The Spiritual Path
When nothing else works
This is a very deep topic to cover, but I thought I would give it a try. I can see me doing this in multiple posts as this blog of mine develops. I identify with being a spiritual person, but what does it mean to be spiritual? Here’s a Thich Nhat Hanh quote that I hope will help…
According to Thich Nhat Hanh spirituality is a way to live in all circumstances, not just on a Sunday or a full moon. I think that no matter what we do ultimately we all want to be happy. Happiness is the driving factor in all our actions. As humans it is our conditioning to move away from pain and towards pleasure. The issue is that we’re not very good at recognising it and end up getting ourselves into all sorts of trouble. This is where the spiritual path can help.
Spirituality can appear in many forms. It can be yoga, meditation, prayer, chanting, tarot cards, the law of attraction, healing crystals, etc, the list is exhaustive. I personally follow Theravadin Buddhism in Thai Forest tradition with a few random things thrown in here and there. In Buddhism there are three schools with schools within the schools. The Theravadin school is the eldest, ‘the way of the elders’, and is thought to be the closest to the Buddha’s original teachings with particular emphasis given to the four nobles truths and the eightfold path. The Mahayana school which came along some time after the Buddha expands on the teachings of the Theravada school and places a lot of emphasis on compassion and liberation for all beings. The Vajrayana school is closely linked with the Buddhism that is practised in Tibet, it’s esoteric in nature and some of the artwork is awesome.
White Tara. I have a lot of love for White Tara. She’s one of the 21 different emanations of Tara.
With all spiritual practices emphasising on the truth of the Universe that we live in and how to live a happy life and be a good person I would like to share the five precepts the lay people like me try to live by as taught by the various Buddhist schools.
1. No deliberate killing
2. No taking what isn’t given
3. No false or harsh speech
4. No sexual misconduct
5. No alcohol intoxicating substances that cloud that mind
These are the five basic precepts. This is what I try to live by as best I can. I have a feeling that the fifth precept is a TALL ORDER for a lot of people judging by town centres on a non-school night…
Oh deary me, these people have failed quite badly in keeping the fifth precept…
So, what would make someone turn towards the spiritual path? In my experience people who turn towards the spiritual path have exhausted more or less every other option. Nothing has worked for them, nothing. I used to be a seriously heavy drinker, not once did alcohol help me to feel better. I was massively into cycling, not once did a 60-70 mile bike ride on a weekend help me to feel better no matter how fit I was. Nothing a therapist said worked. Earning more money didn’t fix it. Being positive didn’t change it, in fact it made it worse. Sex didn’t soothe it. I found zero solace in friends and family. To a greater degree or another this is a common theme in all people engaged in the spiritual path. Even the Buddha took the spiritual path due to stress. From how I understand things it seems to me that the Buddha was quite an emotionally unstable person. Nothing works so you turn to God, the Universe, a higher power, whatever version of it resonates best with you for answers. A lot, if not all spiritual people have very deep and debilitating trauma and are often extremely lost and feel a profound sense of isolation. At first you look for a way to disengage with the world and then later you look for other ways to engage with it again in ways that aren’t harmful to you.
I first turned to the spiritual path 8 years ago to help with stress. I’d been unemployed for a couple of months and my ex-boyfriend was getting fed up with me not being able to find a job. I felt a lot of pressure and I was deeply lonely and afraid. Little did I realise at the time that my personal baggage/trauma was running the show, I only knew that something never felt right because I felt so incredibly wrong. My mum recommended that I try meditation and suggested an app for it that she used called Insight Timer. Insight Timer is free to use and has thousands of meditations with more being added all the time. I downloaded the app and did my first ever meditation of 20 minutes and it was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. It was the first time that I had ever spent time with myself. Not 20 minutes of me having a cup of tea, reading a book, drinking a beer, watching the tv, going for a walk, playing videogames, etc. Just 20 minutes of me with me unconditionally. It was bliss. From there I found Buddhism, and the teachings of a monk called Ajahn Brahm. I also found a weekly Buddhist meditation group around the corner from where I lived. It all started from there.
Fast forward to today and where am I with spirituality and spiritual practise? Well, I can’t levitate or shoot lasers from eyes. Nor can I read minds or predict winning lottery numbers. Enlightenment is just a word and this meditation and five precepts lark ain’t always easy. What I do find however, is that I feel more grounded and peaceful. I feel more aware of myself and the world around me. I feel a lot more in control and in the driver’s seat of my life. I don’t find myself as desperate for answers, just more curious to know them and to know them from the heart on my own terms. I’ve dabbled in various spiritual practices and I’m glad for it. Spirituality answered for me what no one else could and provided me with deep friendships on the path. It helped me to find the courage to live how I always wanted to instead of living the desk job, boozed up, escapist hell that I was once living. I’m of the opinion that everyone would benefit tremendously from a daily spiritual practice whether that be something like meditating, journaling, yoga, etc, whatever makes you spend time with yourself and your innermost thoughts. I sincerely believe that the world would be a much healthier place for it.
As I said at the beginning, spirituality is a very deep topic. I can definitely see me doing many, MANY posts about the topic. I already have one on here about a meditation retreat that I did. Do you have any spiritual practises? Let me know that and any thoughts in the comments below. Thank you for reading!!!