Learning humility is important for people who value spiritual progress

[BipolarGrowth]

I’m starting this post about 30 minutes after I stepped outside my front door carrying a tote of soiled cat litter, tripped on a loose piece of concrete, and fell straight into the sidewalk. This led to me thinking on how different the reality of my life is compared to when I was evaluating it during various spiritual peaks, highs, and insights in the past. It’s so easy to experience something utterly transcendental and sublime and unconsciously let that boost your ego to epic proportions. If you plan to have hundreds and thousands of deep spiritual experiences which is ideally part of how the spiritual path is when it’s going well, know that you will be constantly opening yourself up to arrogance. You’ll need to prepare to wash yourself clean of that repetitively. 
 

Following Leo’s teachings and seeing how Leo describes his awakenings can lead to a type of copycat effect where someone experiences an awakening or insight seemingly the same as he describes which leads to arrogance sparked by genuine spiritual development. It very much seems that this is just part of the path to improving oneself in spiritual ways as well as more mundane forms of personal development. None of that is Leo’s fault particularly, I mention him just as it is the most pertinent example we have while interacting on his forum after all. When we look to any sort of world-renowned spiritual master from Krishna to the Buddha, Jesus, etc., there is no shortage of maximal claims when it comes to the value judgments of their own attainments. If we want to follow on the same path, we are naturally going to be susceptible to exponential growth of our egoic bullshit alongside whatever genuine growth is made. 
 

I guess my point and realization with all of this is to say that sure you are GOD, your nature is none other than that of Buddha nature, there is nothing but You, and regardless, there is no guarantee you can make it from your front door to the trash bin without running into pain, suffering, and delusion brought about by the most ordinary of circumstances. The same can happen when you stub your toe on a desk or step on a Lego. It’s going to likely take decades of growth to improve marginally in such matters on any sort of a reliable basis. 
 

You might be Divine and the best thing before and after sliced bread, but as my brother used to say “gravity is the hardest boss in Dark Souls” and it will always have a way of bringing you back to your bare humanity. Stay humble, stay vigilant, and have fun on this preposterously beautiful adventure we call life on Earth.