Common (And Misunderstood) Spiritual Tropes
Are you seeking radical awakening? Do you suspect personhood to be a shallow reflection of the depth within your actual Being? Have you undertaken a spiritual path?
Then the following are elements you may want to consider and of which you should be wary.
Don’t Seek. While coming from a place of dharmic intent, this piece of wisdom can actually be disadvantageous. It hints at the effortlessness behind spiritual awakening but at the same time can be easily coopted by the ego. If we shouldn’t seek, then why bother meditating, contemplating, and being mindful? The best way I can re-orient this wisdom is as follows: If you do not seek you will not find but you will not find as a result of seeking. The spiritual path is not easy, it is natural. Naturalness can be difficult for those of us who have lived identified with our egos for so many years and potentially lifetimes. By all means, seek enlightenment. It is perhaps the only sane thing we might be after in this lifetime.
Don’t try. This follows on the heals of “Don’t seek.” In some spiritual philosophies, effort is seen as being contrived, trying too hard at something that is natural. Enlightenment is natural, as natural as a flower growing up through concrete and unfurling before the sun. But effort is often required–especially in the beginning of the path and sometimes until the very end. Meditating requires effort, mindfulness requires effort, overcoming our habitual energies requires effort. This comes from our desire for liberation. While worldly desires are, for the most part, a source of pain and illusion, the desire for liberation is what will keep you on your path. There is no such thing as having too strong a desire for liberation. What matters, though, is that you seek liberation in a fruitful manner. Meditation, mindfulness, and self-inquiry have been demonstrated to be invariably fruitful throughout the ages.
Don’t desire. This follows naturally from the previous point. The things we desire are harmless but it is our desiring mind that can be harmful. Often we are told that we must be desireless. This isn’t always so. We can work toward whatever it is we desire in this world but if we wish to remain sane and at peace, we must be ready to accept the results of our efforts, whatever they may be. In this way, you can work towards whatever it is you like without being attached. When attachment forms, confusion and suffering follow. The exception, of course, is our desire for liberation. Again, we must surrender our expectation for the results of our path, for we truly don’t know how it will turn out. We don’t know what enlightenment is like, we have only had tastes during rare divine moments. But it is the desire for liberation that ultimately leads to the extinguishing of all desires and the revelation of bliss, the sweetness in everything we have experienced and sought.
You are the body/there is no body. This particular point is rather funny. If I share wisdom about how you are not the body, people will inevitably comment that the body is sacred and part of the divine. If I share wisdom about how the body is a gateway to the formless Self and how to honor and use the body, people will comment how we are not the body and that such is dualistic thinking. The Avadhuta Gita nailed it when it said: “I honor my body as though it does and does not exist.” So let’s put this to rest: Inhabit your body fully, feeling every inch of your body from your toes to your fingers to you groin, chest, head, and back. Feel all of it at once. Then, focus on the feeling and let go of any identity regarding that feeling. Forget gender, forget name, forget shape and appearance. Just feel your inner body as one seamless whole. Drop human form. This is the point in which the dualism of being the body and not being the body falls away.
Keep these points in mind. Practice meditation. Practice mindfulness. Practice contemplation. Practice self-inquiry. Read spiritual books by self-realized humans. Seek liberation from illusion to realize your Real Self beyond and before birth and death.
Then you shall enjoy the divine and fathomless bliss that is your nature and primordial inheritance.
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