Brian D. Stephens's Blog, page 3

What is Spiritual Progress?

Spiritual progress is the dissolution of past conditioning and the weakening of the ego. Spiritual progress occurs when you free your awareness from the limitations of thought and connect with the divine directly.

Your past conditioning forms the ego. And it is the ego that gives you the false impression that you exist only within the confines of your physical body and apart from everything in the external world.

In order to make spiritual progress you must free yourself from the ego’s control. The ego is sustained by thoughts in the mind. As long as you are thinking you are controlled by the ego and unable to experience the deeper reality.

A spiritual practice enables you to still the mind so you can perceive the deeper reality. By focusing on the deeper reality, and through divine grace, your past conditioning is dissolved and the ego is weakened. When all of your past conditioning is gone the ego is destroyed and you attain liberation. Then you are always aware of your oneness with the deeper reality that sustains all forms in creation.

Most people in the west don’t progress because they are unable to free their awareness from the limitations of the ego and the thinking mind. They never learn how. It is not taught in school or in church.

Some of major world religions don’t emphasize spiritual progress. And they don’t even address the ego, which is the major impediment to spiritual progress. Instead they talk about the importance of faith and beliefs. They focus on ideas that exist only within the confines of the mind. And as a result they remain under the ego’s control and unable to connect with the deeper reality.

It is important to recognize that spiritual progress only occurs from the perspective of the ego. From the perspective of the soul, you are always one with the infinite. The spiritual path is the process of consciously perceiving this oneness.

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How Beliefs Impede Spiritual Progress

The Mind’s Version of God

Perhaps the biggest impediment to spiritual progress is your ideas about God. Only when you are able to still the mind, and are free of all ideas, can you truly know God.

The vast majority of people identify with the ego; the false sense of separateness created by past conditioning. The ego maintains control over your awareness through incessant thinking. You think about the past, comment internally on what happens throughout the day, and daydream about the future. Instead of living in the moment you live inside your own mind.

For those who interpret reality through the ego-controlled mind an idea that correctly represents reality is called a truth. You hold your spiritual beliefs to be true. Yet they are nothing more than ideas in the mind. And ideas are only mental representations of reality; they are not reality itself.

There is a deeper truth that cannot be accessed through the mind. It is experienced directly beyond the limitations of thought. Ideas can at best lead you to the experience. And at worst they keep you from the experience. Your awareness remains trapped within the confines of the ego-controlled mind, and you are unable to perceive the deeper reality.

Religious Beliefs

According to Meher Baba, every 700 to 1,400 years the world savior incarnates on earth to help all life forms draw closer to the divine. The world savior teaches us how to free ourselves from the thinking mind and experience the deeper truth.

After a world savior drops the body, a group of people get together to form a religion around his life and teachings. Often these people are not spiritually advanced. They are unable to experience the deeper reality. Instead they are under the ego’s influence and interact with reality through the mind. As a result the teachings of the world savior become obscured by religious doctrine. The methods of experiencing the deeper reality are supplanted by ideas about God and the spiritual path.

The followers of a religion are not taught how to move their awareness beyond the limitations of the mind and experience the divine directly. Instead the goal of a religious person becomes having the right set of spiritual beliefs. And his awareness remains trapped within the confines of his own mind.

The Idea of a Separate God

The infinite formless unity permeates and sustains everything in creation. There is not one thing that is not the divine.

A person who is under the ego’s control feels as though he exists within the confines of the body. And everything outside the body is a separate object. God become just one more object that exists out there apart from you.

Experiencing the Divine in this Moment

The mind creates the illusion of time—the concepts of past and a future that have no independent reality. When something occurred in what you call the past it occurred in the moment, in the now. When something occurs in what you call the future it will occur in the now. Everything always happens in the eternal now. But the mind breaks up this one moment into separate moments and calls it time.

For the person who interprets reality through the mind, God is something you encounter in some moment other than now. Yet the truth is that the divine can be experienced in the here and now. You need only learn how. And perhaps the easiest way of finding this moment is through the enlightened teachings of Eckhart Tolle.

