Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00371)

<<<Dear Jerry,
What kind of laziness are you speaking about that holds us back from enlightenment?
In God's Love,
Andra>>>

Andra, we are all a bit lazy. The Path to enlightenment is difficult, and requires a great deal of effort to be expended. We must sit and meditate, we must watch/guard our every thought and word, we must develop compassion, we must downplay our own ego while emphasizing the egos of others. In short, we have to change our lifestyle and we have to change our worldview, and even our personality. All of this takes countless lifetimes. But, and here is the thing, there is no way to know if we have already done most of this work in past lives or not, until we start here and now in this life. Probably the best example of what I am saying is the Tibetan yogic saint and poet, Milarepa. Milarepa was a black magician who used magic to kill a person in revenge. He then went on a spiritual quest, encountered a guru, and expended a huge amount of effort in purification and in changing his entire personality (developing humility was especially hard for him), etc, until he reached full enlightenment in a single lifetime (reaching enlightenment in a single lifetime simply means that most of the work was done in past lives). Tibetans use him and his life as a good example of what can be done if one works hard enough and is willing to change. They teach that anyone who has access to a guru (ie the core teachings) can reach enlightenment is they are willing to expend the required amount of effort. Any psychologist or therapist will tell you that changing one's personality or even one's mental outlook is extremely difficult, but possible.

Jerry S.
--