Modesty as an Obstruction to the Path

---

II have a dear friend who is excessively modest. He is very accomplished in his field, extremely giving but overly modest. I had not realized the level of his height and reach until I had a conversation with him last night.

He told me that he had read a short passage in Elmer Green's book (The Ozawkie Book of the Dead) in which Elmer (the father of biofeedback and one of my great mentors) had a vision dream. In the dream, some high angelic beings said they had been waiting for him. Knowing Elmer as the great soul that he is, and the productive, creative, inventive, and instructive life he has led, this was no mere fantasy.

My friend said, with mild surprise in his voice, "But when I read that, I remembered that I had the same thing."

I was curious and wanted to know more but he said, "Oh, it's not worth very much." I told him that maybe it was. And he went on little by little. (I had to fairly and gently draw this out of him.) He said that he had a vision in meditation in which he had traveled a rod of blue light, - and then he stopped, saying that that didn't mean very much. I said, "Maybe it did." As I gently pressed, little by little more of the vision returned. He said that actually before that, he had been in a place where he saw two beautiful doors, made of silver. They had handles, one on each side, silver handles which were themselves the words or the symbol for "OM". He beat the door wanting it to come open but he got nowhere. He left and soon returned. This time he placed his hands on the door handles gently, whereupon the doors opened toward him. Seated on a throne was a high entity who said, "I have been waiting for you." These were the exact words said to Elmer in his vision dream. Beside the throne were three wooden chairs to the right and three wooden chairs to the left. The high entity said, "And this chair immediately to the right is for you. Have a seat." But he did not sit down, and then, suddenly returned to his body.

The point is that each of these items had to be drawn out of my friend, pulling them through a sense of excessive modesty and doubt. And when they returned, one by one, they portrayed a consistent and beautiful picture, a vision dream which also parallels my friend's life of giving, altruism and ascension. Later, he said to me that he will wait until he is ready to occupy that chair, and I am sure that he will.

He asked me if I had ever heard of the Counsel of Nine. I told him I had many, many years ago from Richard Price, one of the founders of Eselan Institute. At the time, I was immersed in academia and academic doubt. But the name of the "nine" remained with me. Price and his friends had been talking about and meditatively appealing to the Council of Nine. I searched the Web and found it there. Here is what it said:

" The number nine in the cabalistic form of numerology indicates spiritual pursuit. A person with a "nine birth Path" would be said to be an old soul who has been through many incarnations and is now leading a life of spiritual pursuits or sacrifices through service to others in their evolutionary process.

The Emerald Tablets, an ancient sacred writing, tells of the council of nine and the Lord of the Nines; a group of angelic beings who have ever been concerned with the evolution of our planet on personal and cultural levels."

We are taught that modesty is a good thing. And, indeed it is when it indicates that we know we are in our proper place, a part of the flow, and not the flow itself. But, modesty can be over done. When it unites with its twin brother "doubt", it can become obstructive and bar the realization of who we are and what we are assigned to do.

I have seen my friend subject himself to verbal abuse and humiliating diminution by a leader and teacher (a false one I would say). I saw this when he was in front of a class. I believe he allowed this because of an overly developed humility and a modesty in which he elevated a false leader while downgrading himself foolishly. And this can become a pattern of obstruction in his life, an impediment to his ascension, his realization of who he is, a barrier to his contribution to society, which will come about more abundantly the more he realizes who he is.

It is said that the dark forces feed on the light. They do everything that they can to obstruct the ascent of others to the light. In this effort, they use the vulnerable spots, the neurotic openings that over-modesty and a sense of self doubt provide.

And so I say "Here's to ascension and Self realization." The capital S in the "self" pointing to the angelic beings that we are and that we are on the way to becoming -- evermore.