Gradual Awakening

Maggie explores this idea of "spiritual materialism" where we mistakenly believe that Enlightenment is something we can obtain if we work hard enough, attend enough retreats, read enough spiritual texts or meditate for long enough.

But Awakening isn't a one shot deal; it's more of a slow and steady path. It's as if while on the path you receive a few sprinkles of awakening here and there as you go.

Transcript

Today I'm just going to have a little discussion, Just maybe a little bit of a teaching. What today's topic will be called gradual awakening. And the reason I call it gradual awakening is because some people believe that enlightenment or awakening or liberation of whatever term you want to use is some kind of sudden event. And like it's some big bang out of nowhere. And they have to, They think they have to work fairly diligently to get there. And after teaching many students over many years, It seems like sort of a common misconception of spirituality. But walking on the spiritual path is a subtle and a lifelong process. It's not something that happens in one fell swoop. For some, An awakening might come along suddenly. But from my experience, Those people are really in the minority. I really believe that we often have this misconception because over time we've been taught to believe that if we work really hard for what we want in life, That we'll somehow be rewarded. If we work our way up the ladder, We'll get that great promotion we've been hoping for with the salary that goes with it. If we have the better salary, Then we'll better be able to afford that dream house or that really neat car we've been eyeing for a long time. In essence, We've been conditioned to think that our hard work will lead us to the fulfillment of our material desires. Some approach spirituality in the exact same way, As if we believe that if we study enough of those ancient texts and teachings, That we'll somehow have earned enlightenment. As if some sort of certificate of completion or an award of some sort is on the way. Or maybe even at a minimum, It's some sort of an end result. But when we approach spirituality in this manner, It minimizes the journey and the path. And in so doing, Instead of actually walking the spiritual path, We're really only strengthening our ego. And there's a term they use for this in spiritual circles. They call it spiritual materialism. When I first heard that term, Spiritual materialism, I have to admit, I was kind of baffled. What did it mean? What in the world did spiritual materialism even mean? And it took me a bit to look at it as if I was looking kind of like basic materialism. I started to explore the idea that somehow I could acquire my spirituality almost like I would acquire a new dress. So as long as I had the cash or the wherewithal, I could obtain this tangible item of my choosing. But real spirituality, At least from the Buddhist perspective, Cannot readily be obtained just because we want it. Becoming awakened or conscious or enlightened begins really with our ability to understand our own confusion and our own suffering and to work towards unraveling that and the origin of that. And when we approach spirituality as if, If I become enlightened or awakened, Things will be different, Then we've already missed the point. Because true spirituality really is being able to come to terms with accepting things just the way that they are. But the key is in noticing that perhaps the way things are currently in your world are not all that great. So in Buddhist circles, When we talk about the Four Noble Truths, It outlines this as the path, Right? According to the path, This particular Four Noble Truths, Right? According to that path, The spiritual path is a process of actually cutting through our confusion and our suffering so that when we do, We can uncover that awakened state that until this point really has been hidden under all of the suffering or ego or pain. So this then would really indicate that the spiritual path is really not about creating an awakened state after reading up on all the ancient teachings and meditating for hours or attending spiritual retreats or traveling to India or sitting with spiritual masters all day, Right? So instead, It really is about sort of snuffing out those confusions that obstruct our awakened state because our awakened state is already and always existing. And in spiritual circles, They call these things that obstruct us obscurations, Which I think is a really cool phrase because it talks about being obscured by the suffering or our own ego or our own misconceptions of reality. So the obscurations are in the way of us being able to truly become enlightened. So Buddhist teachings often use the example of clouds covering the sun and the blue sky that's actually behind them. So they equate the clouds as our misconceptions and our judgments and our criticisms and evaluations and all of those sorts of things as our suffering. And the sun in the blue sky, Or in this case, Enlightenment, Is always there. It's just obscured behind those clouds. So we can't see it. So you might be wondering, Then, How do we become enlightened or conscious or awake or whatever phrase you want to use, How do we go about clearing away the obscurations or obstructions that are in the way of us becoming awakened and enlightened? Well, First, We need to recognize that we are suffering. And so by this, I mean recognize the way that our lives currently are and maybe we're doing things