Which Spiritual Practice Is Right For You?

In this talk, I go over which spiritual practices you may resonate with based on your results on the Big 5 Personality Type Test. As you may know, there are many different spiritual practices out there, each with its own particular signature. Some are more analytical in nature, while others are more heart-based. As a result of these differences, certain personality types will gravitate towards one practice over others due to shared values.

Transcript

Hey,

This is Ish,

And in today's talk I want to go over which Eastern spiritual discipline would appeal to you the most based on your personality type.

And the personality type I'm referring to here is based off the Big Five personality type model.

And I've actually made a whole series of talks where I go over each of the five dimensions as part of the Big Five personality type.

So you can go ahead and check that out.

But just as a quick recap of the Big Five traits,

The first trait would be openness,

Which refers to your openness to new experiences.

So people who are high in this trait are very open minded and have a big picture way of looking at the world.

So big picture thinking.

The next trait is conscientiousness,

Which refers to work ethic and success orientation,

And achievement orientation.

So people who are high in this trait like to be very ambitious and like to go after big goals.

The next trait is extroversion,

Which refers to your capacity to gain energy from social interactions and also stimulus in the outside world as well.

The fourth trait is agreeableness,

Which refers to your propensity to be very cooperative,

Patient to other people,

Very accommodating,

And really kind to others.

So if you're high in this trait,

That would describe you and when you're low in this trait,

You'd be the opposite,

So very,

A bit more closed off,

A bit competitive and argumentative.

And then the last trait is neuroticism,

Which is the quality to which you are prone to what we call negative emotions,

Such as anxiety,

Depression,

Anger,

So your emotions are very volatile and if you are low in this trait,

You are very stable.

And a distinction I like to make,

Which I have done in all the previous talks on the big five personality type test is that people will fall somewhere between the spectrum or range in this between each dimension.

So be somewhere in between,

So they could be 70% or 30% in openness and where you fall along the spectrum will change the way you view the world and inform your life decisions as well.

So that's just something to keep in mind.

But to keep this talk simple and easy to understand,

I'll just be using the extreme example.

So people who are high or very low in the trait,

So you can have a good understanding.

And if you fall somewhere in between a range,

Then just know that you can go both ways so you can relate more to one practices that are very high in the straight and very low in the straight and both will be fine for you.

So you're a bit more adaptable.

So let's start off with openness,

The first trait.

So openness again,

Refers to your openness to experiences.

People who are very high in this trait can be described as big picture thinkers like artists,

A lot of creative types tend to fall in the high in openness,

Because they aren't too concerned about the day to day practicality and systems of things,

But rather they like to keep their mind open and look for new possibilities.

And people who are high in openness,

As the word implies,

Are open minded and they also like to consider multiple different possibilities or approaches to a specific problem.

So rather than have just one single path to get to a certain goal or destination,

They can consider different perspectives and they actually get a lot of energy from doing that and that excites them.

So they would really hate to be constrained or confined to one specific path or one specific solution so they can keep their options a bit more open.

So what practices or specific disciplines are high in openness?

Well,

For one,

Zen is very high in openness.

And in fact,

It's the complete opposite of being very closed off.

You can even look into the sitting practice of Zen,

Which is known as Zazen.

And in this practice,

There isn't too many rules.

So you'll be sitting there and you may have like some slight pointers as far as how to conduct your posture,

Like keeping your spine upright and all that.

But beyond that,

There isn't too much instructions that are given compared to other schools of Buddhism where they'll give you like step by step on what to focus on and all that.

And once you progress in your Zen journey,

You will start to receive even more open ended and less instructions.

So if you look at the Rinzai school,

Which is one branch of Zen Buddhism,

Then you have what is called Koans,

Which are riddles.

And these riddles are given to you by your Zen teacher.

And these riddles aren't meant to be solved in like a logical manner,

But rather they allude to something a bit deeper,

More mystical.

And one Zen Koan I've heard was,

What was your face before you were born?

So you can see that this makes no sense logically,

But rather it is supposed to be like kind of like an open thing where it'll kind of,

Once you kind of grasp the essence behind it,

It will hit you into and get you into this awakened state.

So it's very confusing.

I know if you're kind of new to it,

But this approach of Zen is very anti-intellectual.

And in the Soto Zen lineage,

So that's another branch of Zen Buddhism,

You have an advanced practice called Shikhan Tasa.

So this is where the instructions get even more vague.

So Shikhan Tasa just means just sitting.

So you will just be sitting there and you just open up your senses and open up your mind and open up the body.

And so you can start to see that as a practice progresses,

Things become more open.

