Tuesday, January 02, 2001
By Hendrick John1) There appears to be a paradox between the two statements that will now be listed. First statement: a teacher should not be a slave to anyone, implying that people should try to work out their problems for themselves. Second statement: people should obtain information from a teacher by asking directly for help, implying it is not good for people to obtain information and not be aware of its relevance to their lives. However people should go to a teacher in a way that summarizes these two ideas without any conflict. People should go to a teacher after making their best attempt at solving a problem. In other words, people should go to a teacher with their best effort and put it on the table to show that they have been trying their best to work out their problems for themselves. People should then ask a teacher for directions to enable them to improve the solution that they have formulated. In other words, people should not go to a teacher with the attitude that they are giving him their problems to solve. People should do as much work as they can on their problems before they meet a teacher and after meeting a teacher they should expect to continue working on their problems. After talking to a teacher, the new information obtained from the teacher should help the student to work smarter.
2) The answers to many problems are very simple. So if people have not tried their best to solve a problem and put their best efforts on the table, it is easy for them to think that they could have solved the problem on their own when they are presented with the answer. Indeed, people often deny that the solutions to problems are so simple and this implies a lack of respect for the person attempting to teach them. When problems and solutions are discussed abstractly people often deny that they have the problems that are being discussed, or they find it very difficult to decipher which of their actions or attitudes depict the given problems.
3) If people don't seek help from a teacher to improve the solutions that they have chosen for dealing with given situations, they can maintain inefficient methods of conduct for indefinite periods of time. And poor methods of conduct can make a student very unattractive and push him away from a teacher very quickly. But the onus is always on the student to go to the teacher because if the student has not tried his best and recognized his limitations he may fool himself into thinking that he could have made important shifts in attitude and thought without the help of the teacher.
4) Until people reach the level where they are completely free of low level thoughts they have to use reason and seek the help of teachers to free themselves of low level thoughts. Once low level thoughts still drift through a person's mind it means that he has work to do on his attitude because the same situation that triggered a low level thought would have trigged a higher thought if his attitude was better.
5) It is the attitude of a teacher that allows him to see a student suffering and not condemn or laugh at him, but be able quite naturally to support and guide him out of his suffering if he ask for help properly. People that can see the connectedness of all things will not want any thing to suffer. Pleasure derived from the suffering of others is short lived because a price has to be paid for that kind of pleasure due to cause and effect. But pleasure derived from the success and happiness of good people is food for the Gods. Also people are free to remain ignorant if that is their wish. People can directly choose ignorance by making a clear statement, or they can indirectly choose ignorance because of their inability to move towards the truth. The best way for a teacher to deal with suffering when people are not asking for help is to ignore it. When a teacher ignores the suffering of people that are not asking for help, they are then able to choose freely whether they wish to remain ignorant or ask properly for help.
6) When people become aware of levels of interacting that are above their competence, this may significantly retard their growth because they may start spending time attempting to operate at higher levels when their time will be best spent completing their present level. Plenty student honesty and teacher directions are required for a student to be able to give his full attention to his true level when he has become aware of higher levels. In other words a student will be quite lost without the help of a teacher. On the other hand, a person may grow pass a particular level and not be aware of it and refuse to accept his new position even when this is pointed out to him by a teacher. However when people start experiencing discomfort at a particular level it then become clear to them that they need to move and they become more accommodating to new behavior patterns that are commensurate with their new level of awareness. Also a student can't be aware of all the levels of existence that he is required to pass through along his path of development. So it is important for him to keep in close contact with his teacher to confirm the position of his awareness at any given point in time.
7) People should practice asking themselves what they want to do before they ask anyone else about their intentions. It is amazing, but most people are quite unsure of their inner desires and need to practice acquainting themselves with these desires by asking themselves more direct questions and paying closer attention to answers coming from within themselves.
8) During development a student will be required to engage a particular activity in different ways depending on his level of consciousness. If a student attempt to do any particular thing the same way all the time he will in effect be attempting to stop his growth. Change is the only constant in the universe, so no developing person should try to hold on to any particular position.
9) It is clear that a woman is the physical representation of the female principle. Similarly, developing people are the physical representation of the essence of the universe at the various levels that they can be found, so no one can disrespect a physical representation of the universal essence at one level and hope to get acceptance from another representation at a higher level. When anyone receive energy it must pass through connected people on its way to them, so people should not only be thankful for the energy that they received, but they should be just as thankful and respectful for the physical representation of the energy that they are enjoying.
10) People receive gifts from the energy in direct proportion to the effort that they expend in trying to embrace the energy, so people should not be too worried about making mistakes. In other words, when a person recover from acting at lower levels and seek the energy with plenty vigor, they must get what is due to them and nobody can block that. Similarly no one can give anyone anything that they don't deserve. This is another expression of the law of cause and effect. This should not be confused with being forceful or disrespectful. If someone can't help another person with what he is looking for that person simply has to step aside and allow him to continue seeking at other levels. This principle is true whether the seeker is moving up or down.
11) A person that wish to get more experiences should ask other people to share their experiences with him, but timing is very important and people should not intrude on the privacy of others. To ensure that he is acting in order, a student should ask for the help of his teacher to find out which other persons are ready to share their experiences.
12) It is clear that people cause great pain when they tell others that what they are doing is wrong, but are unable to direct them to a better way of engaging life. This truth will become clear anytime a person experience a situation in which he is told that what he is doing is wrong without proper directions for him to change and be better.
Further clarification on the subject of straight talk