Almost every time I communicate with people who consider themselves to be walking the spiritual path, I see the same favorite stops, sitting on which they imagine their path. It's easy to stop. So much so that most spiritual seekers have not even embarked on the path yet, snuggling up at a bus stop called Modern Spirituality. And at this stop there is everything that your heart desires.
Here is a long line of enlightened Masters and Gurus with even longer ranks of their followers. Here is a library of scriptures and the best texts of enlightened representatives of humanity. Here is a group of yogis in twisted positions and here is a free rug waiting for you for a reasonable fee. Nearby selflessly mantras are singing and people with blissful faces whirl in an ecstatic dance. And here, having tasted a certain exotic drink, or chewed a magic mushroom, you can experience the highest mystical experiences. And there, nearby, a whole series of ashrams lined up in a row, from which silence and peace emanate. And from everywhere they invite to themselves, offering tea ceremonies, meditation and breathing techniques, secrets of martial arts, energy complexes, magic techniques, shamanic rituals, ancient artifacts and spiritual paraphernalia for every taste … wow … you can't list everything.
It's a sin not to stop here - there is so much choice. And the demand is obviously there. And since the demand is great and people come from there with burning eyes, then it’s a good thing and you need to try, right? Correct logic?
That's why people get stuck at this stop. They are guided by the logic of the era of consumption, in which even spirituality is on display. And so consumers go from department to department, choosing for themselves the various outfits of spiritually advanced seekers. And then they show them to each other like trophies from a spiritual supermarket.
Do you think I am against all of the above? Not. Do not mind. It's not at all about what I have listed. These are all doors. How can I be against the doors? If you know where you are going, then this is what you sometimes go through, going to your goal, and if you don’t know, then this is just walking along various attractions of the promoted tourist route with spiritual comments on it. And spiritual tourism is a very popular phenomenon today.
Spiritual tourism
Some spiritual traditions compare the first stage on the spiritual path to the life of a bee. In fact, this is not the path itself, but only a prelude to it. The bee flies from flower to flower and tastes their pollen. So the spiritual seeker gets acquainted with different approaches, religious trends, philosophical views, practices and specific carriers of knowledge and states. It is understood that a spiritual seeker at this stage will at least theoretically deal with the main issues, understand what is the purpose of the spiritual path, what are his own inclinations and which of the tried directions is closer to him. This stage can last for several years, and after its expiration, the spiritual seeker, like a bee, returns to the hive to digest the eaten pollen and begin to produce honey. Back to the hive is to stop the external search,the cessation of the active accumulation of information and experience, and the beginning of the digestion of everything that has been accumulated in the past. This is the beginning of the path.
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But what do I see? I see that the insatiable bees fly all their lives tirelessly, never returning to the hive, never starting the digestion process, and never starting to release honey. This is spiritual tourism.
purpose
It is very rare to find a person who has taken the trouble to honestly answer his questions about the purpose of all that he does in the sphere of life that he considers spiritual. Why all this? What is the ultimate goal? What should be the end result?
In 99.9% of cases, this question hides approximately the same answer. It is disguised in spiritual terms and sublime language, but honestly, it’s always the same. Often people talk about spiritual awakening and liberation, but they mean happiness, bliss, harmony, ecstasy, power, peace, recognition, the role of an enlightened teacher, and so on. To be honest, these are all hidden notions of pleasure. Pleasure wrapped in a wrapper of spirituality.
In fact, all ideas about pleasure are rooted in our past experience, so if the goal is pleasure, then you will always only deal with fragments of your past in different combinations. Sometimes bizarre and mystical combinations, but nevertheless …
Know that this world satisfies all requests without exception. It works like that. And if the situation in the world is such that there are millions of spiritual seekers, and there are only a few awakened beings, then the conclusion is simple: they do not want awakening, they want something else. And this other is disguised as spirituality.
Masters and Gurus
For the modern spiritual seeker, the best Master is a dead Master. I am not kidding. It is a fact if you look at things directly. The Living Master is a threat to all your notions, your entire shaky ego structure - concepts, theories, speculations and your imaginary personality. In a word, all the lies that you hide from life.
Therefore, modern seekers like the Masters of the past, or those Masters who are at a sufficient distance from them. They do not threaten their safety and fully correspond to their ideas and fantasies about the spiritual path. You can love such Masters in absentia, you can admire them and periodically refer to their words. They will not come out of nirvana to hit the jaw of your imaginary person with the fist of truth. But that's about what a real Master is doing. Living Master. The one to whom you can ask your important question and to which you can get close enough to disappear one day.
Most of those who come to the Masters to ask their question (for example, at satsang) think that they have come for an answer, for a solution to the voiced problem. But the task of the Master is different - to take your questions away from you, to leave you with nothing - unprotected, open and vulnerable: without questions and answers, without numerous layers of ideas and concepts. And if you understand this, then despite the inevitable discomfort you will come closer and closer to him, until one day you find that the Master and you are not different.
But a modern seeker comes to the Master to confirm his opinion and take root in him. And if this does not happen, he leaves for another. The choice is enormous nowadays. There will certainly be someone who will gently smooth out his lofty ideas about himself, at the same time increasing the ranks of his followers.
Going to satsangs and drinking the Masters from a straw like multi-colored juices, then discussing whether you liked him or not - it's damn strange. And it is just as strange to often go from one Master to another, mixing these drinks like cocktails.
Perhaps you have a question: is a Master required on the path of awakening? To this question I have an exact answer: yes, a Master is needed. But understand this first: the true Master is Life itself. She is your first and last teacher.
