and deceiving both yourself and others, are antithetical to the path. Anybody doing so and calling themselves initiate is deluding themselves.
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