Hi,
I recently picked up a copy of "The Karma Seeker" by Stefan G. Meyer published in Nov. 2012.
It was mentioned here on a.r.e. not long ago.
This is the Amazon book url
http://www.amazon.com/Karma-Seeker-Stefan-G-Meyer/dp/1481055119/ref=la_B008QWU6W6_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368170095&sr=1-1
There's a description of the book and info about the author on Amazon
And this link is to Stefan's own website
http://www.karma-seeker.com/about_stefan_meyer.php
I found the book really easy to read, interesting, and hard to put down. It's a fictionalised account of some of 'Kips' real-life personal experiences, inner and outer, including a series of fascinating private conversations with a number of long term 'fictional/unnamed' Initiates of The League. The 'story' about 'Kip's dilemma' moves along quite well, is easy to follow and quite intriguing. The ending is excellent.
One aspect I really liked about the book was that it gives the reader an inside seat as the observer of the story unfolding where they are not being told what is the right answer. Kip speaks about what happens from the first person and only for himself. The story teller takes a no holds barred approach to describing the issues and the emotional reactions that arise for him and how he deals with them.
To me the book addresses some common contemporary issues that many who have a been a part of a spiritual path like The League for some time may have to face.
Here are a few extracts from the book which might give a sense of the main subject matter and writing style:
“So he’s implying that that to leave the League is to automatically lose that higher state of consciousness?” George asked. “Exactly,” I replied.
The statement bothered me tremendously. I was aware that the spiritual light could go out in people. I’d seen it happen, and even felt it in myself many times. Yet my very vulnerability to this suggestion also made me aware how heavy-handed it was.
“Here’s another one,” I added, brandishing another newsletter in my hand. “He’s comparing the League to a henhouse, and says it’s the responsibility of the chickens to keep out the foxes.” “What does that mean?” “He’s encouraging the members to inform on anyone they think is deviating from the League teachings.” I shook my head in disgust. I realized the fact that this stuff made me so angry was proof I was still attached to the League President as a spiritual authority, but I couldn’t help it. That belief had been bred into me. The more skeptical I became toward the League President, the more these vestiges of belief were turning him into an adversary. I felt like we were two boxes squared off against each other in the ring. Something had to give.
A subsequent League newsletter contained even more provocative remarks by the President. This time, he quoted Andreas Leo to the effect that so long as the seeker could not realize the form of the Supreme Being within himself, he should contemplate the form of the living Master as such. He went on to declare that some League initiates were not initiates at all, because they didn’t understand the role of the Master as an expression of the Force Itself. He criticized these people for their ignorance of how the Force worked, their aloof attitude toward plans to reach people with the League teachings, and their lack of availability to serve on missionary teams, to lead discussion groups, or even to privately tell people about the League.
He further castigated those who failed to practice their daily contemplation, or to read the holy writings of the League, as well as those who resisted its hierarchical structure. I was more shocked by the tone of the article than by any I had yet read. It seemed to ignore the real thrust of what Andreas Leo had said, which was that the ultimate aim was for the seeker to realize the Supreme Being within himself. Instead of speaking to this goal, the President was openly encouraging League members to worship him.
His criticism of the initiates’ lack of participation in spreading the League teachings was also an utter contrast to Andreas Leo, who had left it up to his followers to decide whether they wanted to work for the salvation of others, as well as their own. This type of browbeating didn’t in any way reflect the state of consciousness I expected of a true Master. Finally, his suggestion that those who didn’t view him as an expression of the Force Itself were not initiates at all struck right at my heart. If that was the case, he was invalidating all my initiations. He was saying that all the years I had spent in the League counted for nothing! "
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (pp. 256-257). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
"I went back to Andreas Leo’s works, and found a passage that seemed to confirm my suspicions about the League President. Leo said that men had endured great hardship for a tiny glimpse of heaven. Then they had usurped their own vision in an attempt to codify, evangelize, and perpetuate it. Such men, he stated, were mere fakers, who pretended to have undergone the profound experience of God, and drew upon the experiences of real mystics in the hope of conveying a sense of authenticity. He added that all preachers and sages who had the odor of philosophy, religion, and knowledge were nothing of the kind, and admonished the seeker to look only within his own self for truth.
I thought back to years before when I had read the letter by the disgraced former President trying to recruit me into his fold and instantly recognized his diminished state of consciousness. I could not say with certainty that what Andreas Leo was saying in these pages applied to the current President. All I knew was how I felt when I read this passage in the newsletter and compared it to Leo’s writings. Leo’s words were like fireworks that lit up the sky for me at night, while the President’s words were like dust in my mouth, in my eyes, in my ears, in my brain.
Shortly after this, I had a dream that reflected my critical assessment of the League President. The scene unfolded at a League conference. I was sitting at a table with several initiates, most of whom were approximately my age and had joined the League at roughly the same time. With us was a young man who was saying that he couldn’t understand why the older members were so lacking in motivation, why they were always moaning about the way the League was back in the good old days. Suddenly, I realized that this young man was the League President himself. At this point, I woke up, the interpretation staring me in the face. The President’s youthful appearance implied that he had been living for years in an ivory tower, shielded from what was really going on in the group, and this had left him metaphorically unmarked by the passage of time."
