image credit: alicepopkorn

One of the most important lessons I learned when I taught preschool was that all children inherently act from a place of good intentions no matter how that is expressed in their behavior. From what I was taught and from what I observed, children are always trying to figure out for themselves how reality works. They have all kinds of creative ideas and put forth those ideas into actuality to see how their ideas are received and the outcome of these actions. Sometimes the outcome of their actions are harmful to themselves, others and the environment, although they were executed with good intentions in the spirit of wanting to understand. This is how nature intends for a child to grow to be autonomous with a strong sense of self, leading to full individuation where he is totally self sufficient and responsible. When he grows to adulthood and separates from his parents, he draws upon the vast collection that is the sum total of his creative experimentation from birth to adolescence to adulthood. The best teachers and caretakers are the ones who recognize the value of this learning by experimentation and allow freedom of expression within the limits of safety and respect for others. When there is need to correct a child, it is important to work with addressing the behavior rather than finding fault with the person.

As I was reflecting on what is happening in our world today, with economic crisis, war, corruption, and gross injustices inflicted upon whole societies, it occurred to me, that just as children are learning about how reality works by putting forth their ideas into the world, learning from the outcome, we too are still doing this as adults. We are still learning, only now the experiments are a little more sophisticated and ideological. Take for example, the continuing strife in the Middle-East where intolerance of religion may be the root cause for conflict, the economic crisis stemming from personal greed and corruption, the genocide that is happening unchecked while the rest of the world looks on, environmental disasters and climate change, etc. All these circumstances can be viewed as people learning lessons about acceptance of differences, integrity, social morality, and compassion to name a few.

Just as we tolerate children experimenting with life, I personally believe that in order for me to be at peace with everything that is going on now, I need to have the same outlook as when I was working with children. I need to critique the behavior, not the people who are acting out. Everyone, just as when they were children, acts with good intentions. Now the stakes are higher, we as a society are not as tolerant of each other’s creative experimentation with ideas when they mess things up for a lot of other people. We have reached at a point in history when the outcome of years of misguided ideology, corrupt morals and unchecked consumption and greed is being displayed in blaring neon signs of consequences.

This is such a critical time to hone the spiritual teachings  that we have been given and to practice what we have learned.  One important teaching I work on remembering is how to stay present in the Now. With so many doomsday sayers and predictors of negativity, it is important to not get carried away in imagined futures. Staying grounded and clear gives us options to act to make positive changes that will turn the tide of events. How we relate to ourselves and each other has a chain reaction. If each of us does this, we can effect a surge of positive energy and be a force for the change that we want to see. Otherwise, we will drown in hopelessness and helplessness if we keep listening to those who take pleasure in predictions of chaos and doom.

The other teaching that I work at focusing on is the premise that the greater part of ourselves is already whole, full of integrity, love and goodness and we are just temporarily lost and deluded by our ego’s folly. When I look at the war that is happening in Iraq, I try to see that our leaders really had good intentions, that they really thought it would be beneficial. They are not evil or insane people, but just like everyone else, are learning about  values and consequences. With that perspective, I can stay grounded which does not mean that I close my eyes to what is going on in a kind of Pollyanna, spiritual indifference. It helps me to see with clarity that the events that are being played out are growing pains and are a necessary part of our evolution. Catastrophizing and condemning or demonizing the people whom we hold responsible is useless, and only exacerbate a negative polarity that diminishes our strength and courage to work towards a brighter future.

So these are interesting times; we are at a point where we can choose to take the step towards healing, and change the nature of the events we have set into motion or not. Whether or not we choose to heal, we are all on the path of the spiritual healing journey. Some of us are being side tracked, pursuing the demigods of misplaced power and glory or getting stuck in the morass of anger, jealousy, pride and greed along the way. It really doesn’t matter on a soul level, it is all just a play of consciousness. The 14th century Tibetan Dzogchen master, Long Chen Pa. said: Since everything is but an apparition, perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter….

