To arrive at this inspiration one has usually lived through many levels of truth. To move to a higher level requires a sublation or transformation which can be seriously difficult. The seeker must have strong motivation to soldier through these changes.
Why are so few people seriously interested in spiritual progress? I asked this question of well known author Dennis Waite (Back to the Truth, One, and other books) and received this answer:
"Most people are simply too involved with appearance - 'my life'; identified with themselves as a person seeking happiness through status, achievements, material acquisition or avoiding pain, loss, death and so on. I always think that only those people who have come to the realization that nothing that life has to offer can ever be enough become seekers. And even among seekers, if you ask them if they would take instant enlightenment if it were on offer, most would say 'well there are a few things that I want to do first.'
Basically one has to have mumukshutva - the desire to attain enlightenment (to want to know the Truth) to the exclusion of every other desire."
Very few have realized that discovering the truth about themselves and the world is the only worthwhile pursuit. Total dissatisfaction with life is almost an essential requirement for the seeker, driving him to look for meaning elsewhere. One seems to need to hit bottom like an alcoholic to seriously look for the answers about life. The alcoholic must resolve his attachment to alcohol to regain his life but to become realized one has to lose his attachment to everything. I think that takes a very serious downer and to survive it one must have fundamental faith that Reality is there.
Shankara wrote about this in this famous poem:
"Moha Mudgaram – ‘The Shattering of Illusion'
Who is thy wife? Who is thy son?
The ways of this world are strange indeed.
Whose art thou? Whence art thou come?
Vast is thy ignorance, my beloved.
Therefore ponder these things and worship the Lord.
Behold the folly of Man:
In childhood busy with his toys,
In youth bewitched by love,
In age bowed down with cares and
always unmindful of the Lord!
The hours fly, the seasons roll, life ebbs,
But the breeze of hope blows continually in his heart.
Birth brings death, death brings rebirth:
This evil needs no proof.
Where then 0 Man, is thy happiness?
This life trembles in the balance like water on a lotus leaf and
yet the sage can show us, in an instant, How to bridge this sea of change.
When the body is wrinkled, when the hair turns gray,
When the gums are toothless, and the old man’s staff shakes like a reed beneath his weight,
The cup of his desire is still full.
Thy son may bring thee suffering,
Thy wealth is no assurance of heaven:
Therefore be not vain of thy wealth,
Or of thy family, or of thy youth, all
are fleeting,
All must change.
Know this and be free. Enter the joy of the Lord.
Seek neither peace nor strife with kith or kin, with friend or foe.
0 beloved, if thou wouldst attain freedom,
Be equal unto all."
The faith I indicated is described here by Father Keating, creator of Centering Prayer. "Faith is the surrender and response to the ultimate Reality before it is broken down into the various belief systems that the human family has received from its divine Source through natural means or supernatural revelation."
When the usual belief systems become cardboard nutrition for the soul we still have Advaita, the final level of Truth.
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