Open Sesame
Hello dear audience. “Introspection” is a new podcast and blog created by Bettina Clark, a veteran personal coach and a student of spirituality, and Eduardo del Buey, author of the blog “In the Crosshairs”. We look forward to creating a dialogue where all can feel welcome to explore their spiritual nature and share their findings and concerns. The first blog and podcast is “Open Sesame”, an article about Eduardo’s experience in his early life with the spiritual realm and how he has come to his conclusions. His conclusions are his, and yours may be different. Each has their own path. This is why we will never ask you to believe what we write or say. Rather, we leave it to you to explore within your experience and come to your own conclusions that you may wish to share with us. If you enjoy this space, feel free to invite your friends and networks to subscribe.
Open Sesame
“When the student is ready, the master appears”
Buddha
Some readers have asked me how I can meld an interest in the political and social problems of the day and yet find the inner peace to immunize myself from anger or sadness and publish from time-to-time articles that deal with the human condition.
My response begins in 1976 when I arrived at my first diplomatic posting in Teheran.
One of the reasons why I wanted to be assigned there was because the Ambassador, James George, and his wife Carol were considered by many in External Affairs to be quite eccentric, as students of oriental metaphysics who meditated and associated with remarkable men and women.
I was lucky that when I met Ambassador George, he took a liking to me and invited me on the trip of a lifetime – a trek with him and Carol in their Land Rover to Afghanistan, and an opportunity to explore one of the most fascinating countries on earth at a time when such a visit was still possible.
Our objective was the Minaret of Jam – a minaret in a gorge at the confluence of two rivers – a mystical place to begin a mystical journey.
It was there than I asked Jim about his beliefs and how he had acquired them. He told me about his mentor, Russian mystic George Gurdjieff, a Russian mystic who taught, among other things, that people are not conscious of themselves and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and serve our purpose as human beings.
Jim said that people are not aware of the power that they have because most have been tied down by organized religion.
Jim compared spiritual life to a wheel – at the circumference, the spokes are set far apart, like organized religions that struggle and fight amongst each other to keep their flocks together through theology and man-made rituals where a few rule over the many.
As you head down, from the circumference the spokes get closer together and finally reach the hub where they converge – the consciousness of the spirit where beliefs come together as feelings where differences are none and universal union simply is.
All religions have their mysticism that relinquishes set theology and encourages one too explore one’s spiritual dimension free of the pressures from others. This is a solitary task as Christian mystics, Jewish Kabbalists, Islamic Sufis, Hindu adepts, Buddhist gurus, and others use similar techniques to contact their intuition and find the truth within.
As Gurdjieff –Jim’s mentor -- himself said at a meeting held in his Paris flat during the Second World War: "Our aim is to have constantly a sensation of oneself, of one's individuality: this sensation cannot be expressed intellectually, because it is organic. It is something which makes you independent, when you are with other people.
Gurdjieff taught people how to strengthen and focus their attention and energy in various ways to minimize daydreaming and absentmindedness.
According to his teaching, this inner development of oneself is the beginning of a possible further process of change, the aim of which is to transform people into what Gurdjieff believed they ought to be.
A few weeks after our visit to Afghanistan, I attended one of Jim and Carol’s East-West evenings at their official residence, where I had the opportunity to meet Gurdjieff’s successor in the movement, Mme. Jean de Saltzman, who spoke about the most essential component of a spiritual search – the ability to awaken by paying attention.
Paying attention not only to life around one, but to the essence of your being – your intuition that guides you and connects you to your spiritual potential.
Like many schools of esoteric thought, I found Gurdjieff’s teachings did not satisfy my lone wolf approach to spiritual development.
But I did take away that fundamental lesson to pay attention to my inner voice and follow its dictates. That has provided me with a constant source of peace that allows me to be happy while I deal with the turbulent outer world of my previous diplomatic career, and now in my columns and many of my podcasts.
One can meld the outer and inner worlds by using the strength of your inner life to manage the turbulence of your outer life and survive in a world that seemingly is bound to hell in a handbasket.
Carl Jung once observed that who looks outside, dream, who looks inside, awakes.
Some may think that what I am achieving is some form of inner wisdom, others may think it is self-delusion. I leave that up to readers and listeners.
But what I want to say is that I have found a solution to dealing with the world and all its violence and deceptions while maintaining a sense of inner peace.
This has been my “open sesame” experience, one that I cannot fully explain.
But everyone can have their “open sesame” experience if they just follow their intuition and find the wisdom that they already possess.
It is a challenging and solitary road to be sure, but one that leaves you with a sense of being that nothing else can achieve.
When I was ready, my intuition led me in what proved to be the right direction for me.
In my view, this is the way for everyone – trust your intuition and learn from all sources. The solution will come!