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The Energy Doctor [report number 6]
Walking the Spiritual Talk

Wednesday, 18 May 2011 – from Stephen Kane's casebook

Much is written these days, in management textbooks, on the importance of 'walking the talk' or even 'walking the walk'. What this is essentially referring to is a quality which Aristotle termed "ethos," or influence by right action. This type of leadership is not based on what a leader says or promises, but by that leader's very way of being in the world. This concept has critical relevance in the world of personal and spiritual development. Let me try to explain what I mean. My explanation might be challenging for some, so hang in there until the end!

A brochure appeared in our mailbox this morning, promoting a conference on spiritual matters, featuring half a dozen or so prestigious writers and speakers. They include medical doctors, PhDs, professors and a psychoanalyst, with many papers, titles and publications to their names. The conference also features a Tibetan monk.

Each speaker's short 'bio' includes a photo. And, as you may have heard, a photo speaks a thousand words, more or less. At least we can use them to with the energy of the subject. Bear in mind that the conference is about personal and spiritual transformation. Also, it's worth noting that this column is called the Energy Doctor because it's about understanding how one can change one's energy for the better. So, let's look at the energies of the speakers on spiritual matters, at this conference.

The human energy signature... and more

First of all, each of the speakers, with one exception, has the same basic energy as most people—the normal human 'signature'. The exception, as you may have already guessed, is the Tibetan monk, who also has five bright glows at his crown that most people don't have. Each of these lights signifies a different major empowerment that he holds within his energy body. And, in fact, in his biographical information he states that he has studied with masters of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Two of the same lights are also in his heart chakra.

Real gurus have heart chakra empowerments

The lights in the monk's heart chakra show that he is a preceptor or 'power holder' who is able to give empowerments to others. An empowerment is sometimes called a 'descent of the Spirit'. In other words, it's a flow of a new form of energy down from the highest chakra at the top of your energy field into your crown. This endows you with the potential to become essentially different in a way that leads to liberation from karmas through developing your personal power.

A preceptor—or a true guru—is someone who can cause this process to occur in certain other people; he or she can give an effective empowerment to others. These 'others'' are those who are capable of responding to the preceptor's baraka—his spiritual power—because they are resonant with that particular guru's heart chakra. This means they have the ability to receive his/her particular form of baraka—just as a certain kind of antenna can receive the signal emitted by a particular transmitter. Apart from the fact that many spiritual teachers aren't preceptors, not every preceptor is for you—even if you are very attracted to his teachings. If your heart chakra isn't resonant with the baraka of a particular preceptor, spending time with that person or his teachings will not engender an empowerment process in you or your life.

Real spiritual seekers need empowerments from preceptors

Why would you want to receive an empowerment in the first place? Because it's the only means of liberation from one or more forms of existential suffering. Just as money liberates us from suffering poverty, empowerments liberate us from suffering ourselves and the karmic life we have created and will continue to create for ourselves.

You may, of course, be someone who says, "I like who/what I am—and my life is great, thanks all the same" —which is fine; no problem. Empowerments are for those who recognise their need to change. Spiritual development isn't for the self-satisfied, or those who seek (spiritual) entertainment without any real challenge. It's for those who look themselves coldly in the eye and say, "Something has to change." If you are in this category, welcome to the world of intent—the force of evolving consciousness—where the only other question that arises, from time to time, is, "How much?" [do you want to change].

The speakers at the conference are speaking on the subject of personal transformation. They are each offering a lecture from their particular perspective on personal change. Their subjects include Death, Spirit, the I Ching, Consciousness, Spiritual Alchemy and so on. The Tibetan monk is speaking on 'discovering one's inmost nature'.

Now, to discover your innermost nature, empowerments of various kinds are essential. Normal human consciousness doesn't include the inbuilt 'software' for discovering its own essential nature. If it did, the average person wouldn't be confused, disturbed and otherwise discombobulated by the vicissitudes of their normal, everyday life. Empowerments are, if you will, new human software or energies that are illuminating —they cast a new light on who we are and whatever is going on in our lives. Without empowerments, we are living, relatively speaking, in the dark.

The critical gap between 'knowing about' and realised understanding

Which brings me to why this conference's brochure motivated me to write on this subject. And this is that of all the people—who are eminently qualified in all sorts of ways—speaking at the conference on personal and spiritual transformation, only one of them has the energetic marks of someone who has experienced real transformation. In other words, through living with intent, he's walked his talk. All the other speakers are, fundamentally, intuitive intellectuals—or the other way around.

