Mystics: Chung Shu And The Spiritual Teachers..

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Mystics: Chung Shu And The Spiritual Teachers..

by Dick Rauscher



Abstract




Teachings of the mystics over the centuries have guided us in spiritual growth and self-awareness.



The mystics tell us we already posses all the peace and happiness of the Universe. Our spiritual work is simply to discover what is in the way of our seeing this reality for ourselves.

In India, about 500 years before the common era, Buddha began to teach a philosophy of life. Buddha told his disciples, ?the faults of others are easier to see than one?s own; the faults of others are easily seen, for they are sifted like chaff, but one?s own faults are hard to see. Do not look at the faults of others, or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done?.


About that same time, over a thousand miles to the east of India, Confucius began to teach his Chinese disciples a similar philosophy of life. His disciples were known as the People of the Ren (The People of Love). Confucius instructed them in the attainment of chung ?shu. Chung was the practice of self-knowledge. If a Person of the Ren shot an arrow and it missed the mark, they would not blame the wind or the arrow, they would explore their own shooting. If others did not respect them, they would not judge, they would carefully examine their own ability to respect others. If they did not feel loved, they would not criticize, they would explore their own ability to love others. The practice of chung took many years.

When Confucius was satisfied that the disciple had achieved humility and self-awareness through the discipline of chung, only then would he commission them to go forth into the world and love others with empathy and compassion. An ancient art of healing known as shu.

In 1945, twenty five hundred years later, two local peasants living in the Naj Hammadi region of Egypt discovered a collection of ancient manuscripts known as the Nag Hammadi Library. These Gnostic gospels, written in the 2nd and 3rd century, contain thirteen codices, or books, comprised of fifty-two texts. One of those texts is known as the Gospel of Thomas.

In saying 24 of the Gospel of Thomas Jesus tells his disciples ?there is light within an enlightened person, and it shines on the whole world. If the light does not shine, it is dark?.


In sayings 26 and 27 Jesus continues, ?If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. You see the speck that is in your companion?s eye, but you do not see the beam that is in your own eye. When you take the beam out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to take the speck out of your companion?s eye?.

This teaching is also found in Matthew 7:3 and again in Luke 6:41. These scripture passages are thought by most biblical scholars to be part of the Q1 material; the authentic actual sayings of Jesus.

It is clear that these scriptural passages from the Gospel of Thomas represent a seminal spiritual teaching for the disciples of Jesus. This fundamental teaching from the Gospels is essentially identical to the teachings of the Buddha and Confucius. All of these great spiritual teachers were grounded in the same fundamental truth. The journey toward compassion and love must begin with self-knowledge, and profound self awareness. To truly love others, we must first understand and then move beyond our inexhaustible ego beliefs, opinions, certainties, assumptions, fears, desires, and prejudices.

These great mystics understood it is our own ego that creates the sense of otherness that leads to judgment. The sense of otherness that results in us versus them, or me versus you thinking. There is no unhappiness or conflict that does not have it?s roots embedded in the fertile ground of this ego created otherness. These mystical teachers knew that the enemy to be conquered was not out in the world. The true enemy of peace and happiness is unconsciously embedded in our own hearts. It is the beam in our own eye that blinds us.

These great spiritual teachers knew that until we have learned how to understand and then let go of or empty ourselves of our ego, we will love others and have compassion for them only as long as they agree with us. Only when they do what we think is right and good. Only when they don?t challenge our beliefs. Only when they don?t threaten to take away something we think is ours.



The moment they dare to disagree with us, or challenge our beliefs and certainties, or threaten to take away something that we hold dear or treasure, we find our love and compassion quickly replaced by judgment, criticism and rejection. We become angry, hurt, and unhappy. The seeds of conflict have been planted. They have now become ?other?, the enemy we judge as dangerous. They are now the Devil and all those others out there in the world that create the evil, conflict, and unhappiness.

When we blame others for the conflict and unhappiness we feel, and then frantically search for peace or happiness out in the world, we are chasing an illusion. If we are to become People of the Ren, disciples of love and compassion, then the journey must begin by looking within. It is only when we have done the work of chung, that we will become People of the Ren capable of shu.



When we are admonished to be loving and compassionate without first doing our own inner work, we are being taught a shallow spirituality. A shallow spirituality will never lead to happiness because it will always leave us with a violent world filled with hurtful categories of otherness and the critical judgments that come from such thinking.

Authentic spirituality is a middle path journey that comes only with deep self-knowledge and self-awareness. A journey that requires the courage to learn and practice the discipline of chung.




This means that the people in your life who make you angry, or hurt your feelings, or make you unhappy, should be honored and cherished. They are your spiritual gremlins. Your spiritual teachers. They are the people who will guide you onto the middlepath and lead you into an authentic spirituality by offering you the opportunity to practice chung.

We become what we think about, but we can only change that which we understand and accept about ourselves. So when you feel hurt or angry with someone or something, it is an opportunity to look within and ask yourself, what does this hurt or anger mean about me? Why am I unhappy? Where is this energy coming from? What do I need to let go of? What is the log in my own eye that is creating this pain? These spiritual teachers often painfully remind us with their presence how much easier it is to ignore the beam in our own eye and blame our feelings on the speck in theirs.

When we encounter a spiritually evolved human being who has done their inner chung work and emptied the ego from their own hearts; a human being who genuinely has grown to want or need nothing from this world, it is a very powerful experience indeed. Our souls fully experience the authentic power that these people possess. They also make us uncomfortably aware of our own pettiness, our ego?s unending desires for more, and our own limited ability to love unconditionally. Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Ghandi, and Mother Teresa are examples of this kind of spiritually evolved human being.




Jesus reminds us, to become People of the Ren, we must fast from the world and search for the beam that is in our own eye.




The Buddha reminds us that ?the faults of others are easier to see than one?s own; the faults of others are easily seen, for they are sifted like chaff, but one?s own faults are hard to see. Do not look at the faults of others, or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done?.


When we do our inner work, we soon discover that we are already happy. That we already posses all the happiness in the universe. That we already have everything we need and no one can take it away from us because we no longer seek our power from the world. We have discovered an authentic inner source of power. We find ourselves walking the middlepath toward our soul. We have become the wave reaching down to touch the ocean. Such a person is called enlightened. They live happily with the abundance of the Universe. Their light creates great love and compassion.

?There is light within an enlightened person, and it shines on the whole world. If the light does not shine, it is dark.?



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http://www.stonyhill.com/articles/mystics.htm