The Ceremony of Original Innocence takes us back to our first choice, prior to our first breath, reminding us of our true identity – creators rather than victims.
The key to this shift in perception is forgiveness, the bedrock of the shamanic journey. To embrace forgiveness is to embody the living mandala of love, upon which is based the fundamental Human ethic, acknowledging your “response-ability” within the interconnectedness of all creation.
Although it is possible to be born with the Water Circuits connected they are almost always disrupted by guilt, regret and anger. Reconnecting these circuits clears these negative emotions, liberating relationships from destructive patterns.
The reconnection of the Thymus Circuit activates the T-cells of the immune system. This has a powerful effect on health.
With the reconnection of the Air Circuits, the pineal-hypothalamus-pituitary complex is revitalised, as the pineal is now enabled to receive the full spectrum of the geometric language of light.
There must be something to meditation if one of the greatest comics of all time can discusses Transcendental Meditation with a famous radio shock-jock, and the conclusion is a serious endorsement of meditation! (Those that worry about TM costing an arm and leg should realize it’s just a technique, and that the benefits of meditation are available to everyone. You just need to sit still!)
The conscious mind can effectively change the subconscious mind with persistence and as long as one does not fight the very changes they are trying to make. When we try to make changes to our subconscious mind or our belief structure, we are usually doing so in direct opposition to the patterns and programming already instilled there. Therefore our mind is still working from the old programming in a certain sense. We must then overcome this inherent tendency. This is where persistence comes in. If you imagine that the subconscious mind and/or each belief is like a block of stone and you are a sculptor, every day, you chip away at the block of stone in the formation of your new reality/programming/beliefs. After a while, the new statue is created, in stone (permanently), in your subconscious mind. By spending time each day affirming our new beliefs/programming, we can successfully change our lives and our reality.
However, we must also get out of our own way during the practice. We do this by 1) setting aside a set time (5-10 min max) to work on planting the seeds of our new programming/beliefs. This is focused, meditative time where we repeat this new programming/belief/affirmation to ourselves at the deepest level. 2) Once this process is completed, we let go completely of all attachment to outcomes and desired results. We then go about life simply letting it unfold as it may, letting our new programming/beliefs/affirmations filter into our subconscious mind. In this way we do not over analyze the process and unconsciously fight any changes we are trying to make. When we obsess over, doubt, or question the process we are engaged in, we end up neutralizing its effectiveness.
We have also found that certain affirmations are far more powerful than what is typically presented in books or about the internet, but this is the subject of another article. In the meantime, we recommend following your intuitive guidance as you do this work, as this is our method of developing these more powerful affirmations. Practicing these techniques regularly you will find a natural evolution of the new programming/beliefs/affirmations you are using. Follow this, as it is leading you exactly where you need to go.
To bring about personal change, you need to first begin with an intention. Without one, you’re on a journey with no map, and no destination. You can start with this simple practice:
Before you get out of bed each morning, take five minutes to set your intention for the day. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and envision the day you want to have. If you have an important meeting, see yourself presenting with confidence. If you have a date, anticipate and welcome the romance of the evening. You may choose to see yourself sending out and receiving positive energy from all the people with whom you interact. Or simply see yourself moving through your day calmly, without worry or anxiety. Setting a clear intention in this way can have powerful effects on the outcome of your daily activity.
There is value in persistence in the face of disappointment. The moral is sound: eventually, you won’t have to paddle, and your wave will take you to places you never thought you would go. A single wave is actually a great metaphor for your relationship to the world. You are unique, never to be repeated, but made of the vastness of the ocean.
Loving and honouring others while berating and judging yourself is still practicing separation consciousness. Unconditional love and unity consciousness means seeing the beauty and divinity of ALL, and that MUST include yourself. Simply put, to deny yourself is to deny an aspect of God, as you are all part of the greater whole of the divine.
The fast pace of the rat race means we like to try and draw a sharp distinction between the dull drudgery of our everyday working lives and the alluring magic of holiday time. A necessary skill is learning to relax to avoid the after-holiday blues.
It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with what you know!
It’s time to let go of anything you no longer need in your life, and trust that you are about to begin manifesting dreams you’d almost given up on. No regrets, it’s all been an important part of the journey, and what you are bringing with you is more important than what you’ll leave behind.
We’re not going to ask you if its half full or half empty…but rather how much
does it weigh?
Before you wonder where were going with this, open your mind for just a
few moments….
It doesn’t matter how heavy the glass is – it’s how long you hold it for.
Holding it for a minute isn’t a problem.
After an hour, you’ll notice an ache in your arm.
If you’re holding it all day, your arm will become numb.
In each scenario the weight of the glass doesn’t change.
But the longer you hold it, the heavier it becomes.
Stress and worries in life work much the same way.