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

This poem, written by Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings, is a  metaphor for the spiritual healing journey. The first line is describing Aragorn, one of the heroes of the epic tale,  who at first appeared less important than he really was. He was the heir to the throne of the Land of Gondor. His identity had to be kept secret after his father was killed while pursuing the Orcs. He was not told about his heritage until he came of age. At that time he was given the shards of his father’s sword, Narsil. It was a symbol of the kingship of Gondor and the stewardship of law over evil. The reforging of the sword was one of the many prophesied events leading to the downfall of the enemy rule of Sauron and the restoration of the line of Elendil as kings of Gondor. Aragorn took his rightful place as the chieftain of his people, the Rangers who were superior men in body and spirituality, and were the protectors  from evil. The Rangers were mistrusted by everyone and seen as vagabonds and wanderers because of their unkempt appearance and their lifestyle. Aragorn and the Rangers were advised by Gandalf the wizard to guard a small land known as the Shire, inhabited by the Hobbits. Through many adventures in war and strife, Aragorn rose to take his rightful place as the king of the kingless land of Gondor, the greatest land of Man.

All that is gold does not glitter:

This line describing Aragorn speaks to appearance versus reality. Aragorn was the heir to the throne of his homeland. He lived in the wild with the Rangers who were considered wanderers and vagabonds. This is an appropriate metaphor for the Self, that aspect of us that is our true identity.  We are not aware of our true heritage until we come of age spiritually. In the meantime we wander like displaced homeless people, appearing to be lost,  when in fact our heritage is the great  Self, whose nature is Truth, Beauty and Auspiciousness.

Not all those who wander are lost:

The Rangers were misunderstood as  wanderers and vagabonds as they lived as nomads in the wild. They were advised by Gandalf, the wizard to  protect the Hobbits against evil but they did not speak openly of it. The Hobbits were sensualists and that was their goal in life. They can be compared to the role of the ego. We can think of Gandalf in the role of the spiritual master when he asked the Rangers to be the protectors of the people. Just as the wisdom keepers of many spiritual lineages of the world, the Rangers were not trusted as they appeared to be outcasts of society without any worldly connections.The wisdom keepers are the protectors of the teachings which help us to keep our egos in check.

The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost:

These two lines refer to the endurance of the people of middle-earth, whose courage and strength withstood the test of many years of war and strife, to eventually re-establish the dominion of middle-earth from the enemy warlord, Sauron. These lines can describe the spiritual warrior whose journey to becoming whole again is grounded in deep rooted faith and endurance.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring:

These lines speak of the renewal of the quest to re-establish the rule of the line of Elendil with the coming of age of the rightful heir to the throne. This is in comparison to a spiritual rebirth that a seeker undergoes in the beginning of the spiritual healing journey. The light of wisdom and knowledge begins with a spark from a spiritual source and this spark joins the smoldering flame of the seeker’s innate wisdom to quicken into a bright light of spiritual passion.

Renewed shall be blade that was broken:

Narsil the sword,  a symbol of the kingship of Gondor and the stewardship of law over evil was broken in battle. When Aragorn came of age, the shards were presented to him and the sword was later reforged. The sword can be compared to our renewed spiritual power,  the truth of who we are, that which lay dormant within us until our spiritual reawakening.

The crownless again shall be king:

This line predicted the rise of Aragorn to be the king of kingless Gondor. This is similar to the spiritual seeker who  reclaims his spiritual legacy and lives in harmony, radiating a lightness of being, having dominion over his mind and ego. He is the ruler of his inner and outer world, reflecting the peace, love and joy of the Self in all the ups and downs of his life’s journey.

For me, this poem in its brevity and poignancy describes the spirtual healing journey very beautifully and succinctly.

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There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality.   We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous!  A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts.  That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now. — Ramana Maharshi

The teachings of the great spiritual master, Ramana Maharshi  can be summed up as the practice of self-inquiry through the simple phrase: Who am I? His main premise was that we are already self-realized beings and we only have to look within for the answers that we are seeking on the outside. When asked what is the best path to attain knowledge of the Self he replied:

To each person that way is the best which appears easiest or appeals most. All the ways are equally good as they lead to the same goal, which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the devotee calls surrender, the man who does self-inquiry calls knowledge. Both are trying only to take the ego back to the source from which it sprang and make it merge there.

