Excerpt from The One – The Book of Life, Death and Rebirth

The second part of The One will be an ‘anti-spiritual’ book 

There is a fundamental principle in the ancient Jewish mystical teaching, the Kabbalah. This principle, which is a warning at the same time, is as follows. Under the age of forty it is forbidden to work with spiritual teaching! Even after that it is only for those who have reached a certain stability in their physical existence or who are proficient in sciences and can observe unexplainable phenomena realistically.

This is a very clever warning. For several reasons. The human mind can basically develop and expand through its own experiences, in its own rhythm. Expanding it by force can bring about experiences that it cannot process.

Even if its possibilities for development are endless, not being able to ‘meet’ these lofty teachings can cause a serious inner conflict. There’s no point in telling you to reside in the Now, let go of your fears, forgive, attract what you desire – if you fail in them in spite of all your effort, you will feel ultra hopeless and it will push you under even deeper.

We are told to forgive – but what actually are we supposed to do? How can I forgive someone who has hurt me in all the mean manifestations of human nature possible? Should I exempt them? Should I pretend as if nothing had happened and become a victim? Or how can I let go of my fears? Should I pretend I am not afraid? Should I ignore this as well?

The problem is, it doesn’t work this way. The reason being, basically, is that one may choose to hide, cover it up and it is yet another escape from life, from reality. All that says: do it now, will only create a new conflict.

All that happens in our life has its unique rhythm. The soul and the mind have their own evolutionary path. This is what we should consider the most. We should give ourselves time and begin with acknowledging our physical reality.

The first step to forgiveness is acknowledging your pain. Daring to face it. Allowing yourself to hurt and be angry. Having the courage to feel the anger. Then after the anger has passed, having the ability to see the events clearly. You choose to express being hurt.

Then you recognize your own responsibility as well, finding inside yourself that which still allowed it to happen. Realizing that in this particular phase of your life you were not able to do otherwise and neither was the other. Understanding that these realizations lead you to the ability to do it differently, not caring whether the other will change one day as well, or not.

Forgiving and undoing the fears is a slow and active path. Spirituality is essentially both inner and outer action. Doing all that will bring us a better quality of life. Sorting out everything in our physical and psychological environment, and the first step in this is taking the courage to face our reality. We face it and put things in place, without waiting for some magic from all kinds of higher powers.

One day a very talented painter contacted me for advice. He flew all the way here from America to see me.  He spoke to me for an hour about all kinds of magical powers, methods and techniques. He practiced all of them but his life was a chaos. During our conversation it turned out that his apartment was also a mess. At the end of the session he enthusiastically asked me to tell him what to do in order to get enlightened.

I simply answered: Go home. Clean your apartment and when that’s done, call me again.

He was disappointed. He faced his reality.

Berni Barna

www.bernibarna.com

Photo by Scott Kirwan on Unsplash