Spiritual Beings

Cow with the broken leg looking good--fat, healthy, and walking better. Thank you HIS!

As I continue to read, I have questioned my discernment. How to know one is heading down a path that is in alignment with one's spiritual growth?  I know that all of it is part of the path, but discernment can help the directness of the path?  Currently, I am really struck by the simplicity and heart piercing qualities of Ramakrishna's principles.  As a comparison, I have experienced Yogananda's text presenting a masterful job of how spirit and science fit together for creating the spiritual path, Vivekenanada's work skillfully introducing Eastern Mysticism to the West,  three different Gita translations as Krishna's teachings for humanity, Osho's work as a creative approach to modern integration of spirituality, and numerous other Spiritual Beings and their personal paths/wisdoms in their lives.

Ramakrishna's teachings feel most in alignment with Gurudev's words--simple, direct, and heart felt. How remarkable to have a living Master who carries the real-time vibrational effects of the words of an earlier Master.  He gave a nod to the works of Ramakrishna as principles to trust.

The heart must be empty in order to receive the knowledge of God.                         Bowl of Saki, November 26, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: It is the innocent and pure soul who has a capacity for learning. When a person comes to take a lesson on any subject, and he brings his own knowledge with him, the teacher has little to teach him, for the doors of his heart are not open. His heart that should be empty in order to receive knowledge is occupied by the knowledge that he already had acquired. In order to know the truth or to know God earthly qualifications and earthly wisdom or learning are not necessary. What one has to learn is how to become a pupil. ... It is the receptivity of our heart and the passivity of our mind, it is the eagerness, the thirst and hunger after truth, it is the direction of our whole life to that Ideal from who all light and truth come, that alone can bring us truth and the knowledge of God. All knowledge of the earth is as clouds covering the sun. It is the breaking of these clouds and clearness of the sky, or in other words the purity of heart, which give the capacity for the knowledge of God.    from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VIII/VIII_2_7.htm The innocence of Jesus has been known through the ages. In his every moment, in his every action, he appeared to be as a child. All the great saints and sages, the great ones who have liberated humanity, have been as innocent as children and at the same time wiser, much more so, than the worldly-wise. And what makes it so? What gives them this balance? It is repose with passiveness. When they stand before God, they stand with their heart as an empty cup; when they stand before God to learn, they unlearn all things that the world has taught them; when they stand before God, their ego, their self, their life, is no more before them. They do not think of themselves in that moment with any desire to be fulfilled, with any motive to be accomplished, with any expression of their own; but as empty cups, that God may fill their being, that they may lose the false self.    from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/I/I_II_1.htm