In this moment, if our inner or outer life is not or has not been turned upside down, we are sleepwalking. We are just imitating some lame spiritual practice that is keeping our status quo. Self-hypnosis and denial can and do take many forms, including spirituality. In matters of Self, culture is not our friend. Its only interest is its own propagation, which involves keeping us asleep. Friends that do not challenge us are not true friends. The new age movement is certainly not our friend, rather a wolf in sheep's clothing, lulling us to a cozy sleep. Despite the teachings in vogue, we cannot become aware of the depths of our being without disturbing the routines of our comfortable lifestyle. Beware of false prophets interested (and taking billions!) in profits.
If we are not shaking in our boots, we are not facing truth. Truth has no interest in our love life, financial health or emotional stability. More often than not, these things are hindrances in her ability to shake us out of our sleepwalking. If we are not questioning on a daily level, our spiritual practice is worthless. Every single one of us is an expert liar. We must not underestimate our ability to fool ourselves and everyone around us. Political, economic or environmental action without internal knowledge is useless. Internal awareness without external action is insubstantial.
The you that is reading this is dreaming. Be firm in your commitment to get out of your slumber. Every thing and every one around us is committed to lulling us back to sleep. The road to awakening is a narrow path and no one can walk it for us. The best we can hope for is meeting kindred spirits who are finding and walking their own paths. We have to grow, prepare and eat the food. It is not some prepackaged processed food to be purchased and consumed. What sustains another might poison you.
We have to watch our lies. If our lips are moving without conscious and deliberate intent, we are most likely lying. No thing outside of us will ever fill us. Having doubts, being engaged in questioning all and keeping an open and elastic mind are crucial. Truth is not pleasant nor friendly to our everyday life. Look around and look at the world that we have created and continue to create. When not examined, our unconscious will ruin us. When integrated, it will elevate and empower us. That takes tremendous courage, to offer up our idealized self image at the alter of our true nature. "The Secret" is that there is no secret. These misguided teachings are embraced by our ego to solidify its position instead of having to admit that it is powerless and impermanent. Only we can awaken our selves. That takes hard, hard work. Any one who tells us otherwise is lying.
Wake up and live.
For more by Abdi Assadi, click here.
For more on mindfulness, click here.
I cannot believe I wasted my time reading this rubbish hahahaha
"But the Buddha is also a challenge, because he is more radical than most of us. There is a creeping new orthodoxy in modern society that is sometimes called "positive thinking." At its worst, this habit of optimism allows us to bury our heads in the sand, deny the ubiquity of pain in ourselves and others, and to immure ourselves in a state of deliberate heartlessness to ensure our emotional survival. The Buddha would have little time for this."
~ from "Buddha" by Karen Armstrong
A very elitist statement.you cannot possibly know who is going to read your article and if they are sleeping or awake.
"If we are not questioning on a daily level, our spiritual practice is worthless."
I personally have never seen a person become a sincere seeker of truths without some kind of significant emotional event occuring in their lives that removes the ego identification for a brief period of time.
When someone writes an article about you this and you that I think that is a very good description of their ego screaming for attention.
Being happy/living in the moment is related but not the same. Plenty of people have insight but aren't saints in the popular sense (for that matter, plenty of saints aren't as saintly as popularly conceived, though I mean this to emphasize their humanity rather than to question their realization or experience).
Last, but certainly not least, we're here to live. We have to come back from the inner and outer places in which we reach our moments of insight and live in the world. Life is messy and difficult, but here to be experienced fully, complete with both joys and travails.
Good luck (and, if I may, blessings) to all on the spiritual path - may you be happy and well, and find what you are seeking.
Again, without tangible process at hand, as it is correctly stated in the article, all talk is just talk.
mind and turn your senses inward. Then you're doing something very
few people are doing and you learn things about yourself from the
practice.
How's that?
Again, without process at hand, all the talk can do what ?
Recognizing it is one thing. Knowing which actions to take, and having the energy to fight for those things is quite another. Being decisive and taking action in a world of gatekeepers and information overload is what's difficult.
So much of what I read takes the reader up to the point of recognizing the symptoms or describing the problem. Most of the writers, however, talk very vaguely about the solutions because the solutions are usually messy, less conclusive, and difficult.
Awareness is critical but it's not enough.
The wind blows. I dance across the field, a dandy lion in the making.