Growing Spiritually – Feed Your Spirituality Well pt.1!
You know the saying: “In healthy body, healthy mind dwells.” Although spirituality is not at all concerned with one’s mind, let alone the body, for the time being you need both, in order to realize the Self.
Why? Because your mind is embedded in your body. When your body is sick and riddled with pain, you suffer “through” your mind, rendering it dull and unresponsive. “Why should I care about the mind?” you ask. It will be your purified mind that will get you beyond the mind, to the Self.
Said Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Perfection of the mind is the human task, for matter and spirit meet in the mind.”
Spiritual Food for the Mind
With the basics spelled out, let’s talk about how to keep the mind healthy. Certainly, the best, most proven way is to keep good company – satsang. Through the history, countless numbers of spiritual disciples testified to their advancement in spirituality, whether residing in an ashram, or being near a guru. At the same time, human nature makes us forget about the inner Guru – sadguru, our own Self, being our constant companion.
Instead, we prefer to go out and seek the outer guru, seek the miraculous and mysterious as the confirmation of the supreme powers bestowed on the guru wearing the human body. Only then, we believe…
That’s why naivety plays big role in many spiritual novices following the guidance of spiritual charlatans and false gurus, particularly abundant now, in the era of the Internet.
Some of the best known names in the so called “spiritual circles” – I prefer to call them “spiritual circuses” are no more than accomplished entertainers or persuasive consultants, selling their services for money. Clever marketing, including the carefully maintained aura of messiah, makes them paid well indeed. Names like Ariaa Jaeger, ZnaTrainer and Deepak Chopra come to mind. Quoting Chopra: “The only goal worth attaining is complete freedom to be yourself without illusions and false beliefs.” How does it seat with the basic tenets of spirituality? Not well at all. There are no goals in spiritual work, and you already are totally free, no matter how you conduct your life. Although seemingly harmless, their advice dressed up as spiritual teachings, can do serious damage to the naive spiritual seekers, and bog them in the rut of self-improvement, and take them away from the Self-enquiry.
A case in point, “The Secret”. For a person not even remotely interested in spirituality, watching the movie can be of some benefits. The sad reality is that for the most of them there will be no measurable results or improvement, bare feeling the sensation of getting sucked in… the endless marketing funnel, where one “guru” sells the seeker to another “guru” and so on. Yes, you’ll be going from Joe Vitale to Bob Proctor, and then to Marci Shimoff and back. All for the sake of finding the secret recipe that will over-deliver on all your desires, and make you what you already are!
Gosh, they have even included the Feng-Shui expert, Marie Diamond. In case you didn’t know, this exotic discipline calibrates below the level of integrity/truth, at 195.
For those at their early stages of spiritual development, finding such “treasure” makes for an endless spin on the merry-go-round. There are no worthwhile results; there is time irretrievably lost and a crashed spirit.
And I don’t even touch on the rest of the “spiritual” commerce. Services like tarot reading, clairvoyance, expensive retreats and purifying boot camps, aura reading, etc. Why people running them exist and profit handsomely? Because there’s never ending stream of naive individuals seduced by the promise of a short-cut to enlightenment, special revelation, or simply an improvement in one’s life fortunes.
So, how do you feed your mind and feed it well?
1. Be critical, question everything, ask for confirmation.
2. If offered a special truth, a secret, extra favors in return for money, run as fast as you can. Yes, your ego will want to get hold of the rare “opportunity” and “advance” you to where it want you to go. Remember, spiritual work is all about the sacking your ego as your master, and employing it as your servant.
3. With some rare exceptions, you’re much safer feeding your mind on the teachings of the spiritual masters of the past. For there’s no big marketing systems in place to promote them, and milk the followers relentlessly.
Remeber, the Truth is free for all. Those who have realized it, own it to the Divine Grace. You cannot buy enlightenment, no matter how much money are you prepared to pay for the privilege. The only way to gain it is through an unceasing self-enquiry, supported by renunciation and unlimited earnestness. Wise sage once said that those truly earnest will be spared the disappointment of following the wrong path. Why? Because your Self, the source of endless love, is where your earnestness originates from.
Now, go to your local bookstore (be warn, about 50% of the books that claim to be spiritual are below the level of integrity/truth) and online. Search and research, and soon enough you’ll find abundance of the spiritual food of the highest purity. Here’s a tip for you: any teachings (books, DVDs, seminars) by Dr David R Hawkins, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and David Godman are not only safe; they will expand your spiritual horizon and move you closer to Truth. How do I know? It has happened to me, my mind is less hungry and more tamed.
Yes, good feed does it!
