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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Gift of Disappointment

If you are in a spiritual teaching or practice, or following a teacher, you will at some point be disappointed. The teacher is going to let you down, betray you, or turn out to be only human. The practice is not going to lead to the promised result.  It’s inevitable that this disappointment will happen. The sooner the better.

The gift of disappointment is that we finally see that what we were hoping for, what we were relying on to deliver us to freedom, isn’t working. This is a profound  recognition. It also happens to be true. No one, no thing, can take you to freedom. There is no practice, no teaching, no technique, no teacher who can give it to you. Once this is seen, you are on the threshold of the ultimate recognition – that you already have it. You already are the awake awareness and ever have been.

When we’re looking to external experts or systems, that keeps us looking away from the immediacy of what is already present. We overlook the aware beingness that is ever clear and present as our true nature.