You Can Go Your Own Way

In determining a 'spiritual path' what 'spiritual authority' do you look to, since you are the one making the choice to conform or NOT to conform to the path claimed by that authority?
You may surrender to the experience that you believe is derived from the belief system (the teaching or 'text') you choose as 'truth," but make no mistake YOU have CHOSEN it. You decide what or who delivers the 'truth.'

Therefore, you are the final authority and your capacity to choose attests to this fact.

You choose one above another, Christian above Advaita, Judaism above Buddha and, although none, or all, may be "truth," one thing is certain, YOU have made the choice for truth as you believe it. The path, or 'way,' has NOT chosen you, you have chosen the way.

(one may decide that their choice is the only choice that CAN be made and proclaim it as such, and that's called "proselytizing." Most free-thinking people rebel against that since they feel that the freedom to choose is being denied them).

So what does it mean if your choose NO path from the choices available or choose to extract the 'truth' from many paths, not choosing one above another? Does relying on your own 'authority' make you shallow or ignorant? Actually, I sense that those who shun all traditions, and possibly conceptualize their own path or spiritual direction, are not shallow at all, but merely follow the maxim of many great masters who teach that you must FIND YOUR OWN WAY.

Ah, but the ancient teachings contained in the 'texts' are so irresistible in their allure and even the most enlightened 'spiritual master' may get trapped by the cultural deterministic conditioning within all texts and the beliefs from which the text is derived. Words are a product of 'ego,' and in that sense should always be suspect and approached with a cautious, drive-to-question (hyphenated to denote unity). It seems that we need to be plugged in and not to rely on someone else's words is to free-fall into "nothingness."

Maybe in the escape from the text and all the prescriptions that the words symbolize, one can finely be free?

Good Luck with that endeavor, because it can be very disorienting to say the least! This is why most will always rely on the text and the belief systems propagated by others in order to seek Source/God.

Yet, it seems both Jesus and Buddha, probably the greatest teachers ever known, overcame the cultural determinism of the age in order to escape from the 'contexts' and realize the truth beyond, or not contained, within the conditioned mind and the words that symbolize that conditioning. They did not rely on the text and developed their own teachings. It is true that their 'beliefs' came from a 'Higher Source,' but we can only make spastic interpretations as to what we feel that Source might have been, and we have and we do... and that's called 'religion.' And we got a million of those.

When it comes to whose religion is best, we debate the differences on ad infinitum and, unfortunately, we do tend to advocate one over another (based on separate, relative, egoic, value-systems or, "my gods better than your god"). We love to differentiate between religious belief systems and we do so based on our indoctrinated cultural conditioning. Should we seek out differences based on a religion's accurate conforming to 'reality'? But then, whose rendition of "reality,' since all the major religions differ? In fact, most major religions have so conformed the ancient teachings to current 'reality' as to distort the original message beyond all recognition. (Like when Jesus said "love they neighbor," religion would have you believe that He really meant your next door neighbor, not the guy across the ocean. In fact, if that guy pisses you off you have a right to blow his head off, but that's OK and it's called 'war').

Egos are "righteous," especially when they band together into groups with associated value systems based on relative beliefs in which all others be damned. Nothing is worse then when a group of egos ally together to form a "religion" or develop a spiritual "path" and demand that its dogma be idolized as 'authoritative.'

YOU CAN GO YOUR OWN WAY

I think most will identify and choose what is useful in each religion's dogma and trash the rest as not aligned with the Truth within and this does require a deep self-enquiry, probably deeper than most of us are used to. Nevertheless, this seems to be happening with Judeo-Christian traditions as well as Buddhist. Of course, we still have to be cautious of the allied egos that do this re-interpretation since ego-mind fears rejection and this only tends to make it stronger in compelling others to 'believe.'

However, this is what Jesus and Buddha did and why should we NOT expect to do the same. In fact, once you get past the egoic alteration of the message in all grand spiritual narratives, you will resonate with the Truth contained in the words. But, alas, you will need to avoid dependence on the text and in the 'ultimate spiritual authority,' YOU are that authority. But, do we tend to frequently let others make that choice for us and this can be ingenuine and inauthentic.

God created Being, and man went ahead and made it "human" by contextualizing what was not meant to be limited by doctrine, dogma, religions, paths and the authoritative prescriptions that mold cultures through moral laws. (but now, don't believe me!)

Sadly, the American culture is experiencing an anarchistic spasm in relation to so many people seeing the lies within the cultural prescriptions and this seems as true for religion as it does for government. (there really is no such thing as separation of church and state. The connection is quite subtle and subliminal as to be under the radar of normal perception. But whose morality rules?).

The anchor points are dissolving and many individuals will remain adrift awhile longer, until new moorings can be identified. The Judeo-Christian culture is dissolving right before our eyes and it is a frightening sight indeed. But it had to happen since the lies and deception are now beyond belief and the old 'authorities' are useless in revitalizing those old ideas.

I agree that various religious "contexts" or authoritative paths through which ultimate or absolute truths are 'pointed' out, can be the starting block or the origin of our seeking and, in that sense, the texts and teachings can be useful. However, I think most of the ancient "spiritual masters" have advocated that you will need to detach from the context, or "authority," in order to realize 'truth.' You must seek 'outside the box' since ultimate truth is not contextualized and is unlimited by conceptualizations or pointers of any kind. To remain attached to the scriptures is to be chained to the pointers and to become mesmerized by the pointing finger, only to miss the moon. Time to follow the old existential philosophers deep into the realm of "nothingness" and rebuild from there.

I agree that one can certainly learn from the 'pointers' or contexts from which a 'path' is disclosed. But I also believe that eventually their path must be surrendered and you must stake out your own way. If you rely on the bread crumbs they've thrown for you, you'll only return to where you started. To discover the uncharted, you must throw away the compass and the maps provided by "spiritual authorities" and GO YOUR OWN WAY.

Fortunately, you are NOT alone and there is a guide or teacher WITHIN who knows the way and that guide is not a product of any scripture, sutras, contexts or authority of any kind. Yet, to rely on that guide demands a leap of faith beyond the 'teachings' and that can be a very frightening endeavor indeed.

Nevertheless, Happy Trails!