As a very young man beginning his spiritual journey, Ramana Maharshi one day had an extraordinary experience of tremendous fear of death:

I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle’s house. I seldom had any sickness and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it nor was there any urge in me to find out whether there was any account for the fear. I just felt I was going to die and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or any elders or friends. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: “Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies. And at once I dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out still as though rigor mortis has set in, and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the inquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, and that neither the word “I” nor any word could be uttered. “Well then,” I said to myself, “this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burn and reduced to ashes. But with the death of the body, am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert, but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of I within me, apart from it. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit. All this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truths which I perceived directly almost without thought process. “I” was something real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity connected with the body was centered on that “I”. From that moment onwards, the “I” or Self focused attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished once and for all. The ego was lost in the flood of Self-awareness. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time. Other thought might come and go like the various notes of music, but the “I” continued like the fundamental sruti [that which is heard].

This “Absorption in the Self” that Ramana Maharshi referred to can be practiced by anyone regardless of religious persuasion. The Vijnana Bhairava or Divine Consciousness is an ancient text on yoga which has one hundred and twelve verses that describe ways to experience divinity. Of these there are under two dozen that a seeker can practice without having to study any religious philosophies.

Here is one based on music:

If one listens with undivided attention to sounds of stringed and other musical instruments which on account of their uninterrupted succession are prolonged, he will at the end, be absorbed in the ether of consciousness (and thus attain the nature of the Self).

In the notes from Jaideva Singh’s translation he said:

The resonance of musical notes lasts for a long time and being melodious it attracts the attention of the listener. Even when it stops, it still reverberates in the mind of the listener. The listener becomes greatly engrossed in it. A musical note, if properly produced, appears to arise out of eternity and finally to disappear in it.

When the music stops, it still vibrates in the memory. If the yogi does not allow his mind to wander to something else, but concentrate on the echo of the music, he will be absorbed in the source of all sound, and thus will acquire the nature of the Self.

This is a beautiful practice and listening to a droned stringed instrument is one of the best ways to do this. Here is a link to a recording of Tamboura, an Indian drone instrument which is very conducive for this practice.

Related posts:

Self Realization

How To Cope With Difficult Times Part 4: Chanting

Being Awareness

Being In The Light

Things Are Not What They Seem

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Among the many forms in which the human spirit has tried to express its innermost yearnings and perceptions, music is perhaps the most universal. It symbolizes the yearnings for harmony, with oneself and with others, with nature and with the spiritual and sacred within us and around us. There is something in music that transcends and unites. This is evident in the sacred music of every community – music that expresses the universal yearning that is shared by people all over the globe.
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The sacred music of all cultures speaks to our souls in a language that only the soul understands and never needs translation. Our hearts resonate to the beauty of these sacred sounds and devotional feelings are evoked, whether it is listening to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Brahms Requiem or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Qawwali. We are deeply moved at a level that  transcends the mundane and are transported to the realm of divine ecstasy. Sacred music has the power to startle us to move beyond the sensorial and to listen with our hearts and souls, to be transformed by its majestic beauty and inspiration.

Here are a few of my favorite Sacred Music:

Christian:

A Feather on the Breath of God: Sequences and Hymns by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen

Gregorian Chant: The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos

Vivaldi, Sacred Music: Laudate pueri Dominum; Stabat Mater; Canta in prato

Sufi Qawwali:

The Ultimate Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Tibetan:

The Lama’s Chant: Lama Gyurme & Jean Philippe Rykiel

Rain of Blessings: Lama Gyurme & Jean Philippe Rykiel

Music as Medicine: Nawang Khechog

Indian Kirtans:

Live on Earth: Krishna Das

Satsang: Deva Premal and Miten

Sacred Chants of Shiva: From the Banks of the Ganges

Native American:

Canyon Trilogy: Carlos Nakai

Deer Dancer: Jessita Reyes & Grupo Yaqui

African:

Sangoma: Miriam Makeba

Related posts:

Self Realization

Coping With Difficult Times Part 4: Chanting

Musical Cheers

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One of the most beautiful chants of Shiva, the deity that represents the one Consciousness in Hindu mythology is called Nirvana Shatkam or Six Verses on Self Realization. It is a doctrine on self-realization or awareness of oneself as the all pervasive Consciousness. Consciousness is that primordial energy from which all phenomena emanates. In this chant the seeker understands that he is not this finite, physical form, but comes to identify with the ever blissful, omnipotent and omnipresent Consciousness.

