We can spend all day every day in the dark, meditating in silence, doing all the yoga our body can stand, being mindful of every moment, but is it enough to evolve our soul? Many would say yes, but I’ve always found a place in my heart for inspirational wisdom teachings, dharma talks, and books written by others who may be further along the path than me. Even in
the Eight Limbs of Yoga, two of them, the Yamas and Niyamas, cover the esoteric teachings of ethics and religion. It’s no wonder that people who meditate and do a lot of yoga are looking for more than just relaxation and body awareness — we are seekers looking to spiritually evolve. In this blog, I’d like to cover some of my favorite “wisdom teachers,” who have inspired me over the years. Maybe you might enjoy them as well!
Read What Works For You
First off, it must be said that there are many different teachers out there, and most of them are human, which means that they have their flaws. In fact, the first two authors on my list had had their share of personal problems, from addictions to materialism to not being able to hold down a relationship. It is very important that when finding a wisdom teacher that we choose one not only because of what others tell us works for them, but more importantly, one that works us personally. If you disagree with the way a teacher lived their life or the methods they used to find the wisdom that they are sharing with you, then by all means, find someone else. As soon as you read a few paragraphs, you will know if they are among your vibration or not. Read works to inspire you, and move on to the next if it’s not working! Here are some of my teachers in chronological order. For example, these days, I don’t really read much Osho, but ten years ago, he was my number one.
Osho
Before I even started meditating, I found a book called Awareness by Osho. What really hooked me about this book was how Osho could capture complex metaphysical concepts with blunt and simple language. I’ve always been a big fan of simple, blunt, and honest language, so naturally, I was drawn to Osho. In Awareness, he brings up the most fundamental tool to meditation — being aware of being aware. This concept really helped me see living in a different way — to watch the watcher — to add an observer over my racing mind. From there, I ended up reading many more of his books. Another Osho classic is The God Conspiracy, where Osho dives deep into his skepticism of religion, while trying to explain his concept of godliness. He has many more classics, but those are my top two. Osho shared great wisdom for many years. What I loved about him the most was that in his early years, he was an outlying free thinker; a rebel. His concepts of “following your own path” instead of putting all faith in a guru were foreign to his culture, and for a while, he had a hard time because of this. In the end though, ironically, once his teachings caught on, he became wildly popular and this fame went to his head to the point where he became obsessed with owning Rolls Royces and developed an addiction to inhaling Nitrous Oxide. Nobody’s perfect, but I still enjoy some of Osho’s finer work.
Wayne Dyer
Wayne Dyer is one of the fathers of the modern “new age” movement. Starting out as a broke Ph.D, Dyer met Lousie Hay, who published Your Erroneous Zones, an instant classic not only because of his play on words, but also its methods of looking at habits we have that hold us back from stepping into our power. My favorite book by Dyer is definitely Real Magic, because he goes into detail about many of the beliefs I hold true regarding how we can create magical synchronicity every single day by the power of positive thinking. A quote (and book title) of Dyer’s I like to use is You’ll See it When You Believe It, which is a testament to the law of attraction (and quantum physics) way of thinking where belief creates reality. Like any man, Dyer was not perfect. It is claimed that Your Erroneous Zones was plagiarized from Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy. Also Dyer was divorced twice, and sometimes I feel he uses some harsh language in his work. However, none of this holds me back from recommending him because nobody was able to put these concepts in such plain language in an inspiring way as Dyer, who passed away in 2015.