right now in our lives that may not be ideal. And perhaps we're even doing them on automatic like a habitual thing. But you might be wondering, Well, So how do I know if that's what I'm doing? Well, There are several telltale signs, And these are just a few, But they may include some of these little hints. You might feel stuck or paralyzed and maybe it shows up as depression or lethargy or not feeling interested in anything. You might be questioning your purpose in life and whether you have one or where it is. You might be hypercritical of yourself or others, Judging yourself or others harshly and kind of without mercy, Maybe. You might find that you're on edge and cranky a lot, Quick tempered and you just kind of get ready to pounce. Or you maybe are isolating yourselves from the people that you love or society at large, COVID notwithstanding, Right? So you could have perhaps even picked up on an addiction like gambling or drinking or excessive video gaming or overeating or any one of those types of addictions or cravings. Maybe you're obscured by not wanting to take responsibility for anyone or anything, Including yourself. Or you might find your own clues to your own suffering in a million of other ways that might be completely personal to you and your own circumstances. But sometimes what happens is we begin to recognize our behaviors or the patterns, The habitual patterns, And we have an inkling. Either we notice it and we have an inkling of it and we write it off in denial or we actually start to want to take a look at it. So maybe something starts to surface that you've buried for quite some time and you don't want to look at it. Maybe you start to realize that you've been operating in an unhealthy way for quite a while and you just haven't been ready to make changes. Maybe you're afraid that if you start to make the changes that you're worried about what you're going to uncover if you really start digging. Or maybe you just don't want to do the heavy lifting that's required to make a change. So that might be at the very point at which you get trapped into the idea that if you were just to read a little more, Study a little more, Meditate a little longer, That you'll feel better or be more spiritual or feel more inspired. Spiritual materialism, Right? But this kind of spirituality is really a false spirituality. It doesn't last. It's fleeting and it's kind of like manufactured spirituality in a sense. It's like an imitation of true spirituality. In a lot of ways, The frustration that we start to feel is because we don't actually see any relief from whatever suffering or habitual patterns we've had. So it actually then in turn adds to our suffering that was already there. So that might be the very minute, The very moment at which you give up your desire to awaken and just continue to live your lives unconsciously. You might just decide, I can't do it. It's not for me. But what if you step back for a minute and understand that you can't truly experience something that you're trying to imitate or fabricate? That's not really having an embodied experience of the actual thing, Right? True spirituality is an experiential path. It's not an intellectual one. True spirituality requires that we confront ourselves and our shortcomings, All those habitual patterns of behavior, Or at least a few of them, Right? You don't have to do everything at once. But most importantly, Being on the path requires that we confront our ego. That same ego that's fighting like hell to keep all of those misconceptions intact. That same, Same one, Right? That same ego that thinks even though we're unhappy or uninspired or anxiety ridden or feeling depressed or stuck, That we don't have to give up anything to feel better. We don't have to do anything to feel better. We think we don't have to give up the patterns of thought and to shift ourselves out of this unconscious state and into some kind of awareness. But real spirituality requires hard work. But I'm not talking about hard work like studying for a final exam at the end of a really tough semester, Or the hard work of a full day in blazing sun framing a new house. That's not the hard work I'm talking about. True spirituality is about the hard work of your heart and your soul. It's the hard work of coming out of denial, Uncovering those habitual patterns of behavior, And actually allowing them to be so that you can start to become liberated from yourself and the obscurations, Right? So, That sane, Awakened quality that's within each of us is only available if we stop struggling to hold on to those old ways of being and behaving. It's only available if we let go, Right? And this is where the very practice of meditation can come into play. The practice of meditation involves noticing and allowing, Allowing and noticing the thoughts that arise and just letting them be. You can also refer to some of my past blog posts on my website or YouTube videos on the same topic. But when we practice meditation, We notice those gaps between the thoughts. It's in the gaps between the thoughts where we actually begin to connect to our intuitive selves and we're better able to acknowledge those storylines that are keeping us so small. And only in noticing and allowing them can we begin to know them for what they are and actually start working with them. So, The practice of meditation is not the only tool that you can use, But it can be an incredible foundation to your practice as you move along in your own path to awakening.