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Darshan with a Guardian Angel

I have been reading the book Be as You Are. It is a book of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings. David Godman did an excellent job of editing the book so the reader can better understand the teachings of Ramana Maharshi. This is about the fifth time I’ve read it.

I am also reading David Godman’s biography of Papaji entitled Nothing Ever Happened. Papaji attained liberation with the help of Ramana Maharshi.

Both men taught the spiritual practice of self-enquiry. A seeker focuses on the source of the “I” (or ego) in order to draw his attention inward. When the “I” temporarily drops into the Self the mind becomes still. And when the “I” recedes into the Self permanently he attains liberation.

The enlightened presence of both Ramana Maharshi and Papaji are present in their books. And while reading them my mind becomes still and my awareness is drawn within.

During the evening I ran along the beach and then walked back to the car along the sidewalk that overlooks the ocean. While passing by a large condominium building, I heard a dove calling. I looked and found the dove sitting on a cement wall about fifteen feet away.

I have heard a dove calling at this spot in the past. Usually it is after sunset and too dark for me to see the dove. Tonight is different because the sun has not yet set and there is plenty of light.

The dove was beautiful. I thought that it was probably one of my guardian angels. I directed the Paramatman light into the dove. Within a few seconds the dove’s energetic body responded, and I knew it had received the light. A lot of people walk on the sidewalk at this time of day so I didn’t want to linger in one spot staring at the dove. After two minutes, I put my hands together and raised them to the third eye in gratitude for encountering this being. Just then my “I” descended into the Self. I turned and walked back to the car, noticeably affected by the experience.

The mind became more still and I was unable to talk. I hoped that the state would be permanent, but it lasted only ninety minutes. Hopefully, the “I” will one day recede into the Self and not rise again. That will be a very good day.

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What You Have Yet to Experience on the Spiritual Path

You have probably heard the expression, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And though the words seem to have a circular logic, they contain a profound insight that applies to the spiritual journey.

On the spiritual  path the only knowing that matters is what you experience directly. Conceptual knowledge is only useful in pointing you to an experience of the divine. If it doesn’t do that than an idea is at best useless and at worst keeps you from experiencing the divine.

There are two levels of truth. Those who have always interpreted reality through the ego-controlled mind view truth merely as an idea. For them an idea that accurately explains reality is a truth. And this surface level of truth is important in making sense of the phantasmagoria of the external world.

Yet there is also a truth that exists beyond the limitations of the thinking mind. It is the direct experience of the divine. And only this deeper level of truth enables you to progress along the spiritual path.

Your ability to experience the divine is affected by your remaining karma. It acts as a barrier between you and the formless unity that permeates and sustains creation. As your karma dissolves, through grace and your own efforts, you are able to experience the formless in a deeper way.

At each point along the path, a seeker has only experienced the divine at a certain level. And he is ignorant of what it is like to experience the formless at a deeper level.

If a seeker is not careful he can delude himself regarding his level of spiritual knowledge and development. He may mistakenly believe that his current spiritual practice is superior to other approaches that he has not even tried. He may become complacent believing that is has already achieved a high spiritual state or even attained liberation.

Spiritual breakthroughs occur now and again that allow us to experience the divine in a deeper way. A veil is removed and we are reminded of how much we didn’t know.

As you walk you own unique spiritual path remain humble and open to new ways of perceiving the formless unity. Surrender you personal will to the divine will. The divine will respond by bringing more grace into your life. And then what you think you know will constantly be replaced by an ever expanding perception of the deeper truth.

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Having a Sociopath as a Spiritual Teacher

I am making good spiritual progress in this lifetime. I receive help from my guardian angels, Meher Baba, Mother Meera, Jesus, and other enlightened masters. But things have not always been this good.

While living in Los Angeles, I became interested in spirituality and unknowingly chose the worst kind of spiritual teacher. Although I didn’t know it at the time, he is a charlatan and a sociopath.