Think about them for a short while and nothing happens.
Look at them a bit longer they begin to hurt …
But if you feel constantly under the burden of stress, it can manifest in other ways…
Like a weaker immune system, lack of vitality, loss of wellbeing and happiness in
life, or depression and anxiety…
That’s why it’s important to remember to let go of your stresses, Friends, and to
focus your energy into positive pursuits that help both the mind and body flourish.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is the thirst of people for an easier life. But there is a trade-off between peace and convenience.
Experiment with such trade-offs between peace and convenience in your own life. What could be changed and what left alone to flower in its own way?
“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance.
Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back,
and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” ~ Buddha
Guided Meditation is a perfected technique designed specifically to maximize the speed at which you are able to progress to high levels of consciousness using Multi-Dimensional Meditation. Most will notice all the usual benefits of a meditation program immediately such as stress relief, lower blood pressure, and clarity of mind. As you continue, you will be practicing the very best techniques for energy building, Sixth sense development, and all the other things referred to in The Halau.
The Three Chakras of Focus
Throughout the meditation, you will focus only on the following three chakras:
1. the Base (your spiritual energy “power-station” center);
2. the Heart (your emotional feeling center and the seat of infinite compassion; i.e. a sense of oneness with all … Alisone); and
3. the Mind (your intuitive knowledge and psychic vision center).
By drawing in and processing the “pranic energy” of the Universe through these particular three chakras, you nourish and condition your ENTIRE spiritual body (including the four remaining chakras), fostering an incredible amount of inner balance within a short period of time. Each of the three chakras “program” the prana being taken in at that particular point in the meditation, “coloring” in for the specific purpose of that chakra’s function within the micro-universe that is the human body.
As you begin to feel activity within the chakras during meditation, you will notice some are stronger or weaker than the others (i.e. some are noticeably more active or less active as a physical sensation). Always strive for equal balance by giving the weaker chakras more time during the meditation (what we refer to as “calibration”). We also suggest that you spend some time during the day outside of your meditation focusing on your weakest chakra. This will help to strengthen it for the next meditation.
Focusing on the Touch
The technique of “focusing on the touch” is unique because it helps enable instant “non-thought”. If you are truly focused on the feeling of the touch of your two fingers on the chakra, the Babbler cannot invade your mind. If concentration diminishes, however, the Babbler can gain strength, quickly re-capturing your focus.
Focusing on the touch is unique compared to many other styles because it gives your brain something to focus on without using typical and less effective methods, such as visuals or vocally-generated tones; both of which can lead to increased babbling in your brain because both are brain-based practices. Finally, focusing on the touch enables a very deep sensory connection that quickly facilitates the emergence of the Sixth Sense, a critical goal of the meditation.
You are teaching your brain to think in another way using sensations, feelings, and frequencies – the touch! This is what “non-thought” truly is. Thinking without words. It isn’t “not thinking”.
When you begin to have experiences those experiences won’t be narrated to you through words, it will be through all the things you are learning just by doing the meditation.
The Babbler
Your organic brain has been freely babbling since you were young; e.g. words in your head as you think of things or review situations, songs, internal debates, etc. So, it’s no wonder it can seem challenging when you initially attempt to silence it. This babbling can manifest as mental chatter, vivid mental imagery or constant attention given to every itch or physical discomfort. For most people who meditate, including those who have been meditating for many years, the ability to quiet this internal ‘babbler’ is difficult to master. Don’t worry, the brain is extremely adaptable. In just the first month of using the Guided Meditation, most people report a significant decrease in babbler influence! Less mind chatter means more quality time in meditation.
In successfully silencing the Babbler, you will be able to enter into a state of “non-thought” clarity. In this program, “non-thought” refers to a state of mind identifiable by thought that is not rendered in “words.” The point isn’t that you do not think as much as that you are liberated from thought structured at the level of the organic brain. Thus liberated, you are free to think from much higher and quicker levels of your spiritual, energy-based mind.
When the Babbler emerges during a meditation, here’s how you deal with it:
1. Notice it.
2. Thank the part of you that noticed it and brought it to your attention.
3. Go back to focusing on the touch.
NOTE: Be sure not to get frustrated or give the Babbler any more attention than that. This technique will rewire the brain to remove unnecessary chatter.
Are you ready for your meditation? Good, let’s do it!
We can no longer prosper by increasing human productivity. The more we try to do, the more poverty we will create. As a species, we humans possess some unique capacities. We can stand apart from what’s going on, think about it, question it, imagine things being different. We are also curious. We want to know “why?” We figure out “how.” We think about what’s past … we dream forward to the future. We create what we want rather than just accept what is. So far, we’re the only species we know that does this. But as the world speeds up, we’re forfeiting these wonderful human capacities … Do you equate productivity with speed?
