I would like to start by telling you a story.
I was feeling a bit depressed with life yesterday afternoon. My life was a mess, my mind a shambles and my spiritual practice was going nowhere. Familiar territory. You probably have felt the same way about yourself at times.
I was particularly depressed about my spirituality practice that I take quite seriously. I wanted to tame my mind when I started my meditation practice. After more than 15 years I had to admit to myself yesterday that I had completely failed.
My mother said that I should not have done my practice with a certain outcome in mind. Instead of having trying to tame my mind as the outcome I need to do my meditation practice simply for the sake of it – because it is my duty or passion.
Old advice you might say. The Bhagavad Gita says the same thing. You have the right to act but not to the fruits thereof according to the Gita. Do your duty and so on. Of course in these modern times there is not much stress on duty in our social environment.
But there is another justification for the advice of the Gita. There is a teaching in the Buddhist scriptures that says – The path is easy for those who have no preferences. This is exactly the attitude that is recommended by the Bhagavad Gita in different words. If we do our work without attachment for the results we will have a state of mind without preferences.
We are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side is death waiting for us. On the other side spiritual attainments are so difficult that no sensible person would even dream of trying. According to Swami Kriyananda only a few souls in each age attain to salvation. That means that in the entire Kalyug only a few souls. Who would want to gamble with these sort of odds stacked against him?
On the other side is the fact that there is nothing else for us to do except practicing religion. All else is a distraction. No amount of worldly life can give us lasting happiness.
So here we are caught between a rock and a hard place with nowhere else to go.
But if we do our duty or follow our passion without attachment then for those moments we are free of the ego that is making us miserable. Perhaps instead of trying to tame my mind, which is possibly just another ego trip, I need to practice doing my spirituality practice because I liked it and not because I want a certain result.
At times we forget the basics. I did so and my mother reminded me of them.
The whole point that my mother was wanting to make was that if I should be happy with my spiritual practices and do them because I liked doing them and not with any end in mind. So if I was not enjoying my meditation I should seek some other path that I want to walk on simply because I enjoy the journey. Perhaps I need to keep searching until I find such a path. Or maybe I can do what I am doing now with a different attitude.
I’ll end here. Please explore this website for more articles on Spirituality, Self Help and Politics. If you want to contact me the link is below.
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