Spiritual non-practice

"Practice makes perfect." Usually a true slogan.
But not when it comes to perfecting spirituality.
Here at the Church of the Churchless we don't believe in spiritual practice.
We believe in spiritual non-practice. Let me explain.

Practicing basketball isn't going to make you a practiced piano player. You have to practice the activity you want to become good at, not some other activity. But is this what most members of religions and supposedly spiritual paths do?

No, they assiduously practice worldliness, not spirituality. Don't be deceived by the outward appearance of religiosity; a bank robber wearing a nun's habit as a disguise isn't saintly. Look to the essence of the activity itself.

What does every person do each day regardless of his or her spiritual inclinations? Feel emotions. Think thoughts. Undertake actions. Feeling, thinking, acting: these are the three voluntary (or semi-voluntary) activities of everyday worldly existence (perceiving is mostly passive, as our senses perceive whether we want them to or not, a fact I'm reminded of each time I visit the dentist).

Some people are more inclined to feeling, others to thinking, still others to acting. Recognizing this, the ancient Hindu sages matched up a spiritual activity, or "yoga," with each of these worldly activities. Bhakti yoga leads to God through love. Gyana yoga leads to God through knowledge. Karma yoga leads to God through selfless action.

Love, knowledge, action. These aren't just spiritual choices for Hindus. Everyone--Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Wiccan, whatever--has to decide how their spirituality will be practiced.

But if all you have to choose between is feeling, thinking, and acting, then you're bound to continue practicing what you already know how to do. If you suspect that your spiritual practice is keeping you stuck, you're absolutely right. How can anything new be experienced when you are doing the same old things?

A Christian feels sorrow when he imagines Jesus dying on the cross. And also when his favorite sports team loses a championship series. A Muslim thinks about what she reads in the Koran. And also about what she reads in the newspaper. A Jew does charitable work through his temple. And also volunteers at his child's public school.

Those whose spirituality is limited to feeling, thinking, and acting aren't engaged in any special godly activity. They're just doing almost exactly what they always do and calling it "religious." But it isn't. Not really.

For the root meaning of "religion" is found in the Latin religare, to bind back, or reconnect, the individual with God. If the everyday activities of life could achieve this reconnecting with ultimate reality, we'd all become saints just by living. Yet obviously this doesn't happen.

Genuine spirituality means taking a course opposite to worldly ways. Practice makes us imperfect when it comes to realizing God if we merely keep on practicing how to feel, think, and act. These activities are just baby steps that don't get us very far. What we need is a single great stride that bridges the gap between what we now falsely believe we are, and what in truth we are.

This great stride is the fourth way of the Hindu sages, Raj yoga, the path of meditation. Again, it isn't just for Hindus. There also have been, and are, countless Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and other sorts of contemplatives. Deepak Chopra says the fourth path is inclusive:

By following it you are actually following all four at once. Your meditations go directly to the essence of your being. That essence is what love of God, selfless action, and knowledge are trying to reach....The spiritual secret that applies here is this: What you seek, you already are. Your awareness has its source in unity. Instead of seeking outside yourself, go to the source and realize who you are. ("The Book of Secrets," pp. 42, 48)

Eventually the Church of the Churchless will contain sermons that preach the power and the glory of self-realization through meditation. This is much more a spiritual non-practice than a practice. The less you feel, think, and do, the more you realize higher truths.

Nobody has said it better than an anonymous fourteenth century English country parson: ("The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works," Penguin Classics, pp. 142-144)

...One can feel this nothing more easily than see it, for it is completely dark and hidden to those who have only just begun to look at it. Yet, to speak more accurately, it is overwhelming spiritual light that blinds the soul that is experiencing it, rather than actual darkness or the absence of physical light.

...Work hard and with all speed in this nothing and this nowhere, and put on one side your outward physical ways of knowing and going about things, for I can truly tell you that this sort of work cannot be understood by such means.