Slowing down just might be the difference between ideas and action …
Now that you’ve contemplated this, take three slow breaths, and smile.
On this Solstice, we bow to Divine Mother in Gratitude for all that has come and is coming to fruition … Namastasyai, namastasyai, namastasyai, namo namaha …
Put aside your old ways of using your eyes and ears and nose, tongue, body, and mind to focus on issues outside there in the world, to get your knowledge about the world, to figure out how to gain what you want out of the world — and of course getting complacent and careless when you get what you want, and upset when you don’t, and trying to find new ways of getting it. Now we want to use our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind for other purposes, just to see the processes of the senses as they happen, in and of themselves. Look at them in a way that highlights the movements of the mind, how the mind makes a choice, and how it enforces that choice, how it justifies that choice to itself.
All these processes are going on all the time, but we usually don’t look at them because our attention is focused somewhere else far away. So stay right here at the breath, because this is a great place to observe all these other things. The Buddha makes a comparison to six kinds of animals. If you tie them all to leashes and tie the leashes together, the animals will all pull in their various directions to feed. The crocodile will want to go down to feed in the river, the monkey will want to go climb up to feed in the tree, the hyena will want to go to feed in a charnel ground, and so on. Depending on which animal is the strongest, the others get dragged along.
But if you tie them all to an immovable post, then no matter how hard they pull, they all end up staying right there at the post. The post here is mindfulness immersed in the body. The prime way of immersing mindfulness in the body is to be mindful of the breath. When you stay with the breath, you can detect the pull that goes out the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind to past and future, to your likes and dislikes. But you don’t have to give in to that pull because you’ve got a place where you can stay grounded and secure. […]
These things are all here to be observed. They’re all happening all the time. But to see them we have to change our focus. To change our focus requires a change of heart, telling ourselves that this really is important, much more important than things outside. That’s what conviction is all about. Appropriate attention is the change of focus; conviction, the change of heart. You make up your mind — and your heart — that this is an important issue that’s got to be resolved, and this is the way to do it.
——
Reflection:
What does using our senses to see the process of the senses mean to you?
Can you share an experience where staying with your breath allowed you to be more aware of where you were being pulled, and to act with true freedom?
How can we get immovable in ‘mindfulness immersed in the body’?
I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend,
that together we may succeed in building a better world
through human understanding and love,
and that in doing so we may reduce
the pain and suffering of all sentient beings.
Transform your mornings from a hectic routine of chaos,
into a tranquil time for preparing to face the day.
When I wake in the morning, my mind slowly gathers, and I begin to move, the early morning light just starting to seep in.
I have a glass of water, start the coffee, then meditate. Then I enjoy the coffee, a good book, and the quiet before the dust and din and steam of the day begins. Then I write.
This is my Lovely Morning, and I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from it.
It wasn’t always this way: I used to wake later, rush through a grumpy routine before diving into email and work and errands and meetings. It was frenetic and dreadful, but that was my life, and I didn’t think it would change.
I was wrong. I’ve changed my mornings for the better, with a few simple ideas.
I’ll share them with you here, and if you begin to enjoy the peace of your mornings more, send a smile in my general direction.
Wake a little earlier.
If your mornings are rushed, the simple solution is to get up a bit earlier. This means going to bed a bit earlier too. Do it gradually, just 10 minutes earlier a week, and you’ll barely notice the change.
There’s a myriad of methods for meditation. Some are easy and some are difficult. All require daily practice to perfect. Here are five of the most popular methods of meditation and what they each bring to the Meditation Table. Here’s why You Should Mix them for Maximum Mindfulness.
Mindfulness, or Spiritual Method:
A most popular method comes from Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana. It’s all about practicing detachment from each thought and being centered in the “here and now.” It focuses on situational awareness and “in the moment” presence. There is also a focus on communion with the cosmos, which can translate to prayer, but not necessarily. The best way to commune with the universe is to ask questions as opposed to seeking answers. In the mindfulness method, answers are mere side-effects of good questioning.
How to: One can practice mindfulness in any position, even lying down. The key is presence with the present moment, and clear and concise communion with the cosmos.
Zen or Zazen Method:
Also from the Buddhist tradition, this method is all about simply sitting. It is often done for long periods of time. Its focus is mostly on posture and spine alignment with minimal focus on breathing techniques. It is the most monastic of all the methods and is therefore difficult to make progress in. Most monks practice this method while concentrating on a Zen koan or spiritual parable.
How to: The most effective positioning of the body for the practice of Zazen is the stable, symmetrical position of the seated Buddha. Keeping the back straight and centered, pretend a silver thread is pulled taut through your spine and up through your head, connecting to the ceiling.
