October 2, 2023
We have been discussing a number of aspects of spiritual development. There is a problem here, a basic problem: what we have been discussing so far cannot be understood at all, unless we see the thing happening, unless we come face-to-face with an exemplar, somebody who exemplifies these truths.
Thus, in search of some great guru who is a living example of all this. Without the living example, I cannot understand what non-volitional activity is. Even with the living example of someone, I still need an inner understanding. The two must come together. Then it is possible to progress.
Even then it is not automatic, like pressing a button on the tape recorder. In Vedanta we have a beautiful illustration. If you light a match, there will be a small fire. If you bring that tiny fire anywhere near a big ball of cotton soaked in petrol, it will immediately burst into flames. You do not even have to touch it with a tiny match. The cotton is ready to burst into flame because it is soaked in petrol.
But it needs that spark, that contact. Otherwise, even if the bundle was there for 100 years, it would not catch fire.