Maybe We Can Learn From the East's Ancient Spiritual Ways

Someone wise once said that the West understands the logic of machines while the East understands the logic of the spiritual journey.

The East is industrializing so perhaps it's time for Westerners to learn to turn within and discover the spiritual journey is not just yoga and mindfulness.

It begins with turning to love deeply even though it is messy, difficult, frustrating, very human, unpredictable, humbling, just very hard sometimes, and rather unfashionable in our superficial era.

Oh well. Here are some tips to help.

Eastern spiritual teachers give mantras to students, words that the student can repeat over and over. The word itself is imbued with the teacher's energy, functioning like yogurt starter which together with warmth, is used to turn milk into more yogurt. Repeating a mantra eventually transforms the student's consciousness into something closer to the teacher's understanding.

The more it is repeated either out loud or silently, the faster the student's consciousness will transform. It is usually thought to take three or four years of repeating a mantra every waking moment to achieve enlightenment but there are no guarantees.

And it is always better to receive a mantra a mantra from a teacher personally. It works better than just choosing a random mantra for yourself, just like yogurt starter needs warmth to transform the milk into more yogurt.

But still, the famous hugging saint Amma says that the highest level of enlightenment comes through a whole life being devoted to the spiritual journey. Hmm... the last fruit to ripen is frequently the sweetest.

Satsang also helps seekers.

Satsang, a word coming from Sanskrit, means to be in the company of true people. It is also includes sitting with a spiritual master in a group to receive teachings.

Regular satsang attendance helps keep us focused on the journey. And the fastest way to enlightenment is at the feet of a spiritual master. Another person cannot walk the journey for us but an authentic teacher's wisdom and compassion and experience can make the journey so much easier and softer.

When we journey by ourselves without a teacher or a group, it's easier to get lost and tricked by
the ego. Experiencing unconditional love coming through another person gives us proof that Universal love exists and it is possible to embody it in a human life.

It's tough to be disappointed by a teacher or by others. But the truth is like attracts like. So if our teacher and our group are flawed, it is better to pull back to look within and purify ourselves, before finding another group that suits us better.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

And going through difficult periods on the spiritual journey toughens us in a good way, like steel that gets stronger and stronger every time it goes into the fire.

The journey is not kindergarten though. It is like climbing a mountain with all kinds of weathers and challenges and terrain. We can get hurt. But the whole point of the journey is to discover our true Essence, that invincible energy within that can handle any obstacle or any challenge – if we let it by learning how to listen to the small still voice within.

All these tips above are offered to help learn how to listen... a great achievement for us in the West, who have been raised in our extroverted, materialistic culture.