What follows is a brief summary of my misadventures with the worst type of spiritual teacher. This information is for your benefit. So you don’t make the mistake of choosing the wrong spiritual teacher who will delay your spiritual progress.

In another article, I describe the different kinds of charlatans who play the role of a spiritual teacher. And I provide a brief description of sociopaths.

The Occult Skills of a Spiritual Charlatan

Like any spiritual charlatan, the sociopath in Los Angeles learned how to play the role of the enlightened teacher. He read the biographies and teachings of enlightened teachers so he can mimic their speech and behavior.

Meher Baba describes the spiritual journey in seven stages. Those in the lower spiritual states have access to the energetic planes of reality.

The sociopath had some spiritual progress before turning dark. Though he is still in a lower spiritual state, he learned occult skills that allow him to manipulate energy on the energetic plane of reality.

He uses his occult knowledge to occasionally give his students/victims meaningless “spiritual experiences.” He also uses these occult skills to project energy outward from his energetic body. People who meditate with him can feel the energy he is projecting.

You can now see how the sociopath tricks the people in his meditation group. They occasionally have visions during their meditations. And they can feel the energy that the sociopath is projecting. Yet they are unable to discern the difference between the sociopath’s coarse energetic vibration and the pristine divine light that emanates from an awakened soul. So they assume that the sociopath is what he claims to be, enlightened.

Unfortunately, many spiritual charlatans use similar techniques to mislead the seekers who come to them for spiritual guidance.  In another article, I describe how only an advanced yogi can tell whether a spiritual teacher is actually enlightened.

Warning Signs

Like the other students, I could perceive a strong “energy” when meditating with the sociopath. And I assumed that energy meant he was enlightened.

I spent years meditating with the group, unaware of what was truly going on. I would occasionally hear strange things that didn’t make any sense. In retrospect they were warning signs that I chose to ignore.

When I first started meditating with the group, I learned that many of the people who used to attend left at the same time. Because one of the students found out that the sociopath was preventing him from going into samadhi. To my detriment, I disregarded what had happened and continued attending the meditations.

The faker would occasionally refer to “allies” that he said helped him. I didn’t know what these allies were, and I mistakenly assumed they were benevolent beings.

The sociopath often spoke of the “lineage” of which he is a member. He once said that, “being part of the lineage was like being in the mafia. If someone messes with a member of the lineage they mess with all of us.” Yet he never told us who was in this so-called lineage.

I didn’t begin to wake up from the mind control until I discovered that the sociopath was sleeping with female members of the meditation group. I had a close female friend who described the sociopath’s sexual advances.

Around the same time, I received my first darshans with Mother Meera. Through her grace I left Los Angeles and moved to San Diego. A few months later I left the meditation group and found my true spiritual path.

In San Diego, I was helped by a spiritually advanced yogi. This spiritual benefactor explained who the sociopath really is and repaired the damage that was done to my energetic body.

Telling Yourself a Story about Your Spiritual Teacher

Each of us is always one with the infinite. Yet most people are unaware of this truth. The ego, formed by past conditioning, is the obstacle between you and liberation. It creates the false impression that you exist as an individual apart from everything else in creation. The spiritual journey is the process of gradually weakening and eventually destroying the ego, thereby freeing you from the illusion of separateness.

The ego creates your sense of individuality through the ideas you have about yourself. And your ideas about spirituality are often the most precious to the ego. They often become the foundation of your self-identity. For instance, a person who thinks of themselves as a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Muslim has created a self-identity around their religious beliefs.

A person creates a self-identity around being a student of a particular spiritual teacher. You create a mental image of yourself and the person you have trusted for guidance on the spiritual path. The ego wants to have a spiritual teacher who is awakened so it can somehow feel better by associating with him. And like any devout religious person you are unable to accept any information that contradicts your self-identity. The ego views such information as a threat to its very survival.

