The Spiritual Path

The fact that we live in a world that is essentially mutable and ever-changing applies to everything. And so it applies as well to our spiritual paths and searches. In the end, it looks more like walking for a while, drifting off course, falling, trusting, returning, finding, connecting, getting confused again, realizing how wrong you were, becoming frustrated, getting angry about it, then getting angry for being angry—and after some time, realizing that you are lost again… Probably giving up, taking distance, letting go, making space again, discovering new truths, seeing the old with new light, readjusting and continuing to try, with your eyes a little more open, with a new understanding and slowly developing resilience.

Practices are not ends in themselves. They are not achievements to reach, but means to connect with that harmony we are seeking. With ourselves, with certain frequencies, or with that “something” beyond us.

Our own truths? The divine? A bit of both?

Practices are meant to cleanse. They are anchors that bring us back to the path—anchors that, with luck—hopefully—become ways of living. Then we will have to begin building our own way of seeing.

Just because the idea of a spiritual path sounds kinder or more altruistic does not make it more complete, nor more static, nor more linear. The same goes for meditation, Yoga, and the different practices. Everything goes through change, ups and downs, and necessary cyclical movements—and when we understand this, everything begins to settle.

In the end, it looks more like walking for a while, straying, falling, trusting, returning, finding, connecting, getting confused again, realizing how wrong you were, becoming frustrated, getting angry about it, then getting angry for being angry—and after some time, realizing that you are lost again… Probably giving up, taking distance, letting go, making space again, discovering new truths, seeing the old with new light, readjusting and continuing to try, with your eyes a little more open, with a new understanding and slowly developing resilience.

The true learning—perhaps the most important of all—will be to begin understanding this mutability—this impermanence—which in the end is the most intrinsic quality of any path and, even more so, what will accompany us always, throughout our entire lives.

—So the ups and downs are part of the path…—said a high-pitched voice, almost like a child’s, in the middle of a sudden insight—They are not mistakes to correct nor obstacles to flatten, but rather the most natural part of a long road that leads us to the summit…—the same voice continued, looking toward the horizon and nodding.

—That’s how learning is generated—answered another voice, deeper and calmer.

—Then we should normalize the detours, the returns, the moments of stopping, of remaining watchful, the instants of listening and reconsidering movement. Accepting the path just as it is unfolding and finding peace in that uneven road—replied the smaller voice.

—When those uneven parts are recognized, they stop being defects and imperfections and begin to naturally form part of the path—said the oldest voice, which probably came from deep within the earth or from some ancient tree—That is impermanence. That is equanimity, and also acceptance. They are not theoretical concepts—they are life itself.

—Then, if those uneven parts are an organic part of the journey, we should walk with more contentment, shouldn’t we? Walking simply for the pleasure that comes with each step taken in awareness, stepping firmly—even in the middle of a puddle, even on solid ground, even where we cannot see well because there is too much darkness… Finding contentment not in the results themselves, but in the texture that the path we walk leaves impressed on the soles of our shoes. For every second of life entering our lungs, in every minute of our sublime existence.

Take a deep inhale, hold it, and exhaleas if something astonishing were in front of you.

You have it: it is life.

—To live with detachment—said the reflective voice—Don’t you feel freer?

At last, the childlike voice breathed.

“You have a right to action alone, but never to its fruits.

Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.”

Bhagavad Gītā

We still carry remnants of the old paradigm.

Stability, security, sustenance.

All the things that were installed in our minds as achievements we must reach at some point. And not at just any point, but at the moment when we are supposed to become serious and responsible adults.

And that whole chain of words became permanently linked in our mental RAM. There it sits—unquestionable, incisive, deep, demanding:

Stability, security, sustenance. Serious and responsible adults.

And those associations remained there together in our minds, dragging themselves along, harassing us, pushing us toward success—or toward the void if we failed to reach it.

Like a machine: insensitive, lethal, tireless. Because, in that, our lives are supposedly at stake.

But Ram, in India, is also a word used to refer to God. Perhaps, in that quantum space, things can still be transmuted.

—That was what ruined our exploratory path, our mental peace, all our harmony. That was the sentence we had to pay for “normality”—said the elder voice, shaking her head from side to side, as if the gesture could undo the spell.

—But how could they believe it? If change is the most constant thing of all… what would the alternative even be? A linear life? That’s not possible… How could they allow themselves to be convinced and begin an endless battle against the very nature of reality?

—When things repeat themselves and drag on for far too long, habits normalize everything so much that no one questions them anymore. They magically appear as natural, as the only possible reality, and they create their own little world—rather, their WORLD with capital letters—and as you can see, that is terribly dangerous… A great illusion can disguise itself as the most unquestionable truth for the thousands of inhabitants of that world. And that is not only terrible—it is something perverse and profoundly desolating.

LIFE IS NOT LINEAR, NOR UNIFORM, NOR STABLE.

Paths are rarely linear, uniform, or stable.

The spiritual search is no exception. Nothing is.

Believing that life, the path, spirituality, peace, one’s own practice, the connection or harmony we seek is a stable road—or that we must conquer some kind of ideal state—is not natural at all. It is merely a set of limiting mandates from some reduced little world.

That can be an enormously heavy frustration, but paradoxically it is one we all pass through—more or less frequently, but certainly with persistence. That is, without a doubt, another great disillusionment—one that is necessary to walk through and deconstruct, because nothing could be further from the truth.

—We must build a way of seeing that is more aligned with reality!—said the small voice, indignant about the situation but still full of idealistic spirit.

—Yes… of course we must…

We hold the illusion—or the expectation—that meditation is a state we reach and then keep forever: always sublime, spotless, immaculate, without difficulty. We think that practicing Yoga is simply placing ourselves on the mat. That it is always inspiration, always discipline, always pleasant. That we can always be consistent. That it will give us exactly the energy and the vibrations we need under any circumstance. That we can always connect with rituals, with energy, with the gods, with everything. That every time we begin our practice our mind will always be calm, peaceful, and positive…

“Always.” What a complex word.

And nooooo!!! Once again: no!!! Life!!! Mutable, changing, irregular, chaotic.

Let’s let go of all that already!

Let’s free ourselves!!!!

Even if it is still difficult to digest:

Nothing  

escapes          

        to          

 the                   Universal                                            Law                                                       of                                                            Impermanence

The only only constant is chenge. But don’t despair—this is not an obstacle. It is learning to embrace our freedom ❦