Kundalini or Transcendental Method:
This method comes from the Vedanta Hinduism tradition and ties into different forms of Yoga practices. It focuses more on breathing patterns than the previous methods, using the power of breathing to launch one into a higher sense of self, or even a transformation of self. The electromagnetic field created by the human body is akin to the electromagnetic field created by the Earth. Transcendental method is all about tapping into the stream of energy naturally created by the relationship between the human body’s energy chakras with the environment’s energy vortexes. The main focus of this method is to ride this rising stream into infinity, to learn what needs to be learned, and then to return to the finite realms with new-knowledge in tow.
How to: Breathing is primary. Positioning is secondary. Relax your body, take three deep breaths; then proceed to take deep breaths and hold them for at least ten seconds each. This allows for the oxygen to cleanse the chakras and then release toxins through exhalation, while increasing kundalini energy.
Fractal Enlightenment| There’s a myriad of methods for meditation. Some are easy and some are difficult. All require daily practice to perfect. Here are five of the most popular methods of meditation and what they each bring to the Meditation Table. Here’s why You Should Mix them for Maximum Mindfulness.
Mindfulness, or Spiritual Method:
A most popular method comes from Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana. It’s all about practicing detachment from each thought and being centered in the “here and now.” It focuses on situational awareness and “in the moment” presence. There is also a focus on communion with the cosmos, which can translate to prayer, but not necessarily. The best way to commune with the universe is to ask questions as opposed to seeking answers. In the mindfulness method, answers are mere side-effects of good questioning.
How to: One can practice mindfulness in any position, even lying down. The key is presence with the present moment, and clear and concise communion with the cosmos.
This method comes from the Taoist tradition. It is all about hyper-focus on breathing techniques and/or bodily movements to cultivate and maintain life energy. This is the most philosophical of the methods, deriving most of its techniques from martial arts and meditative healing methods. It focuses on moving Qi (life force) through the body through focused breathing, mental techniques, and precise movements. This method is all about the balance and equilibrium of both inner and outer forces.
How to: No matter what Qi exercise you’re doing, imagine the Qi moving through your body as you breathe in an out. As you inhale through your nose, imagine the Qi moving through your body and down to your Lower Dantian, or naval area. As you exhale through your mouth imagine the Qi moving through the rest of your body. Repeat.
Drumming and/or Om Method:
This may be the oldest form of meditation known to humanity. The drumming method is typically used by native and aboriginal cultures, and is generally shamanic in nature. The Om method is traditionally from Vedanta Hinduism, though the sound itself is fairly universal to mankind. These methods focus on breathing and heart rhythm in accordance with, or even dissonance with, the sound and feel of the percussion or mantra.
The heart beat itself is a drum. Breathing is a drum beat that we can control. These two methods are all about transformation through vibration and the awareness of cosmic frequencies. Shamans often use drum meditation to cross physical, mental, and spiritual thresholds. It’s a bridge that carries them to a higher sense of self in accordance with the greater cosmos.
How to: Create a sacred place. Clear your mind. Breathe with intent. If you’re the drummer, infuse your intention into the drum before drumming. Begin playing or listening to the drum. Give yourself a few minutes to fall into rhythm with the beat. Fade your drumming into silence, feeling your body’s response to the beat, then return to the drum. Repeat with clear intent.
There you have it: a minor helping of meditative methods. Each have specific techniques, but they all overlap in various ways. One of the keys to becoming a meditative master is to use all the methods to your advantage, while also allowing for personal creativity by giving your meditation a signature as unique as your own fingerprint.
Remember: the heartbeat that sustains your life is acting on the same frequency that sustains the universe. The heart with which you feel God is the same heart with which God feels you. May the Om be with you.
Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.
As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D. It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”
It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D. It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”
It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D. It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”
It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that will never leave.
~ Buddha
The key to mastering the mind is learning to, as the Buddhists say, “surf on the waves of your thought,”- a happy alternative to letting yourself get tossed and pummeled by them on the shore. You can do this by observing your thoughts as they come and go, watching rather than reacting. Your thoughts, like waves, will arise naturally- but now you can choose to ride them smoothly.
For the next few days, notice when your thoughts start racing and stress levels begin to escalate- and take that opportunity to stop and observe this process. What are those thoughts about? Where are they coming from? What’s causing them? The more you can detach from spiraling thoughts, the less likely you are to become victimized by them.
Begin your day with this inspired Sunrise Guided Meditation, and use this time to simply observe your thoughts as you begin your day. Namaste’.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Grace and gratitude have the same Latin root, gratus. Whenever we find ourselves in a stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off mindset, we can remember that there is another way and open ourselves to grace. And it often starts with taking a moment to be grateful for this day, for being alive, for anything.
Exercise: once a day, list ten things you’re grateful for and count them out on your fingers. Try it this week.
Hālau 'Aha Hui Lānākila 