This entire thread has pointed up for me the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't nature of spiritual teaching.
A teacher who won't accept the overshadowing of a person in ignorance will be accused of insensitivity. The teacher who shows too much compassion -- or perhaps compassion of the wrong type -- is accused of enabling the student's ignorance. A related thought: a friend studying with Course in Miracles teacher Robert Perry sent me a lesson recently in which Perry discussed the ways that empathy, normally an admirable trait, can be used to reinforce the ego and attack a person. So there's healthy empathy, which contributes to the Course's "holy instant," and there's dysfunctional empathy, which reinforces suffering. So it's another caveat for the student of spiritual growth: is this teacher's seeming insensitivity really just tough love? Or is that teacher's compassion reinforcing the story I use to hide from my true nature as a liberated being? My post sheds no light; I write this merely to give voice to what the thread has elicited in me, and to acknowledge the contributions of other thread participants. Thanks, all. - Patrick Gillam --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Just for kicks, since you snipped it, here > it is again; > > "The second thing that caught my attention was seeing Hillary Davis > work with one of the participants. Hillary, like me, has a background > in Advaita Vedanta with Papaji. One of the central understandings of > many in that school is that attachment to a person's personal story > (how they see themselves, how they think of themselves and their > past) is an obstacle to clear seeing and should not be taken too > seriously. > > "What I saw as Hillary listened to one person's story of suffering > was subtle and difficult to convey: I could clearly see and feel that > Hillary was seeing this person as consciousness itself, free of all > limiting definitions of mind AND AT THE SAME TIME Hillary was taking > the person's story 100% seriously and seemed to be believing > everything this person conveyed about their life experience. It was > obvious that the person was being deeply seen as a person complete > with limitations but not held to them, because they were also seen as > being free of them." > > <snip> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