When the Dalai Lama or Mother Meera comes to southern California, I occasionally encounter some of the people who still meditate with the sociopath. Their energetic bodies are dense and encased in some kind of barrier. It is a terrible thing to be controlled in such a way, and I wish that I could help them. Yet if I told them the truth about the sociopath they would not believe me.

There is More to the Story

This article is only a brief overview of my experiences with the sociopath. From the time that I left Los Angeles, I have kept a spiritual journal that will be the basis of my second book. It chronicles how I learned about the sociopath, broke free from his dark influence, and found my true spiritual path. In it you will learn the entire story, such as what kind of beings are “allies” and who is in the so-called “lineage.”

In spite of everything I am doing well. I am surrounded by God’s mercy and grace. Yet you should let my story be a cautionary tale. And be careful in whom you choose to guide you along the spiritual path.

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Charlatan Spiritual Teachers

The Importance of the Right Spiritual Teacher

One of the most important decisions you will make as a seeker is choosing a teacher to guide you along the path. The teachers who have reached an advanced spiritual state can show you how to still the mind and directly experience the deeper reality. The rest are of little use.

Spiritual progress occurs when you escape the confines of the ego-controlled mind and connect with the deeper reality. Then the past conditioning that forms the ego, and creates the illusion of separateness, gradually dissolves.

Most teachers simply recite the spiritual concepts they have learned. Ideas can at best only point you to the deeper reality. And at worst they can keep you trapped within the thinking mind.

The Claim of Enlightenment

A spiritual teachers needs customers in order earn a living. And many falsely claim to have attained liberation in order to attract seekers looking for spiritual guidance. In another article, I describe how teachers sell the story of their awakening.

There are a lot of spiritual teachers claiming to be enlightened. The sad truth is that almost every one of them is lying. These charlatans are not liberated and have not even reached an advanced spiritual state. Meher Baba explains that there are only fifty-six liberated souls alive on the planet at any one time, and most of them are unknown to the public.

Early in my spiritual journey, I could not perceive the difference between a charlatan and a liberated soul. And like many seekers, I sought guidance from the wrong person. I don’t want that to happen to you.

The Motivations of a Spiritual Charlatan

According to the enlightened masters Meher Baba and Papaji, a spiritual charlatan creates an enormous amount of negative karma for himself. So why would someone claim to be enlightened when he is not?

Some fakers do not grasp the negative karma they accumulate by lying about their spiritual state. Others are aware of the consequences yet find a way to rationalize their behavior.

The motivations of a spiritual charlatan are no different from anyone else who is completely identified with the ego. Throughout history men have pursued money, power, and sex. The spiritual charlatan makes money selling books and retreats. He gains power over those who mistakenly accept him as a teacher. And he can have sex with his female devotees.

Getting Away With It

Fakers get away with their claims of being “awakened” because most people are unable to tell that they are lying. Lakshmana Swamy explains that only a spiritually advanced seeker who is able to enter a state of “no mind” can accurately perceive the spiritual state of others.

People tend to project their view of the world onto others. If you are a good-hearted person you may naively assume that other people are like you. And fakers are more than willing to take advantage of your gullibility.

Fakers prepare for their role as a spiritual teacher. They read all the well known spiritual texts such as the Upanishads, the Vedas, the Holy Bible, the Tao Te Ching, the Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramanyana, and the Buddhist Sutras.

Fakers also study the lives and teachings of enlightened teachers in order to mimic their teaching styles and behaviors. Two of the most famous enlightened teachers in the last one hundred years are Ramana Maharshi and Eckhart Tolle. Often a spiritual charlatan will parrot Ramana Maharshi’s Advaita teachings or Eckhart Tolle’s teachings on the present moment.

There is an unspoken code of behavior among those selling themselves as spiritual teachers. They play the role of the humble, patient, tolerant person who had an “awakening experience.” And now they want to share what they have learned.

