Lay spirituality and the Centre of existence – “I and my Father are One …” (Jesus)
The spiritual lay master is one who shows the way, who says “look inside yourself.”
Within us is the truth, which is also embodied and revealed by the true teacher, this truth can not be “transmitted” but must be recognised internally, where the true teacher resides. The truth is not an object of knowledge but the knowing itself. The knowledge that makes possible all knowledge .. That consciousness is our true nature and is the intrinsic nature of the teacher who showed it to us.
The same thing happens in the physical DNA. The son is the outgrowth of what are the father and mother. There may be variations in genetic mixing, but the substance of life, the ability to manifest life, is the same in the child as in the parents. All life’s forms fully embodies the ability of life to manifest itself in that likeness. And it is right and proper that the relationship between parents and children takes place according to a pattern of continuity and mutual solidarity.
From the physical point of view, the roots are always in the father and mother … that represent the union of the spiritual fluids of Heaven and Earth that we inherited and that are within us. For this reason, even when the “parents” are no longer we can not really say that they died, because they exist in us as the message of their “spirit”, as intelligence and consciousness.
Ramana Maharshi claimed to have no disciple … and this statement is certainly correct in terms of a true teacher, who has overcomed the separate sense of individuality. In fact, for the wise there is nothing but a “center” (or Self) of which each and every thing is the manifest form and this “centre” is present in everything that moves in space and time. But from an empirical standpoint even Ramana accepted that a “person”(an entity that is still identified with the name-form) could look on him as a disciple …. So is the disciple who is making the guru.
The same thing said my spiritual mother Anasuya Devi when -playing with words- candidly confessed “I have not shisya (disciples) … I just have shisu (children)” and with these words confirmed his mother’s love for everything and everyone. And in truth the same thing happened to Ramana who considered sympathetically every creature as would a father with his children.
Of course, if an untrue teacher think that he himself is imparting the truth to the students this would implie that he believes in a scale of values in a hierarchy, that is the result of a sense of separation. But as happens in dreams, as though all the characters dreamed are the dreamer, there are apparent differences in rank and position among the various “entities”, it may look sometimes that one of them acts as a teacher to another (although they are exactly the same thing …).
In the dream we accept these differences and also in the waking state (which is another form of daydreaming) we agree to perform a role, between peers. In this regard I am reminded of a tale told by my spiritual father, Swami Muktananda. In a club of rich people could be allowed only the rich, and members of the same place took on the various internal departments, who as director, who as a waiter or brush, some as janitor or secretary office. All of them were of course millionaires and not ashamed to do each his part for the maintenance of the club. This state of affairs could also be represented in our society, if it were truly enlightened, as the acceptance of differences would be seen a play and nothing else.
Our life is not separate from life. Our individual existence is part and parcel of the total Existence, which are inextricably linked, inseparable.
In Hinduism there is a beautiful image that depicts the Creator, Brahma, attached by an umbilical cord to Vishnu. Vishnu in this case represents the One from whom all things proceed. And we too are linked to the navel of the cosmos, as we are an expression of the wholeness of life, dependent on the source.
In a form of Zen meditation we concentrate on the navel, hara in Japanese, which is considered the meeting point of life energy, ki. In Tantra this point corresponds to the chakra where the fire burns eternal, Manipura (solar plexus). According to other schools based on the mutual connection with the infinite (of which we are the manifestation) this centre is indicated in other areas or chakras in the base of the spine, heart, or in the pineal gland on the top of the head (fontanelle).
No matter its supposed “location” -which is just a convenience. Say, how can be “located” the One that contains everything? What matters is that in each of us there is certainly a “center”, a root that nourishes our being.
We may not be aware of it but it “is” and is expressed in the form of Consciousness.
To feel away from this “center”, which is the bridge that unites our individual existence with the Universal, is to feel separate.
“Cast of this world, plunged in alienation” in the words of Sartre. A world hat is considered strange and rootless with existence. Hence a state of perpetual anxiety, we strive to satisfy our urges with desires and choices, but the result is only frustration, fear, uncertainty and struggle … and we knows only defeat! In fact, we may not rebel or dispose of the life when we ourselves are an emanation of it.
Therefore lay spirituality’s achievement is to “dwell” in ourselves. In letting go deep down to the roots of the I.
Paolo D’Arpini
