Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness - http://cultureofawareness.com/2014/11/08/spiritual-condemnation-and-the-new-age-maze-part-23/
Continued from Part 1
Any belief system can cause us to give our power away, and beyond its more sensationalistic aspects, I don’t think there’s anything about the ‘new age’ movement that sets it apart from other belief systems or disempowers the seekers who resonate with it.
Every belief system has empowered and disempowered its followers at times, and this is because we determine the progress we make, no matter what beliefs or concepts we advocate.
Yes, the ‘new age’ movement (and everything that comes with it) could coerce a seeker to give their power away to apparent higher-dimensional entities, but so can any other belief system.
Certain belief systems encourage us to give our power away to living gurus – people who claim to have a greater link with spirit and should be followed by their ‘disciples’.
The article’s author encourages us to put our faith in each other as humans with a growing spiritual link instead of entities who already claim higher-dimensional status, but many of our living, human gurus have claimed Godly status and advised us to see them as embodiments of God.
These quotes from Paramahansa Ramakrishna attest to this.
“One must not look on one’s guru as a mere human being: it is Satchidananda Himself who appears as the guru. When the disciple has the vision of the Ishta, through the guru’s grace, he finds the guru merging in Him.” (1)
“It is Satchidananda that comes to us in the form of the guru. If a man is initiated by a human guru, he will not achieve anything if he regards his guru as a mere man. The guru should be regarded as the direct manifestation of God. Only then can the disciple have faith in the mantra given by the guru. Once a man has faith he achieves all.” (2)
What’s the difference between this and the idea that higher-dimensional entities exist and can be followed by seekers who want/require a little extra assistance along the spiritual path? There’s very little difference in my opinion, except for the idea that, again, these teachers have already done the inner work that’s required to become exalted.
These teachers tell us that faith – in ourselves and them – is necessary to get the most out of their assistance, and anyone who advocates ‘new age’ concepts will tell you that this is exactly what a lot of channeled sources encourage.
Yes, there are a lot of obvious fallacies in the ‘new age’/channeling movement that shouldn’t be overlooked, but this doesn’t have to discredit the potentially genuine work that’s been done by various ‘channelers’ in connecting with entities who could potentially be from the higher realms.
In regards to eastern spirituality, there are plenty of false gurus out there who only want to gain followers or make a quick buck. Should this invalidate the teachings of Ramakrishna, Bodhidharma, Krishnamurti or any others?
Only if we let it.
The point I want to make is that we’ve all embraced different beliefs that, if we’re diligent enough to do the necessary inner work, will lead us back into the higher realms.
We don’t gain anything by rebelling against beliefs that don’t resonate with us but could very well help others, and all we do is feed the same old religious/spiritual division that’s caused strife and war for centuries.
I’ve said before that I think the conscious community should come together in love and respect for our diverse beliefs instead of fighting over them or claiming certain beliefs are incorrect. Love and respect are more important than a lot of seekers seem to realize.
We won’t make any progress if we continue to fight over our beliefs, and instead, we can recognize that even though our beliefs can assist, they aren’t inherently necessary or required to help us along our spiritual growth – our awareness is. No matter what beliefs we empower, we can either make progress or remain stagnant.
Our beliefs don’t determine the progress we make – only we do.
For example, I’m sure some followers of eastern spirituality have given their power away to gurus and stalled their spiritual growth for years, whereas some followers of certain ‘new age’ beliefs have quickly recognized that it’s up to them to find a higher state of consciousness.
The situation could be reversed – eastern spiritual followers could quickly excel while followers of ‘new age’ material could remain stagnant or continue to give their power away to channeled sources. So we see, it isn’t the beliefs themselves that determine our spiritual growth, but what we do with them.
I didn’t write this to rebel against what the article’s author said, however, and I noticed some startling similarities between what she said and what I’ve noticed in my few years observing the ‘new age’ corner of the conscious community.
Like this:
“Over the years many have encountered various New Age gurus and others who fancied themselves, ‘star seeds’, ‘guardians’ and the like. They all seem to have two things in common:
“Very few (if any) of them had undertaken the study of existing philosophical and spiritual texts available to mankind written before the New Age movement began. Neither had they taken up a sincere practice of self mastery and development. They accept concepts without ever researching where the concept or idea originated.
“All of them believed they were special somehow. Not like the rest of humanity and yet were full of insecurities and fears.” (3)
I’ve noticed a lot of this flying around the ‘new age’ corner of our community – people who’ve discovered certain ideas (or were told certain things by a medium) and suddenly emerged as apparent exalted spiritual figures, even though they, like everyone else, still had a lot of growing to do and a lot of issues to resolve.
If any of you read my work when I first started out, you’d think I was the biggest ‘new age’ fanatic around. I fell into the very trap this author mentions here, because I discovered various concepts and quickly embraced them without doing my homework or learning their history or anything that could’ve changed my perspective on them.
I started channeling the Pleiadians, Ascended Masters, Hathors, etc. and I wholeheartedly felt that I was doing the right thing.
Those of you who read my material today might be surprised to learn that I was as deep into these beliefs as the biggest ‘fanatics’ out there, but I soon realized that inner work is far more important than leaning on the advice and guidance of anyone who exists outside of me – even a higher-dimensional entity.
Yes, a lot of seekers who resonate with ‘new age’ concepts are probably still trapped in certain limited beliefs or mindsets, but I found my way out of the apparent ‘new age maze’ pretty easily. I did this with the intuitive assistance of my higher self, who I think we should all connect with before we try to connect with any other entity.
The article’s author may not realize that even the craziest ‘new age’ beliefs have still helped a lot of seekers liberate themselves. It isn’t because these beliefs are somehow ‘better’ or ‘realer’ than others – it’s because we’re all searching for spirit and with determination, we will find a higher state of consciousness, regardless of the beliefs that lead us there.
Footnotes:
- Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 1016.
- Ibid., 292.
- “Fantastic Beasts and How to Lose Them” Written by Era Denmark, Era-Denmark.org, September 15, 2014 – http://era-denmark.org/2014/09/15/fantasticbeast/
Concluded in Part 3 tomorrow. To read the full post, head here.
Replies