This seems to be what so many of us out there today are looking for. We take a meditation retreat, we take a pill, we take a journey to some spiritual place, hoping to come in contact with some "spiritual experience," something that will make us feel alive again and tell us that everything will be okay. I don't want to say that there is anything wrong with that, but just that with this mentality, the spiritual life is always one step away.
A friend of mine, whom I met in India, recently stayed at a center in Myanmar to practice for 40 days, and posted something about his experience on Facebook. Someone commented on his post, asking him if he had any spiritual experiences to share, and his response was such a beautiful reminder of the practice that it inspired me to want to write something about it.
"Every experience is spiritual." - Sascha from Russia
So there you have it, there is the realization of a very devoted practitioner, one who had spent 40 days in retreats by the time I had met him earlier this year and has since spent another 40 days in an intensive meditation center. If you understand this truth, your spiritual life will open up for you, it'll fall right into your lap, because it's always been there! The only problem is without having known this, we might have been ignorant to it. We go through most of our lives feeling disconnected, chasing after those good feelings, a sense of belonging and worth, but the temporary fixes just don't do the trick. We yearn for something deeper, something more fulfilling and more sustainable, but no matter where we look, and to what lengths we travel, we're always a step behind.
Here in Thailand, where you can't drink the tapwater, I have to refill big jugs in a machine downstairs and then fill smaller bottles that I keep cold in the fridge. The mouth of the jugs are quite a bit larger than those on the 1 liter bottles I keep in the fridge, so this act of pouring is always a bit of an exercise in concentration. As I was trying my best to keep a steady stream of water pouring into the bottle, I had a sudden reminder of exactly what Sascha was talking about. The focus of my mind, coordinating with my body to keep the jug tilted at just the right angle, and the steady gaze of my eyes looking into a miniature waterfall of crystal clear water filling up a bottle that will support my life here on earth. In those moments, time had stopped. There were no thoughts about the future or memories about the past. There was no me and my boatload of problems, opinions, and concerns. In those moments, I was free. It was truly a spiritual experience, but yet an everyday one.
So what made me have a spiritual experience in that everyday moment as opposed to the countless other everyday experiences where I don't feel that connection?
That's easy, I was paying attention. Pay attention to your life and you will find that it's full of these moments. They are never-ending.
Another friend of mine, who is having a bit of a hard time back in the states, said something to me the other day that illustrates this disconnection that people are feeling. "I can't even imagine how much life you're experiencing daily. I feel like I'm not even living," he said. I wonder what exactly it is that he thinks I'm doing over here on a daily basis that would lead him to believe this. If you stay somewhere for a while, walking through the streets and going to work becomes familiar rather quickly. Once things are familiar, the senses are dulled and we stop paying attention. Sure, you can move somewhere else, get off to a new start, and things will be fresh and exciting for a while, but as soon as that wears off, it's just you and life left to ride out the waves of change. To fight against these waves, this change, results in stagnation and disconnection. To embrace change, we must connect with the ever changing moment.
Okay, okay, I know I'm making this all sound so easy, like I've got it all figured out. But let me assure you, it's not, and I don't. It takes work, you see, to be able to maintain this connection to the beauty and the mystery of life. What we can do now is see that it's always there, and at least believe in our ability to open up to it. Then, with continued practice, we will catch these reminders, these moments that bring us back to what is happening in the here and now, and we will realize we were here the whole time. The only thing that changes is our attention. The more glimpses of this we have, especially those that aren't dependent on external conditions being fulfilled, the more faith we have that it's there, and the more inspired we are inspired to cultivate our relationship to it.
It's easy to feel connected when you are listening to some beautiful music, taking a walk through nature, or watching the sunset, but what about all those other in-between times? If we start assigning values to our experiences, seeing some as being special while others are seen as insignificant or downright boring, we will still be caught in the game of chasing after pleasant experience, instead of seeing the true spiritual nature to each and every experience we have.
