The Teaching is not a supermarket

People approach the Teaching as if it were a supermarket from which they can buy all that they need for their stomachs and bodies. But the Teaching is given to cause radioactivity and decentralization of self-interest and to make people learn the science of sacrificial service.

As long as one approaches the Teaching as if it were a supermarket, he will not profit spiritually from it, although he can use whatever he collects from the supermarket to entertain himself and others and thus waste the treasury of the Teaching. Wasting the Teaching can produce sad consequences due to the following reasons:

a. You lose your magnetism.

b. You turn into a hypocrite.

c. You exploit people for your own pleasure.

d. You blind your inner eye and inner ear.

e. You accumulate heavy karma.

f. You fall into isolation.

g. You are born into unfortunate circumstances in your next incarnation.

Just as people like to collect items of interest for their home, they also tend to collect ideas and information from the Teaching to be added to their mental collections, whereas the Teaching is only to be used for the actualization of their higher potentials and to cause transformation in their life.

The Teaching must be approached also with the intent to learn the following:

• How to love
• How to lose self-interest
• How to serve
• How to increase joy and freedom
• How to liberate people

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The Teaching is not a supermarket but a center for transfiguration and mastery. As yet, most of the places of worship are not centers where people can learn how to renounce their glamors, illusions, maya, ego, and vanity, or learn how to step on the not-self. They are not yet centers where people enter the path of discipleship. Places of worship are usually places of emotional entertainment and abodes of personal "security". Some of them are mainly occupied with easing the path of glamor for others or occupied with taking advantage of others through psychic glamors and manipulative techniques. Many still refuse those people who point out their wounds and mistakes; they are still absorbed in the material world for most of their life.

It seems very strange that most people use the Teaching like some sort of personal medication. They "take" the Teaching because, after they hear uplifting lectures and read a spiritual book or two or have a good meditation, they experience the following:

• They feel very good.
• They enjoy life more.
• Their house is in better shape.
• They can make more money.
• Their family loves them more.

These results are good, but the goals of the Teaching extend beyond a person's personal pleasures and comforts, beyond his business and his home. We seldom hear people telling us that they love the Teaching because of any of the following reasons:

1. Their field of service to others improves.

2. Their viewpoints change.

3. Larger fields of labor open to them, and they have become extremely busy serving in them.

4. They experience self-forgetfulness and have begun to understand the meaning of self sacrifice.

5. They see greater light in people and see the efforts that others are making to make this world a better place.

6. They are taking many risks to be of service to the Teaching.

7. They are realizing their weaknesses and glamors and see how these prevent them from becoming a better servant to humanity.

These seven points signal a sincere approach to the Teaching, indicating that a person is beginning to understand the Teaching. It is important to serve the Teaching instead of making the Teaching serve us.

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The Teaching is the Law - the Dharma. It embodies the living fire given to humanity for regeneration and transformation. Every act which distorts the Teaching and causes harm to the Teacher is an unforgivable slander against the Source of Light.

Christ once said, "...but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come." The Holy Spirit is the Source of the pure Teaching, the Source of Light given to humanity for regeneration and transformation.

The Teaching is the Ageless Wisdom given throughout the ages by this Source through Great Ones in different words and experiences and according to the level of those to whom it is given. Those who are touched by this spark of light will see the pure Teaching passing like a beam of light through all wisdoms and religions given to humanity. It is this beam of light that must be discovered. It is found only through tolerance, inclusiveness, love, compassion, and through a life lived for the good of all.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The Ageless Wisdom