The fakers tell people what they want to hear. They often insinuate that a person can attain liberation by following their teachings. The truth is less appealing. According to Meher Baba, Ramana Maharshi, and Paramahansa Yogananda it usually takes many lifetimes on the spiritual path before a seeker attains liberation.

The Different Kinds of Fakers

There is a variety of people who falsely claim to be enlightened. From the spiritually advanced to those who have not progressed far along the spiritual path. There are well intentioned fakers who want to help others progress spiritually. And there are sociopaths who want only to manipulate others for their own selfish reasons.

Once I learned how to tell whether someone has attained liberation I began searching for spiritual teachers online. And I was shocked at how many of them lie about being enlightened. Let us examine the different types of charlatans, so you can avoid them when looking for a spiritual teacher.

Fakers at a Low Spiritual State

Compared to an enlightened teacher, a yogi at a low spiritual state is unable to help others progress spiritually. But such a yogi can learn how to perceive the energetic planes and manipulate different forms of energy. These skills are often referred to as occult abilities or siddhis.

The manipulations of the energetic planes are nothing more than magic tricks and they are discouraged by enlightened teachers. Many yogis become enchanted by visions of the energetic planes and are delayed in their spiritual progress. A seeker who is fortunate enough to be guided by an enlightened teacher is often veiled, so they do not become distracted by the energetic planes.

A yogi at a lower spiritual state can learn how to consciously project energy outward from their own energetic body. He then uses this ability to sell himself as enlightened. A seeker may be in the presence of the faker and feel the energy he is projecting. And not knowing any better the seeker may associate the energy he feels with an awakened presence.

The occult skills that some yogis learn are not an indication of a high spiritual state. Do not confuse a magician with an enlightened master.

Fakers at a High Spiritual State

A very small number of spiritual teachers have reached a high spiritual state. And they have an earnest desire to help other people progress along the path.

Yet they often feel compelled to falsely claim they have attained liberation. There are a lot of spiritual teachers marketing themselves online as enlightened. If an advanced seeker does not make a similar claim he may find it difficult to compete for customers.

If a person knows he has attained a higher spiritual state it become easy to rationalize lying about being enlightened. He may think, “I can help people to progress spiritually. And saying I’m enlightened is the only way to attract students so I can help them.”

Fakers that are Sociopaths

The worst type of spiritual charlatan is the sociopath. These dark people can greatly deter your spiritual progress and should be avoided at all costs.

Most people are unaware that sociopaths are common in our society. I suggest you read the book The Sociopath Next Door to get a better understanding of how sociopaths think and behave. The author is a psychologist with decades of experience in treating patients. And he found that one out of every twenty-five patients was a sociopath.

A sociopath has no conscious and no ability to empathize with others. In order to get by in the world he learns how to mimic the emotions of normal people. A sociopath will pursue his own selfish desires without concern for others. Many actually enjoy inflicting suffering on other people. So they try to get in positions of power over large or even small groups of unsuspecting victims.

In my research I found that sociopaths often claim that they can teach others how to awaken the kundalini. It is an energetic force that rises up the spinal column as a seeker progresses spiritually. Under the guidance of an enlightened teacher, kundalini meditations may be appropriate. But it can be a dangerous practice. And you should be particularly cautious of any “spiritual teacher” who talks about kundalini awakenings or the blue pearl.

An Enlightened Master Describes Fake Spiritual Teachers

Many people think that they have attained the final state of full and complete liberation. They have fooled themselves, and they have fooled many other people, but they have not fooled me.

A person in this state is like a fake coin. It may look like the real thing. It can be passed around and used by ignorant people who use it to buy things with. People who have it in their pocket can boast of having a genuine coin, but it is not real. It has no value. When it is finally discovered to be a fake, the person who is circulating it, claiming that it is real, is subject to the penalties of the law. In the spiritual world, the law of karma catches up and deals with all people who are trafficking in fake experiences.

I have never passed on the truth to those whom I could see were fake coins. These people may look like gold and they may glitter for a while like gold, but they have no real value.