In the first verse, the seeker loses his sense of “I” and realizes he is not the mind, the intellect, the senses, or the elements. As at the end of every verse, it ends with the seeker’s identification with Consciousness.

In the second verse, he realizes he is not his body, the components or functions of his body.

In the third verse, he realizes he is not his feelings or emotions.

In the fourth verse, he realizes he is not the doer or those things that sustain him.

In the fifth verse, he realizes he was never born, so will never die, no identification with roles, or distinctions.

In the sixth verse, he realizes he is the formless, all pervasive, the eternal Consciousness and bliss.

The sound track of the video is from the CD: Sacred Chants of Shiva, and there is another beautiful version on Satsang.

Here is a translation from the Sanskrit:

1. I am neither the conscious nor the unconscious mind, neither intelligence nor ego, neither the ears nor the tongue nor the senses of smell and sight, neither ether nor air nor fire nor water nor earth. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

2. I am neither the breath nor the five vital airs, neither the seven body components nor the five sheaths, neither speech nor hands nor feet nor anus nor sex organ. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

3. Neither aversion nor attachment, neither avarice nor delusion, neither arrogance nor the feeling of jealousy, at all, neither righteousness nor wealth nor pleasure are mine. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

4. I am neither virtue nor vice, neither pleasure nor pain, neither mantra nor sacred place, neither Vedas nor sacrifices. I am neither the food nor the eater nor the act of eating. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

5. Neither death nor doubt nor caste distinction, neither father nor mother nor even birth are mine, at all. I am neither brother nor friend neither Guru nor disciple, indeed.  I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

6. I am without thought, without form, I am all-pervasive, I am everywhere, yet I am beyond all senses. I am neither detachment nor salvation nor anything that could be measured. I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva! I am Shiva!

I recently asked someone who has practiced the teachings of a traditional spiritual path for many years, what he learned from the path he followed. He said, “The one thing I learned that I didn’t know before was, turning towards God, facing God.” When I asked him how he does it, he said he didn’t know, that he just does it. I reflected on this in relation to my own experience and realized that indeed he cannot tell me how he does it, because facing God is not a “doing” thing, it’s a matter of “being.” What he calls “facing God” may be similar to what I call, “radiant presence.”

Many years ago I was on vacation on a tropical island. My friends and I were driving to a remote bay at one end of the island. We drove through miles of verdant tropical forests, and the expanse of the dense growth of trees seemed endless with no beach in sight. Then suddenly there was a roaring sound and as we crested the hill on the road, a magnificent vista beheld my gaze; there it was, the pounding surf, the aqua colored water washing up on the white sand. My breath was suspended, my mind went quiet. I still remember that feeling of radiance that flashed before me and through me; a feeling of communion, of pulsing beauty that leaves one speechless. We visited the same beach several times after that. Although each time it was a beautiful sight when we approached the beach from the crest of the hill, the majesty of that first ecstatic encounter of the ocean was not there. In the first experience, I had no expectations, I was totally open  with a freshness to what was there. My mind was stopped by the sheer beauty and radiant presence of the ocean. My mind could not engage in describing what I saw or its usual commentary. I was in the presence of the holy of holies.

In the Christian tradition we are taught that God made Man in his own image. In the mystical traditions of the East, we learn that Consciousness descended into form and all existence is an expression of that one Consciousness. So to experience God we don’t have to wait until we die or do X amount of mantras and meditation retreats. We simply have to be aware of the essence of what is behind all of experience in both the form and formless states.

There is a very ancient book on Yoga called the Vijnanabhairava or Divine Consciousness which consists of one hundred and twelve yoga aphorisms which delineate how to experience the divine in the midst of daily life. These can be as simple as enjoying the ecstasy of eating one of your favorite foods. The one English translation that I know of, is cumbersome and assumes previous study of introductory philosophies. I will occasionally do some posts based on some of these aphorisms. The practice of these yogas of everyday experience is to be in the presence of God or as I like to phrase it: To be in the face of radiance. Every experience offers the opportunity to face God, for behind every experience is the radiance of the divine. It is a matter of how we perceive life.

