From all the available spiritual paths how do we choose the one that is best for us?
I have no definite answer to that question. I can only give you some tips which might provide you with some food for thought.
I have three points to make:
I’ll start with a poem from Rumi. It goes like this:
Some people work and become wealthy
Others do the same and remain poor,
Marriage fills one with energy,
Another it drains.
Don’t trust ways, they change.
A means flails about like a donkey’s tail.
Always add the gratitude
Clause to any sentence, if God wills,
then go …
In other words we have the right to act and seek spiritual progress but the results will be as per the will of God. That matters more than our choice of a spiritual path.
The second point is that we have to choose a path and commit to it. Otherwise we will not make any progress. There are many ways to the top of the mountain – there is never just one true way. Just as a doctor will prescribe anti-depressants to a certain patient and sedatives to another so also one path might be good for a certain type of person and bad for another. Having made our choice after due consideration of which path appeals to us and why, we then need to have full confidence that we will reach our goal through this method.
This may sound contradictory after reading what Rumi had to say but it is essential. It is necessary to be positive and have faith that our chosen path will deliver results. The path is difficult (the Koran describes it as the path which is steep) and without faith we may not even attempt the journey. So do your work and let the results take care of themselves.
The third point is that having made a definite choice we must commit and stick to it through all the difficulties that may arise. If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another the work we have done in one does not continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to dig many shallow wells instead of one deep one. So we need to choose a path and stick with it for as long as it takes to transform ourselves.
This is more difficult than it may seem at first. It may so happen that all the feelings that we never dared experience will arise. We may be assailed from within by doubts and fears and the dammed up pain of a lifetime. We then need to stick with our method and use it in the face of all our difficulties.
As the English saying goes: Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. It is up to us to get inspired and stay inspired through the months and years and decades of our spiritual toil. It is easier said than done as we can infer from the fact that true geniuses are very rare. But it is necessary and vital.
I’ll end here. Please explore this site for more articles on Spirituality, Self Help and Politics. Please comment on the articles if you liked them or even if you didn’t. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
Find this handy. Buy me a coffee