Paths of the Spiritual Warrior
- By Gayle Gregory
- Published 11/10/2008
- Self Help
- Unrated
Gayle Gregory
Gayle Gregory, co-author of The Grand Experiment, an Expedition of Self-Discovery, is a coach/consultant dedicated to radically transforming humanity's interactions, personally, locally and globally. Freedom from fear is not only possible, it is our birthright! http://www.pure-possibility.org
View all articles by Gayle Gregory
Finding the certainty of genuine commitment
A Bug’s Life: “1st rule of leadership; everything is your fault.”
The paths of the spiritual warrior are many. Even when it appears we are not on the sacred path, we are, for either everything is sacred or nothing is. In my experience everything is sacred even those things we deem unworthy of such a majestic word, for everything can be used as a homing beam, pointing us to the truth of who we are. Looking back upon my spiritual path, two apparently different paths emerge—the path of full responsibility and its sister, the path of full surrender.
If you can accept full responsibility everything becomes your own making. You get credit for both sides of the coin—the blame and the accolades. You and only you are responsible for your life. Of course, if you look only at your outcomes, without clearly seeing the foundational beliefs, you may find yourself leaning more towards criticism than applause.
This is an interesting path, choosing full responsibility, especially when it is embraced to its ultimate conclusion that there is actually no one here other than you. As you stay present with your creation, the truth unfolds. There is only you and your versions, interpretations, and musings on life. Everything outside of the present moment exists inside the bubble of your mind.
Although true, this path is quite difficult to embrace. Mind wants a sparring partner—something to rant and rave about, to compare and contrast, to push against, someone with which to share its glories. None exists, other than you, upon this path. When one accepts full responsibility looking inward to understand the outward becomes the choiceless choice. It drops you quite effortlessly onto the razor’s edge, right in the middle of Now.
“Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.” Carlos Castaneda
This was my first, or at least what appeared to my uneducated mind to be, my first of two apparently different paths. I couldn’t use the word God and I recoiled against the term Christ even more quickly. I had run away from my religious upbringing as fast as my two legs could carry me. There was no God! There was only me. Therefore I didn’t consider option two.
Option two, although even less easy to swallow, is to give away all thought of responsibility or credit—to forgive it all back to God, to acknowledge that we are engaged in a most amazing dance with the Infinite, a dance beyond comprehension. With this option we begin to see that we are engaged in an amazing adventure, so amazing that breathless surprises await us around every corner. Life is seen as a ‘seat of the pants’ adventure, with you sitting atop the edge of possibility. This path too, removes the sparring partner, other than God of course, and with a little practice this idea too, looses its luster. Sparring with God is the definitive no-win scenario.
The first path, absolute responsibility, no one but you, just you and the steering wheel of life, stops projection in its tracks. There is no one left to blame. There is also no point to accolades as there isn’t anyone left to impress.
There is only you. You are creating it all. This path is not about placing blame. It is about deep intentions and solving a grand inner mystery.
The second, all responsibility given back to God, surrendered to what is, the Divine’s puppet in a rigged game, takes all the fight out of the do-machine you perceive yourself to be. If God is doing it through you, through the other guy too, then there is only God to blame or praise—for everything. Yes you can rail at the heavens, but to what purpose? Within this path you can’t change anything, so all that remains is to decide what gives you the most peace. When you pay attention, you will quickly see that a deeper surrender to the here and now is your only choice. Any other reaction is grabbing at a steering wheel firmly planted in the hands of heaven.
“Within these premises, the only thing one can be is an impeccable mediator. One is not the player in this cosmic match of chess, one is simply a pawn on the chessboard. What decides everything is a conscious impersonal energy that sorcerers call intent or the Spirit.” Carlos Castaneda
Both are paths of the spiritual warrior, a full commitment to undoing everything we have created and believed in. It is a return to innocence, to who we are before our first thought of ‘I’. Both are answers to the search, leading to the same conclusion.
One strips away everything in one act—it is all yours God. The commitment then begins to work within you, reminding you each time you slip back into ownership. “Oh, yes. I remember. I am but the puppet.” The commitment works as a wedge, quickly, subtly nudging you back to acceptance, letting you see your beliefs in ownership at work, allowing you to consciously release them.
Full ownership strips away beliefs and creations as well. If I am the absolute creator then something within me is creating this that is appearing. What is that something? What is determining my life experience? If everything is a project of this mind, what beliefs and thoughts are driving and determining my life? These questions plunge one into an inner search unlike any other, a search with twists and turns, both gut-wrenching and expansive.
Even though apparently dissimilar, the paths are convergent, leading us eventually to the same last gasping breath of understanding. As you strip away your beliefs, whether your path is creator or creator’s puppet, everything falls away. The concept of being the creator falls into the Oneness with the recognition that there is no 'I', that even the 'I' is mind’s creation. And, as all resistance to powerlessness is released, inner silence complete, God’s puppet falls back into God.
“Inner silence works from the moment you begin to accrue it. What the old sorcerers were after was the final dramatic, end result of reaching that individual threshold of silence.” Carlos Castaneda
The certainty of genuine commitment comes as one chooses rather than flailing back and forth between the two paths, believing this I have responsibility for, this I do not. This flailing about is mind’s game, an illusion without end. It is the game most of us experience as life. I know these paths well. Taken together, they pave many paths to hell, all mind’s dead-ends, a mental ping-pong match where you are the ball with no safe place to land. Choose one. It doesn’t matter which. Both lead to the same jumping off spot! I chose personal responsibility first until it became ridiculously clear that something bigger than me was in play. Choose whichever causes the most discomfort if you dare.