There are many people who can put on a good show and fool other people into believing that they are enlightened. They can recite from the Upanishads, they can say that they are enlightened, and they can play that role very well.—Papaji, Nother Ever Happened vol 3, pp. 366-367.

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Selling the Story of Awakening

There are some advanced spiritual teachers that help others to progress along the path. They teach seekers how to escape the ego’s control and the distractions of the thinking mind in order to connect with the formless unity that permeates everything in creation.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who play the role of a “spiritual teacher” are not spiritually advanced. And they are unable to help others align with the formless. They will become an obstacle to your spiritual progress. You should be aware that these types of unqualified teachers are out there and the way in which they market themselves.

Telling a Personal Story

Make no mistake about it; many people treat spirituality as a business. A person playing the role of a spiritual teacher wants you to buy their books, or attend their retreats, or pay them for one-on-one spiritual counseling.

Any business needs to market itself to prospective customers. And for the spiritual teacher the product is himself. He has to find a way for you to like and trust him.

It is common for a business person to tell their personal story to prospective customers. A story is a time-honored way of seeming more down to earth; the kind of “regular Joe” that other people can relate to in some way. The cornerstone of a spiritual teacher’s marketing campaign is the story of how he “awakened.”

The best way to be successful is to copy someone who is already successful. Eckhart Tolle is one of the most popular spiritual teachers on the planet. Many spiritual teachers use Eckhart Tolle as the model of how to run their business. They think of him as a guy who has made a lot of money selling spirituality. They don’t care that Eckhart Tolle actually did attain liberation while they have not. They are salesman and they see in Eckhart Tolle a compelling story and a style of teaching that attracts people to his books, website, and retreats.

Millions of seekers have read Eckhart Tolle’s excellent book The Power of Now. In the introduction is the story of how he attained liberation. Many salesmen decide to tell a similar story that other seekers, their prospective customers, will accept as true true because they have something lik it before.

The Competition to be Awake

There is a lot of competition among spiritual teachers. If some falsely claim to have awakened then it compels the rest to make the same claim. How can you get customers to come to your retreats by claiming that you are spiritually advanced but have yet to attain liberation? After all, a customer can simply continue searching online for a spiritual teacher who does claim to be awake. There are so many teachers claiming to be enlightened that even a spiritually-advanced teacher has to say they are enlightened just to compete for customers.

A Play on Words

An awakened person is someone who has attained liberation. And an awakening is a spiritual experience. The experience can be temporary glimpse of a higher spiritual state. Or it can be permanent shift in a person’s consciousness that enables him to more clearly perceive the deeper reality. Each seeker has many awakenings on the spiritual path.

It is common for spiritual salemen to conflate awakened and awakening. Then when they tell about a spiritual breakthrough, an awakening, it can sound like they have attained liberation.

Spiritual Interview Shows

There are shows online that interview seekers and spiritual teachers. It all sounds well and good—like minded people getting together to share their ideas and experiences in order to help one another. I like watching the spiritual interview shows online. Many of the guests are honest about their spiritual state and sincerely try to help others.

But some of the guests are just there to sell themselves as an awakened spiritual teacher even though it is not true. The spiritual shows provide a forum for people to lie about their spiritual experiences without fear of being exposed as a liar. The interviewer is not going to say, “Look you and I both know you are not enlightened.” If he did, he woud have difficulty booking future guests on his show.

It is to everyone’s benefit to keep the spiritual train moving down the tracks. The hosts get a continuous supply of guests. New guests mean new podcasts and videos for their audience to consume. And that means more contributions from their audience or advertising revenues from their youtube channel. If you don’t have new content your audience will go somewhere else. And the person claliming to be enlightened gets exposure to the show’s viewers that have not yet heard of him. Everyone wins except those that are dupped into following a spiritual teacher who is not spiritually advanced.

In all fairness to the interviewers, they are probably unable to correctly determine another person’s spiritual state. So they can’t tell if the guest is or is not enlightened.