And that Aha! that you get when you see an artwork that really hits you is, ‘I am that.’ I am the very radiance of energy that is talking to me through this painting.—Joseph Campbell

These words are the essence of the yoga aphorisms of that ancient  scripture. Indeed we can turn towards God and experience divinity in the midst of our normal life without having to retreat to a monastery, perform rituals or go on pilgrimage. Our worship then becomes the trappings of our normal existence; of the daily routines of our lives, our physical and emotional pains, the ups and downs of our creature-hood.

In this line from Hamlet’s soliloquy, Shakespeare has Hamlet contemplating the choice of being or non-being:

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Hamlet considers whether to continue his life of misery or to end it all in death:

“…To suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to fight against a sea of troubles,
And end them by fighting? To die, to sleep…”

Hamlet is not sure of what happens after death:

“…To sleep! Perhaps to dream. Yes, there’s the catch,
For what dreams may come in that sleep of death,
When we have left this life on earth…”

Hamlet is caught between a rock and a hard place, to put it in modern terms:

“…Who would bear these burdens
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
Except that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose borders
No traveler returns, puzzles the mind…”

Hamlet was on the spiritual healing journey weighing the choices he saw ahead of him and he saw suffering as the outcome in either choice of “to be or not to be:”

“…And makes us bear those problems we have
Rather than fly to others that we don’t know about?
In this way, a conscience can make cowards of us all…”

I have to say that Hamlet definitely needed to change the channel. If he chose to change the channel, his soliloquy would sound more like:

“…Why do I have to avenge my father’s death?
It happened, it’s over and I’m OK.
What do I need to move on?
What can I learn from this?”

Nah! I don’t think that will make for good drama. I’ll stick to being a blogger on the spiritual healing journey and I’ll let Shakespeare be the dramatist.

I have always been fascinated with the assumption that we create our own personal realities by the nature of the thoughts we keep, and that en mass we create the events in our greater reality, based on those thoughts. Whether we consciously own them or disown them, or are unconscious of them, our thoughts about the nature of reality are apparently played out on the world’s stage. The turn of events where a revolutionary election in America has given the mandate of the highest office of the land to an unlikely candidate, is the topic of exploration for this post on idealism.

Looking at the events that have taken place during the term of the present US presidential administration, we see how the stage has been set for a radical change in our idealism and consequently a president elect with the qualities and values more in alignment with that change. We see how a perverted idealism with an intention to defend our security has had a disastrous outcome. We took a risk where we felt justified in retribution, no matter what the cost to ourselves or others.

Beginning with the events of 9/11 we came together in our communities with a sense of vulnerability and deep fear  for our basic security. It could have been a major turning point in world politics to work at healing the root cause of what engendered such a catastrophic event; a horrendous act of violence being played out by a group of deluded perpetrators on a whole nation, that sent shock-waves worldwide. Instead, what happened was, as a world community we carried on “business as usual.” The president of America told people to go shopping, distract themselves, and now we have an economic meltdown because we went to town and shopped until we dropped. Of course this is an exaggeration of what caused the economic crisis that we are in.

The other effect of the aftermath of 9/11 was that a lot of us felt that the people who brought this pain upon us needed to be punished. This punishment has affected not only the supposed perpetrators but also ourselves in the form of economic havoc. We went into two wars and even with the death and casualties of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers, the punishment is still happening more than five years later. It is ironic that the very people who uphold pro-life values are convinced of the righteousness of killing in war and the need to continue to a victorious end. We responded to fanaticism with our perverted idealism, another form of fanaticism. This perverted idealism ends in more killing and a perpetuated cycle of estranged relations.

