Our Meetings with Remarkable SA's

Up to this point, our discussion of spiritual authorities has been somewhat of a theoretical exercise, with considerations of the possible benefits and problems resulting from interactions with spiritual authorities. I thought it might be beneficial for the group to talk about some of the actual spiritual teachers whom we have engaged, those who have--for better or worse--influenced our lives, our ability to think and reflect independently, our willingness to take responsibility for our choices and their consequences, and finally, that have shaped our general views about spiritual teachers. So the "remarkable" in the subject line indicates spiritual authorities that have been memorable to us because they were so outstandingly qualified or unqualified in the aspects mentioned above.

In this thread, I personally will discuss--in separate entries--the five or six spiritual mentors that have been a source of wisdom and inspiration for me at various times in my life. Happily, I have been spared any negative encounters with spiritual authorities in this particular embodiment, for which I credit primarily my first spiritual teacher, who gave me both the eye to recognize, as well as the standard to check, the spiritual authorities I later met along the byways of my life.


Rev. Paula Scott was the minister of the Unity church I attended as a child. The weekly services were held just six blocks from my house, so I was able to walk there every Sunday.

During one particular Sunday service, when I was seven years old, Rev. Paula included in her sermon a personal story of betrayal. She discovered one day that two long-standing members of a prior congregation had been spreading malicious lies about her for several weeks, to retaliate for her refusal to invest the church's funds in a financial scheme that they had devised. When she learned about the situation, Rev. Paula was taken aback not only to hear of the gossip spoken against her, but also to consider why it took weeks for anyone to come to her and ask if the information was true.

She contemplated the events for the entire day, and then went to her altar that evening to pray, determined to follow Jesus' admonition to let go of all feelings of antagonism toward the two perpetrators before she went to bed that night. In her own words, she wrestled with her demons hour after hour, refusing to surrender what her ego saw as a legitimate grievance. Seven hours later, exhausted, she happened to look out of her large picture window just as the sun's first rays streamed over the town below. "The sun shines upon the just and the unjust ,"--she heard God speak the Bible passage that she had often recited to others. At that moment, she said, all her resentment vanished.

Even at the tender young age of seven, I knew my life had taken a turn that morning. I felt a shift then, that looking back I recognize as having been certain loss of innocence. Until that time, life for me had been about garnering as much joy out of every moment as possible--a lawful pursuit for any seven-year-old. Now, suddenly, I understood that life was about growth, that growth often demanded painful choices, and that if I made those choices year after year, I could become like Rev. Paula, a person I loved dearly.

Most significantly, I became aware that morning, as a never before, of the "second-person" aspect of God--the One who would speak in my heart when I was facing powerful obstacles, whom I would one day experience as my inner Atman, but who now stood firmly outside and beside me to make the world safe for all my future initiations into adulthood.

Rev. Paula's hardfought battles with the "demons" of her youth paid off in her later years, when she attained the depth, serenity and lightheartedness of a Tibetan lama. These qualities became my enduring "standard to check" when assessing the many spiritual teachers who would later come into my world.
Rev. Paula lived to be 98 years old, and delivered her weekly sermons until the very last months of her life.


Next entry: Zen meets the Law of Attraction in Erhard's Seminars Training.

Hey Lynne,

Thanks for getting the ball rolling again. A wonderful story you started with.

I loved the idea you proposed...so here goes.

This may seem 'light' but was major in my early life...my dog Duke. A shepard/collie mix that was my companion from ~2 yrs to ~10 yrs. I was told later of the time he grabbed me by my diapers and pulled me from hanging on the bumper of the 'ice cream truck' as it was pulling away. He taught me much about loyalty & fierce devotion.

Not insignificant for this youngster at the time.

More later.
Cheers,
Doug

Lynne, You rock !!! Thank you for once again leading us in a very worthwhile direction.

I will start as Doug has with one of my first spiritual teachers. My dog Spunky. While there are many other Spiritual Authorities who have influenced me in higher order ways as Rev. Paula Scott has influenced Lynne, Spunky's influence had a profound impact on my spiritual unfolding. During some very important, critical and extremely painful times in early life Spunky was the only being I really opened my heart to. I don?t think that it is overly anthropomorphizing to say that there is a palpable openness, straightforwardness and innocence that some animals posses. Spunky possessed those qualities which helped me to keep a place in my heart open in spite of the many personal and interpersonal problems I was having in my life during those times.