So the invitation here is to look no further than the very nuts and bolts of your life, the highs and lows and everything in between. See if you can connect to this moment and find what is in store for you. It might not always be pretty, it might not always be enjoyable, but it's always real and it's always happening.
There are no dull moments, only dull minds.
A friend of mine, whom I met in India, recently stayed at a center in Myanmar to practice for 40 days, and posted something about his experience on Facebook. Someone commented on his post, asking him if he had any spiritual experiences to share, and his response was such a beautiful reminder of the practice that it inspired me to want to write something about it.
"Every experience is spiritual." - Sascha from Russia
So there you have it, there is the realization of a very devoted practitioner, one who had spent 40 days in retreats by the time I had met him earlier this year and has since spent another 40 days in an intensive meditation center. If you understand this truth, your spiritual life will open up for you, it'll fall right into your lap, because it's always been there! The only problem is without having known this, we might have been ignorant to it. We go through most of our lives feeling disconnected, chasing after those good feelings, a sense of belonging and worth, but the temporary fixes just don't do the trick. We yearn for something deeper, something more fulfilling and more sustainable, but no matter where we look, and to what lengths we travel, we're always a step behind.
Here in Thailand, where you can't drink the tapwater, I have to refill big jugs in a machine downstairs and then fill smaller bottles that I keep cold in the fridge. The mouth of the jugs are quite a bit larger than those on the 1 liter bottles I keep in the fridge, so this act of pouring is always a bit of an exercise in concentration. As I was trying my best to keep a steady stream of water pouring into the bottle, I had a sudden reminder of exactly what Sascha was talking about. The focus of my mind, coordinating with my body to keep the jug tilted at just the right angle, and the steady gaze of my eyes looking into a miniature waterfall of crystal clear water filling up a bottle that will support my life here on earth. In those moments, time had stopped. There were no thoughts about the future or memories about the past. There was no me and my boatload of problems, opinions, and concerns. In those moments, I was free. It was truly a spiritual experience, but yet an everyday one.
So what made me have a spiritual experience in that everyday moment as opposed to the countless other everyday experiences where I don't feel that connection?
That's easy, I was paying attention. Pay attention to your life and you will find that it's full of these moments. They are never-ending.
Another friend of mine, who is having a bit of a hard time back in the states, said something to me the other day that illustrates this disconnection that people are feeling. "I can't even imagine how much life you're experiencing daily. I feel like I'm not even living," he said. I wonder what exactly it is that he thinks I'm doing over here on a daily basis that would lead him to believe this. If you stay somewhere for a while, walking through the streets and going to work becomes familiar rather quickly. Once things are familiar, the senses are dulled and we stop paying attention. Sure, you can move somewhere else, get off to a new start, and things will be fresh and exciting for a while, but as soon as that wears off, it's just you and life left to ride out the waves of change. To fight against these waves, this change, results in stagnation and disconnection. To embrace change, we must connect with the ever changing moment.
Okay, okay, I know I'm making this all sound so easy, like I've got it all figured out. But let me assure you, it's not, and I don't. It takes work, you see, to be able to maintain this connection to the beauty and the mystery of life. What we can do now is see that it's always there, and at least believe in our ability to open up to it. Then, with continued practice, we will catch these reminders, these moments that bring us back to what is happening in the here and now, and we will realize we were here the whole time. The only thing that changes is our attention. The more glimpses of this we have, especially those that aren't dependent on external conditions being fulfilled, the more faith we have that it's there, and the more inspired we are inspired to cultivate our relationship to it.
It's easy to feel connected when you are listening to some beautiful music, taking a walk through nature, or watching the sunset, but what about all those other in-between times? If we start assigning values to our experiences, seeing some as being special while others are seen as insignificant or downright boring, we will still be caught in the game of chasing after pleasant experience, instead of seeing the true spiritual nature to each and every experience we have.
So the invitation here is to look no further than the very nuts and bolts of your life, the highs and lows and everything in between. See if you can connect to this moment and find what is in store for you. It might not always be pretty, it might not always be enjoyable, but it's always real and it's always happening.
There are no dull moments, only dull minds.
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