spiritual journey – Page 2 – Zen: The Art of Nothing

Dialogue: Spiritual Teachings

January 5, 2016 Ashwita Comments 3 comments

A Bylakuppe, near Coorg, is a beautiful, serene Buddhist monastery

Absolutely any spiritual teaching holds the risk of being misinterpreted, especially when it is read by the wrong person at the wrong time. Just like religious texts have been misinterpreted and twisted to suit one’s convenience for centuries, anyone reading spiritual teachings must also beware that teachings will work against you if you read through the filters of your beliefs instead of trying to connect with the essence through your heart.

And here I present especially something that can be open to misinterpretation, but I do it anyway, because I believe it will still help those who are prepared. One of the most common traps on a spiritual aspirant’s pathway, is getting lost in teachings. I have found myself lost more than once, and I see many around me deeply trapped by their intellect – able to give an entire discourse if need be, but barely able to invest any energies in actually experiencing anything.

Spurthi contacted me recently during her stay at Bylakuppe, where she was attending HH Dalai Lama’s teachings. I would like to mention here that our conversations have nothing to do with Buddhism itself, but with the idea of listening to teachings.

Spurthi
I am in Bylakuppe for Dalai Lama’s teaching.
Ashwita
great, how’s that going for you?
Spurthi
Very good… it’s awesome to be in his presence.. very peaceful. I experienced similar first in your presence.
He covered how to realise emptiness and impermanence, origin of dependence
Ashwita
oh, sounds wonderful
Spurthi
It helped in my intellectual understanding, I need to do lot of work to surrender fully. Hope 2016 helps me better
Ashwita
Yeah I find that the one risk in Buddhism is getting lost in the intellect
Spurthi
Yes.. tats why HH stressed direct realization is must
Ashwita
yeah, that can also be a very intellectual statement 😀
Spurthi
Teaching should only be a signpost
Ashwita
See all these things come in when you want to ‘get’ somewhere
Yes – signposts are needed when there is a journey. A journey is when you are not happy with where you are. Just sit down, there is nowhere to go. Stop trying to be better, and surrender will happen naturally. Otherwise you will end up with a fake intellectualized surrender
Spurthi
Hmmm … how can surrender happen wen my mind still complains / resists
Ashwita
Surrender to that state of mind. It is only the mind that is telling you how the mind should behave. Let that layer go first
Spurthi
It still wants to take control of things and induces fear of future by negativity
Ashwita
That is the only ‘work’ you need to do – witnessing the mind and not heeding its madness
Spurthi
While witnessing I somehow get lost with it and stop being witness..
Ashwita
practice practice practice
Spurthi
I need to practice
Yes tats the way.. should be more patient.
Shouldn’t give up practice
Ashwita
that’s all 🙂 there is nothing else you need to actually know
Spurthi
Right… Thanks a lot Ashwita for the way i want to discuss more with u.. now going to attend one more teaching from a Buddhist monk.. it’s so true as u said there r lot of chances here to get lost intellectually.
It’s easy to start seeking …
Ashwita
yeah. The real teachings fit in half a page. Anything more than that has a potential to mislead you
Spurthi
Exactly!!! Mind will be more than happy to resume it’s work after half page
Ashwita
gooood girl 🙂
Spurthi
🙂

At the beginning of a spiritual journey, it is usually of much help to be able to heal some deep wounds through therapy or some sort of spiritual healing. Until one reaches this stage, there might be some desire to ‘reach somewhere’. But eventually one reaches a point where all the basics have been learned, and practice is all that is required. One needs to steer clear of intellectual masturbation and focus on the only real thing on the ‘journey’ – simple, boring practice.

Is World Peace a Distant Dream?

November 16, 2015 Ashwita Comments 1 comment

It is OUR earth, every inch of it. Can't bomb one part and think it isn't hurting US, ultimately. — It is OUR earth, every inch of it. Can’t bomb one part and think it isn’t hurting US, ultimately.

