It used to be that embarking on a spiritual path meant trekking half way round the world to sit at the feet of a guru on some remote mountaintop. But these days, spirituality has arrived at our doorstep. We no longer have to sacrifice the safety of our homes, the security of our jobs or the comfort of our relationships in order to search for enlightenment.
Walking around central London today, I was struck by the increasing numbers of new titles in the mind-body-spirit section of major bookstores. And looking around the cafes and shop windows, I saw a mind-boggling array of adverts for yoga classes, meditation groups, chanting workshops, shamanic trainings, healing retreats and spiritual development courses.
It seems that, in the midst of the urban marketplace, everyone is desperately seeking something to make life more meaningful. Certainly, in an increasingly unstable global climate, more and more people are searching for a way to make the world a better place.
It's easy to get lost in a new-age haze
What I see as I weave my way through the hustle and bustle of daily London life, is that becoming spiritual usually means doing spiritual things. The point we seem to miss is that without truly turning our attention inside, all the yoga, chanting and positive affirmations in the world cannot transform our consciousness.
Whilst we do not need to run away from the nitty-gritty of the earthly plane, we do need to take time out from the incessant doing and having that characterises modern life. The thing is, however many trees we hug and however many spiritual books we read, unless we burn with the desire to awaken to our true nature, we are just fooling ourselves.
Spiritual materialism - the tendency to believe that, if we meditate two hours a day or repeat this particular mantra 180 times or fill our home with crystals or dance with our chakras, we will earn brownie points towards spiritual salvation - pervades modern culture and plays havoc with our egos. It is easy for the ego to shed one disguise for another. An ego masquerading as a spiritual self is one of the most common pitfalls on the path of personal development and one that seems particularly easy for our power-crazed culture to fall for.
The truth is that it takes real courage and honesty to jump from doing spiritual things to a place of deep surrender
It requires that we make the journey from our heads to our hearts, that we step out of our habitual patterns and jump into the abyss of our being. Surrender means we open our hearts wide and totally embrace life just AS IT IS NOW. The spiritual path is not about feeling good or living in a bubble of bliss. It's about opening wide to receive life and staying present RIGHT HERE NOW even when things don't turn out how we'd like them to.
So often I see people feeling at one with the world when they've visualised white light every day for 30 days or breathed in higher consciousness for 30 minutes or held hands and prayed for peace ? but when life gets tough and things fall apart they go back into playing the victim, either retracting into poor me, life's so hard or hardening into this situation is wrong/bad/evil. The paradox is that pain is actually a doorway to God: liberation from the wheel of suffering comes when we surrender to WHAT IS. It doesn't mean we like what is happening to us or what is happening in the world: it just means we embrace the full depth of our own experience.
Only by total embrace of our experience in THIS MOMENT can real transformation happen
So often we try to fix the world before we have taken an honest look at what is going on inside ourselves. We believe that doing good deeds or campaigning for social change will make the world a better place. But the truth is that this doesn't work in the long run. Personal transformation is the key to global transformation. The world changes only when we each take responsibility for changing ourselves.
No amount of fighting to save the whales or singing for world peace will ultimately create a harmonious humanity if we are still divided within. If we have not fully embraced ourselves then how can we fully embrace the world? The spacious clarity of an open heart is the only thing that will heal the world, not more fighting or more division into good versus bad or right versus wrong. If we cannot dive deep inside and soften into our own pain, then we cannot truly love the world.
The world is as we perceive it: ultimately, our collective beliefs create the world we live in. Today's world of violence, greed and alienation is a reflection of the fear-based platform most of us operate from. The world of political, economic and religious division we see is simply a reflection of how divided we are within. As life hurtles into the 21st century and we spin towards an increasingly chaotic future, I believe we are each called to make a difference to our world by choosing love over fear.
It is time we woke up to the full glory of our true nature
When we stop looking outside of ourselves for something to make us feel better, safer, stronger, richer or happier, and instead open to the deepest knowing in our hearts, we will discover that what we have been looking for is what we actually are.
The stark naked truth of our essential nature is that we are already perfect, whole and complete. Each of us is the radiance of all-encompassing love. Each of us is the luminescence of infinite potential. In fact, each and every one of us is a manifestation of God. This very realisation has the power to change the world.
When we see God in everyone, all separation dissolves and we return to the divine oneness that is our natural state. The challenge is to recognise that every circumstance provides the opportunity to awaken to our true nature. NOW is the time for transformation!
Amoda is a teacher and author with 10 years experience of leading personal transformation groups. Her first book, Moving into Ecstasy: An Urban Mystic's Guide to Movement, Music and Meditation (Thorsons) was published in 2001. She now travels the world presenting a new paradigm for conscious relationship and inspiring people to awaken to their true nature. She is currently writing a second book about the path of awakening. You can contact her on info@amodakavi.com
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Happiness - handmade painting
by Keren Or Benafshi
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