“Yoga essentially means that in search of well being, you do not look up, you do not look out – you look inward.” Sadhguru calls this “inner engineering”, I call it the complete “spiritual science” which I briefly introduced in my last post. Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21
I started by looking up to Heaven. But then I found out that the believer’s Heaven was not the answer for me. By comparing many religions, I found out that all exoterics, having a believer-mindset, look up. This can becomes a withdrawal into a belief that disregards and disrespects the outside world. It was “pie in the sky.”
I picked up this idea from my father’s experiences, which I later called his “pastry in the sky.” But he had to start from somewhere, and so did I before I was ready to explore everywhere.
“As a little boy my father grew up in Italy. Present even in his small village there was the negative talk of religious doomsayers. One day his small village was abuzz with the impending end of the world. Someone had spread the prophecy news that tonight would be the end.
Well, my father being an Italian, loved food, especially pastry. Being a trusting child he thought to himself, ‘I want to eat some good pastry before end of the world. I don’t know if there is any Italian pastry in Heaven.’
So he smashed his little piggy bank and bought as much of the best pastry as his money would buy. He then went up the little hill outside his village and waited with the entire village for the end of the world to come. He enjoyed his pastry. He waited all night. He went back to work the next day. And now you know how the rest of the story ended.” thecosmicreligion.com
To “look out” is another pattern people choose to find well-being. Yes, for a while, the outer world offers many conveniences, comforts, and companionship along with stress, suffering, and separation. No assurance of eternal well-being.
In the first edition of the magazine, “Voice of Paradox,” I wrote, “Religion is not the description of Spiritual Source, rather religion is essentially experiencing and communicating with the Eternal Creator.”
I recognized now that it is exoteric religion that emphasizes words of description and rituals. Whereas the esoteric aspect of religion, its “spiritual science”, really highlights establishing contact and communion with Spirit.
To acknowledge only people in “grade school” as religious is to disregard “middle school” and “high school” arrangements of continuing religious evolution. Humanity needs the “scientific spiritual” yoga of the mystics and Masters to complete their education and continue their evolution. This has the potential to establish world peace through one’s self-peace.
I found my answer with the training and blessings of the Yoga Masters. In other words, until we make the supreme effort to claim our true spiritual stature, we live in overwhelming ignorance of our divine identity.