My heart is aching. I don’t watch the news, but some bits of them come blaring, into our lives anyway. I heard about the blasts in Paris first thing in the morning on the 14th, and then started to realise that it wasn’t just Paris that was bleeding. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq… the list is endless.

But what hurts more than anything else, is the violence I see in day to day life, and the encouragement of more violence. Nobody seems to be talking about the fact that this was a retaliation by those who were upset that Paris was bombing Syria. Not that that makes it any less painful, but how is it that we didn’t care about dead Syrians or express our solidarity by changing our profile photos – are some lives less valuable than others? Can the Westerners go around funding and selling arms to whoever they support, encourage mass murders and then be alarmed when they experience a fraction of the same horror? Is this what you support?

Are you Contributing?

Do you really want a peaceful world? It is sometihng we talk about, but I’ve observed that it is hardly something anyone really wants. We’d rather see severe, brutal punishment. We’d rather see Paris retaliate with bombs, because the media has convinced us that Muslim lives are worthless and they’re all violent terrorists.

There were hundreds of responses to this image, applauding and celebrating the bombs. Are these people any different from the ‘terrorists’ that bombed Paris out of fear and anger?

So, whose side are you on?

Are you taking sides again? Are you filled with hatred and anger towards the killers? Do you realise that by doing this, you are helping the world remain a violent, horrible place to live in?

What can you do?

The violence in the world is nothing but a reflection of the violence inside our hearts (read more). We can blame the ‘selfish’ politicians, the terrorists – who are really just people tortured by the West and trying to fight back, no different from the Western soldiers who are sent to bomb their wives and children – or anyone else. But really, we are contributing by allowing the violence to seep inside our hearts, and by sending it back out into the world through our words, thoughts, and now social media posts.

Let go of your beliefs

Yes, a large part of the wars are motivated by greed, but they are supported by ideologies. Every citizen that supports the war, believes that his side is right, his view is perfect. Don’t you, too? If you’re taking sides, you can come up with dozens of reasons why it is ok to kill innocent people on the other side – but can something like that ever really be justified?

If we want a peaceful world – if at all we choose to make it a priority before we ourselves stand to lose everything we love – we need to stop taking sides. We need to stop making it about ‘them’ and ‘us’. There is no separation, not really. The worst monsters in the world are a reflection of our own inner darkness. We can choose to dive into that darkness and create more bloodshed. Or we can send them love, refuse to take sides, and hold the space while the earth starts to heal.

CAN you make a difference?

One of the most common excuses is that one person cannot change anything. Yes, you can. You have no idea how many thousands of others you will join, and maybe if we’re all lucky, you will help us cross the critical mass. There are dozens of scientific studies that have shown how group meditations have brought down crime rates. You CAN make a difference. Will you?

Shit Happens

October 8, 2015 Ashwita Comments 4 comments

Vietnamese countryside

When we planned a trip to Vietnam, one question bothered me vaguely, at the back of my mind. ‘Why are we going to a country that was so devastated by war? Will it be too much to handle?‘ Luckily for me, I was too busy to actually think about it.

Places where trauma has happened almost scream back at you. In Berlin especially, one can feel the intensity of pain where the concentration camps once were. The Jallianwala Bagh still vibrates with intense pain, so does Cherokee, an American friend on this trip mentioned.

And yet, as we landed in Hanoi, I was struck by the absence of any such vibration. Indeed, all I could feel, was peace. I was very surprised. This country thrives. And it isn’t even the commotion that many people use to mask their pain. It was simply quiet. One normally finds stillness only in temples or sacred places. As far as countries go, Vietnam is the most ‘still’ country I’ve ever been to. It was amazing to see such hard working people, not driven by a desire to

Our surprise intensified when we visited the War Museum in Saigon (It is called Ho Chi Minh City now, but I somehow still prefer Saigon, like many of Southern Viets). This museum showcased thousands of photographs taken during the Vietnam war, showing how people suffered. The Americans violated international laws and agreements and flooded their rivers for 10 years, with highly toxic chemicals. Not only did this destroy the lives of many alive at the time, but also deformed babies that were being born. The result is handicapped people, still being born decades later.