And lifestyle wise,

A lot of people that are Zen practitioners,

Like a lot of Zen monks in the past have become great poets and writers,

And they engage in a lot of creative pursuits.

And personally,

What I've noticed is that I've seen a lot of senior Zen leaders and priests have piercings and some of them have tattoos.

So you can start to see that a lot of people who identify themselves as being more creative tend to prefer Zen because of its openness,

Open-ended approaches,

A lot of creativity involved.

And if you study under a lot of Zen masters,

You'll notice that there's a certain way of being where they never really answer your questions directly.

And they kind of give like riddles or answers,

And they're always really interested in something that's a bit more mystical.

And another branch of Buddhism that people who are high in openness tend to enjoy is Vajrayana Buddhism.

So this is something that is popular in Tibet.

So the Dalai Lama,

For example,

Will be practicing that kind of school of thought.

And in Vajrayana,

They make use of a lot of visualizations.

So a Tonglen practice,

For example,

Is where you inhale the suffering of others.

And you exhale,

You imagine a light that is soothing other people all around you.

So it makes use of a lot of visualizations.

I know one time,

I think a few weeks ago,

I practiced at a local Tibetan center here,

And we were looking at a picture or avatar of a Buddha.

And what we do is we look at it,

Close our eyes and try to replicate the image in our mind.

So heavy use of visualizations.

A lot of people who prefer that will kind of gravitate towards that.

And in Vajrayana,

They also mentioned things like energy and energy work.

So clearly people who are creative,

Spiritual types tend to really enjoy that.

So that's for the high in openness scale.

Now what happens if you're very low in openness?

So this is someone who would be described as a bit more conservative,

Traditional,

They like following routines rather than reinventing the box.

Why do that?

Why not just focus on what has already been said and what's tried and true rather than venturing out of the box?

So people who are low in openness tend to gravitate towards the Theravadin school of Buddhism.

So this is the oldest school of Buddhism.

And I've practiced there and Vipassana is from there as well.

And when you go practice Vipassana,

It's very different from Zen.

So in Vipassana,

I've been practicing the Mahasi side technique of labeling and noting.

So when I've done that,

It's very clear cut.

So you're just going to sit there,

Watch your breath rise and fall.

And you're going to label rising,

Falling,

Rising,

Falling.

And if you have a thought,

You're going to label that thinking.

So it's very clear cut and analytical.

And there isn't much creativity involved.

And you can even study a lot of the Theravadin teachers and Vipassana teachers are a bit more serious in nature.

So you can look at a picture of Mahasi side,

For example.

And then you can look at a picture of like,

Say the Dalai Lama,

And they're very different in terms of the expression and how they carry themselves.

So people who are a bit low in openness will really like and enjoy these types of practices of Vipassana,

Which is more dry or Shamatha practice,

Because it's very clear cut.

And it's a bit more strict,

But they like the strictness because it provides them that order.

So I've noticed that a lot of the monks in the Theravadin schools follow a bit more rules than say Zen.

And you can even look at it that like Zen monks are able to marry and the Theravadin monks are actually required to be celibate.

So it's very different approaches to life.

Now moving on to the next dimension,

And this is conscientiousness.

So this refers to your achievement orientation or propensity towards achievement.

And people who are very high in this quality can be described as very ambitious.

They have big goals,

They are constantly working.

So someone like a late Kobe Bryant would be an example of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

So you can kind of have a good understanding of that.

So naturally,

Obviously,

You would think that in the spiritual disciplines,

People would gravitate towards the lower end of the spectrum because it's non ambition.

And that's actually a quality that is talked about a lot,

Is non ambition.

So in that aspect,

It's very true that a lot of these spiritual disciplines are on the very low side of conscientiousness.

But there is something to be said about like the work ethic and kind of conducting yourself and doing the work.

And that's something I find if people who are higher in conscientiousness naturally,

They tend to gravitate towards certain schools of meditative thought compared to others.

So I noticed that in Zen,

For example,

There is people who are high in conscientiousness tend to gravitate towards those.

And the reason why is that although there is a lot of open endedness and simplicity behind the practice,

There is a lot of little like rituals you have to do.

So certain like ways of holding your bowl in place and you have to wake up and like if you do like a retreat,

You have to wake up like 5am then meditate for like this exact amount of time,

Then go for a walk,

Peer to walk in meditation,

And then you'll have this.

So things are very structured and organized.

And people who are very high in conscientiousness like to be very organized and stay on top of things.

Now,

People who are very low in conscientiousness are kind of go with the flow.

