The Path to Truth (Spiritual Development)

[Treasure Hunter]

Spiritual development is like a dance in which we have to lead. It's a process, and there are rules that need to be followed in order to progress.

Most people approach religion and spirituality with, and seek understanding through, the intellect. They read or listen, then think, and formulate their belief system. But the intellect is biased and can only get us to, at best, half-truths. The path to truth is navigated by way of realizations and insights. In order to become aware of these insights, we have to pay the price; we have to prove that we are worthy.

Have you ever tried to pick up something heavy, only to fail, then regroup, psych yourself up, and then succeed? Why didn't you give your best effort the first time? Why is there that need to psych ourselves up at all?

The reason is because our desire to avoid pain or relieve ourselves from pain is deeply ingrained in us. It is a fundamental part or our nature and controls us in ways we are often unaware of. We are inclined to sacrifice just about anything else before we are willing to sacrifice this pain avoidance impulse. However, this is the very thing that must be sacrificed in order to spiritually progress.

Spiritual development is about accessing and holding the right mindset -- more specifically accessing and holding the pain-state mindset. This is how faith is exercised and tested. It's how we show we are worthy. We all inherently know how to do this just as we all inherently know how to dig deep and give the better second effort when trying to lift that heavy object. The difficulty is not in accessing the pain mindset but in holding it faithfully. When weight lifting, you want to begin with an amount you can sustain and then gradually increase over time. Similarly, in spiritual development, you want to hold a level of pain that you can sustain and then gradually increase it.

Jesus didn't just teach people to pray; he said to fast and pray. Fasting invites pain into our consciousness through hunger. It's a good trainer for holding pain mindsets because it also requires sacrificing the pain-avoidance mechanism.

This is what spirituality is all about. It's about gradually bringing our consciousness to more and more of our pain, or about bringing light to the darkness. All the metaphysical realizations and insights about the nature of reality, the nature of mind and self, etc, are a byproduct of walking this path. As we progress, our awareness expands and transformation happens. It's a simple process, but like a rite of passage, its value comes from actually doing it.

 

[Jiddanand]

The Path to Truth. It's amazing.

 

[Windwalker]

Have you ever tried to pick up something heavy, only to fail, then regroup, psych yourself up, and then succeed? Why didn't you give your best effort the first time? Why is there that need to psych ourselves up at all?

It's not because they didn't give it their best effort at the time, it's because they may not have realized the nature of what it was they were trying to lift. Once they approached it with an amount of effort they estimated by sizing it up, they recalculated the required strength it would take and approached it again in order to be successful. This is 100% normal, and is not a lack of effort, but a matter of simply trial and error.

The reason is because our desire to avoid pain or relieve ourselves from pain is deeply ingrained in us.

No. If they were trying to avoid pain, they wouldn't have attempted to lift it in the first place. And that actually provides a good analogy for spiritual avoidance altogether.

It is a fundamental part or our nature and controls us in ways we are often unaware of. We are inclined to sacrifice just about anything else before we are willing to sacrifice this pain avoidance impulse. However, this is the very thing that must be sacrificed in order to spiritually progress.

I am with you on the fact that people avoid looking into the depths of spiritual growth because of fear. But it's a lot deeper than the fear of pain, even though that may be there. It's actually the fear of death that keeps them from opening the lid to the deep.

Spiritual development is about accessing and holding the right mindset -- more specifically accessing and holding the pain-state mindset.

I would say it firstly about holding the right "heartset", then through that, the mind understands and allows the heart its rightful voice in us. It is a matter of the will of the person overcoming the fear of the mind, to look within and uncover the things it fears, shames, guilt, self-condemnation and the like, and even death of self itself. What development is is when the mind understands these things about the heart and the soul and relaxes its domination over us to allow us to move as whole together in spiritual growth and development.

This is how faith is exercised and tested. It's how we show we are worthy.

Worthy to whom? The test we pass is that of us in conflict with ourselves. We overcome ourselves. All we are doing is listening to that within us which already exists beyond fear. The God above, is the God within.