A former nurse, next to her 23 year old disabled son. Between 2-5million people were directly affected by the chemical, and many more continue to be affected, as these people have children. On the right, is a picture of indiscriminate bombing, by B-52 planes, or 'Whispering Death' as they were called. — A former nurse, next to her 23 year old disabled son. Between 2-5 million people were directly affected by the chemical, and many more continue to be affected, as these people have children. On the right, is a picture of bomb craters left behind, by B-52 planes, or ‘Whispering Death’ as they were called.

I have a fairly small threshold for intense stuff, and I spent most of my time in this museum trying not to burst into tears and resisting the desire to run out. It was hard not to hate the Americans by the time we left the museum, even more so because they still continue to hurt entire countries. Even so – if we found it hard to forgive after a couple hours of seeing photographs, how could these people, having directly borne the atrocities, move on?

The USA still spends money on Vietnam war veterans – apart from everything else, they needed therapy for years. How did Vietnam move on? We finally asked someone.

‘Everybody wants to win’ she said, explaining away all the horrors of the war. ‘We just focus on the present. Now we have welcomed Americans and Australians into the country, and hugged them. We treat them as friends.’ There were no traces of bitterness or hatred in her voice, or on her face.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It couldn’t be that simple. How does one simply move on, deciding to work on building a better future? As a therapist I know that just that much would only lead to suppression, and an eventual need for therapy. It couldn’t be the complete story.

The real answer occurred to me a couple of days later. It really boils down to a deceptively simple phrase. Shit happens.

Sounds trivial, doesn’t it? Reducing all of that pain and healing, to two words? But when you really understand and integrate this phrase into your life, it can make a world of a difference.

Our story isn’t meant to be perfect. Nature didn’t intend for life to be a bed of roses. Life isn’t fair. But growing up listening to fairy tales with ‘lived happily ever after’ endings teach us something else. ‘Good things happen to good people’ is a dangerous lie we grow up with. No, they don’t.

We’ve formed a wide set of belief systems in a bid to find some security in an unpredictable world. We convince ourselves that if we act a certain way, things won’t go wrong, that there will be no suffering. This is all a lie, and if anything, it only creates more suffering. Won’t one just be left asking ‘But I pray everyday/ go to church every week/ I’ve never hurt anyone, why did this still happen to me?’ A lion doesn’t ask a deer about its moral conduct, before it kills it. There is no real insurance against misery.

And having battled outsiders for many decades, maybe even centuries, it is only natural for the Viets to know this. She was right. Everybody wants to win, and wars of all things, are not fair.

When we learn to accept the calamities of life as a part of life, we don’t cry out in pain asking ‘why me?’ There is no sense of entitlement, something the current generation across the world is infected with, explaining the growing need for therapy and the increasing incapacity of people to function effectively. And without this sense of entitlement, there is no need to place the blame – either on others’ or one’s own shoulders. One can just move on.

The ‘Nice Person’ Syndrome

September 12, 2015 Ashwita Comments 3 comments

Many years ago, either a book or a person caused me to ask myself ‘would I rather be a good person, or a spiritual person?’ The answer to me, was obvious. Good person, of course, wasn’t that the point of spirituality, after all?

All these years later, I’m not so sure it is. I’m more inclined to believe that spirituality is about being in our natural state, becoming who we really are, and not good or bad.

There is no such thing as a nice person. We all have our bright and dark sides, and have a tendency towards one of these sides, that is all. The ‘bad’ people are more identified with their darkness, the ‘good’ people, with their light. In both cases, there is identification, and where there is identification, there is misery. Haven’t we all heard the ‘good’ people wailing from time to time, about how all the bad things seem to happen to the good people?

