These are serious questions, and they need to be faced with courage and honesty before one can hope to arrive at the state beyond all questions. One message that may be recognized in this series of questions is that there is a particular direction to the search that is recommended, as well as an attitude of rigorous doubt. Many of the more crucial comments refer to the common theme of one's needing to "become." How exactly does one go about such an abstract endeavor when the spiritual path is admittedly a very individualistic, subjective process, with few clear signposts? Nevertheless, even in abstractions, patterns may be discovered.
The greatest difficulties on the path are our imperfect vision, and our limited ability to accurately process and comprehend the information or experiences we receive. So, the next step is to come to understand our limitations and learn how to overcome them. Doing this requires that we know ourselves and our weaknesses so that we can find the obstacles that have their roots within us. Our blind spots do not wish to be seen. Without perfected intuition, we are lost. But–seeing blindness is already a form of vision.
Rose says it is advisable to be aware of the rules of the game one wishes to play (the Master Game), in order to bolster one's likelihood of winning. To this end, he has provided detailed information about two of the more important aspects of the path of which every seeker must be aware. One is a "List of Obstacles," and the other is a "List of Laws." The former systematically describes all the major hindrances to one's efforts that will be encountered. These are not necessarily conscious "forces of adversity," but they are factors that work contrary to one's intended spiritual aspirations. One must take them into account so as to be able to compensate for them or sidestep them. Also involved are a collection of possible traps to which almost every seeker will fall victim at some point, including a list of rationalizations which the dishonest or immature mind will use as a gambit for avoiding real work.
The common denominator in the mental obstacles is the ego, which is the identification with the conglomerate of voices, drives, desires, fears, and conceits that make up the human personality, and which is understood to be false.
Most of the following is self-explanatory, although a few comments of elaboration are added.
The most insidious trap to look out for is the belief that one's acknowledgement of all the possible traps exempts one from being vulnerable to them, due to one's now supposedly superior understanding. But Rose warns: "You may say, 'Oh yes, we know all about the traps...' while uttering the words from the midst of several traps that have been nobly rationalized" (Rose, 1978, p. 162). It may even be impossible to free ourselves completely from all traps, but we can free ourselves to the extent of knowing our chains and being able to resist them in incidents really critical to our spiritual growth.
In case this above list intimidates the seeker into believing every possible step is blocked by any combination of diabolical forces, mundane priorities, or personal handicaps (hence, the final rationalization), Rose does also provide a list of Laws that offers hope. By "Laws", he means existent principles of both life and spiritual work; the knowledge and utilization of which allows one to search more efficiently and save some unnecessary hardships born of ignorance. The Laws are not absolute and all-encompassing in themselves. They are in relationship to and qualified by each other. The application of these Laws must be kept within the dimension in which they are intended and operative.
A few comments need to be added to the above for elaboration. The power of Faith as a factor in life is not in dispute, however it cannot be regarded as the ultimate factor in determining or finding Truth. "To move mountains, requires agreeable, believing mountains," notes Rose (1975, p. 6), and no greater counter-faith from those who prefer the mountain to remain right where it is. He adds that after-death states–whether heavens, hells, or in-between–are very possibly created by the faith-power of individuals or congregations over a period of years and generations, even if unconsciously maintained, although the objective reality of these "places" remains in question.
Some seekers entertain naive notions of the magical powers that those who have achieved God-Realization are presumed to possess and imagine with delight the manipulations of the physical world such beings could accomplish. Rose does not deny that such options do open up to those who have "attained," yet adds that assorted yogic or magical powers can also be acquired through knowing discipline and demonstrated while being far short of the goal, and are no proof of Realization. Whether one's motives are altruistic or self-serving, he points out there being a catch to this, however. The proper exercise of faith could very well move a mountain. But–in order to move the mountain, you would have to first be in that state-of-being in which you could move the mountain, and if you were, you would not move the mountain because you would know that the mountain is already exactly where it is supposed to be. And you would know this because you would also inherently realize that you were the One who put that mountain there in the first place.
Rose suggests that playing around with projections of mind-force is an egotistical waste of potential in a dimension that is not exactly real. While still embedded in duality, no ego-generated expression of "positive thinking" or acquisitiveness can escape engendering some measure of negativity to counter-balance it. This method cannot work in the long run to further the aim of true spirituality. Regardless, demonstrating such an identification with the picture-show is an indication of one's lack of true spiritual desire, not its presence. This is still ego-centered, rather than Truth centered. He explains:
All things are possible, after the knowledge of all things. But when things are known, we do not have the same promptings as we did when we possessed vain wishes without maturity–without the knowledge of the mechanism of the Ultimate blueprints... Knowledge of the workings of the world lessens our desire to manipulate because our knowledge also lets us know that there are always superior factors not yet reached by the continuous process of evaluation...(but) which we know will continually change our values. ...As we progress in knowledge or understanding, how can such maturity lead to any vanity of action? (Rose, 1979c, p. 34-35).
