8.3 What are the Implicate Technology guidelines for relationships with others?

The most rewarding and most difficult relationships are with those who share your life – lovers, friends, spouses, parents, children and those with whom you work and play. This Implicate Technology teaching of embracing the events of everyday life will assist you spiritually through the natural, flowing development and unfolding of the relationships in your life. The primary element linking your relationships with your spiritual development is continued daily practice of meditation – do this with commitment and your life will evolve with a natural spontaneity to take you along the path.

You will discover, as your practice in meditation develops, that the context in which you understand your experience as it spontaneously unfolds is all-important. The stress and difficulties of relationships can easily deflect you from the path of inner development and into the maze of emotional dead-ends which is the primary subject area of many of our psychologies. To safeguard yourself from these pitfalls, be aware of the constant presence of’ karma in the patterning of the everyday events of your life.

Be clear on this: every aspect of your life, from the major events to the tiniest details, is structured by the implicate law of karma to provide you with an environment in which you can best learn about your own nature. The relationships in which you find yourself involved are an integral part of the karmic patterning of your life. You and those with whom you become involved are elements in a process inherently structured to enhance self-knowledge.

It is within this context that your relationships occur. When you experience stress or difficulty in personal matters, have compassion for any others involved. They too are undergoing the same slow and painful process of karmic conditioning.

As you apply yourself to the challenge of meditation and spiritual self-development, possibilities for change will unfold in your personal involvements with others. It may not be easy to introduce new attitudes and insights into established relationships. Have compassion and understanding for the difficulties others may have in adapting to the changes within yourself.

Our materialistic, outward-looking, late-twentieth-century, secular culture does little to prepare us for the complexities, difficulties and ambiguities of the process of inner change. The transformations in attitude and understanding involved can create fear in one who is unprepared for them. The conditions of your life, no matter how apparently difficult, are suffused with compassion – try to understand how this compassion operates, for the benefit of both yourself and others.

As you become absorbed in the emotional conditions shaping your life, try to maintain an attitude of detached compassion for yourself and others. Despite all difficulties, maintain your practice of meditation. Familiarise yourself with the techniques discussed in chapter 6 for the day-to-day handling of your emotions.

Allow yourself us understand that the fear and obstruction you may experience, as others react to the changes in you, is a function of our culture’s ignorance of the process of inner transformation. You and those involved with you are engaged in a process of profound and joyous change. The responsibility lies with you to explain patiently what is happening, and to assist others in overcoming their fears and doubts.