When we begin our process of awakening, one of the first things we are confronted with is the vast array of teachers, systems, philosophies, beliefs, structures, and gurus all purporting a spiritual life, all believing in their system, and most with the highest of intentions for good.
The obvious question forms, how will you know when you've found your path?
In order to answer that question, we must first understand the human mindset, and the operating system we are all equipped with that runs the programs creating our world and subjective worldview.
Recognizing Fruit
Taking great liberties from a biblical story about Jesus, to paraphrase, when Jesus is asked by his disciples how will they know the difference between good and evil once he has departed his physical life. Jesus' response was "It is through ye own fruit shall ye be known." Meaning, it is only through the results in our life can we ever know whether we are living a life of good, or of evil.
Wow! Jesus was telling us that we are ultimately responsible for the results we have in our lives, and that we will know whether we've been following the path of good by the life that we lead. It's just that simple.
The trick here is... Are we able to spot spoiled fruit, AND, will we eat it anyway?
I think we can all agree that we have a hand in creating the current reality we are living. Others will go as far to acknowledge that they 100% create their lives, they just might not know the hows & whys as to why it looks the way it does.
If this is true, then it is suffice it to say we might not be able to recognize how our evil is operating in the results we are getting in our lives.
Perhaps it is a good time to simplify the meaning of evil. In the mystery school, we define evil as anything that stops the progression of another being. I think we can all agree we stop our forward movement more than any other person in the world. From this perspective, we are then ultimately responsible for the sour fruit in our lives.
The good news is, we have the ability to change this pattern. And, for so many of us, this was the driving force onto our spiritual path. We could see that the results of our lives did not fully reflect the life that we desired to be living, and we were desperately attempting to figure out why. However, there are masses of people who are willing to accept that this is the life they've been dealt and they just have to trudge through life anyway letting go of their hopes and dreams, resigned to a life of mediocrity.
Our human process is set. It is built the way it is built because of the nature of who and what we are in the greater scope of the Universe. You can learn more about this process in a 2-day Adept Training program called Empower Thyself. Until you receive the mystery school teachings on this topic, let's agree to think of this process as a cycle that operates the same way all of the time. We cannot change the cycle, but we can take control at certain points within the cycle, and, as we learn to master ourselves, we can even learn to use the cycle and harness and direct our will towards positively creating our desires and safely expressing our emotions.
When we look for an authentic path, for qualified teachers or systems, we must be able to confirm their fruit. One surefire way of doing that is by asking questions. For example:
Are they doing their own work to heal, grow, progress?
Can you witness their growth and changes? How does it show in their lives?
What do their real lives look like away from the cameras or seminars?
Do they represent a life I want to be living?
Do they claim to be healed, fixed, or perfect?
Am I being manipulated?
Do I have to give up my life, or can I still choose what my life will be and how I will live it.
Are there authentic pathways towards self-mastery?
The answers to these questions can absolutely assist in our discernment process. When I was starting on my path I needed people further down the Path to show me what was possible. I could witness the power of the Lineage by viewing what they were busy creating and manifesting in their lives. Until I started getting my own results, I needed the proof in their results to keep me moving forward.
An even better key to discernment is to know what it is that you'd like to gain in your life as a result of walking a spiritual path. Have you asked yourself this question? Have you given yourself time to fully develop the answer?
I recommend you take some time to fully explore this before reading the second post on this topic. You're worth every minute of the work!
In the next installment of this article (coming out August 17), we will be covering discernment: how perception and personality works a veil through which we view reality; how the ego ties into this process; and, how we can clean up the veil in order to live in true reality.