I remember harboring a doubt for a long time after meeting Jacqueline. If a person was a murderer, would becoming spiritual mean he becomes a murderer without remorse? I never mustered the courage to ask, somehow, but over time the answer presented itself.

Our bright and dark sides are nothing but aspects of our personality. Both sides are needed, and both sides can be strengths or weaknesses. So, a person who has a strong tendency to kill anyone who violates him in some way, may still have that tendency, but spiritual practice will lift him above the grip of that tendency on him. He might want to kill someone, but he will have a choice – a real one – to kill or not. And anyone who really has a choice makes the sensible one.

As I mentioned, it is not only our vices that trap us. We are more often trapped by the desire to be a ‘good’ person. This leads us into trouble when we have to look bad in front of others by saying, or doing something that makes us look bad. As a result, most people in the beginning stages of spiritual growth end up having their personal space violated quite frequently.

A dis-identification with the ‘nice’ person within, would leave us free to be a ‘bad’ person when the situation requires it, for example if a person is trying to cheat us, or trying to take advantage of us in some way. A person who is trapped by identification will respond either by being submissive or aggressive. When we let go of the fear of being a bad person, we will find that more and more, we are simply assertive, and actually a better person than we were before.

Why the Law of Attraction is Hurting your Spiritual Growth

August 28, 2015 Ashwita Comments 4 comments

The universe responds to your inner state of being.

When the book and the movie ‘The Secret’ came out many years ago, it created quite a stir. It helped people realise that they were capable of walking out of those lives steeped in misery. It helped, and still helps people come out of a state where they’re blaming everyone else, or life, for their problems.

The basic premise of the law of attraction is true – “You create your own reality“. But as with most sacred scriptures, this one is also open to blatant misinterpretation. And the ego has twisted it quite wildly out of context.

You Create Your Own Reality

Of course you do! But what reality are we referring to, over here? Imagine that you are waking down a path. On one side, there’s a barren, dry land, maybe with a few dead animals. On the other side is a beautiful forest, you can hear the birds chirping, and smell the wild roses.

Reality = Perception

Now which side you choose to focus on, will determine your reality. If you choose to keep looking at the barren land and wonder why it is so dry, and why there are so many dead animals, you’re obviously going to be quite miserable. If you focus on the lovely, thriving forest, your life is happier.

The MISperception

The whole law of attraction propaganda has us believe that a completely flawless life is possible. That if you work in the right direction, you can attract the perfect life. And this is where the trap lies, because this is complete hogwash.

So today, followers of the law of attraction, religiously spend night after night making vision boards, setting targets, and willing their wildest fantasies to come true.

If they’re lucky, they’re disappointed sooner than others and wonder where they went wrong. If they’re luckier, they find out.

Why the Law of Attraction is unspiritual

The moment you start to wish for something in the future, there are two inherent flaws in your approach.

1) You’re postponing happiness

You’re not in the present anymore, but in the future, in the common but insane hope that something in the future is going to make you happy some day. If you aren’t happy right now, what you’re doing in the hope of being happy, isn’t going to make you happy either. The more you move away from the present, the more unhappiness you create.

2) You’re creating more karma

What is karma? Karma is doership. Attachment to the outcome. Real spirituality involves nonaction (not to be confused with inaction), where we do what is required of us without any attachment to the outcome. The law of attraction is anything but this. You’re always dreaming about the outcome.

The real ‘Secret’: You reap what you sow

It doesn’t matter so much what you do, but why you do it. If you’re spending days visualising your ideal life while believing strongly that your life at present is far from perfect, you can never create a perfect life, because you’re acting from inadequacy. Actions taken in inadequacy, will only bring you more inadequacy, not fulfillment.