So they kind of just take everything as it comes,

They don't like to strive towards things.

So I personally relate to this,

I'm very low in conscientiousness myself.

And for the longest time,

I thought this is like the worst thing ever.

Because in our modern world,

At least here in the West,

There's a lot of pressure to succeed in life and get a good job and go to a good school and all that.

So naturally,

Just not having any kind of those desires as much as my peers at least,

You know,

Made me think that there's something wrong with me.

But actually,

No,

There's actually whole schools of thought and traditions that date back,

You know,

Thousands of years that emphasize the quality of being low in conscientiousness.

So really,

Any kind of contemplative practice will fall towards that.

And I've noticed,

Especially in yoga,

People tend to be a bit lower in conscientiousness from what I've noticed.

So moving on to extraversion,

This is your inclination towards social interaction.

So you gain energy from interacting with others.

But it could also mean your threshold for stimulus from the outside world is higher.

So one thing that's very interesting is that extroverts brains differ slightly from introverts in the sense that their pathways in the brain respond more to dopamine than the other ones.

So if they don't have enough dopamine,

Which is responsible for seeking rewards and getting that external like stimulus from the environment,

Then we're driving off that like kind of going after goals and setting that and you know,

Really being interacting with the internal environment,

Then they'll feel a bit restless.

So naturally,

With the Buddhist schools of thought,

They tend to be a bit more on the introspective side.

So this is low in extroversion.

So you can clearly see that where you go to a Buddhist retreat,

You're in some schools like Zen and then that Theravada as well,

You take a vow of silence.

So this means you can't even talk to the person next to you.

Unless you have some very important questions for a teacher.

But you won't be chatting and you know,

Just sitting around and talking to people at all in these retreats.

So very different environment from yoga,

Which I've gone to a lot of yoga retreats and this is very extroverted because you will be,

You know,

Practicing yoga,

But then afterwards,

Talk to people.

And typically in the yoga class,

There's things like lights and colors and sounds.

So it's more interactive and extroverts really like this type of environment and feed off it because there's a lot of like social interaction there.

And Kundalini yoga is extreme version of extroversion,

Because you have a lot of stimulus bombarded at you.

So the whole point of Kundalini,

You're like circulating the prana or life force energy within you.

So you couldn't be breathing very fast,

You'd be making some rapid movements with your body and moving arms a lot and your spine body.

So there's a lot going on.

And you know,

If you're an introvert,

This is your personal nightmare,

But for extroverts,

You look like you really like it.

And you know,

I find this really interesting because some time ago,

I was doing a lot of Zen meditation,

Which if you aren't familiar,

In the Soto style,

You stare at a white wall.

And the monks are you know,

Wear black and other participants are expected to wear all black and you eat very bland food.

So it's a definition of being very austere.

And then a couple of days later,

I was invited to take a Kundalini yoga class,

One of my teacher friends were teaching.

And when I took her class,

I was like,

Oh,

This was like overload because it was a complete opposite.

They were wearing black,

They were all wearing white,

And they're playing loud music and you're breathing really loudly and circling energy and moving around.

And it was a complete opposite of the stillness that was found in Zen.

So it is very,

A lot of extroverts will tend to like Kundalini,

For example.

And actually,

In the Buddhist practices,

You may enjoy loving kindness practices.

And the reason why is you are extending love not only for yourself and loving kindness,

But also extending it for other people systematically.

So you start with yourself and then expand it to people that are very close to you.

And then some acquaintances and then you know,

People that maybe you don't get along with and all that.

So you kind of just expand the circle of love out in the world.

And this makes you feel more connected.

So as a personal thing,

What I've noticed is,

When I've done a few hours of Zen meditation or Vipassa meditation,

And then I go out in public,

I'll feel kind of still,

I feel very free in my body,

But I'm not that chatty.

On contrast,

If I do some loving kindness practice,

And then I go out in public,

Then I just don't have like this,

Not that I have social anxiety,

But I don't have this fear of talking to people.

And I feel naturally just a bit more connected to other people.

And I listen a bit more and talk more,

And I'm more engaged in social conversation after practicing loving kindness.

So all the extroverts will really like this practice because it connects you with other people.

So just like a personal observation,

I've noticed that a lot of Tibetan practitioners just tend to be on the extroverted side.

I don't know what it is,

But I guess the practice tends to draw more extroverts.

So you're more on the extroverted side,

You might like these practices of Kundalini and kind of yoga,

Loving kindness practices in Buddhism,

And also Tibetan practices.

