TEACHING STORIES
What follows are eight teaching stories created by Michael Langford for the purpose of helping spiritual aspirants see what the impostor self does not want them to see and what the impostor self usually prevents them from seeing.
FREEDOM FROM THE MAZE
Once upon a time, in the land of fictional stories created to reveal certain valuable lessons there was a Maze on a planet called Dirt. All of the people on planet Dirt lived in the Maze. Almost none of the people on planet Dirt realized that they lived in the Maze.
There was a Teacher who had successfully freed himself from the Maze. The Teacher wrote a book which was a map to show people how they could also free themselves from the Maze. The book was titled “How to Free Yourself from the Maze and Live Eternally in the Bliss of Reality.”
The following are some of the essential points from that book.
To free yourself from the Maze the first two and most important steps are:
1. See that part of you does not want to be free from the Maze.
2. Every day see how the fact that part of you does not want to be free from the Maze affects your actions, thoughts, feelings, desires, etc.
In almost all people the desire to continue to live in the Maze is much greater than the desire to be free from the Maze and this has been true for the entire history of the people of planet Dirt.
Therefore, almost all of the books that have ever been written claiming to show the way out of the Maze do not actually show the way out of the Maze.
People like to believe that they want to be free from the Maze. This creates a demand for books that claim to be about how to be free from the Maze.
However, most people do not really want to be free from the Maze.
When you combine these two, the fact that most people like to believe that they want to be free from the Maze
and the fact that most people do not really want to be free from the Maze, the result is that what people really want
are books that claim to show the way out of the Maze that do not really show the way out of the Maze.
This demand for books that claim to show the way out of the Maze has been answered throughout the history of planet Dirt and that is why almost all of the thousands of books that have been written about how to be free from the Maze do not actually show the way out of the Maze.
If you can see all of this, then you might be able to begin to see the importance of the first two steps:
1. See that part of you does not want to be free from the Maze.
2. Every day see how the fact that part of you does not want to be free from the Maze affects your actions, thoughts, feelings, desires, etc.
The Maze is illusion.
Everything perceived in the Maze is an illusion, even though it usually seems or appears to be real. All of the bodies, animals, plants, mountains, land, clouds, sky, objects, actions, concepts, feelings, and desires that are perceived while one is living in the Maze are illusions.
Why would anyone want to be free from the Maze?
Because sooner or later life in the Maze will become a sorrowful or suffering-full life and because the Reality beyond the Maze is Absolutely Perfect Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss that has no suffering and no sorrow.
How to make your desire to be free from the Maze much greater than your desire to continue living in the Maze?
One way to do this is by comparing life in the Maze with life in the Reality. If you go into detail looking at every negative aspect of life in the Maze and compare that with life in the Reality, which is Absolutely Perfect Infinite-Eternal-Awareness-Love-Bliss, that can help to increase
your desire to be free from the Maze.
The other great key is self-honesty. Be honest about the fact that part of you does not want to be free from the Maze and that the part of you that does not want to be free from the Maze is also guiding your actions, thoughts, feelings, desires, etc. to prevent you from escaping the Maze. Then look every day to see how that part of you that does not want to be free from the Maze is directing your actions, thoughts, feelings and desires to keep you in the Maze.
Continue to do whatever you can do to increase your desire for freedom from the Maze so that the part of you
that does not want to be free from the Maze becomes less and less until it no longer exists.
