It is important for all outer teachings to fall away. This cannot happen until it happens. Before that, there is effort, struggle and being thrown off-balance. I experienced that with Vernon Howard, a master teacher if there ever was one. To meet him was to meet your own inner darkness up close and personal. It went without saying that the light engineered the meeting!

Oh, the frustration of setting out upon the true way. Oh, the dilemma of the civil war within. The skirmishes, the woundings and the battlefield stories told around the campfire. The enemy is everywhere but within. For what the teacher says is quickly forgotten as the battle rages. He DID say that the foes are those of one’s own household, but the outer ones are so much more easily seen.

But the true student perseveres. He keeps on keeping on though the battle rages. As Vernon said, darkness is always attacking light. The brighter the light, the greater the darkness. But the light shines on.

He has been gone for twenty years and what he taught is nothing less than Self-realization. He did not use that term; he shied away from any spiritual buzz words. Instead he taught his students how much ego hated the light and how it would spend its last emotional dime to wage the war against what could save it.

Now I sit here at the keyboard knowing that the outer teachings arrive in any form they must and vanish when you least expect them to do so. What are you left with? A wordless experience, a shining forth, a blazing peace, a silent nod. A grateful amen.