Why Do You Follow Your Spiritual Path?

[Bruce]

As a follow-on to ThisLife's topic of repeatable spiritual paths, I thought it might be interesting to ask why you follow the path you've chosen. I wrote my answer a few minutes ago in my blog. You can find it here:

 

Bruce's Blog

 

Keep in mind that there are no correct answers to this question, IMO. We all have our reasons. If this has been done before, I apologize.

 

Cheers,

Bruce

Edited February 18, 2009 by Bruce

[Aetherous]

I follow my spiritual path because it's necessary to follow through with what you start. It's who I am now, and I might as well finish it. Plus it can be very interesting...not many people experience these things, so it's kind of an honor to be able to be part of this.

 

I don't have the same umph I once had about reaching enlightenment. I think there are more important things in life to take care of, before you take care of that. Like the dishes. Think about this: if everyone were born enlightened, what would we do? So I'm just doing that.

 

I still pursue things intensely because that's how I've trained myself to be over the years...but on the inside there's this feeling of "who cares". I guess that could either be seen as sad, or somewhat of a blessing.

[Bruce]

A very sincere and honest answer Scotty. Thanks!

[WhiteTiger]

I hope their would be more then one reason why one follows their spiritual path.

 

I'm sure as people grow... develop... get better their reason changes and it gets deeper and deeper. Hopefully until words can really not describe it at all. (an experience that is indescribable)

 

As for me right now a lot of my current motivation is to practice to end my suffering.

 

Although, currently I wish to get back on the route when I practiced things that were indescribable.

[NeutralWire]

I do it because of my belief that we all must develop spiritually, so why not put some effort into it, because it has improved my life so much, and because I love it! NW

[forestofsouls]

To end suffering and be able to help others.

[mYTHmAKER]

What else is there to do

[rookie]

I have no choice.

 

It is pretty cool to find others with similar answers.

 

I will add that if I take a hiatus for a while, with various diversions, they play right in.

[Ya Mu]

Because that is what I decided to do before I came to the earth?

 

Because my Higher Level self puts me straight back on every time I have tried to deviate and sometimes the lessons were not fun? Because I really learned from those not-so-fun lessons?

 

Because I am going to play in a heavy metal rock band saturday night? (really)

 

Because I can't fathom anything else?

 

Because it is what it is?

[goldisheavy]

Because I am not happy with what's currently manifesting and seek to change it. I don't seek to end all suffering or anything like that. I seek to discover a way to live an empowered life that's open horizon to horizon, unshackled by anything whatsoever, be it laws of physics or other people's feelings/expectations/ignorance. Among other things I seek deep deep rest for a long time. I need a billion year vacation. Nothing less will do. I am just that tired.

[Adj]

To eat Oreos without guilt.

[bindo]

What else is there to do

Best answer so far!

 

Doing the dishes should be just as much a part of your spiritual practice as meditation, or chanting, or whatever...

 

Doing the dishes qigong

In just a minute I will be doing "brushing my teeth Qigong". Followed by "Go to Bed Qigong".

[the buddha & the beast]

looking back, i think a lot of the way i've lived has to do with going against people's morals that i think are just lace. and i've done lots of things like that...been homeless, been polyamorous, messed with gender, had an "unusual" sexual orientation, and went to tons of churches only to learn more about what i do not believe...& what i do. while i was homeless, i actually got a tattoo that says "on this path, i am home." to me it means that even though i follow a path that has different values from others, it is full of values that mean everything to me...& it teaches me more about my values every day.

[Spiritual_Aspirant]

1. To achieve enlightenment

2. To help others achieve enlightenment.

[minkus]

One day it yust happend !! Im still stuck with it now dragging my spiritual path with me everywhere i go. Sometimes i drop it and cant find it anymore and sometimes it drops me and again i cant find it anymore but at the end we always come back togheter whatever we do

 

Im trying to follow it most often but sometimes it goes to quickly, one of those moments i loose it again mostly.

 

Its not bad loosing your spiritual path, many people get frustrated but it has no use .. loosing is part of it and makes you even happier when you find it again

 

I think it must have to do something with pastlife issues but i wasnt there so how would i know. Well i was there but i cant remember like leaving one night to a bar around the corner and waking up on the other side of the country not knowing what happend and how you got there. There are hints yeh but pretty vague.

