Spiritual Development
This is a transcript of a talk I gave in April 2017 weeks before a week-long retreat I held at the Ratna Ling Conference Center.
Two weeks ago I had spoken to you in very candid terms about the current state of my teaching and I also talked about really what I'm open to with the group of you. Which is that I would like to be available to help you pass through the veil and stay there. To help you to live within the sacred. Because of the quality of the material world we live in, it's the kind of issue that in your life, you really need some facilitation. That's what I really would like to do with you. That requires that you get your life in order. You have to live a life that doesn't stress you and doesn't distract you from what's important and at some point, you let go of your focus on feeling better. You have to feel good enough so you can let go of being focused on that. Your life has to work well enough and you have to get healthy enough and get yourself emotionally in a condition where you can just let go of it because you're okay.
Your life is a platform for you rather than an obstacle. It has to be like that. It has to be a platform for you. But that's not what our culture is about. That's not what the spiritual subculture is that we live in. I know I'm asking something a bit odd. It's a bit challenging to ask you to just get your life in such a state where it supports you rather than always trying to somehow get yourself together. That's a lot to ask.
I'm noticing how much older I'm getting in terms of my stamina. I've got real stamina issues and I have real difficulty speaking and hearing and I have to come out of my quiet to communicate with you. And it's increasingly difficult for me to come out of my quiet. I said two weeks ago that what I'm doing with you is finite. Don't think this will go on for some extended future. There is no extended future for us. It's limited. My wife has been increasingly vociferous about me not doing Ratna Ling because she knows it's too hard on me to lead a retreat by myself for a week. It's just that way at my age. It's too much. I find myself really tired after these teachings. It takes a lot out of me and it takes a lot for me to get ready to do this. I'm asking you, whatever adjustments you have to make in your life that you might otherwise make five years from now, if you can, make it now. There is no five years from now.
Each of you needs to become more embodied than you are. Way more embodied. There has to be a more profound embodiment. Far more profound. Take on some practice. Keep doing it until it doesn't have an impact on you until you're done with it until you've gotten that benefit. Do it as a practice so that you devote your time to it. Don't do it because it feels good. It's not about feeling good.
Embodiment is about connectedness. When you get to the deeper levels of embodiment, it's about Earth connectedness. It's about really allowing yourself to become the animal you are. What is an animal but a being that is Earth connected? And you will naturally connect to the stars. That'll just happen. At this point in your development, you don't have to pay attention to that. That'll just happen to you. That's it. Your species wisdom will just naturally connect you to the stars.
At some point, your species' wisdom will take over. And your embodiment will increase exponentially. You won't have to work on it. You have to get to that point where your species wisdom comes forward. You're trying to develop a practice until your species wisdom takes over and you're deeply embodied in ways that you can't imagine right now.
At some point in your practice of embodiment, species wisdom will come forward. It will grip you. It will take you over and "instinctively" you will find yourself more and more embodied, which is to say, Earth and star connected. And I want you to get to that point because then your experience of the sacred takes on a whole different quality that you can't imagine. You can't imagine it because you have no experience of it. I want you to have that experience of actually living within species wisdom, not as a concept but as your experience.