The other day in the temple, the ashram people repeated a mantra in silence together. I felt the transcendental value enliven the depth of existence as they did so. It was significantly more palpable than even just a year ago. That is how I know my work is succeeding.
Many look for surface changes to confirm they are evolving… becoming more spiritual. They sometimes get discouraged, feeling there is not substantial enough change. Some even contrive a behavior, attitude or even speech pattern in an attempt to confirm that they are indeed evolving. Whole spiritual organizations conform to such surface manipulations. That is all wrong.
Spirituality is at the depth. The surface matters little. Or better said, there is far more freedom than you might believe. Spirituality does not look like anything in particular on the surface of life.
The Kingdom of Heaven lies deep, deep within.
Dear Brahmarshi,
The last year has been such a struggle for me. In many outward ways, I feel like I am going backward spiritually. Then, every once in a while, I’ll get a very deep glimpse of the truth, and be reminded that the internal process continues to churn away, even though my life seems to me to be without grounding. For so long, many of my choices happily moved me toward silence and solitude, which “felt” more spiritual; now, I seem to be drawn to noise and distraction, which doesn’t “feel” as spiritual. Thank you for your post today, and if you would care to comment, it would be helpful for me to know if you find that what I’m experiencing is part of a spiritual process, or if I should be fighting my inclinations and forcing myself into silence and solitude, even though something below the surface seems to be at work regardless of what I do.
With gratitude . . .
Thank you, Brahmarshi. This last weekend was very powerful for me as I’m sure it was for everyone. And from all I hear, the weekend before was even more incredible. Whatever happened that weekend was still going on. There are amazing things happening at Mt Soma.
I often get disheartened with myself when I look at the surface and the things I’m hanging onto that I know hold me back. And yet, when I look at my depth, I feel a dramatic change. There is such a temptation in this world to try to change the surface rather than attending to the depth. That’s the normal “how-to” given for fixing things. I’m finding that attending to the depth eventually changes things on the surface as well, but it has to come from that place to be authentic change, not just a superficial overlay.
Looking forward to my next time on the mountain.
I had an extremely chaotic 2011-2012, the only thing that helped me to keep from coming unglued was the daily Surya Ram meditation. I no longer recognized my life within the interpersonal dramas playing out around me. Once again I looked at Brahmarshi’s book on relationships. Some people are best held close and others held better at a distance. I thought this would help my mind be more peaceful, instead churning up more for reflection. I thought back to the Vedic story of the devas and asuras churning the Ocean of Milk with furious abandon. And the Universe received many great and varied gifts from this churning. I don’t know when my personal churning will end, but becoming ever more comfortable with the process.
Lisa,
Every level of life has its own laws of nature. Applying laws of one level to another does not work. I call that cross realm projection. You have been wrestling with this for some time. After having met with some success on one level, it is common to attempt to apply the same methodology to another. This all must and will get sorted out for you. I was planning to help you with it when I saw you last time in SF. But when I saw you, I realized that you were at the time too overtaken by surface demands for it to be heard. That is fine. It is good that you are coming to it now.
Spirituality is simple, but not simplistic. Cross realm projection is too simplistic.
More is not better. Better is better.
We will need to discuss this when I see you next.
Brahmarshi:
Thank you for your reply. It is helpful to hear that it will get sorted out. It brings me peace to know that you are (as always) many steps ahead of me. 🙂
I will look forward to seeing you in SF in June.
Namaste.
This helped me gain perspective. Thank you. Jai Guru Dev.
Thank you for this further exploration of cross-realm projection; helpful.
The longer I live here, the more I notice I’ve been doing it all over my life!
It’s funny; when I moved here, I thought I’d be doing a lot of reflection. But I don’t do any more than before–and I certainly spend less energy TRYing to reflect or process. Mostly, insights bubble up naturally throughout my day. Most are tiny but feel significant. I feel like I am re-writing my childhood, my life, my identity. Not that past events change, but what they mean change, and that changes everything. It is really interesting.
One of my assumptions is that I have to push and pursue growth to get anywhere. I can see where that comes from in my life in the world up til now! But even here, I often catch myself thinking I should ask more questions: don’t squander the opportunity to learn now that I finally have a real teacher! But when I feel into the urgency of that impulse, it’s often just the echo of a habit. This is the first time/place in my life where it seems like I can really just show up, do my program, and the rest is taken care of–I feel the support of nature around me in our program and community, and inside myself. And these slow and subtle but significant inner shifts come not by over-extending myself in the name of progress, but as a byproduct of daily life here! It is so precious, incredibly invaluable. Thank you so much. Jai Guru Dev.