The events of the last eight years have supposedly brought a sobering outlook on a mass level. We projected our group idealism on to a charismatic young leader who despite the odds against him, had the audacity to hope to be elected for the office of the commander in chief, of one of the most powerful nations on earth. As a nation, the people of America have expressed their desire for radical change in the choice of the president elect, Senator Obama. The new idealism that is symbolized in Senator Obama is not unlike Spock’s in Star Trek: “The good of the many outweighs the good of the few or of the one.” In his victory speech on the night of the election, Senator Obama spoke the words representative of this new idealism:

“….This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.”

image credit: Carl Chapman

I spent a memorable Winter at a spiritual community in the mountains, many years ago. I still recall the feeling of isolation, austerity, and yet the sheer beauty and utter serenity of that experience. Everyday, looking out from the large panoramic windows that overlooked the forests and the lake, all that was visible was an expanse of whiteness that blanketed everything. The feeling of starkness, emptiness and solitude of that wintry landscape mirrored the feeling of aloneness that I felt inside. Being a novice on the spiritual path, it was a very difficult choice to stay in that cloistered environment, away from the usual distractions of my life. I was forced to turn within, to be with myself. The rest of the community at the retreat site were there for the same purpose; to use the opportunity of silence and austerity to contemplate and practice self-inquiry. We had elected to give up useless chatter and socializing, and to speak only when necessary. In spite of our enforced non-social communication, there was an ambiance of bonding, love and caring amongst the retreat participants. We supported and respected each other.

Like Kermit the Frog said, “It is not easy being green,” when you are a spiritual seeker; it is not always very comfortable for yourself or for others. You may not feel very supported for all the changes that you are making in your life. You may begin to choose food and entertainment based on your values honoring the sacredness of all life. Some people may actually feel threatened by your stepping out of the tribal mores of your social connections, whether it is at your workplace, with friends or with family members. This is understandable since you were brought together by what you had in common. If what you had in common was the basis of your relationships, now that you are making change, you no longer fit in. If there is a deeper connection beyond the superficial aspects, then there has to be compromise on everybody’s part, for relationship to continue. For many people, this is too difficult to cope with and relationships end. In the case of family members, it is less likely that your relationship would end. So how do you deal with it?

One of the pitfalls of the novice spiritual seeker is to create alienation by taking on the habits of a foreign culture and trying to convince  or convert others with the new found enthusiasm for a spiritual path. There are “born again” Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Sufis etc. This kind of behavior is sure to make life uncomfortable for all concerned. Another pitfall is that the seeker becomes dogmatic because of his misunderstanding of what renunciation is. This is a subject for another post, but suffice it to say that a seeker can create distress by refusing to compromise in social situations, when it comes to food and entertainment choices. It behooves the seeker to find a happy medium, being sensitive to his own needs and the needs of others.

In following the spiritual path, a seeker often finds himself alone, away from his usual milieu, but that does not necessarily have to be a lonely experience. One can be alone without being lonely, which itself is a state of mind. It as an emotional response to being alone. Loneliness is a feeling of incompleteness by oneself and looks to companionship of others. Being alone just is. A seeker feels complete by integrating spiritual wisdom through direct experience in doing spiritual practices. The spiritual practices of many ancient mystic traditions are imbued with the potency of courage, discipline and resolve of a lineage of spiritual masters. Their very attainment were executed through engaging in these practices. A seeker feels that his practice is upheld by the blessings of an army of spiritual warriors of his lineage. He does not feel alone. Discipline in keeping up with the practices is important to maintain equilibrium as one wavers between the experience of loneliness and wholeness in the beginning.

In Chogyam Trungpa’s, Shambhala The Sacred Path of the Warrior, he said, “…His awareness and sensitivity are constantly extended. Even if a situation is very demanding or difficult, the warrior never gives up. He always conducts himself well, with gentleness and warmth to begin with, and he always maintains his loyalty to sentient beings who are trapped in the setting-sun world. The warrior’s duty is to generate warmth and compassion for others…..When the warrior has unwavering discipline, he takes joy in the journey and joy with working with others. Rejoicing takes place throughout the warrior’s life. Why are you always joyful? Because you have witnessed your basic goodness, because you have nothing to hang on to….Your mind and body are continually synchronized and always joyful. This joy is like music, which celebrates its own rhythm and melody. The celebration is continuous, in spite of the ups and downs of your personal life. This is what is meant by constantly being joyful.”

Related posts:

What Is Spirituality

It Can Get Lonely

The Depths Of Loneliness