Spirituality in practice
First off I’ll admit that while some of this is based on my own experience, mostly it’s based on things that I’ve read or heard. That’s fine though, why reinvent the wheel? I think it would take more time than I have to learn everything first hand.
The term spirituality gets thrown around a lot these days. I suppose it has become a replacement for ceremonious religion which has been unceremoniously thrown out. Sure religion has it’s faults, but it also did a pretty good job of orienting us in the right direction. It emphasises humility, and highlights that our egos are very small indeed in the grand scheme of things. With religion gone, ego has become all, and by extension so have the goals of the ego, a nice car, house and spouse. These material things have, without the counterbalance of religion, taken on a disproportionate weight in our lives. The more we focus on these ego goals, the more we lose our real selves.
The whole thing isn’t helped by the consumer driven economies that we live in, where we are all pushed to be stronger, prettier and wealthier than the next person. Pretty soon you end up in a whirl-wind and convince yourself that sitting behind a screen for 10 hours a day working, so that you can make some number appear on that same screen in the form of your bank account is a good use of precious life! And if somebody interrupts you from doing this, you’ll look at them with scowl and think, will you stop wasting my time. Can’t you see I’m working!
But you’re reading this, which means on some level you agree with me that spirituality, whatever it means, is important. So I want to go through some practical steps.
Contrary to the popular trend, I don’t think being spiritual is heading off to a Peruvian swamp to drink ayahuasca. That’s a magic pill solution, and they almost never work. A paracetamol tablet can take away your headache, but if you routinely drink 3 coffees per day and don’t drink enough water.. then you haven’t really tackled the root of the problem. Well it’s the same thing with spirituality, you can have your ayahuasca, but if you curse at the next person that cuts you off in traffic what have you really achieved?
Just like with getting physically fit or learning a new skill there’s only one sure way to evolve spiritually, and that’s with daily practise. Sure there are exceptions, you could have a near death experience and ‘wake-up’ so to speak. But a sudden awakening is 1 in a million, and as they say hope isn’t a strategy. So what is the strategy then?
One solid strategy is to adopt a personal code of conduct which might include the following:
1) To be kind and compassionate with everyone that you interact with.
Often we have a choice to make in life, we can either be right or we can be happy. Yes you were right to get angry at that person that cut you off in traffic. Yes you are right to resent your colleague for always being late which forces you to pick up the slack. Yes you can be frustrated with you family member who forgot to lock the door. Or you can see it from their point of view, that the driver is rushing home because his daughter is sick. That your colleague is secretly battling depression and finds it hard to get out of bed in the morning. And that your family member was excited to attend an event and forgot to lock the door.
2) Forgive those who have wronged you.
A simple but not always easy thing to do. Forgiving someone does a lot for them, but a lot more for you. So do it for yourself! Nothing clogs up your system like resentment. It’s like a poison glue that stops the gears from turning. The closer that person is to you, the more important it is that you forgive them. How many stories are there of people rushing to their parent’s deathbed to apologise or reconcile after not talking for 20 years. Don’t wait until then. Unless they were truly nasty, you have to realise people do the best that they know how to do at the time. And often like all of us they are swept up in some mood that makes them do silly things.
Side note here that 1) and 2) don’t just apply to others, better to be kind and forgive ourselves first!
3) To appreciate life.
I was walking along a local street the other day in some kind of unproductive mental loop when suddenly I looked up to see a Jacaranda tree in full bloom, with it’s vivid purple flowers set against the blue sky and white clouds. I literally stopped in my tracks and laughed at myself. It’s important to look up once in a while and realise that this world that we live in is a paradise, full of wonders. If you live in a concrete jungle type city as I have before, then it might help you to get out to a park or better yet into nature once in a while.
4) To remember that you are not the body or the mind.
It’s a bit like your hand, it is your hand, but it is not you. The same goes for the rest of the physical body and also the mind. When we get old at some point we pass away, but what is it that passes away? The body is little changed from one moment to the next, and yet we are gone. So one question to keep in mind is, who or what am I exactly?
5) Aim for something that is bigger than yourself.
It might be to help your family, your community or your country. By setting goals that are about more than your personal gain, you begin to move beyond the ego. It doesn’t even need to be something elaborate. It could be something as simple as preparing a nice meal for someone, or offering to help a friend. This is why people become happier when they have children. It shifts their attention from their own mental drama. In that sense it’s not the children specifically, it’s the effect they are having on you, just like any other favourable circumstance. You feel good because the circumstance clears your mental clouds (ego) enough for the sun that is always there to shine through. Learn how to clear the clouds and you won’t depend on a favourable external wind to clear them for you.
I think you can get along just fine with a personal code of conduct, but if you want to put the afterburners on and really accelerate your progress you may want to add in yoga and meditation. Specifically Kriya yoga and associated meditation. Kriya yoga differs substantially from regular garden variety yoga that is popular in the West. It is focused more on the flow of energy and involves finely tuned patterns of movement and breathing. It is also taught directly from teacher (guru) to student, in an unbroken chain that often stretches hundreds if not thousands of years.
Finally, reading spiritual books can be very helpful. Consider switching out news or social media before you go to bed with 30 minutes of reading. If you’re interested in recommendations just let me know. Otherwise you can always visit a book store, have a look at the spirituality section and see what takes your fancy.
Why spirituality anyway? To boil it down to a sentence, you’ll feel better, and it will attract more favourable circumstances into your life. The trick with all of the above is consistency and to remember that it’s most important to implement when you’re having a bad day, not just a good day.
I could go on, I’ll leave it for next time. Good luck!