Thursday, January 04, 2001
By Hendrick John1) When people become aware of a truth that they did not ask for they then spend lots of time searching for ways to explain how that truth applies to them. This type of searching can lead to pain and confusion if the student does not have powerful reasoning abilities. However, if the student is willing to work hard at developing his reasoning ability, becoming aware of a truth that he did not ask for can serve as a very good and powerful stimulus that can accelerate his growth. This is an example of another phase of the teacher-student relationship where the teacher challenges the student with a higher truth and the student accepts the challenge and receives tremendous excitement as he goes about trying to capture this higher truth.
2) The way that people cope with any apparent conflict in ideas that they perceive on the path of enlightenment holds the key to their spiritual growth. It is well known that the first step to solving a problem lies in the identification of that problem. Therefore, when a developing person recognizes a conflict this represents a very important step. There are many ways to cope with a conflict and people have to choose the method that is best suited to their abilities. A common approach of people is to get angry and accuse the teacher of being unfair for leading them to that apparent conflict that seems to be so difficult to resolve. Another approach is to try to dismiss the conflict and pretend that it does not exist. Another approach is for the student to put the conflict on hold while he continues to do the things that he is clear about, so the student is not dismissing the conflict, but he is giving himself time to develop additional strength to deal with the conflict. Another approach is for the student to immediately direct all his reasoning abilities to try and solve the conflict. A wise student will seek the help of his teacher in trying to decide on an appropriate approach for solving his apparent conflict. I am not stating that any of the approaches listed above are good while others are bad and I am sure that there are many more approaches that I have not listed. However it will help if a student is honest with himself about how he wish to deal with the conflict and follow that method to the best of his ability.
3) It is impossible for people to understand and experience the connectedness of all things if they are unable to resolve conflicts. Any perceived disorder in the universe is only apparent. To see how things connect people must learn how to resolve conflicts.