Inner  Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

 

Transmission and Initiation

Inner exercises, meditations, and their related states belong to realms beyond sensory experience, beyond thought, and beyond the possibility of being well-defined or adequately described by words. How then can one person learn such inner acts from another if their only means of communication is through words? Physical gestures, facial expressions, and external body language cannot help. Well-chosen words can be evocative, pointing the hearer in the true direction. But real understanding of the inner exercise or meditation communicates directly and simply, through the atmosphere created by the person showing the exercise.

Such a transmission is not necessarily a high and esoteric event, requiring the presence of a fully enlightened master. It happens any time someone thoroughly-practiced in an inner exercise or meditation teaches it to another. The instructor brings him- or herself into the inner state of the exercise and that state transmits itself through the teacher’s atmosphere to the student. The will of the instructor demonstrating the exercise can directly inform the will of the student who is ready to learn. Because we are not typically quiet enough inside to clearly perceive the direct transmission, the instructor must also use words. This combination of direct demonstration supplemented by words of guidance may enable the student to recognize what is required, to taste the desired action and state. Such transmission is the traditional means whereby inner work of all kinds passes from person to person, generation to generation.

Does this mean that inner exercises and meditations cannot be learned from books? Not exactly. While the direct help of a competent instructor is preferable, it is not always effective. The student may not be ready, may not have the required subtlety of perception, and thus may not be able to receive the transmission. Conversely, if a student is well prepared, perhaps through having practiced other forms of meditation, then just reading about an unfamiliar form may be enough to enable the student to enter that new meditation. Furthermore, certain basic types of inner work are simple enough not to require the presence of an instructor to be rightly understood. A good instructor can, however, provide invaluable help by validating the student’s understanding and responding to the inevitable questions.

In some circles, the transmission of a spiritual practice is called initiation: a ritual or ceremony ushering the student into the practice, into the tradition, sometimes accompanied by vows of loyalty or secrecy. For those whose inner perceptions have opened sufficiently, another kind of initiation sometimes comes, not from any person, but directly from the depths of being. Such unmediated self-initiation can begin simply as our intuitive adjustments and adaptations of practices to our own uniqueness. Later, new depths and their corresponding practices may be revealed to us from within. At that point we no longer depend solely on teachers to show us the way. We still seek out people of wisdom, however, to learn from and to be drawn further toward the Real. But for those dedicated to the path, the creative source of initiation unfolds new avenues toward the Heart of the World.


     

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