In the spiritual journey there,
If you think of a box and think of light,
Okay,
So some people approach the spiritual journey in like a box,
Like they will do,
They will set up,
They're very comfortable with setting up practices and a routine of practice and rituals,
Very comfortable doing them.
They can even be comfortable doing yoga because of the structure of it and it's something to do.
So it's like the ego likes this in a way.
It likes the doing and it likes a program to follow.
But actually,
If you're doing it really sincerely,
The ego will gradually die.
And these practices,
They're useful,
They keep us stable.
Amma says,
You know,
Practices are crucial to hold you steady during the ups and downs of the journey.
So it's all very valuable.
Now,
The other polarity is like this light.
So there's some people who are the kind of ecstatics,
They follow the light.
They're not so good on following spiritual practices.
They're not so good on that,
On the box,
About the structure.
They're not good in the structure.
They're often uncomfortable with the structure.
Now,
Both ways get lost.
I want you to really understand this.
Both ways get lost.
The way of the structure,
What can happen then is the person does the structure,
But it becomes more and more rote by rote,
And it gradually loses the heart.
The spiritual practice,
It's just like,
It's like the practices can be done like saying,
Our father who are in heaven,
That does not help.
Okay,
That is the danger of the structure of the box.
The danger of the light is a person follows the light.
They maybe feel it,
They go,
Oh,
I've got it,
This is it.
Then their resistances come up,
And they start going off the path.
Now,
You can see this with artists.
You can see that the conventional,
The classic,
The artists,
They're doing their work.
They may even feel they're connecting up to God,
But there'll be development of alcoholism,
Or there'll be drug use,
Or they'll go bankrupt,
Or anything.
It's like all over the place.
It's just the classic caricature of the chaotic artist is the opposite.
Or a spiritual seeker who sets off on the path,
And then gets really,
Really kind of lost,
And sometimes even twisted along the way,
Because they followed their intuition too much,
And their intuition was contaminated by their ego,
And they got off and left field.
Personally,
That is what I think would have happened to Pramasutra if she hadn't met Amma,
Because I was doing that way,
Like following after my son's you know,
The experience of the leukemia,
The experience of light,
And then I was just following.
So,
Luckily.
Okay,
So both ways get lost.
And this is why both types of people have to be ready to sort of self-correct,
To be aware of the vulnerability of their way,
And make sure that they're correcting.
It's like a person who's like ecstatic needs to make sure there's enough structure,
That there's a structure to their practices.
And the person who's doing the practice needs to make sure that they're not losing the heart of the journey,
And that not just the practices,
It's just going into habit,
And kind of a meaninglessness.
Okay,
These are things that we as individuals have to be responsible for,
And self-correct for,
But not in a punishing way.
It's just like,
It's just the other side of a coin,
You know,
It's the yin and the yang,
You know.
But the journey takes,
You know,
To really do it well,
You need to have the self-awareness to be able to see your own vulnerabilities,
Or your own blind spots,
And to do what you can to mitigate them.