I appreciate that this may sound dogmatic to some, but the fact is, real transformation reflects real empowerment and that is reflected by the condition of one's energy body. There is a world of difference between knowledge and realisation. The 'problem', in a nutshell, is that no amount of good ideas—or the charisma to communicate them—substitutes for the real energy or baraka of a true preceptor or real spiritual teacher. Energy is everything. Anything else is really just window-dressing. Ideas can be very attractive and make all sorts of sense to you—but if they don't contain the baraka to bring you to a point of empowerment in your life, they are only ideas, no matter how entertaining or 'on the money' they may seem.

'Empowerment' is little understood in the West

With the exception of some relatively unusual societies and moments in history, this has never been a popular, or terribly well understood, observation—at least in the West. We, as humans suffering our karmic natures as we do, tend to be attracted to whatever show most grabs our attention. We seldom stop to wonder if what we are investing our attention in offers a satisfactory return on that investment of our time and energy. But everything you think, feel or do costs you your energy—of which you do not have an unlimited supply. Consequently, you need to invest your energy wisely. Not giving this notion much credence, we tend to live in the imaginary moment, unconcerned about long-term consequences, eager for the next distraction, "spiritual" or otherwise, acting as if our energy will never run out.

Speaking for myself, I would pay a lot of attention to someone with one—let alone two—empowerments in their heart. Not because I seek to add their words to the mountain of words and ideas already in my head but because I recognise their authority and ability in the area of which they speak —discovering the innermost nature. Preceptors empower. That's their function. The only question for each one of us is how much are we able to accept any particular preceptor's form of baraka? Fundamentally, it really doesn't matter if you call it 'Buddhism', 'Taoism', 'Yoga' or whatever other labels may apply. All it comes down to is how much you can be empowered by this particular preceptor. Or how much return will you receive through investing your attention in this person?

Walking the spiritual walk

Call me old-fashioned—or, maybe, just a purist—but I think that people speaking at conferences on spiritual matters should have already cultivated the personal power to embody that of which they speak. After all, I doubt the Tibetan monk will be speaking at conferences on physics or architecture in the foreseeable future... The world of spiritual development, on the other hand, is fabulously fuzzy. Anyone can be a pundit if they have the gift of the gab—or a PhD at a pinch. My apologies if you happen to have a doctorate (and congratulations!) but let me illustrate what I mean:

A classical story from ancient India about Naropa—a famous scholar and founding member of the future Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism—tells how Naropa made the transition from being a man of ideas to a man of action. In other words, he had what it took to let go of his position as a highly-respected intellectual and go find his guru, who turned out to be Tilopa—a low-caste fisherman with a bad attitude. Through Tilopa's empowerments, Naropa eventually realised the essence of what he knew so much about but had never before experienced as real awareness.

Nothing really changes much with time. There are still lots of people who know about a lot of things, some people who have invested their energy and time in receiving real empowerments and a few who have cultivated the energies of their empowerments to the point of becoming preceptors themselves. If you are someone who wishes to realise your essential nature, which necessarily involves giving up everything, over time, to which you cling—including what you may believe or know—the place to begin is to find and recognise your first preceptor.

Recognising your Preceptor

Fortunately, the energy of a preceptor for your spiritual development resonates with your heart chakra. So here's a very simple way—using a Body Quotient (BQ) technique—of seeing how your heart chakra responds to the writings, photos or present person of any spiritual teacher. Warning—this test also causes a response to (heart chakra) resonant lovers so apologies, in advance, if role confusions transpire!:

1. Place resonance mudra—your thumb bent into your flat palm - against your heart chakra, which is 2" up your sternum (breast bone) from your solar plexus (immediately beneath the bottom of your sternum)
2. Look at the spiritual teacher or their image or writings
3. Have a friend perform a standard muscle energy test on your other arm or, if you have one, use a Perfect Pendulum¹ (one that doesn't distort your answers)

A weak arm or a 'No' from your pendulum indicates you'd be better off attending to another spiritual teacher (or lover). A strong arm – assuming you aren't switched² – indicates that you are looking at a preceptor for you, at this time.

The more you attend to preceptors—who have the energy you need for empowerment—the more you will generate, for yourself, a higher energy future. Otherwise, you may acquire all kinds of great ideas from all kinds of wise people and books but you and your life will remain, essentially, the same. Only the energy of empowerment generates the alchemy of real transformation.

© Stephen Kane, The School of Energy Awareness – All rights reserved