A Bug’s Life: “1st rule of leadership; everything is your fault.”
The paths of the spiritual warrior are many. Even when it appears we are not on the sacred path, we are, for either everything is sacred or nothing is. In my experience everything is sacred even those things we deem unworthy of such a majestic word, for everything can be used as a homing beam, pointing us to the truth of who we are. Looking back upon my spiritual path, two apparently different paths emerge—the path of full responsibility and its sister, the path of full surrender.
If you can accept full responsibility everything becomes your own making. You get credit for both sides of the coin—the blame and the accolades. You and only you are responsible for your life. Of course, if you look only at your outcomes, without clearly seeing the foundational beliefs, you may find yourself leaning more towards criticism than applause.
This is an interesting path, choosing full responsibility, especially when it is embraced to its ultimate conclusion that there is actually no one here other than you. As you stay present with your creation, the truth unfolds. There is only you and your versions, interpretations, and musings on life. Everything outside of the present moment exists inside the bubble of your mind.
Although true, this path is quite difficult to embrace. Mind wants a sparring partner—something to rant and rave about, to compare and contrast, to push against, someone with which to share its glories. None exists, other than you, upon this path. When one accepts full responsibility looking inward to understand the outward becomes the choiceless choice. It drops you quite effortlessly onto the razor’s edge, right in the middle of Now.
“Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.” Carlos Castaneda
This was my first, or at least what appeared to my uneducated mind to be, my first of two apparently different paths. I couldn’t use the word God and I recoiled against the term Christ even more quickly. I had run away from my religious upbringing as fast as my two legs could carry me. There was no God! There was only me. Therefore I didn’t consider option two.
Option two, although even less easy to swallow, is to give away all thought of responsibility or credit—to forgive it all back to God, to acknowledge that we are engaged in a most amazing dance with the Infinite, a dance beyond comprehension. With this option we begin to see that we are engaged in an amazing adventure, so amazing that breathless surprises await us around every corner. Life is seen as a ‘seat of the pants’ adventure, with you sitting atop the edge of possibility. This path too, removes the sparring partner, other than God of course, and with a little practice this idea too, looses its luster. Sparring with God is the definitive no-win scenario.
The first path, absolute responsibility, no one but you, just you and the steering wheel of life, stops projection in its tracks. There is no one left to blame. There is also no point to accolades as there isn’t anyone left to impress.
The second, all responsibility given back to God, surrendered to what is, the Divine’s puppet in a rigged game, takes all the fight out of the do-machine you perceive yourself to be. If God is doing it through you, through the other guy too, then there is only God to blame or praise—for everything. Yes you can rail at the heavens, but to what purpose? Within this path you can’t change anything, so all that remains is to decide what gives you the most peace. When you pay attention, you will quickly see that a deeper surrender to the here and now is your only choice. Any other reaction is grabbing at a steering wheel firmly planted in the hands of heaven.
“Within these premises, the only thing one can be is an impeccable mediator. One is not the player in this cosmic match of chess, one is simply a pawn on the chessboard. What decides everything is a conscious impersonal energy that sorcerers call intent or the Spirit.” Carlos Castaneda
Both are paths of the spiritual warrior, a full commitment to undoing everything we have created and believed in. It is a return to innocence, to who we are before our first thought of ‘I’. Both are answers to the search, leading to the same conclusion.
One strips away everything in one act—it is all yours God. The commitment then begins to work within you, reminding you each time you slip back into ownership. “Oh, yes. I remember. I am but the puppet.” The commitment works as a wedge, quickly, subtly nudging you back to acceptance, letting you see your beliefs in ownership at work, allowing you to consciously release them.
Full ownership strips away beliefs and creations as well. If I am the absolute creator then something within me is creating this that is appearing. What is that something? What is determining my life experience? If everything is a project of this mind, what beliefs and thoughts are driving and determining my life? These questions plunge one into an inner search unlike any other, a search with twists and turns, both gut-wrenching and expansive.
Even though apparently dissimilar, the paths are convergent, leading us eventually to the same last gasping breath of understanding. As you strip away your beliefs, whether your path is creator or creator’s puppet, everything falls away. The concept of being the creator falls into the Oneness with the recognition that there is no 'I', that even the 'I' is mind’s creation. And, as all resistance to powerlessness is released, inner silence complete, God’s puppet falls back into God.
“Inner silence works from the moment you begin to accrue it. What the old sorcerers were after was the final dramatic, end result of reaching that individual threshold of silence.” Carlos Castaneda
The certainty of genuine commitment comes as one chooses rather than flailing back and forth between the two paths, believing this I have responsibility for, this I do not. This flailing about is mind’s game, an illusion without end. It is the game most of us experience as life. I know these paths well. Taken together, they pave many paths to hell, all mind’s dead-ends, a mental ping-pong match where you are the ball with no safe place to land. Choose one. It doesn’t matter which. Both lead to the same jumping off spot! I chose personal responsibility first until it became ridiculously clear that something bigger than me was in play. Choose whichever causes the most discomfort if you dare.