I am behind on these posts. Ironically, posting less frequently may make my likelihood of posting less, since it doesn't become habitual.
I'm thinking the best way to catch up is to do some short posts. I'm not sure whether to apologize for this, or say your welcome, since I don't know which kind of post is preferred. Feel free to leave a comment with your preference.
I was surprisingly tired today. I never used to be able to nap during the day, but these days, I can often nap for long periods of time, midday, as long as I have a blindfold of some sort on. Perhaps this is old age? Perhaps this is just getting up early every day.
Yesterday was... a lot of attachment and being driven by my senses. I started reading a book about some of the best graphic novels of all time, and I got sucked in and even missed my appointment with my psychologist (I'm seeing him more in a positive phycology, Abraham Maslow, Self-Actualization kind of way, rather than because I have serious problems.) Which was very disturbing. So out of control. Such amount of wasted time. Today I set some precommitments about what I would do when I got home and, though there were a few modifications, I mostly followed through with it. The nap was part of it, since if I was fatigued it was more likely I'd wander astray and do worse work. That was a smart move. And then I got cracking on my homework. Not perfect, but much better than the previous days.
I can't stress enough, how important doing ordinary life is to the integrity of a spiritual seeker. There is a cunning sickness that creeps into many seekers, where they detach from the world, but not in a mature way. They detach like a child, who is afraid. They gleefully give up their duties, tell themselves all that mundane stuff isn't important, that they'll just meditate their problems away. And thus they become sick in spirit, because spirit requires Truth and Righteousness to grow in a healthy strong way. And denying our duty is not in line with Righteousness, and deep down, we feel the wrongness of shirking our duties, but we ignore that voice, and thus we go against truth, our own truth, our own voice of truth within us, telling us that we are being irresponsible, not living up to our duties.
Understand this: you must do your mundane, unsexy, perhaps boring, or uncomfortable, jobs and responsibilities, BEFORE you can truly enter onto the spiritual path. Being able to brush your teeth, maintain your relationships, keep your word, be kind to others, support yourself... if you can't do those things, any spirituality you are developing is diseased and rotten at its roots and will eventually topple over because of that. There are many charismatic spiritual Guru's who can't hold down a normal job, and so they charge money for meditation or spiritual instruction, because that's all they're good at. Because they can't do the normal things necessary in life to support themselves, and never could. This is a hideous mockery of true spirituality, and they often do great harm to their followers, because, though their words may be sweet and intellectually satisfying, the subtle energy of the falsehood and spiritual immaturity they live is transferred into their teachings, and makes the teachings ineffective at best.
(though, as an aside, there are always amazing students who are able to learn and progress despite poor teachers.)
Let me distil this all down to a few simple action points:
First:
When selecting spiritual teachers or guides, give them a good, long scrutiny period, where you carefully research:
A) Their actual conduct, their lives, whether they are virtuous people, whether they practice all that they teach.
B) The results of their teachings, in your direct experience, and even more, the results of their teachings on their long-term students. Make sure you look at many students, not just the exceptional ones, and make sure you get the real story, not the ad campaign.
Second:
Common sense comes
before divine sense. Your ability to be successful in fulfilling your duties towards people and the world is a precondition of spiritual detachment. You must practice your spiritual disciplines starting right away, but they should not take precedence over your duty to wife, family, society. Your duty, your responsibilities,
are your spiritual path, and to flee them for a meditation cave, or the intellectual detachment and rationalization of theoretical advaita, will not result in enlightenment even after a thousand lifetimes.
Understand: your life is your greatest Guru, and presents you exactly the tricky situations that you need to overcome and master to take your next step on the path. Running away from that is running away from your Sad Guru (not a crying man with beard and robe; it means your main teacher, one that has reached the goal and who's dharma is to help ferry others along the way, and that you have surrendered to and committed to. Can also refer to the voice of God within you.)
