Why it makes sense to assemble your own unique spirituality

As I've noted many times before, and surely will note many times again, like right now, it took me just a few seconds back in 2004 to come up with the tag line, or slogan, that's below the title of this blog: Preaching the gospel of spiritual independence. 

I've never thought of changing those words, because they encapsulate what I consider to be the wisest form of spirituality. To me spirituality doesn't have anything to do with religion or supernatural stuff; it's a quest for the deeper side of life, which means it has no firm definition.

And that's the point of spiritual independence. Each of us should feel free to assemble our own unique form of spirituality.

Of course, many people don't want to do that. They prefer a ready-made religion, mystical pursuit, or whatever, just as lots of people don't want to make their own dinner, so they order takeout or pop a frozen store-bought meal in the microwave.

Which is fine. Being spiritually independent can include surrendering one's independence, if that's what seems appealing.

I enjoy reading and re-reading books about meditation, mindfulness, free will, philosophy, Buddhism, and other writings in the wonderfully vague genre of spirituality. Rarely, probably never, do I agree with everything an author says.

Heck, when I reread the books that I've written, I definitely don't agree with everything the author said, and that guy was me. The reason is that I'm constantly changing, as we all are. What struck me as profoundly meaningful at one point in my life seems absurdly wrong at another point. 

So I try to keep this in mind when I'm reading a new book that Amazon has delivered to me.

Almost certainly I'm going to find appealing much of what the author says, or I wouldn't have ordered the book. However, I also know that the author is going to say some things that will make me put a large question mark in the margin next to the offending statement.

Again, that's because spirituality is highly individualistic. Unlike science, there's no way to tell fact from fiction, reality from illusion, truth from falsehood. Rather than this being a drawback of spirituality, it's a good thing.

For the lack of standards means that every person drawn to some form of spiritual pursuit necessarily has to cobble together their own belief system, rather than having knowledge conveyed to them already fashioned via a textbook, as is the case with science.

Problem is, often people consider that their personal spiritual beliefs should be as unquestioned as a scientific fact. This is wrong. Just because someone is so confident in their beliefs, they seem akin to an objective law of nature, doesn't make that so.

It's absolutely fine to say, "I believe _____, but you're welcome to disagree." Not fine is an attitude of "I believe _____, and you should too, because it's a fact." Frequently that sentiment is justified in science. The earth is round no matter how many flat earthers claim otherwise.

But in spirituality, where we're talking about subjective meaning, not objective facts, no one has a right to demand that someone else believe as they do.

Yet this also means that no one should be barred from challenging someone else's beliefs, given that one form of spirituality my wife and I embrace (albeit in our own individual ways) is to critique dogmatic fundamentalist belief systems that wrongly claim they're 100% true.

Nothing is 100% true. Including what I just said. Every spiritual book, every spiritual teaching, every spiritual teacher -- they all include valuable gems that will be treasured by some people, as well as useless trinkets that will be rejected by other people. 

If I can find a few statements in a book or talk that ring true to me and stick in my mind, it doesn't matter if the rest of what's said strikes me as useless. I don't expect perfection in forms of spirituality because perfection doesn't exist. 

What's important to me is growth, change, open-mindedness, learning, and yes, entertainment.

I just got a new book about Buddhism that, after reading just the early pages, I can tell I disagree with some central premises of the author. However, I really liked the preface. That will stick with me. I just wish the entirety of The Art of Disappearing was written in the same style.

Here's the preface.

Do not read this book if you want to be a somebody. It will make you a nobody, a no-self.

I did not write this book. They are transcribed talks, edited with all the bad jokes removed. I did not say my bad jokes anyway. The five khandhas, which presumptively claim to be me, said them. I have the perfect alibi -- my self was absent from the scene of the crime!

This book does not tell you what you must do to get enlightened. It is not an instruction manual like Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond, which was also written by those pesky five khandhas pretending to be Ajahn Brahm. 

Doing things like following instructions just makes you more of a person. Instead, this book describes how disappearing happens in spite of you. Moreover, it is not just the "outside" that vanishes. The entire "inside," all that you take to be you, that also disappears. And that is so much fun it is sheer bliss.

The true purpose of practicing Buddhism is to let go of everything, not to get more things like attainments to show off to your friends. When we let go of something, really let go, then it disappears. We lose it. All successful meditators are losers. 

They lose their attachments. Enlightened ones lose everything. They truly are the Biggest Loser. At the very least, if you read this book and understand some of it, you may discover the meaning of freedom and, as a consequence, lose all the hair on your head!

I acknowledge the kind assistance of other nobodies, in particular Ron Storey for transcribing the talks, Ajahn Brahmali for editing the work, and all the empty beings at Wisdom Publications for publishing the book.

May you all Get Lost, 

Not really Ajahn Brahm
Perth, Australia

 

Comments

[Ron E.]

Ajahn Brahm; “The true purpose of practicing Buddhism is to let go of everything, not to get more things like attainments to show off to your friends. When we let go of something, really let go, then it disappears. We lose it. All successful meditators are losers.”