If, on the other hand, you’re visualising from a feeling of fulfillment… now wait a minute. If you’re feeling fulfilled, why exactly would you waste your time visualising? If your life was perfect, right at this moment, would you really be fantasizing about a happier tomorrow? No. You’d be immersing yourself into this moment, trying to experience it as fully as you can.

Yes, you create your own reality. Right now. And your investment in right now, creates the next right now. If you live this moment in complete awareness, complete surrender, the next one will be perfect too, And the next one. And the next. And maybe, once in a while, life will gift you with a vision, and make that come true for you. That’ll be exciting and fun, but also just another addition to an already perfect life. Which you are living. Right now. And that’s the real law of attraction.

New Moon Meditation

August 14, 2015 Ashwita Comments 2 comments

A little over the last two months seem to have been tough for many I know. And I can see that it is really cleansing, some sort of flushing of old accumulated toxins that is happening, but these processes are never easy. This is only one of many rounds of purification that we have been going through, and it is bound to continue, whether we like it or not.

Two people in just the last 2 days, have told me that they don’t want this anymore ‘I just want to be a normal person like everyone else’. This is something we’re all going to feel at some point in time or another, and it is ok to feel this way. These are powerful times, and the soul often ends up choosing more than it can comfortably handle, much like going a bit crazy and buying more than we can carry, at a supermarket with an extraordinary sale. It hurts, but just stay with it.

The New Moon

New moons are special, and this one especially so, because it is associated with the release of accumulated trash, as well as a ‘ghosts of the past’. In some cultures in India, people throw out the trash tomorrow morning, chanting something to the effect ‘let the old go out and create space for the new’ – something that sums up the essence of the new moon.

Burn It

Fire is a great tool for transmutation. It alchemises base, fear based emotions to those based in love. It has the power to transform and heal. Using fire to burn away old patterns can hasten the process. The next time you witness a fire, just gaze into it deeply and surrender into it everything you wish to let go of. Even better if it is a sacred fire.

What to Burn?

One thing that often accompanies cleansing, is some sort of illness. Cleansing is rarely a cause for illness, the resistance to it, is. Absolutely any illness is possible only where there is some sort of resistance at a mental or emotional level.

There is a common tendency to want to get rid of everything we don’t like – like disease or discomfort, but these are the result, and surrendering them to the fire can only help so much. On the other hand, if we surrender our attachments, and our resistance to what life brings us in the present moment, we will find a lot of problems vanishing quite quickly.

Meditate

I experience a lot more thoughts and disturbances during new moon times – so much more comes up for resolution. Meditating with fire can make it easier because it gives the mind something to focus on. Here’s a meditation that uses fire to transmute past baggage.

It makes references to mango wood and ghee, materials that are used for sacred fires in India. Ghee is clarified butter. Best to meditate at sunset time during a new moon, but it will work just fine at any other time as well.

Six Ways Spiritual Guidance May Be Misleading You

June 28, 2015 Ashwita Comments 5 comments

One of the biggest obstacles in one’s spiritual growth, is conditioning. This conditioning is a set of beliefs we have formed as a result of hearing something repeatedly from parents and other family members, teachers, friends, the media and the like.

And one important aspect of this conditioning, is that life is meant to be problem-free. In pursuit of a problem free life, people try a variety of things. First they seek ‘security’, then they want to ‘start a family’, then they seek success, money and when they realise that none of this brought them a problem-free life, they turn to God. Some give up on that too and turn to something else, but mostly people are dead by the time they realise that that didn’t work either.

It is this pursuit of God, this wonderful chase, that has created a probably multi-billion dollar industry catering to religious and spiritual seekers. There are, of course, people that are fake outright, meaning to con people. But I believe that for most part, people are genuine. However genuine is not the same as never misguided, and even the best can have a few misguided moments some times.

Here are a few signs that the guidance you are receiving is taking you down the wrong road.

