‘My Spiritual Journey’ Ahhhh! The theme is so vast. Where does it begin? And how does it end? How does it start? And where is the finish?
I don’t believe that I’ve ever set out to consciously search for spirituality; however, in younger years my search was more for understanding just what it meant to be spiritual. In that search, I have discovered that it was not spirituality that I was seeking in so much as it was determining what it meant or means to be Human.
Currently I am in Rishikesh, India. I’ve been told that it is the yoga capital and spiritual centre of India. What I see here is an unending 'market' of yoga centres, yoga teachers, wise men and women, gurus, spiritual masters, ashrams, the list goes on… It is every yoga lover’s dream come true. There is yoga everywhere and at all times of the day and evening. I truly am in bliss; however, is this spirituality? Are all these seekers become more spiritual being here in Rishikesh?
As I deeply contemplate if spirituality is learned, something in side of me tells me that this is not so.
My travel to India completely exhausted me. It was taking longer than I expected for my body mind and emotional self to relax. I needed to settle into my room (in Tapovan, Rishikesh) and do yoga. My true intention with India, was to deepen my yoga practice and this would be the first day of doing just that. This session was an intense, core rejuvenating yoga. Have you ever had such a practice at which certain interval moments, epiphanies arise that cause you to fill with emotion and profound realization?
I had one of those moments during this practice. It was in a split second that I realized that all the practice, all the yoga, all the meditation, all the classes, all the lectures, all the gurus and all the ashrams mean nothing compared to the truth that is the most obvious, yet so completely and utterly missed by millions and billions of people.
What I am about to say could potentially tick-off the spiritual gurus and teachers and put off the seekers still hell-bent on travel and experience to get their awakening. Sit down; take a deep breath and listen.
We don’t learn spirituality. We already are spiritual. What we are here to learn, or rather experience, is Humanity. We think we are seeking enlightenment; we think we have awakened our spirituality; however, as I sensed and felt my body in that practice, I realized that true awakening is Humanity. We are not here to learn anything from somebody else or a place or thing – we are the lesson – the flesh, the blood, the sensory nerve endings, the breath, the emotion, the mind, the memories, the beauty, the pain, the joy and all of the polar-opposites you can think of. Nobody can tell you how you should feel or what you should be feeling.
Nobody can tell you if you are on the right path – no one other than yourself knows that answer. The true light, the truth awakening is to remember what it felt like when you were a child in full spiritual, emotional, physical and mental harmony.
Nobody can tell you if you are on the right path – no one other than yourself knows that answer. The true light, the truth awakening is to remember what it felt like when you were a child in full spiritual, emotional, physical and mental harmony.
Close your eyes and remember the joy of your body running, skipping, jumping. Remember the laughter of friends and running as fast as you could. Remember what it felt like when you experienced your first love, your first break-up and your first death. Remember when your friend let you down or your lover left you, remember the struggle to make ends meet. Remember the birth of your first child and all the trials and tribulations of raising another Human. And, in all of this, the greatest achievement is your humility in realizing that the only thing that you can truly know is within you. You have carried yourself, and all your Nature, from the day of your birth up until now, and the essence of your life, including all your life hurts, pains and joys is what truly makes you Human.
There is no guru that can liberate you from the truth of Humanity or from yourself.
How can he or she make you remember your Humanity; how does another Human Being advise you on what you should do to achieve enlightenment?
How can he or she make you remember your Humanity; how does another Human Being advise you on what you should do to achieve enlightenment?
I say, “I am not my experiences, nor my memories. I have learned from them and retain my true Essence”.
It is in remembering our True Essence that we Become. As was said before, we are a spiritual Being (a perpetual conscious creative life) living in a Human experience. Look at the child and see yourself and, in this moment, you are a conscious & spiritually realized HUMAN* Being.