The correct application of faith is in one's having faith that a path from illusion to reality exists, that one has the capacity to do the work involved, and that there may be some guidance and aid provided to those who are sincere and who act on that sincerity. This faith may well actually be the dim awareness of the inner Self that is what sets up the whole path to begin with. The Law of the Ladder is a critical principle in the Albigen System and has several implications:
The Law of the Ladder ties in here with the Law of Progression. We can see the steps behind or below us and probably the one on which we are now standing, but we will not be able to recognize the steps ahead of or above us, as they will remain invisible until the feet are upon them. One can see progress in retrospect, if not always in the moment. Meanings and perspectives of a higher order cannot be appreciated until experienced.
The Albigen System acknowledges a paradox in regard to Advaita Vedanta's claim that there are no methods or steps of progressive spiritual development, but that it is a direct Realization. This is similar to the division in Zen Buddhism between the notion of Enlightenment as being a sudden, abrupt "happening" as versus a gradual process of refinement, focusing, clarification, transmutation, etc., culminating in the final experience. Rose teaches that both are true.
On one hand, he agrees that the finite, ego-mind is always trying to devise processes to attain something, but that the Mind or Self is wholly outside this mechanical gestalt, and there is nothing the former can do to escape itself and realize the latter. At the same time, such efforts at self-transcendence must be made through to exhaustion, all the while the Mind being aware of the intrinsic futility of all such efforts, as the small "s" self is not what does the transcending. What happens is the delusion that one is this self, ends.
Rose asserts that Realization is all at once, or not at all: "You don't go anywhere until you arrive." Yet, there is a qualifying aspect to this. One can "position" oneself for its happening. The task can be likened to a large balloon tied to the earth by a thousand cords. The balloon cannot fly away until every cord is cut. It either remains bound or it is free; there is nothing in-between. Yet, the work is in the form of severing each cord, one at a time; the cords being ignorance, identification, egotism, delusion, lust, and so on. Until the final cord is cut, it is true that the balloon remains fastened to the earth and it seems to the seeker that no progress has been made, despite all of one's efforts. Yet, progress can be considered to consist of the continual severance of the bonds, until the last one is finally cut–or the lift of the balloon's force impatiently tears it out of the ground, stake and all.
Another metaphor for this paradox is a ski-lift that would carry one up to the top of the mountain. In order for this to happen, one needs to be at the right spot at the right moment, so that one will be able to connect with the chair as it comes around and be carried away by it. Whether one is a step away or a hundred miles, one still misses that crucial connection and remains at the bottom of the mountain. However, progress can be regarded here in the form of every step one takes to move closer to that specific point of readiness, at which point one is taken. The actual work is not to get from here to there, but to realize more precisely where here is and who is here.
Other comparisons and differences between Rose's teaching and other similar philosophies will be discussed in later sections. Suffice it to say at this point that while the ego-mind cannot directly end itself, it must make efforts to bring itself more into alignment with the truth and lessen the density of its presence as an obstruction in the inquiry; all this being an aspect of "becoming." Rose points out a paradox that must be reconciled before the non-dualistic truth that Advaita expresses can be realized: "Before thou knowest nothing, thou must lie with the conceit of knowing... To avoid action, thou must first determine for great action" (Rose, 1975, p. 68).
All of the above described Laws as well as all the other principles of work discussed in this paper are generic in nature as presented. There is no standardized methodology to be followed by all. Each individual–as long as one believes oneself to be an individual–has different strengths to use, weaknesses to overcome, lessons to learn, and challenges to face. For this reason, Rose states that each seeker has to establish a personal "ways and means committee" to determine the specific tasks and practices one needs to undertake in order to apply these principles of the Way according to the needs of one's own unique nature. Some need to work on developing the reasoning ability more; others need to attend more to the feeling mode. Some need to do more work on the physical level; others need to turn away from the emphasis on the body and focus more on psychological or philosophical issues. Some need to develop power; others need to surrender to powerlessness. Some need to become somebody; others need to become nobody. Some need to feel greater hope; others are ready to realize there is no hope. One must devise one's own methodology to put these abstract principles into personal practice at the proper time.
A further comment should be made about intuition, especially in regards to the thorough implementation of Laws and principles of work. The term has different shades of meaning. In a practical sense, intuition here refers not so much to mystical vision or psychic insight as it does to mature common sense, tempered by refined emotional perception. Jean Klein refers to this simply as "Listening."
To conclude this section, here is Rose's curiously hypnotic explanation of this level of inquiry:
This Path is not visible even by many who profess to be on a "Path." It is true that there are many paths, and it is also true that most people on those paths are quite convinced that theirs is the only real path. It is not until after they become broad enough to see that their path is at most only equal to many other paths that they take another step and look about for a path that will lead them still further. The graduation from the field of many paths to a more selective path among the decreasing choices of paths (as the searcher retreats from incomplete or lesser paths) is a phase of entering the final Path. (Rose, 1978, p. 194-5).