Hi there,
Here we are, in 2021, when spirituality and personal development have somewhat turned into a hobby: on Monday we go to yoga, on Tuesday to a cacao ceremony with kirtan, on Wednesday we have an energy healing session, on Thursday to a dearmoring session. Maybe over the weekend, we go to an ayahuasca ceremony, an online festival on shamanism, or who knows, start a vipassana retreat.
It’s great that we got to a point where so many amazing opportunities are easily at hand, and yet… What a terrific buffet of opportunities for our ego to make sure we don’t get anywhere.
So, what is going on?
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci
Ego Hijack
Don’t get me wrong. Having fun is great— so is keeping our mind open to new things. When we are totally new to this world, it is great to try out new things to find our path. Also, at times our practices are really not working for us anymore and we have all to go find our next step. Not to say, we are here to live and enjoy the ride, after all.
Yet, here is the thing. All paths may lead to the same destination. But if you change the path all the time, you mostly won’t get anywhere.
What a beautiful way this is for our egos to hijack us without us realizing: we tell ourselves we are working on ourselves and are having fun. We can tell people all these amazing things we have been trying. Meanwhile, our egos are safe and sound, making sure we don’t go deep enough to detach from many illusions. Game on.
The ego wants more, and if we try to be consistent the ego tells us to take a day off, over and over again. It wants “different” simply because that is a distraction- escapism.
“We should not hoard knowledge; we should be free from our knowledge.” Shunryu Suzuki
Regressing: Making a mess in our energy body
Not all energies go together and complement each other. If you are doing certain practices consistently, doing other practices can actually trash the work you have been doing. In these cases, all the fun is actually unconscious self-sabotage. This is especially important when the work you are doing is following a specific lineage, with a clear path that builds up.
In fact, if, despite all spiritual and personal development work you have been doing for such a long time, you still feel lost and confused, chances are you are making a mess in your energy body. Ok, maybe your subconscious is really scared, fear is a bitch. Cause let's face it: if there is one thing we need to go deep into anything is courage.
But back to the mess in the energy body. This is a difficult topic to talk about because there is no recipe book. It's not like I never do different things; quite the opposite. I trust my intuition to tell me when it is ok or not ok for me to do different practices. Presence and self-awareness are key. Discern your motives. When I feel tempted to do something different, but am not crystal clear if it is for my highest good, I have specific meditations that I do to talk to my spiritual guides and I ask them. If they say no, it is a no. Sure I have screwed this up before; it is part of the learning process (as long as we learn the lesson).
If you have a meditation practice, that’s a great way to double-check. You might want to journal, bounce with someone you trust who is honest with you, or if you are in a lineage where you have physical guides you trust, you might just ask them.
The solution…
Simplicity, Consistency, Repetition
"My work is not repetition. It is an exploration." Guido Molinari
Sorry to break it to you, but simplicity, consistency, and repetition are the best way to progress. Pick something. A lineage/path, a practice, a routine, whatever you want, and give it some time. Be consistent. Limit the number of other things you allow yourself to do. See what blossoms day after day.
“Simple” pranayamas like Sama Vritti Pranayama (box breathing) can take you a long way — if you allow yourself to do it more than for only 5 minutes here and there.
Here is the thing: many great practices are simple because guess what? Progress is supposed to be attainable for everyone. Do you know who does not like simplicity? The ego. And everyone has some work to do in their ego to progress. That work of developing discipline, trust, patience, and so on is a great part of the progression — if not the greatest.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. Allow the techniques to sink in. Allow each repetition to take you a bit deeper, slowly removing extra layers of this infinite onion that is our existence.
Sounds boring? Well… what a great chance to work on presence, then! For repetition and consistency are invitations for total presence and a beginner’s mind. To be able to repeat so much with joy, without getting rigid. To keep lightness, curiosity, an open mind. To get to that state of mind is, guess what: part of progressing.