So and then again,

On the introverted side,

You have a whole variety to choose from practices because meditation by its nature is introspective,

And you're kind of just blocking everything off and kind of going inwards.

So an introvert's paradise.

The next dimension of the Big Five personality type test is agreeableness,

Which is all about how much you value and your propensity towards being very nice to others and kind and cooperative.

So people who are high in the strait are just generally very patient and loving and accepting and accommodating,

And all that as well.

So people who are high in the strait,

Like I've noticed,

Tend to gravitate towards Tibetan styles of Buddhism and also like the loving kindness practices,

Which I've just mentioned,

And like the Mahayana school of Buddhism,

Which is all about saving other people from suffering.

So it's all about putting your attention outwards towards other people.

So naturally people who are higher in the strait of agreeableness will really like that practice.

And I find the Zen is somewhere in between,

Because yes,

Still consider like a Mahayana school,

So you spend a lot of time of your practice dedicating your practice to other people and looking outside and volunteering and doing all that stuff.

But I've also seen a lot of Zen teachers kind of have that quality of toughness in them.

So they have no problem,

Like some Zen masters grab the robes of a student,

Kind of shake them around,

Or they'll have like a,

They'll kind of like,

If they're not conveying their message across to a student in the normal manner,

They might kind of raise their voice a bit,

Not to like be mean,

But just like another way of cutting through to the student's resistance.

So anything kind of goes in that kind of open minded approach.

So you have to be a bit more stern in that manner.

And also Zen in its like nature is like kind of regimented and I wouldn't say like a militaristic kind of style,

But like it is kind of regimented.

And I've noticed in some settings that I've gone to like Zen priests will kind of like just yell a bit more.

So I find Zen is kind of in between.

And then if you'll go more on the disagreeable side,

I've noticed in the Vipassana schools,

They tend to be a bit more like kind of closed off and not in a mean way.

So I don't want you to think that all like disagreeable people are like mean.

That's certainly true like outside of spirituality,

But usually if you're practicing any kind of meditative style for like years and decades on end,

You're not gonna be like a rude person,

But I have noticed their personality or temperament tends to be a bit more closed off and reserved and a bit more stern in nature.

So like I was mentioning earlier,

You can look at Vipassana teacher and look at their like picture of them and compare it to like a person that's doing a more lovey kindness practice or shamatha practice.

And it's very different.

So I would say that with the Vipassana schools,

They tend to be a bit more disagreeable on that aspect.

So if you tend to fall towards the more disagreeable side,

You may enjoy these practices.

Lastly,

We have the next or last dimension,

Which is neuroarticism,

Which is your propensity towards stress and anxiety.

And if you are high in this quality,

Your emotions tend to go up and down.

So naturally the course of the any kind of spiritual disciplines is to lower your levels of this trait.

And actually meditation does do that.

So if you were hired in neuroarticism,

It actually lowers the more you practice.

So any kind of meditative style you can take will have that effect.

However,

There is something to be said,

If you're naturally a bit higher to anxiety and stress and all that,

You may enjoy practices like yoga,

Which are more the asanas at least,

Which are more body centric,

Because if you are having these anxious bouts or you put a depression,

Well,

Just sitting still might not do so much for you because you may ruminate.

Of course,

If you're a bit more advanced in the practice,

Then you can kind of get over it.

But if you are kind of just starting out and you're unable to sit because you have all these strong feelings come up,

Well,

It might be more beneficial for you in the beginning to utilize more movement.

So a lot of yoga practices will help that.

In addition,

Yoga does a lot of like pranayama,

Which is breathing exercises,

Which will calm the nervous system.

So this is perfect for you if you tend to be a bit more anxious.

And then loving kindness also has an added effect,

Which I was mentioning earlier,

Of calming the body as well.

So you're a bit more connected to other people.

So if you're suffering from anxiety,

For example,

This would be the opposite of that because you have the connection to other people.

So you can't really be anxious because you're so connected with others that you aren't self conscious in that manner.

So that's just some examples from what I've noticed.

So again,

I hope you like this talk on the Big Five personality type test and how it relates to spirituality,

Which spiritual disciplines to choose from.

And again,

This is just one model I've used and there are certainly other personality type models,

Which I'll go over in future talks,

But I hope you like this and hope you found this helpful.

So let me know in the comments which styles you might be interested in checking out based on your personality type from watching this talk.

Thank you.

Reviews

I am more introverted, infp, and I love Kundalini. I feel zen is too boring really.

Thank you, Ishar. This was a great talk. I'm low in openness and high in agreeableness. I've been meditating in the Therevadan tradition for 26 years. I appreciate and value the structure it provides.