Rationalizing the Story

You will make real spiritual progress in this lifetime by coming into contact with the light of Source. An awakened soul is a clear vessel for the light. It emanates from their form and is present in their teachings. A spiritually advanced soul still has some remaining karma. Yet they can connect deeply with Source and project the light to those they encounter.

There is an opportunity cost to following a spiritual teacher who is not advanced. The large amount of karma he carries distorts the divine light as it passes through his form. His energetic state vibrates at a much lower level than the infinitely subtle light of Source. If your attention is only focused on him you will not learn how to attune to divine light. Instead you will only learn how to attune to a lower energetic state.

The spiritual salesman and the host of a show choose to ignore that vast difference between the advanced spiritual teacher and one who not. If the saleman is not a sociopath then he tells himself that he is helping others. And making up a story about attaining liberation is necessary to making a living as a spiritual teacher.

The host tells himself that he is providing a forum for peple to learn about spirituality. And even if a guest is lying about his level of spiritual development he can still help others.

Be careful who you choose as a spiritual teacher. I have provided a list of enlightened teachers that you can rely upon for guidance.

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A Real List of Enlightened Teachers

An enlightened teacher is a person who recognizes their oneness with the infinite and who has been given the responsibility of helping others to attain liberation. There are different types of enlightened teachers. In my first book Into the Formless I categorize them as: world saviors, avatars, and realized souls.

Keep in mind that that there are only fifty-six liberated souls alive on the planet at any one time. And forty-eight of them are unknown to the public and do not have the responsibility of being a spiritual teacher.

It is common to find a list of enlightened teachers on someone’s website. But most people have not advanced far enough along the spiritual path to ascertain another person’s spiritual state. The best they can do is guess. They assume that just because a lot of people believe someone is enlightened that it must be true.

Unfortunately, the majority of people claiming to be enlightened are lying. A charlatan can manipulate a handful of people or even millions of people into believing they have attained liberation. In another article I describe these spiritual con artists in more detail.

The following are the enlightened teachers that I recommend. They have helped me progress spiritually, and they can benefit you as well.

This list does not attempt to incorporate all the enlightened teachers throughout history. However, I have made a point of including all the living spiritual teachers who are actually enlightened. If a spiritual teacher is currently living and is not on this list, there is a good reason.

Anandamayi Ma

Babaji

Buddha

Dalai Lama

Eckhart Tolle

Jesus

Krishna

Lahiri Mahasaya

Lakshmana Swamy

Mathru Sri Sarada

Meher Baba

Mother Meera

Muruganar

Nisargadatta

Papaji

Paramahansa Yogananda

Ramakrishna

Ramana Maharshi

Sri Aurobindo

Sri Yukteswar

Sweet Mother

Upasni Maharaj

Vivekananda

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How to Find a True Spiritual Teacher

It is not a simple thing to find a spiritual teacher that will help you draw closer to the divine. There is a great deal of misinformation about spirituality in our modern culture. And it is easy to make a mistake.

Seeking the Divine Inside of Religious Institutions

Almost everyone on the planet is completely identified with the ego; the false sense of separateness that is sustained by thoughts. Their awareness is trapped within the confines of the ego-controlled mind. And they are always thinking about something.

Because people are accustomed to interpreting reality through the mind, God is more of an idea than a reality that can be experienced directly. It is something you encounter in the here after instead of the here and now.

People who feel a calling to serve others and be close to God become the leaders of religious institutions. Yet in most instances, religious leaders have only a superficial understanding of the divine based on their beliefs rather than direct experience.

By relying upon the local pastor, priest, or rabbi to lead you on the spiritual path you are indoctrinated into a particular belief system. And often faith becomes the goal of your spiritual practice. Most people are never taught how to make true spiritual progress by moving their awareness beyond the limitations of the ego and connecting with the deeper reality. The simple truth is that you cannot learn how to touch the divine by someone who does not know how to do it themselves.

