The renowned Indian spiritual teacher Papaji used to tell seekers who asked him about different forms of spiritual practice: “you are already free! … if you don’t believe me – practice.”
According to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, there is nothing that needs to be done in order to realize the Self, it is omni-present and completely available at all times. It can be experienced directly through self inquiry in the presence of a Guru, but any effort that derives fromspiritual ambition will be of no avail.
On Meditation
When asked about meditation, Mooji, one of Papaji’s disciples and now a Guru in his own right, told us that meditation will be of no use to us unless we discover who it is that is meditating.
If so, there is no need to make any effort to maintain a spiritual practice that requires discipline and perseverance. More so, such an effort could end up impeding our spiritual growth instead of facilitating it, since we may get all caught up with futile ego-driven pursuits.
Advaita teachers tend to agree that the best possible course of action is simply to remain silent. Nothing more needs to be done.
How Long To Reach Spiritual Freedom?
This thinking is of course contrary to many other spiritual schools that prescribe different practices and means to arrive at the glorious moment of Liberation. Tibetan Buddhists go so far as to define the length of time required for achieving Nirvana as two Kalpas. A Kalpa would be the time it took a bird to melt down a mountain if every day it flew over it and dropped one drop of water. Could take a while…
More modern routes to Enlightenment usually claim to be much quicker, bringing the divine into our reach within this very lifetime, much more befitting our fast-paced culture, which does not always accept the notion of reincarnation. Still, they do require concentrated effort, either in yoga, meditation or even therapy.
Most spiritual paths require a bit more from the disciple than simply keeping silent and asking himself who it is that is keeping silent.
At PachaMama, In Costa Rica
When I recently found myself moving to live in the spiritual community of PachaMama in Costa Rica’s tropical forest, this issue of the necessity of spiritual work was raised again for me.
Under the guidance of Tyohar, the founder and spiritual guide in the village, a wide range of spiritual activities are taking place. There are workshops happening almost every week – yoga, tai chi, dacred music and dance, tantra, emotional therapy, and more.
The culmination of the spiritual work is the ‘transformation cycle.’ This is a five week process that includes cleansing the body through colonics and juice fasting, yoga, emotional cleansing using modern therapeutic techniques, Zen awareness practice and finally a week long silent retreat with two daily satsang meetings with Tyohar.
At first, when I got here, I thought I had no interest in any of this, being a follower of Advaita Vedanta, it seemed to me to be all irrelevant to me. But again, in much the same way as I found myself arriving here to begin with, I found myself participating in the cycle.
Being In A Process
PachaMama is a place of spiritual work, or ‘process’ as it is usually referred to here. If you are feeling down, it is your ‘process’, if your side looses in the weekly basketball match, all of you are in a ‘process.’ The Internet isn’t functioning and you are unable to work? – you got it – this is your ‘process.’
But what is the meaning of this ‘process’ and all this effort? Is it something that will lead us to some goal? Will it lead us to Awakening?
Tyohar was once asked if he believes in any kind of spiritual practice. His answer was that more than practice, he believes in living life in an intensive, unexpected, and amusing way.
The goal is to mature through experiencing, and then the thrills that reality throw’s our way will be less binding. You’ll have already been there, done that, and will be able to remain collected through life’s challenges. The goal is not to undertake some methodic form of spiritual practice, but to adopt an intensive lifestyle. This intensity creates the possibility for rapid growth and maturity.
So does this mean that there is something that can actually be done to reach Enlightenment?
Tyohar says that some doing is required. Every seeker must walk his path, which includes work on all levels: physical, psychological, healthy living and eating, cleaning residues on all levels.
So if we participate in all the groups and workshops, clean our bodies and emotions, peel more layers of the onion that we are, we will finally reach our goal? Well, not really. Like Advaita teachers, Tyohar also believes that as long as we really want Enlightenment, as long as we are trying to achieve it, it can never happen.
This means that you cannot find what you are looking for by seeking, but if you don’t seek, you will never find.
Not many people will reach Enlightenment through participating in the intensive spiritual work being done PachaMama. But anyone who comes here and participates in the activities is all but guaranteed to experience deep and profound changes in his life. That’s what earns PachaMama it’s self chosen title – Temple of Transformation.