1. It takes you to the future (gives you hope)

One very popular tool in this regard, is the tool of prediction and divination. It could be tarot, clairvoyance, communicating with angels, tea-cup readings, and many more things. People turn to these when there is confusion or too much pain in their lives, seeking some respite through a happy prediction of the future.

If the guidance you receive – either through someone else or through your own sources, maybe through the angels or in dreams, talks about the future – it is not spiritual guidance. Even if you are being given hope that a desired situation will come true. Such information encourages you to take away all the energy from the present and invest it in an imaginary future. This prevents you from learning the lessons you are meant to learn through this ordeal, and postpones and retards your journey.

2. It takes you to the past (brings you guilt)

It is of course, very important to learn from one’s lessons. However, guilt and learning lessons are mutually exclusive. Guilt is a trick that the mind uses to avoid learning lessons, so any guidance received to that effect, whether from a teacher or from some other source, is not beneficial to you in any way.

3. It makes you feel small

In a path where the very essence of the teachings is oneness, there is no place for big or small. The ego however, loves to trick itself and create separation. With gurus, people often put them up on a pedestal and make them big, even if they don’t encourage it themselves – and some do. Then there are those who communicate with beings from other realms or dimensions, and convince themselves that they are higher, purer and better.

Take a rain-check if you feel like you’re so small that you have a million lessons to learn and a long journey to make. Again, it takes your energy away from the present and places your hope in a distant future where you might be happy. While happiness comes when we give up the chase, this path makes you chase harder.

path

4. Or big

This one’s a no-brainer, but it is a mistake that most spiritual aspirants make anyway. Of course, the obvious trap is when a sect makes you feel special simply because you are a part of it, but there are subtler ways.

You can sometimes receive guidance that you are special. You’re here for a purpose, to improve people’s lives, to change the world, etc. Then there are ‘spiritual’ paths that award titles, or articles that help you attach yourself to a label, like light-worker, empath, earth angel, etc. Anything to make you special, to give you an identity. These are tricks the ego usually conjures up to avoid coming face to face with its own insignificance.

5. It is confusing or vague

This is more relevant to information received through inner guidance or dreams. It is easy to mistake them for spiritual guidance when they come from this source, but if the information you receive is unclear, vague or confusing, without an option for you to ask for clarification, then it is definitely not meant to take you in the right direction.

6. It takes your power away

Any system that gives an object, a place, an institution or a person greater importance than your daily practice and personal conduct, is clearly more a marketing gimmick than a spiritual pathway. We see this everywhere – religious people skipping their daily practice and feeling redeemed by visiting places of worship, energy healers cutting corners and trying to substitute practice with crystals and symbols, even yoga practitioners thinking that getting into a complicated asana is somehow better than learning to say, follow the yama and niyama.

Spiritual guidance can be very powerful, and life-changing when it comes at the right time and in the right way. But be careful, and assess it well before embracing it and making it a part of your life.

Transcendental Meditation: A Review

June 9, 2015 Ashwita Comments 0 Comment

Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a simplistic mantra meditation which was popularized in the early 1960s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It involves mentally chanting a beeja mantra with every breath. This, I was told, tricks the mind, helping us bypass it and making meditation much easier than usual.

I had been hearing about TM for a very long time, but I didn’t feel drawn to it up until a month ago. Usually, I practice mindfulness and it has brought a fair bit of balance into my life. I must mention before I proceed with my views on TM, that these are my personal views, and it might be different for different people.

The Initial Reaction

Now, for most part, mindfulness can be quite torturous. The mind bombards you with thoughts, and you try desperately to keep your head above water. There are moments of stillness of course, but it can be quite hard to grapple with the mind sometimes.

TM, I realized, did trick the mind. It was such a joy to be able to just bypass it. It was almost like a relief, after practicing mindfulness for so long. It was actually so easy, that I should have been suspicious.

