Jan 12, 2023
I remember so well looking at my collection of mystic books and Nag Hammadi codices realizing I had reached a kind of dead-end, a sense that no further progress can be made without contact with a living version of those paths with us now in the Twenty-First Century, a living gnosis now, a living school of spirituality now. The actual spiritual practices, East and West, are typically never written down in old scriptures and mystical texts anyway, but remain private communications only between master and disciple. With past saints we can’t sit at their feet, ask questions, take notes, or learn from them the secrets of contemplative meditation practice. As wonderful as world scriptures and the writings of past mystics might be, they are no substitute for a living spiritual path with us now in the world today, or being mentored by living spiritual teachers in-the-here-and-now. Rather than a vain attempt to figure out the methods of meditation by randomly perusing through old writings and scriptures of those who have left-the-body decades or centuries ago speculating on what their meditation techniques might have been, in Sant Mat (The Path of the Masters) the methods of sadhana (spiritual practice) are directly communicated from one generation to the next via the Living Masters of the time.
"What shall I do? The world sees yet is blind --
It has forsaken bliss and runs after earthly pursuits.
It idolizes stones and slaughters divine beings,
Adores and worships that which has no life!
The living are sacrificed at the altar of the lifeless --
The world sees yet continues to waste precious life." (Sant Namdev)
"The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass." (Kabir)
"During deep sleep we are unable to have any knowledge of this physical body; however, after waking up we recall this body, our relations and possessions. In the same manner, when we are in the three states -- awake, sleep, dreamless sleep -- we are unable to directly perceive our inner self and God. The Saints tell us that there is yet a fourth state, called the Turiya, which is above the others. In this state we can directly perceive our own nature and know the Divine." (Swami Santsevi Ji Maharaj)
"So, the path to do that is contained within this human life-form where, with the Teachings of the Masters, we leave the nine doors [of the sense organs] and come to the Tenth Door [Third Eye]. And with the Grace of the Master, we are able to see for ourselves our soul and Jyoti [the Light] within." (Baba Ram Singh)
"I wandered through the cosmos in search of the treasure but found it within me." (Sant Namdev)
In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters,
James Bean
Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts
Spiritual Awakening Radio
https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com