At times in my youth when I was literally on the verge of ending my life Spunky helped me to know I was not alone. Just like the dogs who sense when their owners are about to have a seizure Spunky consistently sensed when I was in a really bad place and during those periods he would engage with me in a way he never did at any other times. He would engage with me in a way that pulled me out of my darkness and opened my heart.

Anthropomorphizing....projecting into Spunky what I needed at the time ? Perhaps. But to some extent isn?t that a major role of a good Spiritual Authority, of a guru?.....To act as a mirror for what it is we need to see most but at the time are unable to see within ourselves? In that respect Spunky truly was one of my first gurus.

When Spunky was 15 years old (pretty old for a dog) he developed a tumor in his throat. I was in my early twenties at the time. In the end he was in tremendous pain and was delirious and unaware of his surroundings or anyone around him. We took him to the vet to be put to sleep. He had a shunt in his leg so the final injection would be easy and painless. I held him on my lap, my arms wrapped around him, tears gushing down my cheeks. I thanked him for keeping me alive......really, for keeping me alive. And I thanked him for helping me to have the openness of heart that allowed me at that moment to deeply, fully grieve the loss of this being that I felt so profoundly connected to. My grief at that moment was a celebration and acknowledgment of the bond I had with Spunky. It was a testament to my ability to keep my heart open not just to pleasure and joy but to pain and sorrow as well. It was an expression of my love for that beautiful little soul.

I held Spunky as the vet injected the overdose of sleeping meds into his shunt. He was in great pain and the tumor in his throat made it incredibly difficult for him to breath. He had been completely unresponsive to any stimuli in the outside world and his eyes were rolled up in his head. But at the moment the vet put the injection in his shunt a sense of clarity came over him. His stared directly into my eyes and their was a luminescence in his eyes that I had never experienced before in my life. Although that moment probably only lasted a few seconds it seemed eternal and everything in the room became crystal clear and all the colors shined with the same sort of luminescence that I saw in Spunky's eyes (it is a luminescence that I hope to someday come close to recapturing in my art). And then his eyes slowly lost their focus again and closed. His body relaxed and he stopped struggling to breath. There was a peacefulness that came over me in seeing his struggling end and it lifted my grief.

For the rest of that day everything seemed radiant in a way that I would not experience again in such a sustained way until years later on meditation retreats. And since that time my relationship with death has been much different. My experience being with Spunky when he died was part of why I choose to work with terminality ill patients later in my career as a psychologist.

Lynne spoke of how Rev Paula contributed to her sense of safety in the world. For me Spunky helped me to feel safe and less alone in life. And he helped me to realize the beauty and sacredness of death and in doing so helped me to feel a sense of safety in death as well as in life.

Twenty years later I can still see and feel the lucidity and luminescence in his eyes during those last moments. And that recollection continues to fill me, inspire me and open me wide and vulnerable to the ever changing, beautifully impermanent nature of things.

Peace,
Love
And the healing, transformative qualities of vulnerable relationships with other beings.....

Jeff

Doug's Episode #2

Hi Friends,

Fast forward another ~10 yrs...

I'm now 19 years old & incarcerated (~1 yr) in the California Youth 'Authority' (sic) for violating the conventional culture's taboo against altering consciousness in unapproved ways...the 'devil weed'. (BTW, this was preceded by previous short term incarcerations for overdoing the 'approved' drug...alcohol).

At this 'fulcrum' of development, I was fortunate to be exposed to the writings of Ayn Rand by my ever vigilant, agnostic mother (luv ya Mom!). Thus begins a total immersion in the 'Rational Stage of Faith'. I would definitely consider Ms. Rand my Spiritual Authority during this period of development (although certainly not 'seen' that way at the time)...unquestioningly loved her writings, ideas & persona. "Long Live John Galt!". But, as a result, I began to use discriminating intelligence to evalutate declarations of all so called 'authorities', including her eventually.

At the time, I considered myself an atheist; a proponant of rational self interest; an advocate of libertarian (moderist 'liberal') economic & political philosophy. I read Aristotle, Ludwig Von Mises, Nathanial Branden, and just about anyone that didn't demand faith without empirical evidence.

To this day, I'm am still extremely grateful & still using this valued perspective daily.

And to be fair, I need to give some credit for a little 'as if' pre-taste of rationality to my pre- and post-adolescent exposure to the Sci-Fi writings of Asimov, Simak & a few others.

But, this is not the end of the story...stay tuned.

Cheers,
Doug