The Theosophists
Right around the time of my personal awakening in 2009, I was on tour with a band in Lawrence, Kansas, when I stumbled into a used bookstore and found a book called The Astral Plane by Charles W Leadbeater. I fell in love with this book because Leadbeater spoke of hidden entities, fairies, ghosts, and disembodied spirits which most of us believe to be folklore as if they were actual beings. By now, I totally believe they are actual beings! Needless to say, I dug deeper into Leadbeater and read more of his books, including The Masters and the Path, and Dreams. Soon, I learned that Leadbeater was actually part of a larger group of seekers called the Theosophists, who dug into the occult to uncover the secrets of the universe, all while preaching to use this knowledge only for good and never for personal gain at the expense of others. Leadbeater’s Theosophist contemporary was Annie Besant, who wrote Man and His Bodies, covering all the different layers of our soul that stretch well beyond the physical. Other works of hers I’ve read include Thought Power and Reincarnation. Of course, the mother of Thosophy is Madam Helena Blavatsky, who wrote The Secret Doctrine. However, I personally never really got into Blavatsky, and found her work too dense for me to understand. The Theosophists are not without their critics; especially some who might go so far as to call them Luciferian. Nevertheless, I believe that there is a rich amount of knowledge in their work, and if you are sure to use it for only good with the best of intentions and service to others, it can be safe and inspiring.
The Law of One
After going through all of the above aforementioned authors, I was reading The Source Field Investigations and The Synchronicity Key by David Wilcock. Wilcock mentioned a book series called The Law Of One. When he quoted the Law of One, I was so inspired, I had to go find the source material.
Then, I discovered that these works came from a group called LL Research, and the entire series of five books was actually channeled from a consciousness which claimed to be a group of extraterrestrials called Ra — the same Ra who helped build the ancient pyramids of Egypt! All this folklore aside, once I got into the material itself, I was totally hooked. Their teachings and knowledge seemed so in depth, and their loving desire to help humans evolve was exactly what I needed. Night after night, I’d let my iPhone read from the free PDFs of these books to lull me asleep, inspired and knowing that I’m never alone. The material gets dense, covering everything from the different levels of existence (which very closely matched the Theosophists’ theories), to what happens when we die, to stories of Jesus and other ascended masters, to why aliens have not made their presence obvious to us (hint: to preserve our free will to learn in this “physical illusion”), to how we can evolve spiritually (hint: meditate!). It is a real wealth of knowledge.
After I read these books, I realized that LL Research has a full archive of other conscious channeling sessions they’d done over the years from 1974 to the present! In these sessions, they would channel other consciousnesses from “the Confederation of Planets in the Service of the Infinite Creator” such as Hatonn, Latweii, and Labus, each representing their own planetary consciousness and each at a different point along the path. I’m currently around 1981 and still moving through the material, which is deep, rich, and very inspiring!
Take Only What Rings True to You. Leave the rest behind.
Many may have fear when it comes to things like the occult or channeling. For example the theosophists acknowledge the darkness and the light, but stress the importance of cause-and-effect and karma, which would lead one to use it only for positive acts. The Confederation of Planets believe that good and evil both serve the Infinite Creator, but it’s important or us as individuals to pick the positive polarity, as they call it, which is in service of others instead of service to self. Their number one message with serving others is to love.
What I love about the Confederation Of Planets in the Service of the Infinite Creator is that they use a type of channeling wherein the channel is totally conscious and encourage the channel to tell them at any time if they wish to stop the channeling. This is unlike trance mediumship where the channeling instrument gives up total control of their body to another entity.
If you really think about it, conscious channeling is what we all do every single day as we create! In everything we do, we are a channel of the Infinite Creator! What I also love about these entities is that they always make a point of saying that we must use our discrimination and judgment in assessing the material. As with any wisdom teaching, if something rings true to you, fine. If something does not resonate, please leave it behind, for no true wisdom teacher would wish to be a stumbling block for any. Over and over again, the Confederation entities tell us that they respect the free will of humans, and they also repeat that they are not gods, only seekers along the path as well, who have experienced our “density/dimension” and moved on to a different one, with a desire to help us evolve as spiritual entities. These are my kind of people, and I sometimes wonder if I too am a member of the Confederation of Planets in the Service of the Infinite Creator who has come to incarnate in earth to help the process along as well with blogs like this…