Living The Teachings - Reflections On Life
Summary - I can’t describe the feeling I had after reading Lasse’s latest article (a little hint, this one
), but I’ll try. It’s incredibly honest, I felt very present, when I read it, because it’s one of those articles that just shakes you right back to this moment. Lasse says that being spiritual is not a mental thing, it’s not an idea, a meditation position or a breathing technique, you are a spiritual being and you don’t need any methods to become spiritual, because you have always been one. Lasse is currently working on his project Towards Peace, and you can read more about him here.
I’ve been going through much reflection recently. I have found that life is a strange thing, no matter how much we try to grasp life; it always slips away just when we think we have figured it out.
No matter how many spiritual ideas or concepts we study, life still works the same way. We can pretend to be more or less evolved as spiritual beings, and sit in meditation for many hours a day, but with what purpose?
In time we come to realize that none of our spiritual teachings works at all. We can struggle ever so much with refining our meditation posture or our breath. We can know that we are the embodiment of love, but if our understanding is just an idea in our head then it is just as worthless as the piece of paper I am writing this article on.
The first step to knowing is to understand, and most people get stuck here. If we don’t manage to get our new spiritual idea down at heart-level it’s useless.
Why?
When we are exposed to reality it will often challenge our beliefs in such a way that it is hard to hold on to them in the situation. We know that we are love, but when our beloved one is pushing the right buttons, we get furious and out of control. First we get mad at our beloved, and then anger turns into fear. We remember the idea that everything is love and we have failed to honour this idea. So either we give up our spiritual search or we intensity it, we read more ideas about love. We try to reinforce this idea. Every time we think we have it life throws something new at us, push our buttons from a different angle.
Then we might start to avoid those situations. We start to hide in our ivory tower, fortifying ourselves. We close down, even though we wish we could live with an open heart and the willingness to love people, no matter what their faults might be. Instead we choose to close ourselves up and start living the idea that we are open, but we are only fooling ourselves. Slowly we creep into the world of ideas, we read more books. We find friends who don’t challenge our ideas, but reinforce them.
We start to degenerate and feel frailer inside our great “spiritual shield”. We use great amounts of energy to uphold this shield and the illusion that we are evolved spiritual beings. We think we are living in accordance with some truth, but in reality we are not. We are living in the shadow land of truth. God knows it is much easier to live there, in the shadows; everything is easier, no real battles, not real scares, and no real challenges. We faithfully listen to our inner voice whispering “you are doing great”. We ignore the heavy lump in our stomach, that feeling of heaviness in the body, the stiffness of energy we go about with.
Spirituality is all about living it, and listening to what our bodies tells us.
Out of touch with ourselves
What I have found is that listening is one of the greatest keys to spiritual understanding. The Native American Indians spend a lot of time listening to nature. A woman who has lived among the Indians told me that she had spend seven years in silence when she started to learn from them.
She just listened, and when she wanted to say something she reflected on what she was going to say, and if it wasn’t according to truth she would keep quiet.
Most people today just want to hear themselves speak; we hardly listen to anyone at all, not even our own voice inside. We are busy drowning the silence in noise, because we are afraid to discover that we are alone. This is what you discover at first, then after some time you find comfort in the silence, the deeper you listen the more balanced you get.
I think that the more we listen the more we begin to know.
What is it that we begin to know?
Frankly I can’t express it in words, it is beyond words, and it is beyond meditation techniques. All it takes is to turn off the computer and mobile and sit down wherever you wish and start to listen. First we listen to the sounds around us, and then we delicately shift our attention to the inside and just sit there for as long as you like.
Everything around us is teaching us something
Most spiritual teachers say that every moment in life is an opportunity to awaken to truth, and they are right, we are just now aware of the possibility. Modern man doesn’t have the time to retreat to a monastery or a temple and sit there in silence until he awakens to truth. We are surrounded by people all the time and we interact in different relationships with people in various forms throughout the day, so why not use this opportunity. See all interactions with people as a form of Satsang. Satsang is an Indian term which means “an invitation to being”. So start to look at people as an invitation to be right there with them in that moment. Suspend all judgement and notions of right and wrong. Just try to grasp the raw experience of now.
One of my teachers told me that I was too much up in my head, and suddenly I realized that she might be right. I also discovered that being in our heads analyzing are also, in an odd way a form of love, just frozen. Like water has many forms, frozen, flowing, and gaseous and so on, such has love many ways of manifesting itself around us. In some people love is flowing like a river. We can feel it when we are in contact with them. In other people it is stuck, up in their heads; they have failed to bring the flow down to heart level. When we meet these people we should show compassion. This is the part I, find most challenging. Because these people push our buttons and challenge us, and instead of seeing them as bad, we need to suspend our judgement and see them as people where love has become frozen. This will open up our own hearts even more and make us more receptive to ourselves and other people.
I have come to realize over the past couple of days that spirituality is really not a complex entity after all. It is just a matter of introducing a few simple keys into ones life. Keys that help to free the compassionate beings that are stuck behind our frozen social masks imposed to us by society and our upbringing. I have also realized that I need to know much more before I can teach anyone anything. I will spend more time listening to myself from now on, and celebrate life more than I have done. It is not that difficult to live after all.
Great article!
Thanks a lot for the comment Daniel. I am glad that you think it is great.
Let me know if any of you have any topics you want me to address in future articles.
Kind regards
Lasse Petersen
I loved the article…
I want to know more about love and the different forms it might take. It could become a great article
” It is just a matter of introducing a few simple keys into ones life.”
Also reading more about these simple keys could be great.
much love
Peter
Interesting topics Peter, it could be great to see some blog posts about those two ideas.
I’ll soon be a lot more active, I’m currently working on some new initiatives for Happiness.
And thanks for all the comments, take care