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What Is a Spiritual Man?

 

“What should a person who is manifesting Spirit be doing? A few thousand years ago, Jesus walked on water, and this was considered a spiritual action.  However, if someone today were to walk on water, people would probably clap and ask where the rocks were.” – John-Roger


This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper, September 1973

A spiritual master once said to me, “Do you remember the part of the great misunderstood book (the Holy Bible) where it was said, ‘Take off your shoes because you stand on holy ground?” I said, “Oh, yes, I recall that from early religious teachings. Do you mean to say that that particular mountainside where they stood was holy ground?” He answered, “Anywhere a man stands is holy ground, if he knows and can recognize his inner spiritual awareness. If he is aware of the Christ action and the Holy Spirit within himself, then he is indeed walking on holy ground.”

When I thought about this, it made much more sense to me than to think there was just one spot on the side of one mountain and maybe another spot on the side of another mountain that was holy ground–and everything else was barren and unfruitful. Then I went back and checked the Bible, and I found that it indeed didn’t mean that one particular place, but everywhere that the spiritual man is, individually or collectively.

But what is a Spiritual man? What should a person who is manifesting Spirit be doing? A few thousand years ago, Jesus walked on the water, and this was considered to be a spiritual action. However, if someone today were to walk on the water, people would probably clap and ask where the rocks were. Or they’d check for the wires supporting him, or say, “It isn’t very deep anyway; it just looks deep.” Or they’d say that it was mass hypnosis because everyone knows you can’t walk on water.

There were other times when Jesus ascended and descended on pillars of fire and Light. If this were to happen now, people would probably clap and say, “That’s a pretty good trick; what can you do for an encore?” And yet, at that time, those things were recognized as having high spiritual attributes. And they did have them. They were phenomena; that’s for sure.

But there are actions that are just as representative of high spirituality that are not necessarily considered phenomena. So if you can adjust your point of view to accept the realization that the manifestation of Spirit can be many things, you’ll be in pretty good territory. If you can’t, you’ll find out that you will be up against a frustration and another problem. And your inability to control that other problem may bring on despair. You’ll start getting depressed and go down in your consciousness into the feeling of, “Nobody loves me; nobody cares. Woe is me. I’m no good.”

You go into these expressions because you feel that you can’t control what’s going on in your environment. I’ve got news for you—you can’t control what’s going on in your environment. You can control yourself within that environment; but not the environment itself. That sun is coming up tomorrow, whether you like it or not. You might say. “I know that; who would try to control that? That’s a way out example.” Yes, but many times it is helpful to take things way out so that you can perceive more clearly that which is close.

It would be just as useless for me to try to control the blood flowing through someone else’s body as to try to control the sun. I may tell it to stop, but it may just keep right on going, because I have no control over that. You might think that’s a little way out, too. I could tell someone to hold her breath, and she might just look at me and think, “Take a hike,” because I’d be trying to exercise a control pattern that she is not going to allow. In the same way, I can’t control someone else’s mind or emotions or opinions. I can’t say someone shouldn’t do something that way, that they should do it this way. If they don’t see it my way, they are certainly not going to do it my way. They are going to do it their way, and they have that right–no question about it.

Too many times you expect people to do what you think they are supposed to do.  Then, when they don’t do it that way, you get upset. You’ve placed them on a pedestal by saying, “You have to do it this way because I expect you to.” That’s not an enviable position in which to place anyone. When people try to put me on a pedestal, I get right back off again because I just don’t have time to keep my shoes shined. I’m too busy working, and when you are working, you sometimes just don’t have the time to do what that other person wants or expects you to do.

Don’t try to control people — let them unfold in the way they want to. It’s a beautiful thing to sit with someone and have them tell you about themselves. You can support them by listening to them reveal themselves to you a little bit at a time, and by being free of judgements or preconceived opinions about what they should or should not be. It can be much like reading a book; it’s nice to read it one page at a time and sort of get the quality of what it is about. If you are a speed reader, you will read it faster, but you will still get the quality.

Some people will reveal themselves to you much more rapidly than others, and many people will reveal much more by what they don’t say than by what they do say. You have to learn to read between the lines. If you can’t, it’s because you have prejudices; your mind is thinking that it has to be a certain way. There are no “certain ways” on this planet. There are only the ways that work for a person and the ways that don’t. And when people reveal themselves to you, they will be telling you about those things that worked for them and those things that didn’t work quite so well.

Listen well. The information is valuable. You can use their lessons and their experiences to supplement your own. Maybe you will be going through experiences similar to theirs and can learn from them which path to take. Maybe you will be able to use the information they give you to help someone else. If nothing, else, their information may point up areas into which you do not wish to enter.

But let each person be your teacher. Be the best student you can be; learn all you can from every situation. Then select those things that will work for you and work them. Move ahead continually on the path of your own divine destiny. And when you can do this, you will be manifesting that which is spiritual; you will be expressing the quality of the spiritual man.

Baruch Bashan


WATCH A SHORT VIDEO WITH JOHN-ROGER ON SPIRITUALITY

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