The Search....................................................................................
Most of us begin our spiritual search early in life.
Yet even if we started when we were 10 or 11, we
were already well-indoctrinated into conventionality
by parents, culture and school. We rapidly learned
conventional speech and ways of questioning. We knew
what kind of words and ideas were acceptable and
which were not. We learned political correctness. We
knew what concepts, ideas and thought patterns, as
well as behaviors were accepted by our parents, peers,
and school, as well as what kinds of friends we should
have.
By the age of 18 we are fully indoctrinated with a
set of values concerning family, children, career,
education, politics, consumer behaviors, and some
variant of the "American dream,” which we attempt to
live out.
A few of us, even at an early age, see through
these images, concepts and accepted behaviors, and
see them as utterly arbitrary and "unreal." We become
rebellious. We question religion, the politics our
parents accepted, our political system, our capitalist
economy, our ideas of God, Christ, and spiritual
teacher in the form of the pastor, and begin exploring
alternatives using our mind, because we are taught
that the mind is the way to know truth and oneself.