by Edward Traversa

Created on: April 29, 2008

No Box, No Beggar and No Riches

You are likely here looking for mystical parables about homeless beggars sitting on a box of riches for many years without knowing it. As the parable goes one day a spiritually enlightened being points to the box containing the riches and everyone gets to live happily ever after. If you are here for that, you are here on the premise of a fable. The premise is that there is such a thing as an enlightened person and that they get to live happily ever after. More importantly there is nearly always the connotation that once enlightened they are here to save you or the world.

I as a person am not enlightened. No person can be which needs to be firmly understood from the outset and in this regard I am no different. The greatest myth perpetuated in spiritual circles is that a human being is enlightened. If that was the case then that enlightened being should be able to magically wave their hands and instantly enlighten humankind, since many enlightened gurus claim to be accurate reflections of God. It is more likely they are pointing to the finger pointing to the moon as evidenced by the unawakened state of humankind rather than pointing to the moon itself.

It would be fair to state that the majority of these individuals are well intentioned. I do not doubt this. But when it comes to the finding of the Absolute good intentions are not enough. Particularly if what spiritual guru's claim is spiritual enlightenment is just another disguised illusory construct. For a seeker this can be confusing as one person says enlightenment is one thing and yet another posits that it is something else. To separate truth from untruth is part of the journey and there is no escape from this. It is the burden of the genuine spiritual seeker on this pathless path.

Inherently contained within the notion of finding the pathless path is the bitterness of swallowing that all we perceive is illusion. One must see through the illusion of words, of gurus, of religions and notions of god and ultimately through the illusion of individual self. Figuratively speaking, a seeker must carry the bloodied head of Christ in one hand and the severed head of Buddha in the other. Ultimately, they must drop all spiritual teachers and chop their own head off in order to extinguish the arrogance of being special and headed for enlightenment. This is not to imply that we cannot learn from others along the way. Many will cross your path and each in their own way will teach something,

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