Posted on August 27, 2016
You don’t have to go to a posh studio, wear lulu lemon, or have your yoga postures approved by a ‘guru’ to be spiritual. You don’t have to sit cross legged in the lotus position and chant Sanskrit either! There is benefit in having experienced teachers set up a framework to help you get engaged in a practice, but teachers and methods will only take you so far. Ultimately spiritual journeys are a personal process, and too much structure could actually interfere. This principle can also be extended to any other activity. Whether we are riding a wave, meditating, playing chess, or playing with our child, it is that space of attentiveness and engagement that will dictate the quality of the experience.
“If you become too attached to the method, you become disengaged from the actual experience”
Whether it be transcendental meditation, hot yoga, or qi gong, any particular disciplines you use are simply techniques that serve as vehicles which can take us to the destination and set up the right conditions. You still have to get out of the vehicle and explore, to have the experience for yourself. The vehicle you use isn’t important, it is what you do when you get out of it, which determines your experience. The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon! Technique is just the finger. Your willingness, openness, curiosity and awareness are what allow you see the moon.
“When a wise man points at the moon, the idiot looks at the finger”
– Confucius –
Have you ever wondered things like:
- “How do I do meditation right”
- “Am I doing this yoga pose wrong”
- “Am I ruining it by overthinking”
- “What is spirituality”
These typical thoughts are testament to the misconception that there is a right and wrong way to have any spiritual experience. Any technique that has ever been invented is just there to help you get into a good space for yourself. So there’s no need to get wrapped up in thinking that you need to do things a certain way, or that if your experience is not what yourself or others expected, that you are doing it wrong! The only way of doing it wrong is to be too scared to explore and try things. Naturally, the more you can allow yourself to roam freely, the more interesting your expedition is likely to become.
Truth is a pathless land
– Jiddu Krishnamurti –
If we get too caught up and attached to any one method of doing something and gain a sense of authority or competition, like “we’re doing it the right way” and “they are doing it the wrong way” then the activity has become an ego trap, and the antithesis of a spiritual practice. To insist on a particular method or tell another person what experience they ‘should be having’, is to misunderstand the nature of spirituality.
“The technique or activity type is not that important. It is the attitude and intention you bring to your activities which dictates the level of engagement and quality of experience.”
I encourage you to try many different classes and find out what suits you, but what I think is most important is that you are willing to explore for yourself, and that once you have competency, you make the practice your own. Screw the rules! lets have fun, get into it, wake up, and explore our experiences!
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Develop your Intuition