Mystical experiences
Often, mystical experiences are perceived by people as an integral part of the spiritual path, therefore they often become an end in themselves. Which, in essence, is a substitute and an obstacle to awakening. Spiritual awakening is not a mystical experience, it is not at all any new experience and not an altered state of consciousness. Awakening never coincides with the idea of it. It is like remembering yourself as the one who sees this dream, and not the one who does something in the dream. As someone who has existed and will always exist. In the midst of all phenomena and beyond.
All experiences, all experiences, all mysticism in all its manifestations are part of a dream. Maybe in its thinner layers, but still it is part of the dream.
The dream unfolds in the form of a kind of drama on the stage. The stage is the territory of the usual human perception. Metaphysics and mysticism are behind the scenes of external processes, visible if the habitual perception is changed. And awakened existence is uninvolved observation from outside both the stage and its behind the scenes. And more often than not, there is no need to look behind the scenes.
From time to time I hear how someone from the people I met enthusiastically talks about mystical experiences as something very significant. And when they ask me what I think about it, they do not see much interest in my eyes. I speak of this as something ordinary and not very important. And this, of course, they do not like.
It's just that it's already difficult for me to understand why one state is fundamentally better than another. And I want to say to such people, pouring cold words: buy some psychotropic substances and you will easily get a whole bunch of mystical experiences. If these experiences are your goal, drugs are the fastest way to get there. And many people in the modern spiritual get-together do just that, hiding behind lofty words.
But if you are honest with yourself, you will see that after these experiences your previous reactions remain in place. Namely, your reactions in everyday life are the indicator of your progress. The only benefit that I can recognize from psychotropic experiences is a slightly more expanded understanding of myself and the world. And that's all the good. It can be removed by much safer means. However, no, not all. It is also an opportunity to see how you cling to the image of a spiritually advanced person. And know that taking psychotropic substances is always a kind of experience paid for on credit.
If your goal is awakening, then for you mystical experiences, naturally experienced as you progress through some stages, are just road signs. They are like milestones on the way by which you can understand where you are and what to do next. As a driver, you never make a road sign the purpose of your trip, you don't stop near it, you don't wander around, considering it something special. You just go on, knowing thanks to a sign that a turn, a slide, or a pedestrian crossing awaits you here.
Spiritual practices
Oh … that's the problem. It must be admitted that with the availability of information, the superficiality of its perception came to us.
All practices and techniques are tools, like a shovel. You need it to dig until you get to the water. And when you dig a well with water, you need to throw out the shovel and, without leaving the well, drink from it until you are completely satisfied. Instead, spiritual seekers take one shovel after another. And they dig in one place, then in another. Sometimes I ask some why they change shovels and places? And someone replies that this shovel does not suit him, or that there is no water where he dug. And I look at the area where he worked and I see many small pits. And I know: if he had applied his efforts to one place, the well would have already been dug. And it is not so important where to start digging - there is water everywhere, just dig until you are convinced of this.
Spiritual literature and knowledge
A good book is an index, like a link on the internet. The purpose of the link is to point and redirect the user to the landing page. The task of spiritual literature is to point out the source of the reader's gaze and the factors that may distract him.
And I often want to ask: why do you constantly re-read link texts? Why are you quoting them? Why do you need a collection of links? Why are you reading comments to them?
A click is all you need. Go where they indicate.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, I will say that a lot of knowledge is not needed. Sometimes one sincere conversation or a small paragraph of text is enough to formulate the very essence of what you need to do and how. And then you take a shovel and dig.
Ashrams
visit. And I've heard the same story many times. It sounds something like this: "Here, in the ashram, it is good, calm, sublime, but where I live everything is not so - noisy, low energies and the people around are not the same." Therefore, some of these people one day abandon everything and settle down next to the ashram, or right there.
And you know what I think? I think that this is most often the end of this person's path. And most likely it never started.
Most of our knots are tied in the conditions of the society in which we spent most of our lives. And the best way to see and untie these knots is to look directly at them without hiding your eyes. If these people sincerely asked me how I see their next step, I would say: come back home; get a job; achieve what you once wanted, but then gave up, hiding this desire far away; Build relationships with parents, relatives, wife or husband, friends and coworkers; surround yourself with worthy people. It is not necessary that all these relationships be close, enough that they are not destructive and that they fit harmoniously into the context of your life. And when this happens, and at the same time there will be some craving for something that goes beyond even this harmony - come to the ashram. In this case, you will not run away from reality and you will no longer feel a big contrast between life at home and life in the ashram. The ashram will become just a convenient solution to a practical problem - for example, for going through an intensive retreat, or digesting the passed stage.
About our time
I believe that our time is just a gift for someone who is really interested in awakening, because modern society is such that it is enough to live an ordinary life in the midst of society for the destructive tendencies of the mind to constantly come out. The modern social system contributes to this. And it is certainly difficult, but also very effective. So life shows what burdens you, thereby helping to get rid of it.
Close ties, the availability of information, the intensity of life, and even the materialistic vector of modern society are all excellent conditions for fast growing up.
A few more words
All of the above is by no means a criticism. In essence, everything is always in its place. And the author of this text himself stepped on many of these rakes. It's just that sometimes such a text can become a reason to revise your course of movement.
In this case, you just read and honestly ask yourself - is this so in my life or not? And if you sincerely answer yourself to these questions, then it will be already difficult, if not impossible, to repeat the revealed nonsense. In essence, it was all about how to stop imitating spirituality by falling into well-disguised traps.
And if you caught yourself doing this, then you just leave the stop where you are sitting, adjust the further course of movement and go your own way.