 

When i look deep down inside and think way back i know its always been there. The fundamentals, the bricks, the core, the essence is there and being build upon whole that time.

 

Sometimes you dont see it yourself but then suddenly ping .. something or someone reminds you .. and you fall right back to that essence you thought dissapeared long time ago.

 

Enough rambling for today, enjoy your day, enjoy your life, enjoy your path and dont worry about why, when, where and who.

 

Cheers !

[mat black]

Because that is what I decided to do before I came to the earth?

 

Because my Higher Level self puts me straight back on every time I have tried to deviate and sometimes the lessons were not fun? Because I really learned from those not-so-fun lessons?

 

Because I am going to play in a heavy metal rock band saturday night? (really)

 

Because I can't fathom anything else?

 

Because it is what it is?

Yes, I agree and empathise

 

 

Simply put, this is the best reason, the Bodhisattva intent

To end suffering and be able to help others.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2009 by mat black

[Bruce]

One day it yust happend !! Im still stuck with it now dragging my spiritual path with me everywhere i go. Sometimes i drop it and cant find it anymore and sometimes it drops me and again i cant find it anymore but at the end we always come back togheter whatever we do

 

Im trying to follow it most often but sometimes it goes to quickly, one of those moments i loose it again mostly.

 

Its not bad loosing your spiritual path, many people get frustrated but it has no use .. loosing is part of it and makes you even happier when you find it again

 

I think it must have to do something with pastlife issues but i wasnt there so how would i know. Well i was there but i cant remember like leaving one night to a bar around the corner and waking up on the other side of the country not knowing what happend and how you got there. There are hints yeh but pretty vague.

 

When i look deep down inside and think way back i know its always been there. The fundamentals, the bricks, the core, the essence is there and being build upon whole that time.

 

Sometimes you dont see it yourself but then suddenly ping .. something or someone reminds you .. and you fall right back to that essence you thought dissapeared long time ago.

 

Enough rambling for today, enjoy your day, enjoy your life, enjoy your path and dont worry about why, when, where and who.

 

Cheers !

 

I love it!

 

Thanks for your answers guys!

[DaoChild]

Because I have to. If I don't I can't feel complete, and I am haunted in my dreams and my life until I return to being a spiritual human being.

[ThisLife]

As a follow-on to ThisLife's topic of repeatable spiritual paths, I thought it might be interesting to ask why you follow the path you've chosen. I wrote my answer a few minutes ago in my blog. You can find it here:

 

Bruce's Blog

 

Keep in mind that there are no correct answers to this question, IMO. We all have our reasons. If this has been done before, I apologize.

 

Cheers,

Bruce

 

I just stumbled onto this thread a few minutes ago. Like so many things in my life,... I somehow missed the boat the first time round. Nevertheless, I guess being asleep at the switch does have it's advantages sometimes,....I got to read eighteen truly fascinating replies. That experience I found not only reassuring through reading the sincerity with which the contributors' stories were put,...but also refreshing in making me aware of what a wide range of paths and reasons for practice are out there. I have a real problem living in my own head too much of the time. Not having a 'sangha' to share my religious yearnings with at present, plus with my current employment situation, I have too much spare time on my hands. The combination can send me into periodic spirals of introspection as I get too focussed on navel-gazing my own spiritual path.

 

So, why do I follow the path I'm on ? Hmmmm,...

 

It seems to me that I have no choice. I think this is just the way I was built. Almost none of my friends are interested in this kind of stuff, and I can't say that it has brought me any more happiness and fulfillment than many of the people I see around me. I'm actually quite amazed how many good and kind-hearted people I keep seeing around me who have no interest whatsoever in spiritual enquiry. This I find particularly insightful,.... because I've fairly recently come out of a twenty year involvement with a Buddhist organisation here in England. We were taught, (and somehow came to internalise), that we just happened to have hit the spiritual jackpot ! Through merit created in our previous lives, we had found the ONE TRUE PATH to liberation !! Yet, it still feels like a different form of 'awakening' when I come across more simple acts of kindness from a taxi driver or our village postman, than I ever saw in many of the long-time practitioners of Highest Yoga Tantra at our centre who were so convinced that they had found the fast track to Enlightenment,

 

I believed the propaganda, too. Cults are a very insidious thing. I never in my wildest imaginations thought I would end up falling into one.