Seeking the Divine Outside of Religious Institutions

Beyond the confines of brick and mortar religious institutions is a world without any rules. Anyone can write a book, create a website, or form a meditation group and play the part of a “spiritual teacher.”

It is common for charlatans to lie about their spiritual state in order to attract naïve seekers looking for assistance. In almost all cases these con men have not reached a high spiritual state. And they end up impeding the spiritual development of those who look to them for guidance.

There is a meme within our modern culture that more people are “waking up.” I wish that were the case. Perhaps there are more people who are on the spiritual path. Yet that does not mean that more people are attaining liberation.

The myth of a more people waking up is consciously perpetuated by the charlatans through their books, videos, and blog postings. Do not fall for their propaganda.

According to the enlightened sage Meher Baba there are only fifty-six enlightened souls incarnate in a physical form at any one time. And of these only a small number are known to the public.

Choosing a Spiritually Advanced Teacher

There are two types of spiritual teachers that can help you progress along the path: those that are enlightened, and those that are spiritually advanced but not yet enlightened. They have the ability their awareness beyond the limitations of the thinking mind and connect deeply with Source. And they can show you how to do the same.

I would recommend that you find an enlightened spiritual teacher. They will be the most helpful in removing obstacles to your spiritual progress. And they will help you to remain focused on the deeper reality and not become distracted by visions of the energetic planes, which derails many seekers.

But how do you find a spiritual teacher who is actually enlightened? Unfortunately, most of the people claiming to be enlightened are either lying or deluding themselves.

The vast majority of seeker can only guess as to whether another person has attained liberation. Only someone who has reached an advanced spiritual state can tell whether another person has attained liberation.

One of the reasons I wrote my first book Into the Formless was to help people find a truly enlightened teacher to help them progress along the spiritual path. It contains a list of the enlightened teachers I recommend, some of whom are living and some are not. Those that are still living are: Mother Meera, Eckhart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, Lakshmana Swamy, and Saradamma.

Take responsibility for your own spiritual fate. Only you can find your unique path that will enable you to make the most spiritual progress in this lifetime. You will have to decide whether a spiritual teacher is important for your path. And if so which one is right for you. The spiritual teacher you choose will have a dramatic effect on your ability to dissolve past conditioning, weaken the ego, and connect with the deeper reality. So choose wisely.

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Number of People on the Spiritual Path

There is a great deal of misinformation about spirituality in our society. It seems that those who don’t know often drown out the voices of those that do. It is a mistake to believe that just because a person has a large social media presence, or a best-selling book, that he has any true insight into the deeper reality.

One of the more popular spiritual memes is that more people than ever before are becoming spiritually inclined. What does Meher Baba, the most recent incarnation of the world savior, have to say on the subject?

In God Speaks Meher Baba describes the soul’s journey through creation in great detail. And in Lord Meher he provides the number of souls in the stages of evolving, reincarnating, and progressing along the spiritual path. What follows is a brief summary of the soul’s journey. A more detailed description is provided in chapter four of my book Into the Formless.

In the process of evolving from lower to higher life forms a soul incarnates 8.4 million times (or 84 lakhs). Upon obtaining a human form (the highest life form) a soul reincarnates  another 8.4 million times as a human. And all the while a person is only aware of the physical plane of reality.

When a soul’s karma comes into balance it begins the spiritual journey. There are seven levels of the journey. A yogi first becomes conscious of the energetic (or subtle) planes of reality and then the mental planes.

There are 8.4 million yogis who perceive the energetic planes and another 8.4 million who are aware of the mental planes. There are currently 8.7 billion people on the planet. Of those a relatively small number are on the spiritual path. The 16.8 million yogis make up only one-fifth of one percent of the world’s population.

After evolution is finished, and the soul incarnates in human form, the same number is there of seven reverse twists and 84 lakhs of shakes of deaths and births. – Lord Meher, p. 2349

There are always and eternally 84 lakhs of souls who experience subtle experiences… There are an equal number who experience the mental world. – Lord Meher, p. 2350

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