Q. What are the basic principles taught by Sri Gary Olsen and the MasterPath?
- Soul is eternal and is created by the Divine. It is the spark of God within all life. It is immortal and our true identity. Indelibly etched within the heart of soul, the divine Creator placed a Path ensuring soul’s eventual return into its origin.
- The purpose of life, and the key to the spiritual life, is to realize the soul’s consciousness. God is the Ocean, Spirit the wave, and soul is the drop. To merge the drop back into the Ocean is the supreme objective.
- Truth is within. The ultimate spiritual reality and all creative expressions of absolute truth are within the consciousness of each individual.
- All physical, emotional, and mental energies exist within the light, the vast realms of psychic energies that comprise life in the human consciousness. The Sound Current, or the Audible Life Stream, is the progenitor of the light; this Divine Spirit lies dormant within and is the animating and sustaining essence of all life. Initiation into the Sound Current by a true living Master awakens this dormant Current and brings the initiate through the realms of light and into the Sound, ensuring the ascension in consciousness and eventual realization of soul and God.
- A living Master is essential. The purpose and need for a living Master is to provide initiation into the Sound Current, and to reveal the Light and Sound principles in simple and contemporary ways. The living Master serves as a bridge to the true indwelling Master. There is always a Master of the Light and Sound present to guide readied souls on the journey Homeward, and these Masters represent the true indwelling Divine Spirit within the consciousness of every living being.
- MasterPath emphasizes the practice of contemplation, rather than meditation, for this is the most effective, expedient way for the active mind of the Westerner to enter a willing stillness. This facilitates the arousal of the soul energies, which is the focus and purpose of the spiritual exercises. (The book MasterPath, The Divine Science of Light and Sound, Volume I, by Sri Gary Olsen, available at www.masterpath.org, provides a fuller explanation of the spiritual exercises.)