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (pp. 257-258). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
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"A few weeks later, I came across an independent chat room on the Internet made up of members of the League’s Inner Circle. Because it had no formal affiliation with the League, there was more latitude for people to express themselves critically, and I began to read the various posts that appeared on it with regularity. One day, the discussion turned to the exposé that had originally challenged the veracity of Andreas Leo’s writings.
It turned out that the book had actually gone further, accusing the current League President of covering up Leo’s errors and holding on to his position of power. The writer claimed to have been visited by the Masters of the Invisible Hierarchy, who told him that the League President had outstayed his rightful tenure as the living Master. Most of the discussion in the chat room was similar to that which Dee Hughes’s claims had generated, revolving around the commonly held assumption that the author of this book had simply been seeing his own projections. By now, however, skepticism had evolved to the point where I felt moved to write the moderator privately."
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (p. 259). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
"My message brought a detailed response from the moderator. “I’d like to encourage you to accept your inner recognition of the League President,” he wrote. “You seem to have considered this long and hard, and looked deeply into yourself. In the end, we simply need to accept what we know to be true. This phenomenon is nothing new, and is in fact quite common down through history. The choice of the living Master is not decided by who is the leader of the outer organization. It’s a decision made through the inner authority of the spiritual hierarchy.
When it’s time for a new Master, he simply accepts this spiritual authority and begins working in this role. That doesn’t mean that the people are aware of the change. In most cases, they aren’t. The Master often remains hidden. Those who follow the Path must always be looking to see who the current Master is, and they must discover this themselves. Following the Path isn’t just a matter of finding the Master once in a lifetime, and never having to look again.
“Everyone comes into this world to learn, and this includes the Masters. The current League President told me early on that he made mistakes. After he became the living Master, he said that his predecessor tried to hang onto his position too long, and that he would never make that error. When the time came, he would pass on his spiritual authority to someone else. Years later, he told me he had changed his mind, that he would go out with his boots on, and only pass on the leadership of the League organization when he died. He didn’t explain his reason for this change, but I had the sense that it had to do with his perception that the President who followed him would not be equal to him."
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (pp. 260-261). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
“I think that when Leo first brought the League teachings into the open, he was simply trying to express the larger reality behind all of life. It represented a personal exploration on his part, as much as anything. Later on, I think he realized that there was no one to take his place. He knew that his time was almost up, but those who might be his successors couldn’t carry the teaching forward. That’s when he began to drop hints that the next League President wouldn’t be the True Master. In fact, it would be many years before the next living Master made his appearance, and before then there would be several more League Presidents.
“What I think he was trying to do was to prevent people from taking on a role that would ruin them spiritually. Yet his attempts to avoid these troubles were of no avail. Those who followed him still saw the living Master as a role, and expected the League President to live according to that role as they thought Leo had defined it. This included those who would become his successors. All this means is that this is their lesson, and it in turn becomes part of the lesson that so many others must learn. But it isn’t the true reality of the Path that Leo was talking about.
“The reality of that Path is that it’s an inner journey, independent of the machinery of the League. The best thing we can do is to stay away from the politics of it all, to give no thought to names and titles, to live only in the presence of the Force, and remain in constant dialogue with it."
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (pp. 261-262). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
The chat room moderator’s words were immensely liberating to me. I felt that he was making an important distinction. As the living Master, the League President had the power to connect sincere souls with the Sound Current and put them on the path back to God. Once bestowed, this power was his until he passed away or voluntarily relinquished it. But the true Master was something quite different. It was a state of consciousness, which didn’t depend on any title or position, but went where it willed, settling upon that individual who was most worthy of it.
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (p. 262). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
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“Well, you could argue that it’s all for the best,” George replied. “Eventually, we’d all have to stand on our own two feet, anyway. We’re all being forced to get our heads out of the clouds. We’re scratching for a living, trying to make ends meet, and it’s bringing out our creativity. We have nothing to depend on but our own labor, our own imagination, and our own faith. But there’s something very liberating in that. You could say that the President, by clinging to his title, has actually been helping us. In that case, you’d have to admit that he’s done his job very well.”
“That’s true,” I agreed, struck by the irony of this scenario. “What if he gave up his position, and some new Master came along who was dynamic and energetic, and made us all feel good? Well, that would be nice. It would be like the good old days. But do we really need that? Once we’ve grown up, do we really need to relive our childhood? I guess, in the end, it all boils down to the same thing. Whether he’s the true Master or not doesn’t really make a difference. The only thing that matters is the attitude that you carry inside you. There’s no point in being resentful. It is what it is.”
With that, all the anger I had generated on the road seemed to dissipate. My conflict with the League President no longer seemed of any consequence. What was happening to the League was the way with all spiritual groups. They began with an infusion of energy, but then they became structured and consolidated. They were built to defend themselves."
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (p. 266). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
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"I could understand the logic behind her decision. If the League President, as the living Master, still retained the power to connect souls up with the Force, then one had to give deference to the office, if not to the man. That’s why I no longer questioned how the President ran the outer organization. It was his responsibility as well as his power and authority."
Meyer, Stefan G. (2012-05-08). The Karma Seeker (p. 270). Spiritual Traveler Press. Kindle Edition.
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http://www.amazon.com/Karma-Seeker-Stefan-G-Meyer/dp/1481055119/ref=la_B008QWU6W6_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368170095&sr=1-1
http://www.karma-seeker.com/about_stefan_meyer.php
Cheers Sean