Comments

[Mardee]

This is a lovely site. I have thought about trying to start a website that would ask people who are sure they know the "truth" to try to prove it using common sense rather than quoting from any religious person or text. I'm fine with people who say they just "feel" it but that is no reason to expect me to have that same feeling. I'd like answers to such questions as why would "God" send down a son to fix the world and warn the people alive then about certain ways to live but then do nothing for 2000 years even when awful things happen such as genocides, wars, famines, etc. Why does "God" get credit for all the good things that happen but never the blame for the bad things. If he is almighty, he could have stopped 9-11 right? I talked to a lady who praised God because her son just missed being killed there. Why did he save her son but not the others? ( I, couldn't bring myself to ask her that.) Religious people get all warm and fuzzy about prayer circles where lots of people pray for the same thing - is God that creepy that he would let some innocent little child die of a horrible disease unless a specific number of people pray "really hard" for her to be healed. Doesn't God see the fancy houses that the televangelists live in and "smite them down"?
Anyway, maybe someone who has answers to these questions ( remember, common sense only) might visit your site cause I do have an open mind.

[Daniel Zur]

G-d is the totality of all things. G-d is the totality of everything that can happen, happens, or ever will happen. No form ever dies, it simply transmutes to another form. Do not grieve those who have died, for they live on in G-d Eternal, in all the light realms of Heaven, and through many lives gain union with the Infinite One, and, though but a speck of the Creator, become a creative sea that builds more of G-d's beauty.

[Joy Lumsden]

Long ago I started reading the works of Alan Watts and that changed my thinking permanently. So I know more or less where you stand, and I share your position on organised religion - in fact the world today is an ongoing indictment of 'organised religion'
Peace and love
Joy

[shuddha]

Spiritual non-practice

This is a catchy title.

Yes indeed, if there is any practice of any kind called for or needed, any discipline to be folloed, any kriya to be done, any mantra to be recited over an over again, any bhajan to be sung again and again, one is not THERE yet.

Anything that requires you to DO anything is just the path. It may or may not lead to the goal.

With deep reverence for that within you, the reader of these words,that is rising higher and yearning for more, if what has been said above appeals to you, please read

Dadashri at

http://www.dadashri.org/self-realization.html

There is a profuse amount of new science that has unfolded and I have been involved in translating and sharing his words with the world.

shuddha
http://www.dadashri.org

[Unknowing]

Brian, I've been on "the Path" for a good many years now and just recently decided that it's not really for me. The main reason is that I've finally admitted to myself that I do not think Baba Ji is GIHF. However, I still think the four principles are all good and for the most part intend to continue with them: eating animals, drinking alcohol, and behaving badly towards other people just aren't things I want to do… and I would like to do some meditation, but without the pressure of feeling I have to do 2.5 hours a day. And for reasons too complex to explain, I don't wish to stick with the RSSB mantra. I wanted to ask you if you still use this one in your meditation?

[Brian Hines]

Unknowing, sometimes I do repeat the so-called "Five Holy Names" as a mantra, just for old times sake.

Since I did this for about 35 years for an hour or more each day, I'm curious about how doing it now feels. Meaning, my brain must have gotten into some grooves with all that mantra repetition, so what happens now when I repeat the mantra without believing it is anything special?

Answer, in my experience: not much. It's like an old friend that you've lost track of, and find that you don't have much in common now. Before long repeating that mantra starts to irritate me, even, because I don't believe in what the five words point toward.

So even though I experiment now and then repeating the Five Holy Names, mostly I do something else in meditation. Well, almost always. I follow my breath. I remain aware of what is inside and outside of me. I use a "mantra" from my Tai Chi practice, wu chi, which is both the ready position in Tai Chi (unmoving, centered) and a Taoist representation of ultimate reality (wu chi preceded the division into tai chi, yin and yang).

I used to feel that I had to do the same thing in meditation, every day. Now I experiment with different forms of meditation. This works better for me, as it encourages me to be looser, more relaxed, and able to flow with things outside of meditation.

[x]

"Five Holy Names? Sheeeeit. What about...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0