Up until today, whenever I feel somewhat unclear or confused about my path, I start doing 15 minutes of trataka daily, gazing at candlelight. I don’t do it because it is a purifying technique great for the third eye and bla bla bla. I do it because this is the very first technique I learned when I joined my first mystery school back when I was 14 years old. For me, to practice trataka is going back to basics. It is a reminder of how “simple” techniques are so powerful, deep, and insightful. How far from simple they are, once we allow ourselves to go deep enough to remove layers and get closer to experience what the technique is really about.
Simplicity = Humbleness
Repetition = Depth
Consistency = Discipline
Humbleness, depth, and discipline sound quite good virtues for spiritual progression, methinks. They show willingness. Commitment and persistence. To dare. There’s so much power in this.
Everything has its price. The question is, are you willing to pay?
"Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment." Zig Ziglar
Discernment
As with anything in life, the key is discernment: when are we keeping it fun at a superficial level so that we do not allow ourselves to go deep enough? When is it just our egos that want us to say we tried all these shiny new things? When is our inability to have fun with repetition hiding our inability to be fully present, in a beginner’s mind? How scared are we of what we might experience? How honest can we be with ourselves?
Discernment = Self-awareness
Patience
Expansion brings much new energy and light into our field. To receive that, we need to have a container that can handle circulating this much more energy. This expansion in our container requires patience, consistency, and time. To hear your body well and provide good old self-care, one could say.
Patience is also part of enjoying the ride. There is no rush, everything happens in its due time. Be present, and rejoice in everything. Connect to your practices as acts of devotion, with love. Yes, we are here to live, after all! Amazing if can we have fun while also being truthful to ourselves.
Also… are we or are we not eternal beings? If this is all about spiritual progression then we might as well start embodying this piece in our spiritual practice with… patience.
The thing is, if we do not take the time needed to expand our container consciously, chances are we get hurt. That is what happens with people that go to a bit too many medicine ceremonies looking for shortcuts without a clear following of their call, and not much integration. Or to people who have kundalini awakenings without proper preparation and get too unstable in the energy, or to people whose nervous systems get easily triggered when a bit more energy lands in them that they cannot circulate.
Do not diminish the importance of purification techniques and “simple” pranayamas. The beauty of all these techniques lies in what happens when we allow ourselves to go deeper into them.
This is a path of self-nurturing, self-love. Taking our time allows us to be fully present, enjoying and integrating well all we do. When impatient, we can easily miss the effects a technique is having (or could have) on us.
I cannot say this more simply: do not underestimate what 15 minutes of daily meditation can do over a long period of time. Or 15 minutes of daily body shake, for that matter.
What seems simple turns out to be a super powerful practice.
Patience = Understanding of the process and of oneness
“On your part great patience is needed, and a trust that the whole existence is in support of all those who are trying to grow spiritually. It is not you who are trying to grow spiritually; it is existence who, through you, is trying to reach to its utmost heights.” Osho
Final Words
Maybe you just want to have fun, do something different, and it is completely fine. If this is the case, my humble ask is for you to have some presence to avoid unwanted messes in your energy body.
However, if you want something more, then…
Simplicity = Humbleness
Repetition = Depth
Consistency = Discipline
Discernment = Self-awareness
Patience = Understanding
What amazing virtues to develop, don't you think? These are virtues that are essential for our progression and to serve love and light. At times, I feel all these different tools, practices, lineages, and rituals and what else we do, are nothing but tools to develop these divine virtues. Cause let’s face it, a person who consistently embodies all the virtues above is most probably extremely connected to source as a natural state. To live in ongoing connection, isn't that kind of the point?
If Level 1 seems simple, then Level 2 is to integrate our learnings from Level 1 outside of “practice time”. Life IS practice time. To be humble, deep, disciplined, self-aware, and understanding here, now.
The tools, the practices are at times simple because the real challenge lies in the virtues they require us to develop.
What practices are you committing yourself to?
See you next week,
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