… And then…

Time flies much faster when you do TM. This was my experience, and I’ve been told this by others as well. I enjoyed the practice in itself, but I found myself becoming increasingly un-grounded everyday, at quite an alarming rate by my standards. I found my mind much more active the whole day, and I don’t mean this in a nice way. I’d drift off in my thoughts, losing touch with the present. It was as if I lost touch with presence. I was also sleeping more, and not feeling completely rested when I woke up.

One month later, it just became too much for me to handle, and I stopped. I switched back to my mindfulness practice. Before I tried TM, I was meditating easily for an hour without problems. After a month of TM, I could do just 20 minutes, after which I got up, feeling completely frustrated and unable to continue. 2 days of the mindfulness practice and my mind is already calming down during the day. The meditation practice of course, is back to being a difficult period.

The Conclusion

TM is a very effective tool. But like all tools, it must be used at the right time for it to be useful. I think if people are spending a lot of time doing physical work – gardening, farming, construction, etc., then this is a wonderful technique to lift them up and bring them into balance. For a person who travels a lot and spends a lot of time on electronic devices, I’m not sure this is going to be helpful.

It may even be a decent place to start meditation at. When a person is totally trapped by the mind and has lost all control, then probably it is easier to start with TM. There are several studies that show TM to help with reducing blood pressure and several other stress induced health problems. But for the long term, I don’t see this as a complete path in itself – for a generation which has lost touch with the earth, it needs a method that is more grounding in reality, than something with takes them further away from it.

Attitude of a Disciple

May 25, 2015 Ashwita Comments 2 comments

Question: What attitude should I have as a disciple?

Jacqueline: Put your sadhana, your spiritual practice first, above everything else and be sincere. Be who you are. You know, at this point in time, you are playing the role of a seeker, let’s say.. a traveler on the spiritual pathway. You just play that role as well as you can, and with awareness.

The Triangle

I think you’ve all heard me say this before, let me say this again. I often recommend, that people practice their sadhana as a triangle. There’s three points in a triangle. And I would say that one point of the triangle, is meditation.

Meditation

Meditation is a wonderful way to get deeper into the witnessing and not to get too pulled into the drama. We still get pulled in, it happens. But the deeper you go with the meditation, the easier it is to step back in life also. If you really meditate sincerely, and witnessing, and just leaving everything alone, that arises in your thoughts, in your feelings, if you are practicing your sadhana in this way, you will become more detached. You will be able to take a step back in your meditation and also in your life.

Teachings

The second point in the triangle, I call the teachings. The teachings are needed for most people. And I would say meditation is needed for most people. There are no rules. You know, somebody can wake up suddenly, if they’re ripe, if they’re ready, in a totally different way. But for most people, teachings are needed.

We have minds. We are not our thoughts, we are not our minds but we have a mind! And the mind also, for many people, most people, needs to be satisfied. So the real truth teachings will help an understanding that then will make it easier.

The ordinary thinking mind cannot grasp – cannot understand the truth of who we are. So the teachings prepare the way. When this awakening happens, the teachings are not needed, but they’re very useful on the way.

Karma Yoga

The third point on the triangle, is what I call living the teachings. Karma yoga. Being in the world, but not of it, perhaps. But it really means sincerely living what you know, or what you think you know, and understand – living it. And then, life will give you feedback. You will know what issues you need to look at, where more detachment is needed.

If you sit on a mountain top, or in a room with the door closed all the time, just meditating… well, that might feel very fine and it can be a way for some people, but then you don’t get the feedback from the world – not so powerfully, as you do when you’re living your life and you’re amongst people.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to remove yourself from life sometimes. This is why we have ashrams, so that people can remove themselves from life sometimes and be in a place which supports the awakening.

So the triangle is what I would suggest for your spiritual pathway.

But really, the attitude NOT to have, is that something in life, is against your spiritual growth, because it isn’t. Life on this planet, at this point in time can be very very tough. Hmm? Very tough. But life is never against your spiritual growth, and the more you bring awareness onto your pathway, into your life, the easier it is to see this.

