Spiritual Growth is not a Project
October 21, 2009 by davissm · 6 Comments
All our lives, we’ve been taught what we must do to be successful. Many of these things we’ve learned have helped us get what we want. When it comes to spiritual growth, I see many people trying to apply the same principles. Perhaps they are encouraged by the plentiful purveyors of spiritual products using the sales tactics and success language that we are all accustomed to.
The important thing to note about true spiritual growth is that it’s course requires an abandoning of most all of the tactics, techniques, and strategies that have previously worked for us. While these strategies may have spiced up our dreamworld, when applied to spiritual growth, they show up as impediments. This is so because ultimately, true spiritual growth is about surrender. And surrender, the “S” word, is taboo to the success-oriented ego. Any strategy, effort, or force we try to apply only strengthens that which must be gradually surrendered. This gradual surrender is the growth of which I speak. The process of surrender of our attachment to the ego IS the process of spiritual growth.
Very good idea to surrender. The enlightened teachers throughout the ages speak of this. But how do we go about it, if all the things we have learned in the past do not apply here?
Thank you for this question Michael. Now please don’t take what I’m about to say personally as it applies to everyone. With that disclaimer, here it is…only the ego would ask such a question. We all know how to surrender. We all know how to let go of things. We don’t have to ask how to let go of a hot coal. What happens however is that the ego is accustomed to holding on to things that have become part of its identify. This is because one of the ego’s main functions is to continually assert its own reality. This takes a lot of work because it has no reality. Maintaining an illusion takes energy. So once again, surrender requires NOT DOING, NOT TRYING, NOT FIGHTING, NOT ASSERTING ONESELF. It requires nothing. Now that’s a tough pill for the ego to swallow, isn’t it?
There are various tools that support this surrender. The one I’ve come to use is called Ascension. More can be learned about this at http://www.Ishaya.info.
I am a little bit confused. While you say that there is no trying or no doing, isn’t using a practice or a technique a way of doing?
You could say that using a practice or technique is a doing of sorts. The key is in the way you approach the practice. In our teaching of Ascension, one of the key tenets is to approach the technique with an effortless innocence. Just as easily as you might slip into a pair of comfortable sandles. Yes you are doing something, but with no real effort or analysis about it. This is the way to approach our spiritual “practice.”
If Thinking is not a form of Doing, then maybe this is what all the spiritual teachings are really refering to? To relax and go into one’s own mind and explore, leaving an open space for inspiration to enter provides one option for escaping the constant analysis of our result driven world. I received the following out of the blue one day:
“There is a space between stimulus and response wherein lies my Kingdom of Choice.”
How often we react from conditioned response/habit rather than recognising that we always have a choice on how to respond to a stimulus.
Hi Julia. I think thinking is a tricky subject. I think, which in this context means, I offer the following perspective…there are at least two ways to look at thinking. One is where we actively engage the mind to analyze, solve, or decide. Another is where we let our attention follow the thoughts that pass through our minds, thoughts over which we have no control. If you doubt this, just try to stop them.
In my experience, “true” spiritual teachings first recognize their own limitations. By that I mean that they recognize that the best they’re going to do is to point to the truth. They acknowledge that truth lies outside the domain of words (symbolic thoughts) and mental concepts. Therefore, any engagement and exploration of the mind simply keeps one trapped within it and beyond the absolute.
I believe this is what your wonderful insight suggests. You always stimulate me to think in ways I appreciate!