 

But now, a year and a half down the road, the experience has left me with a revised and updated philosophy of life. Once the hurt feelings and wounded pride have thankfully subsided, I now see the whole thing as a seamless part of the same path. The Buddhism, the sequence of beliefs I held before it came along, and the philosophy I believe in now,.... all seem simply like different 'action scenes' in the same film strip. The film strip is my life. It's already sitting there in its entirety, in the can, but requires time to play it out. Right now there's a frame happening where I am sitting in a chair and hitting these keys on my computer keyboard. As usual, our over-large cat is purring happily on my lap as I type this. I can't say for certain what will happen in the next frame, but the faith I have gained from previous similar experiences leads me to believe that it may well be bed.

 

I sometimes think this entire spiritual seeking phenomenon is simply a problem unique to human beings, caused by the unhappy method human minds are hard-wired. We almost universally have a sense of 'separation' from Life and all other living beings,... and are trying every method under the sun to try and find our way back to Unity with God, Life, the Cosmos, Nirvana, the Tao, etc. Even the practice of 'no-method' often requires sitting rigidly on a cushion staring at a wall for, sometimes, half a lifetime ! You couldn't find an animal on this planet who would engage in such self-torture for the dubious goal of realising where he already is.

 

I don't think my cat suffers from this problem. He's got a much better hard-wiring system.

 

Maybe that sense of 'separation' is simply an illusion, and all this spiritual seeking is like a fish swimming around in the ocean searching for that magical elixir of life he's heard so much about but never been able to 'see', called,..."water".

 

Nevertheless,... here I sit, as much involved in that pursuit as anyone else in this vast, (but logically incomprehensible) congregation who are compelled to follow the inner demands of this spiritual quest. In answer to the question which started off this thread, that seems to me the reason that I do what I do. It's simply the way I'm hard-wired.

 

 

 

ThisLife

 

 

.

Edited February 24, 2009 by ThisLife

[innerspace_cadet]

I do it because worrying about the future or dwelling in the past blinds me to the here and now, and because attachment can cause so much unnecessary suffering.

[Sloppy Zhang]

To be honest.... I don't really know

 

I started out with pretty selfish and lame reasons, but those have mostly fallen away....

 

But I keep walking

[Fu_dog]

I've tried other approaches, however, I've found the only path to sanity is spiritual.

[Cameron]

It's hard for me to pin it down. I remember reading a Zen story about a person who thought they had lost there head. They became very worried looking everywhere for there head. Searching all around and asking other's "Have you seen my head?" only of course to finally realize his head was where it had been all along.

 

For me, the search has been something like that. The idea that I had lost my own head somewhere and like a Bull in a China Shop going from one teacher to another trying to find it.

 

To me the goal is find the teacher or teaching that finally shows you that your head is where it has always been. They "stop" you. The search is over and your back where you started from.

 

Of course that's easy to say and hard to realize. Ultimately it feels like the thing to do. But sometimes I am jealous of those who don't care about things like enlightenment or spirituality. Maybe they are lucky

Edited February 23, 2009 by Cameron

[Bruce]

I love that story, Cameron! It really nails the message of Zen Buddhism for me.

 

As ThisLife said, there are so many people who readily give of themselves in this world, yet seemingly have no real interest in this spirituality thing. Just minutes ago, I stepped out of the front door to walk up the hill and drop a letter in the post box. A neighhour just happened to be walking by, moving slowly in her "older age". She said, "I'm going that way. I'll take it for you." It was nothing really, yet it was everything. A smile, a selfless gesture, and from someone who has a much harder time walking up the hill than I do. And like ThisLife, I often see much more of that "selflessness" in public, in our little village even, than I ever did within the religious organizations I've been a part of, where many only put on the face of spirituality.

 

Maybe the Buddhas and Boddhisatvas are everywhere, ready to teach, if only we will open our eyes enough to see them. Maybe the Buddha fields are right here in front of us, and when we stop looking for our lost heads and realize they were always here we will see them.

 

Thank you everyone for your stories,

Bruce

[Cameron]