What does it mean to live a spiritual life?
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
I came across this quote by Ram Dass this morning, and it set me to thinking…
“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.”
― Ram Dass
It seems true to me that the path is highly personal. Certainly it has meant for me that something like a Buddhist monk’s life hasn’t been explored by me. There was a point where I considered it, about eight years ago, but then I read Stephen Batchelor’s Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist and found that he had saved me from many years of living in that way.
So if I were to further consider the Ram Dass quote, and “listen to my own truth”, what has dedicating my time to spirituality meant to me and what has it brought me? And how to continue from here?
First, the methods I have followed to date:
- Reading spiritual literature: a lot of time, many realisations, a wide array of teachers, but no breakthroughs
- Written reflections on self and methods: mostly on forums, quite a lot of time, sharing, bringing out what was within, gaining clarity
- Meditations: irregularly, short, but with easy progress, still limited
- Courses: relatively rarely, at the Gelugpa temple, an opportunity to ask questions
- Quotes: reading many from recognised authors as a shortcut for reading books
For me, it has resulted in just a few guidelines which I try to apply constantly…
- Not identifying with thoughts, not letting thoughts set the tone, living a simple life
- Being natural and relaxed, being aware that misery is my creation but bliss is my nature
- Not forcing anything inside, but just being mindfully aware
I have gone through a purification of the body and the spirit, but whether this has resulted in me being better off is something I’m not certain of. I have noticed that a long standing tingle in my body has vanished over the last few days. This has meant a kind of sea change in what I perceive of my body… I had always associated that tingle with a sort of energy. Not sure what this means, but it’s different.
U.G. says that there is no breakthrough which one can work towards, that it all happens automatically. So in that way, a spiritual journey doesn’t necessarily mean ‘doing’ things like retreats or courses, it may mean that ‘doing’ as such is not necessary. Still I like to share insights, helping inspire people is a way of improving the world.
The reading and writing of spiritual literature sets my mind to work in a certain way, perhaps it is so that that state of mind is something that I associate with spirituality.
What does “living a spiritual life” mean to you?
Comments
I'm not sure that I lead a "spiritual life". If I do, it certainly isn't what you or Ram Das tell.
I just live, to the best of my ability, and the fruition of my karma. Spirituality doesn't enter into it.
Well I also asked the question of a good friend of mine, and she said “she tries to learn as much as she can, and work on herself”. Fair enough, and I thanked her for an honest answer.
I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer, just different ways to approach it.
For me, a spiritual life just describes the transition of selfishness towards selflessness.
Its a good question.
On the one hand I do think that the medicine needs to reflect what the patient requires. So there isn't one path or technique that should be expected to fit for all people.
On the other hand, there is a difference between engaging in a "spiritual" life, what ever that does mean and living a destructive sort of life. So there is some sort of common "one way" that does link differing paths.
So the question is, what is that one broad way? Just trying to think of that now I'd say it has an inward looking quality to it. Its first focused on improving those inner qualities, that could be in service of the outer, but the practice is inward. There is some quality of moving from one state to a nebulously defined better state. An inwardly focused move from what causes us psycho-spiritual suffering to what causes psycho-spiritual flourishing? I think there is probably some level of mystery involved even for the most secular and skeptical. Sam Harris, for example, is in search of some unanswered question about what the spiritual experience is and means for people. What can it offer us? Probably some other things too that aren't occurring.
For my own sense of spirituality, I want to engage in practices and ways of thinking that help me become wiser and kinder so I can have a positive influence on the world around me. I want to have left the world better for having been in it. I don't have any grand ambition to be maximally wonderful, if I can be more additive to my world than subtractive, with some sense of trying to be better (not perfect) everyday, then I'm satisfied.
In a way, the spiritual experience is also the everyday experience. The two blend into each other and you can’t really separate them. But the spiritual side of life means giving attention to the things that you hold to be spiritual, and it is worth asking the question what those are.
You could say my spiritual practice is entirely within the spirit, which is possible, but for a lot of people the spiritual also has an external representation. Candles, scents, an altar, Buddha statues, flowers, photo’s of beloved teachers. Often having a place like that in the home and caring for it, cleaning it, can also be spiritual. It’s a ritual, but it can give a place in the world to what comes from within.
That way, it is also the buying of these things which takes you to candle shops, flower shops, Buddhist places where you might buy a statue. So in a way having a place in your home for these things also takes you outside to support and express their presence in the local community. It is an expression of a feeling, a spiritual upwelling.
Of course, it isn’t strictly necessary to do that. But I think it is pleasant to have a place which reminds you of your gratitude to those who have taught a spiritual path.
For me, a spiritual life is the way of self-emptying love.
That does seem to be true more often for women than men.
Certainly at a young age it seems to be true, and often later in life one becomes more giving automatically, when material things become less important.
It reminds me of something that Osho used to say, that he was “full like a raincloud, showering his blessings on us all.” The raincloud gives naturally, it is in its nature. That too is a spiritual way of being.
Selfishness applies just as much to form as it does to sensation, thought, activity and consciousness.....just like selflessness can.
While a spiritual journey often begins with an addressing of those attachments that seem coarser and material in nature, they are only the preparatory steps towards addressing the subtler expressions of ignorance which brooks no limitation of age.
Really well said!
As you say, the path begins with course manifestation of self, and the duality that arises from it (other). As it continues, those attachments become more and more subtle.
In the Mahayana, there is the Madhyamaka philosophical tradition, referred to as "Not even a middle" (also called the Middle Way school). It is so called, because we find what with think is a middle between the extremes of self and other, only to find out the middle we think we found is just another extreme. The middle becomes nearly unfindable - something only a Buddha realizes. This is one reason why the Mahayana and Vajrayana focus on Buddhahood and not solely on Enlightenment.
For me, ultimately, the spiritual life is attempting and answering the who-am-I question by methods of introspection.
Or just... moving with practical steps towards one's highest ideal/aspiration.
Years ago, this was all theoretical for me, and my goals lofty. These days, I honour actual-factual steps and efforts, even if the goals are lower.
You might be interested, Eckhart Tolle said this about the “Who am I?” question recently…