Each of the great teachings—the liberation of mind, from desire, and from self-delusion—constitute the principle themes of the teachings of the great avataric masters Krishna, Buddha and Jesus... or more correctly the Avatar, the Buddha and the Christ known as Krishna, Gautama, and Jesus. These teachings were sometimes often conveyed in esoteric inner circles while more general, exoteric or outward societal teachings were expressed freely. In addition each of these great presences attracted legends and mythological stories, optionally fact or fiction, which attached to them and embellished a life narrative or spiritual biography. These stories of events, interactions, tests, and ordeals are often interchangeable in regard to the teachings they convey and may or may not be related to the central esoteric teachings that distinguished them and formed the heart of their mission and communication to humanity.

Indeed the stories when taken at face value may even conflict with the teachings in a fundamental sense and in the sense of the effect they have had on humanity. These stories, generalized or possibly specific, tend to create a feeling, a sense of individual presence of the personality and character of the adepts. This personal sense of those great beings who were fundamentally distinguished by the impersonal realization of the Divine in their present lifetimes naturally becomes obsolete in the condition of realization. However, obsessed as we are with individuality, the personal self, the conflicts and estrangement between separate entities in the world, we project onto these "personalities" certain characteristics of attraction and repulsion, of agreement and wariness, of adulation and idolization, and these of course are all the prerequisite for the creation of a cult.

The Divine Person in Every Heart

A cult is not an authentic spiritual grouping or endeavor. A cult is a grouping based on the attraction to a central personality and to a specific teaching or dogma, a set of beliefs and behaviors which followers conform to. Over the last one hundred or so years cults have proliferated overwhelmingly in all areas of life. They do and always have served partisanship, prejudice, and intolerance and since they enliven the lower chakra centers of hostility and survival they have been and remain the basic reason for much, if not all, of humanity's mistreatment of humanity.

We do not need another cult. We should begin to wean ourselves off our attachment to cults, to cultish beliefs and dogma of all kinds, to cultish leaders, behaviors, rites and ceremonies. You have certainly got such attachments. In particular, if you find yourself listening to this and saying to yourself, he must be referring to the other people, then please look again!

We do not need another cult, but we do need to prepare individually, collectively and as a race for transformation. This transformation is our liberation, our saving, and our realization. Just so, it fulfills the teachings of the Perennial Tradition, the long-established convention of spiritual searching. It completes these teachings and the eclectic derivatives of choose-some-leave-some, "pop," spiritual perspective so predominant and favored in the last fifty years or more.

Richard Harvey is a psycho-spiritual psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and author. He is the founder of The Center for Human Awakening and has developed a form of depth-psychotherapy called Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) that proposes a 3-stage model of human awakening. Richard can be reached at [email protected].

Blog entry #191