13 – A sacred number signifying transformation and transcending habitual life… with this number begins the Path to God, the Long Journey Home.
Sri Tathata identifies 13 key qualities of the spiritual seeker.
1. Faith:
This is the most important quality on the path!
It helps to bring our three bodies – physical, pranic and mental – into action in a single impulse. It grows through recognition.
2. Recognition:
It is, above all, the ability to determine what belongs to the transient and what belongs to the eternal, the Absolute.
It is through Recognition that we can see what hinders growth on the on the spiritual path.and then discard those behaviors through sacrifice.
3. Attention:
It is a state of undivided consciousness. It opposes the usual scattered behavior of the mind, which can be compared to a monkey hopping incessantly from branch to branch and from fruit to fruit. This quality of unified Attention leads to Recognition.
4. enthusiasm:
It enables us to achieve success in our actions and our sadhana despite the many obstacles we encounter.
Together with determination, it helps us never to lose heart.
Our enthusiasm should focus on the goal of sadhana, the gradual deification of our whole being.
5. Seva:
Serving the Divine, free of ego and accompanied by Friendliness allows one to abide in brotherhood and harmony. This way of life will gradually be adopted by all Humanity.
6. Sacrifice:
This is the result of Recognition, through which we have understood what needs to be left in our lives and these consistent sacrifices allow us to evolve toward an increasingly dharmic and 
happy life.
7. Friendliness:
As opposed to the pairing of. love / hate. Friendliness has no antonym. It is like the Light of the Sun, which shines equally on everyone. It is a natural quality of the soul.
8. Determination:
It is a conscious way of preventing the natural tendency of an unstable mind that wants to constantly change direction and purpose.
Together with enthusiasm, it helps to achieve the ultimate Goal.
9. Courage in adversity:
Courage to go against adversity!
Our Karma (the result of our past lives) will produce many more difficult situations. We need to accept this with humility, not trying to avoid these difficulties.
Two other things oppose our growth :
“Blocking” (demonic) forces that prevent us from completing our actions and “deflecting” forces that attract us with the opportunity to get tempting things and force us to abandon what we have set out to do.
The more space Sadhana occupies in our lives, the more meaningful difficulties will be presented in our path!
To come out of these difficulties we must fervently ask for the support of our teacher and our divine protectors.
10. Unattachment:
Attachment to living beings, objects or situations takes over some of our life energy, preventing us from developing freely, floating on the current of life, which is a constant change. Unattachment does not require that we give up living in the world.But it is an inner attitude that needs to be nurtured within ourselves.
11: Renunciation to the divine:
Letting go is at the core of Oneness with Action (pure Action without the actor) and helping the Divine to govern us.
True Detachment can happen only when we are free from our desires, when the ego has given way to the Divine, which, then, can fill our whole being.
12. Acceptance of the Guru
Guru means “He who removes the darkness.”
Guru is the permanent presence of the Absolute in the human body.
The Guru is the Grace that comes to awaken us and contribute to our growth.
The inner Guru is the Atma, our soul, but it is hidden from us behind many layers of darkness resulting from our past lives. When we finally meet our soul, we no longer need the outer Guru.
13. Timeliness:
Just as flowers bloom in Spring and not before, we must wait patiently for our Spring!
That spring cannot come until we have acquired the 12 qualities listed above that will allow our being to flourish …
The teachings of Sri Tathata as translated by Bagirat. Translated from the French by Mamata.
