{"id":5861,"date":"2014-01-10T01:39:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T06:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/?p=5861"},"modified":"2014-01-10T01:41:14","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T06:41:14","slug":"masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html","title":{"rendered":"Masks of the true spiritual teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5862\" alt=\"- Gandavyuha, Borobodur Java\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/80\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java-300x201.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a>In a third-century Buddhist sutra, the <i>Gandavyuha<\/i>, translated by Thomas Cleary as &#8220;Entry into the Realm of Reality&#8221;, there is a fascinating account of how \u201cenlightened beings\u201d seek to guide us to higher consciousness and an expanded view of the nature of reality. It is the perennial task of certain beings, by virtue of their spiritual development, to help others to move beyond the restrictions of ordinary awareness in order to awaken to the full potential of mind.<\/p>\n<p>To perform their task, these teachers need to operate partly within the field of these same restrictions. To bring insight to where people live, they have to share their lives and their social and cultural environment. \u00a0For this reason, the identity of the teacher is often deliberately obscured, as he or she adapts to the needs and circumstances of the society in which he or she operates.\u00a0The teacher may appear as a servant or a warrior kind, as a monk or a dancing girl.<\/p>\n<p>Yet these teachers retain the ability to be \u201cbeyond the world even while in the world,\u201d and retain the knowledge that \u201cthe world as we know it is only a description.\u201d Acting from this knowledge, they are able to \u201ctransform or suspend the deep structures of the description at will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Adapted from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Dreamgates-Exploring-Worlds-Imagination-Beyond\/dp\/1577318919\/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination and Life Beyond Death<\/em><\/a> by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a third-century Buddhist sutra, the Gandavyuha, translated by Thomas Cleary as &#8220;Entry into the Realm of Reality&#8221;, there is a fascinating account of how \u201cenlightened beings\u201d seek to guide us to higher consciousness and an expanded view of the nature of reality. It is the perennial task of certain beings, by virtue of their&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,38,25,26],"tags":[1064,1700,1701],"class_list":["post-5861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancestral-traditions","category-ancient-religions","category-conscious-living","category-life-direction","tag-entry-into-the-realm-of-reality","tag-gandavyuha-sutra","tag-spiritual-teachers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Masks of the true spiritual teachers - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Masks of the true spiritual teachers - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a third-century Buddhist sutra, the Gandavyuha, translated by Thomas Cleary as &#8220;Entry into the Realm of Reality&#8221;, there is a fascinating account of how \u201cenlightened beings\u201d seek to guide us to higher consciousness and an expanded view of the nature of reality. It is the perennial task of certain beings, by virtue of their&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-10T06:39:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-10T06:41:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java-300x201.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Masks of the true spiritual teachers - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Masks of the true spiritual teachers - Dream Gates","og_description":"In a third-century Buddhist sutra, the Gandavyuha, translated by Thomas Cleary as &#8220;Entry into the Realm of Reality&#8221;, there is a fascinating account of how \u201cenlightened beings\u201d seek to guide us to higher consciousness and an expanded view of the nature of reality. It is the perennial task of certain beings, by virtue of their&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html","og_site_name":"Dream Gates","article_published_time":"2014-01-10T06:39:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-10T06:41:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java-300x201.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Moss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html","name":"Masks of the true spiritual teachers - Dream Gates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java-300x201.jpg","datePublished":"2014-01-10T06:39:15+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-10T06:41:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java-300x201.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/files\/2014\/01\/Gandavyuha-Borobodur-Java-300x201.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/01\/masks-of-the-true-spiritual-teachers.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Masks of the true spiritual teachers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/","name":"Dream Gates","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Moss","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b","name":"Robert Moss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/777\/7770e3a2cde4458084d9a31237336b92x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/777\/7770e3a2cde4458084d9a31237336b92x96.jpg","caption":"Robert Moss"},"description":"Robert Moss describes himself as a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture. He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5861"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5865,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5861\/revisions\/5865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}