Barry Long was a Western spiritual master. A spiritual master is a source of original knowledge and a God-realised man who speaks the truth.

WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

The truth is the reality behind existence or the sense-perceived world. To speak the truth is to be able to speak from this place and reveal the meaning and purpose of life in existence.

'I speak and write only of love and truth.'
'Most people are not ready for love and truth. They want entertainment, excitement, information and change - satisfaction. So they read newspapers, magazines, novels, watch television, listen to the radio and have interesting debates and discussions.

We all enjoy these things to a degree. But when they are the main focus of our lives, or of the people around us, we start to die inside. We dry up. And often we don't know what's happening. We begin to think there's something wrong with us.

What's happened is that we've tired of the endless search for satisfaction that never satisfies. We've started to mature. We now want fulfilment, something lasting. We long for love and truth.

Love and truth are not information. Information is what is added to you, like all the data stored in your memory.

Love and truth are knowledge - self knowledge, original knowledge, the knowledge of the depths of your being. So when I speak to you of love and truth I don't really tell you anything new. I merely reflect the knowledge of what you are - buried in your memory under all the information of what you think you are.'

WHY READ OR LISTEN TO BARRY LONG?

The function of a spiritual master is to help other people reach and realise a greater depth inside them so that they become freer and more fulfilled in their lives. The spiritual master has the God-given ability to do this through the transforming power of his realised consciousness.

'I reflect to you the God-consciousness in your body.'
'When a man realises the master consciousness, he realises God. To realise God is to realise the power of the universe, the power behind it all. And then you have realised the Most High, although the realisation of God never ends. It goes on. But it is a consciousness, not an awareness. For awareness is of the senses, of the body. We're aware of the flowers. We're aware of each other. But that's not consciousness. Consciousness is the knowledge of something that is invisible and right and true. It is the same for woman. But she realises, becomes, the consciousness of love. She realises love - and that is God for her.

To realise God or the master consciousness there has to be an absence of self in you, an absence of selfishness. While you don't give and give and give and love and love and love, you can't realise God. And that's why giving and love are so important in my teaching. In giving we tend to hold back a little. But you can't hold back and realise God.

All I can do is reflect that state of consciousness to you. But you have to be able to receive it along with my words of truth which describe life, death, love and God. That's the master consciousness - originality. Not having to quote anyone. Not having to quote any tradition. Utter and complete originality, coming every moment from the being.'

'A certain depth of perception is needed to hear the master.'
'You don't hear about masters or they're criticised in the newspapers and the media because the people who write those things wouldn't know a master if they fell over one. A certain depth of perception is needed to hear the master. Either you hear or you don't. Either you see or you don't. I stop your thinking, problematical mind by you being with me. Your consciousness can then start to affirm a greater knowledge of God and truth which is in your body now - this very moment.'

WHAT DOES BARRY LONG TEACH?

The essence of this teaching is freedom from unhappiness for the individual. Barry Long defines unhappiness as the normal human condition of happy today, unhappy tomorrow. In the following ways the individual is helped to leave the human condition behind.

Firstly, through his books and tapes and particularly at the video showings, Barry Long introduces people to the stillness of their own being within, which is the aim of all true meditative practice. As they live the teaching, they are able increasingly to go about their day-to-day living without losing touch with this inner place.

Secondly, Barry Long helps people get their circumstantial lives right. He tells you the truth about life as it is and he makes the truth practical by demonstrating it in your own experience. By listening to the truth you start to face where your life is not right - that is where you are disturbed. You are then shown how to eradicate that disturbance by seeing the cause and doing something about it. You are made honest in your relationships with the people and events outside you. As these things become more right in your life you find you are becoming stiller. This is living the spiritual life as Barry Long teaches it. There is no need to go to any ashram; the circumstances of your ordinary life are your own God-designed 'spiritual practice'.

Thirdly, and most importantly for most people, Barry Long addresses the love between man and woman as the means to realising God in existence. He teaches the difference between love and sex and shows couples how to get their love lives honest so that they may start the journey into impersonal or unselfish love together.

Fourthly, there is the cosmic and mythical aspect to his teaching in which he demonstrates how the external cosmos corresponds with the inner life, and how we can get back within ourselves to the beginning before time began.

GETTING YOUR LIFE RIGHT

'Where are you making the best of things instead of getting them right?'
'I teach man and woman to be honest with themselves in every department of their lives - in their jobs, in their homes, with their children, with their parents and in their relationships. There is one unmistakable pointer to where and when you are being dishonest in your life: you will feel unhappy, worried or disturbed by a person or a situation. It is not the person or the situation that is dishonest or to blame. It is you who are avoiding addressing the problem.'

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