I somewhat tend to agree with Brahm even though he does hammer the point of no-self rather dogmatically (at least in his preface). He amusingly talks of the five khandhas as claiming to be ‘me’ in that “. . . “my self was absent from the scene of the crime!” In a sense true, though I am of the opinion that in many ways, the self is always lurking around and does exert some influence.

[The five skandhas or aggregates in Buddhism make up the physical and mental existence of each person and are matter, sensations, perception, formations, and consciousness which together constitute the phenomenon ‘Me’.]

Buddhism states that there is no unchanging, permanent self and that such personal identity is delusional. My understanding of this is that yes, there is a ‘sense’ of self (an identity), ever present, though the realisation of what appears to be a self, a me, is a construct derived from the above five skandhas. I would think that whatever one thinks, says or writes must emanate to some degree from ones particular acquired personality and nature – although perhaps tempered by the realisation of no-self.

[Trez]

Ready made Religions

Rings a bell, Gurinder Singh Dhilion and Radha Soami Religion, not Religion lol
Gurinders still working that one out

It's makes sense not to listen to the preaching parasite Gurinder Singh Dhilions rubbish on stage as it doesn't reflect his own doings which are EXPOSED for us to all to see now, but for us to beware of such Baba who take advantage of the innocent for they're own selfish needs.

His Sons have benefited handsomely of they're corrupted father Gurinder who has cheated even family for his selfishness out of millions of dollars . They live happily in London while the world still staves and is homeless.
Shameful behaviour

They live of "Not a honest living" and Life is fair" proverb do they

Religion is the root of all evil as Gurinder Singh Dhilion shows us today and we should never follow a path of shame and riddicule

As the New Year is apon us we should all reflect at the rubbish we have accumulated over the year and bin the trash like Gurinder Singh Dhilion and Radha Soami Cult in the bin where it belongs

And move ahead into 2024 within our power and freedom

God you Bless

[Kranvir]

Well said Trez, and Happy new year all on this site that truly support freedom. May you all truly reflect on what you believe and free yourself from the limiting mindset poisons injected by religions and cults like RSSB. Gurinder singh dhillon , you will get karma served to you. People are seeing your injustice, double standards, hypocrisy, lies and your insatiable need to control everything and everyone. You are the very definition of an ego that's out of control. You and your sons live a lifestyle of rich fraudulent billionaires and can never understand the common people and their plights - how can you have compassion? You also murdered your own wife so you can try and be pardoned from court cases.
Sangat wake yourselfs up from this monster cult, stay strong, and never look back at your new found freedom - you will never regret it.

[Happy New Year!]

Agreed. Very wise and beautiful indeed. ❤️

[Spence Tepper]

We all make up our own religions anyway.
To see this is to awaken to a signficant truth.
What you choose to believe, for any reason, ultimately is what your mind filters and understands.
And that is why religions number as high as the number of people who have ever lived.
It's what you think it is, for you. And it can't be anything else. If your thinking develops, your form of the religion or philosophy develops.

That's not unique. It's universal.

If you choose to leave a spiritual belief, or choose to stay, in both cases you are choosing to accept or reject your own interpretation of something.

You might wish to make your interpretation a little more accurate. Better looking, better objectivity and open-mindedness, becoming aware of one's own prejudices and working to overcome them, these all help to bring your mind's reconstruction closer to reality.

But so long as thinking is involved, it will only be your reconstruction, in your tiny brain.

Even experience, while much more helpful, still, so long as you wish to lay over your interpretation, it's just your own version.

To be spiritually independent can happen even within a religion. Whenever you find a better understanding, you are now free of your own past version of that religion.

And how many religions do we pass through over the years as we progress, even within one single school?

First year students, second year students, graduate students. Every year, it's a different school altogether, label it as you will.

Nothing special in leaving or clinging to an idea. If you leave it, you know something you didn't. And if you choose to cling to it, that may be for new reasons, hopefully more mature reasons.

There is no blame in leaving or staying, only in standing still. We were meant to move ahead, and do so generally even without our conscious awareness. Often, only in retrospect do we see how much we have changed.

But it is still what our brain has constructed. Quote as many books as you like, try to stand on someone else's reputation if you like, but it is still your own reconstruction, both of what you believe and even what you now choose not to believe. Owning that, is a step forward.

[Spence Tepper]

The author writes:
"Do not read this book if you want to be a somebody. It will make you a nobody, a no-self."

No, nothing can do that except you. You will always be something. The reality is we are tiny grains of sand on a huge galactic beach, and worse still, here and gone in the blink of an eye. But may be that's not so bad. We will be gone soon enough and don't actually need to worry about that. But...

As the song goes, "If you want to be somebody else, change your mind."

It can't be done any other way. But as for disappearing, happens all the time.

We are hardly more than a recalled memory copy of a copy of several other copies of a reconstructed memory that regurgitates "Me" over and over again. Not worth the attention, nothing there to defend or cling to, but it does have practical data we need to function.