How To Stay Humble On The Spiritual Path

For many, many years I have wondered why there are people on this planet who are aware and people who are not aware. More specifically, I have thought about why there are people who are abusive and people who are not.
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Now, clearly just about everyone acts in ways that are destructive from time to time, but there is a big difference between doing this and being an abusive person. This relates to someone who routinely abuses their children or their spouse, for instance.  

The Reason

Through having this question, I have done a lot of research and asked a number of people what their thoughts were, along with reflecting on this question myself. I have thought for a long time that pain can stop someone from being able to be aware.

Additionally, there is what might have happened to someone’s brain that stops them from being able to reflect on their own behaviour. I have even thought that maybe some people are just born aware, while others are not.

An Opportunity

The other day I was speaking to Ben Ralston, who is therapist, healer, advanced Sivananda Yoga teacher, and writer, and I asked him about why this way. He said that not everyone is the same, even though this is something that is often believed.

Hearing this made me think about how common it is to hear that everyone is equal in today’s world. This can then create the impression that everyone is the same and it can then be hard to understand why people behave differently and have different levels of success, amongst other things.

The Last Part

After this he said that even though not everyone is the same, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. He said that this is because there have probably been times when the people who are aware now, were not aware in the past and vice versa.

I thought that this was a very balanced way of looking at it, and that it was far better to have this outlook than for someone to get too caught up in their present experience. If they were fairly aware and this was to happen, they could end up developing a superiority complex.

In The Beginning

Hearing this made me think about how I thought that I was ‘special’ when I first got into self-development and spirituality. This was partly due to the kinds of things a mentor used to say to me and what I was learning about, along with the fact that I felt worthless.

What brought me back down to earth was when I came to see that knowing this stuff didn’t really change my life and all the pain I later had to work through. But what is clear is that it is very easy to develop an inflated sense of self through being into this kind of stuff.

Final Thoughts

I currently believe that while we are all equal inasmuch as we all come from the same source, we have minds and bodies that stop us from being equal in the physical reality that we live in. So, if someone has been blessed with a great mind, for instance, it will be up to them to use it for the betterment of humanity.

Not to allow this to go to their head and to end up using it to take advantage of their fellow humans beings. And, just because someone was born this way, it doesn’t mean that they should be punished for it either.

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Oliver JR Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk