Finding Your True Spiritual Path

In this dharma talk, explore what it means to find and follow the spiritual path that resonates most deeply for you. There are no cookie cutter solutions.

Transcript

Welcome everyone to this satsang or Dharma talk on finding your true spiritual path.

I want to emphasize the word your here because this whole business of spirituality is a very individual matter.

It's very personal and for everyone,

Finding their true spiritual path is going to mean something slightly different.

Even if you're a part of an organized religion and you're practicing in the same manner as a large group of people,

At the end of the day it still comes down to your heart,

Your mind,

Your spirit,

And that's where the work is done.

You're the one who has to embody and internalize the teaching of your spiritual path,

So you have to be comfortable with it.

You have to follow the path that makes the most sense to you.

And there are certain pros and certain cons with being part of an organized traditional path,

And there are certain pros and cons to being more independent.

Most of my training has been in Buddhism,

And I've written many articles on the subject of Buddhism,

And I've written a book called Your Buddha.

But my own spiritual path has taken many twists and turns over the years,

And has gone through many evolutions.

And I think,

To be honest,

I'm at a point in my spiritual path where sometimes I wonder about the utility or the value of attaching a label to myself,

A label like Buddhist.

My approach to spirituality is actually quite open and not so easy to pin down to any one particular tradition or background.

Of course,

Buddhism does form the cornerstone of my spiritual practice,

But I also draw spiritual nourishment and guidance from many other traditions.

Christianity,

Kabbalah,

The mystical tradition of Judaism,

Hindu yogis and Sufi mystics and non-dual teachers from the Advaita Vedanta tradition,

And the Course in Miracles,

Many other spiritual traditions that I find wisdom and guidance from.

And my own path to where I am today has been a very long and winding path,

Many lifetimes within a lifetime,

You could say,

Many different spiritual practices and affiliations along the way.

When I was very young,

Still a child,

I was a Southern Baptist,

And then later I rebelled and swung hard to the opposite extreme after I left the Southern Baptist Church and I was an avowed atheist for a while.

And then I started dabbling in New Age traditions and Wicca.

I was practicing witchcraft at that time,

During my teenage years.

And then later in my path I studied Kabbalah and then I found my way to the Buddhist path and kind of settled down there for a number of years.

The Buddhist path,

Out of all the different spiritual traditions that I've practiced and been a part of,

Has been the path that fundamentally makes the most sense to me and resonates with me quite deeply.

But that's not to say that I believe that Buddhism has any kind of a copyright on spiritual awakening.

It's a wonderful set of blueprints to awakening,

But those blueprints are not for everyone,

And I'm certainly not here to proselytize or try to convince anyone about any one particular tradition.

And I think having worn so many hats and labels along the way during my spiritual journey has given me a certain amount of perspective into the transience of labels and how sometimes we can unexpectedly outgrow or grow beyond the labels and the costumes that we put on on the spiritual path.

One of my favorite teachers,

Ajay Shanti,

Also comes from a Buddhist background,

No longer really associates himself in his own mind as a Buddhist.

He says this,

This is a quote from Ajay Shanti,

It amazes me.

Sometimes people will hear that I have a Buddhist background and they will say,

He's a Buddhist.

And I think,

How is it possible?

How is it possible for anybody to believe that?

How is it possible for a human being to believe they are a Buddhist or a Christian or whatever?

How do we get away with that without laughing ourselves absolutely silly?

How is it possible that we fall for a concept so easily?

How is it that we limit ourselves down so narrowly?

How is it we then do the religion such a grave disservice?

Because it is a grave disservice to identify with them.

Then we can't use them.

Then we're just used by them.

Then we've just become another phony identity with a spiritual name.

Then we haven't even used them well.

So that's Ajay Shanti's perspective on it,

Which I find very interesting.

I have some sense of identification with what he's saying.

But I think it's worth also pointing out that before he had his awakening experience,

Ajay Shanti spent many years practicing very diligently in the Buddhist tradition,

And was actually quite serious about it.

And I can't speak for him,

But I think he would probably say that he failed to attain his awakening experience through the traditional Buddhist path and methodology and tradition that he was practicing in,

And that's part of why he left it behind.

At least that's my understanding.

But I think it's from the vantage point of having awakened that he's able to look back and say that labeling himself as a Buddhist was silly.

Because from the awakened point of view,

We see how all of the labels that we attach to ourselves,

All the names we put on ourselves and the costumes we wear,

They're all kind of silly.

They're all made up.

And we trip ourselves up when we start to really believe that the costume we're wearing is our true identity.

So while I identify with what Ajay Shanti is saying here,

Like him I also spent many years practicing quite diligently in the Buddhist tradition.

I spent over a dozen years practicing and studying,

And I lived as a monk for two years in a monastery where I meditated between four and six hours a day.

And it's on the foundation of that practice,

Those years of practice and study,

That I'm able today to kind of step back and see,

I don't know,

The paradox of how much Buddhism has transformed me spiritually,

But at the same time,

The more I begin to feel any sort of spiritual awakening unfolding in my life,

The less attached I become to labeling myself as a Buddhist or anything else.

Because I'm beginning to see more and more how all of those labels and costumes are really transparent.

They're not really accurate images of who we really are.

These days you hear a lot of people saying that they are spiritual but not religious.

And I think behind that sentiment there's a certain amount of suspicion and even sometimes resentment towards organized religion.

And not without reason,

There's a certain amount of justification for the mistrust that a lot of people feel towards organized religion.

Because there's a lot of abuses and absurdities and hypocrisies,

Even murder,

That is perpetrated in the name of religion.

A lot of times people think that to be religious or to practice an organized religious tradition means giving up your own personal authority and autonomy and becoming a sheep in a flock,

And abandoning your own critical intelligence and adopting someone else's ideas and coded behavior and so on.

And so,

In that kind of atmosphere we see a lot of people who are striking out on their own,

On the spiritual path,

And really trying to pursue insight and their own version of awakening,

Wherever they can find it,

Without getting bogged down in the bureaucracy,

So to speak,

Of religion.

But this approach also has its pros and its cons.

Without the structure and guidance of organized religion,

I think there's a danger that people can fall into a routine of just kind of spiritual snacking,

Is what I call it.

Just kind of munching on little potato chips of wisdom here and there,

But never really sitting down to actually eat a proper meal that has real nourishment.

And in the modern spiritual scene,

It's easy to carry this to extremes,

Because.

.

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Reviews

Thank you, truly enjoyed. Many blessings 🙏

Very eye opening and insightful

Validated what I had been thinking
I’m going for it

Thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Very interesting and well put observations on what defines spirituality and religion and invites listener to consider their own unique approach to travelling their individual path. Thanks!

A wonderful offering for all seekers🌈

No more spiritual snacks and potato chips. You need to sit down and cook a real meal to satisfy the craving for a profound spiritual awakening.

Very insightful and wise. Much of what you say coincides with my own perspective on religion vs spirituality, but you also gave me food for further thought. I will listen to this again. Thank you.

Very interesting talk thank you

Thank you for this thoughtful talk on spirituality.

💜☮️💜 I was looking for more than potato chips, thank you for helping me along my path to spiritual enlightenment. Namaste

Namaste Dennis for your teachings. I love most of what you are saying. What I miss,is that through meditation and inner work you can connect with the universal, spiritual wisdom, men do not need to practice for over years or study books (I followed that path and studied religions and old tribal beliefsystems myself). Only through yoga,meditation and experiencing crisis I came in contact with my true self and had the privilige to experience the white light. Not by following the path of the mind,the cognitive path who wants to study and analyse everything, but becoming one with my body (opening also the lower chakra's) and making contact with my inner child and asking the higher beings for guidance I became more of a Christian-like,Buddha-like than me studeing Reiki, U.E.,Buddhism,Kabbala,Hindoeism,Christianity and many old tribal nature beliefsystems. With love, Miriam💞

Thank you, you've given me resolve to deepen my search. I've felt a bit alone and adrift spiritually but been questioning if committing to a new path really makes sense. I see I need to label myself and go deeper before I can truly let go and just be "spiritual".

Thank you, really something to work on for me. Great inspiration! Namaste

Good talk. Enjoyed hearing someone walked a similar path to mine. Agree that we are not a label such as Christian, or Buddhist, but spiritual beings having a human experience.

Confirms what I always believed about combining spiritual paths to discover my own. Loved "religion gives answers but spirituality asks questions.🙏🏻

This was so real and point on! Thank you for clarifying labels and at the end of the day we are who we claim to be. Beings!

Very interesting and thought provoking. I enjoyed listening