So, this is what I could say to you today. Just feel that inside for a moment, see how that feels.

Put your Feet on the Path

Just remember the story of the prodigal son. You might know this story from the Bible – the son who left his father’s house went into the world and got totally lost in the world. It would be like a young person today. Going off and getting stuck in you know, drugs, alcohol, wasting money, etc. And then he realized how he was wasting his life and destroying himself. So he dropped everything, and he began the journey back to his father’s home. And he hadn’t gone far, when the father came rushing to meet him. And this story is symbolic.

When you really turn around and put your feet on the spiritual pathway, on the way home to the Divine Father as some would call it; some would say God, some would just say source, it’s all fine. But when you really consciously and sincerely put your feet on that pathway, the Divine also comes rushing to meet you.

So just to repeat, to finish off with, the attitude not to have as a disciple is that something in life, is against your spiritual growth. Namaste.

Is the World an Illusion?

May 20, 2015 Ashwita Comments 0 Comment

I’ve said this before. The right questions are more important than the right answers. And every once in a while, you come across these priceless questions. A friend at the ashram asked Jacqueline two questions – the second one will come in the next post. Her replies were so special, I couldn’t resist sharing.

If you want to hear it all in Jacqueline’s voice, click here (14 min).

Question: When I look at people in world, also many of my friends, I just don’t understand why they are doing what they are doing. I find ordinary pursuits meaningless and the teachers tell us that it is all an illusion. Can you please say something about this?

Jacqueline: First of all, what I would like to say is you have to be very careful with this – that everything is an illusion, the world is an illusion. People who haven’t realized the truth of who they are, haven’t realized what reality really is, can end up becoming very confused by this idea that the world is an illusion, everything is an illusion, nothing matters.

When someone hasn’t had that realization, it can be just be a way of turning their back on the world. It can be a form of escapism. The illusion is, it’s not the world, but it is what the mind projects on the world. The stories that the mind projects onto the leela, God’s divine play, the happening that we call life. It’s the mind’s projection onto this that we could call the illusion.

Now, finding ordinary pursuits meaningless – first of all, very important, don’t become a spiritual snob. And, I’m not only speaking to this young man now, but just generally speaking, beware of that. Judging other people’s lives because they are not on a spiritual pathway, you create actually, a new kind identity. The identity that I often call ‘the holy personality’.

Your spiritual pathway is about recognizing that you are a spiritual being. Recognizing your true nature. A spiritual pathway is moving beyond the mistaken identities of who we think we are. You know, I’m fantastic, I’m not good enough, I’m this, I’m that. This is the illusion, this is the mind’s projection. But it can be very easy on a spiritual pathway, to start building up a new identity, that of being holy. And any identity you build up, you will get stuck in it.

So the pursuits you might call meaningless, the lives some people are living, are the lives that are required for people until they are ready to awaken. Anybody coming to this planet has some kind of karma to work out. And it’s not meaningless. So, the things you meet in life, how you deal with these things, how you relate to people, all of this, is karma working itself out.

The conflicts we have, it’s like when you are making a diamond- I don’t remember the English word for this, but sometimes it says, you know, they say you need a diamond to cut a diamond, to rub against it. And the tensions and irritations we can meet in life, can be a fine way of polishing our inner diamond, our inner truth.

So if everyone coming on this planet, read a book on spirituality or found a teaching that everything is an illusion, and then they just sat down and didn’t do anything. I mean, first of all, it wouldn’t be possible, but it would be a total waste of an incarnation. I think you understand what I mean by this.

So, don’t label other people’s lives meaningless. Stay centered in yourself and walk your own pathway. That will give you plenty to do. No need to get lost in other people’s drama, in that way. And if you are using a lot of energy to judge and think about why other people’s lives are so meaningless, you are getting lost, stuck. Use your energy instead in your sadhana, in your spiritual pathway, in your practice.