We all inherently know how to do this just as we all inherently know how to dig deep and give the better second effort when trying to lift that heavy object.

I would agree. We already have the knowledge of God within us. Our conscious minds are what we block from seeing it with an array of distractions.

The difficulty is not in accessing the pain mindset but in holding it faithfully. When weight lifting, you want to begin with an amount you can sustain and then gradually increase over time. Similarly, in spiritual development, you want to hold a level of pain that you can sustain and then gradually increase it.

I get the analogy you are trying to make, but I disagree it's about holding pain. Rather it is about facing fear (of pain), moving beyond it and sustaining living in a place of Peace, free of fear and pain. The more we are able to sustain living this in ourselves, the more we live free of fear and pain in all things in our lives. This is spiritual growth and development.

Jesus didn't just teach people to pray; he said to fast and pray. Fasting invites pain into our consciousness through hunger. It's a good trainer for holding pain mindsets because it also requires sacrificing the pain-avoidance mechanism.

Be careful about saying there is a "right" way such as someone who learns that fasting worked for them, concluding it's "The Way" it's done. That's hardly true at all. It's as best one way someone found worked for them, one time, at one place in their life. There are many paths up the side of the mountain, and what may have worked once for you may not later again, and you find yourself dismayed because you think you're "not doing it right again", or something. As the Buddha wisely said, "To insist on a spiritual practice that has served you in the past, is to carry the raft upon your back after you have crossed the river".

The only injunction Jesus gave us was to "Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself". How one does the first part of that is very much individual, and tools and techniques as aides vary widely.

This is what spirituality is all about. It's about gradually bringing our consciousness to more and more of our pain, or about bringing light to the darkness.

Not exactly. Spiritual progress is about lessening pain brought about by our clinging to the things of the life we look to to find peace in ourselves. The pain is caused by grasping. Release is realized by letting go. It's not about being about to lift more pain. It's the exact opposite. It's about letting it go. It's about making all things weightless.

All the metaphysical realizations and insights about the nature of reality, the nature of mind and self, etc, are a byproduct of walking this path. As we progress, our awareness expands and transformation happens. It's a simple process, but like a rite of passage, its value comes from actually doing it.

I agree. We have to make an effort. But the real trick is making the effort to learn how to make no effort at all.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

I am with you on the fact that people avoid looking into the depths of spiritual growth because of fear. But it's a lot deeper than the fear of pain, even though that may be there. It's actually the fear of death that keeps them from opening the lid to the deep.

When I say pain-avoidance, I mean in the most general sense. I consider avoiding fear part of this category.

Worthy to whom? The test we pass is that of us in conflict with ourselves. We overcome ourselves. All we are doing is listening to that within us which already exists beyond fear. The God above, is the God within.

Expansions of awareness only happen once we turn inward and push through the resistance that is shielding us from our inner pain. The point is we have to act first; spiritual development doesn't just happen, even though it may seem that way because we haven't yet developed the clarity of how the process works. 'Showing we are worthy' is just a way of conceptualizing this.

Be careful about saying there is a "right" way such as someone who learns that fasting worked for them, concluding it's "The Way" it's done. That's hardly true at all. It's as best one way someone found worked for them, one time, at one place in their life. There are many paths up the side of the mountain, and what may have worked once for you may not later again, and you find yourself dismayed because you think you're "not doing it right again", or something. As the Buddha wisely said, "To insist on a spiritual practice that has served you in the past, is to carry the raft upon your back after you have crossed the river".

It's just an example. I don't use fasting, but it was a common religious teaching in the past and so I was attempting to clarify its purpose. There is only one path, which must involve confronting our pain. Now, you can say there are many different ways we can prepare ourselves to walk this path, but there is only one way to spiritual development. Of course, there are countless different ways we can describe the path.

Not exactly. Spiritual progress is about lessening pain brought about by our clinging to the things of the life we look to to find peace in ourselves. The pain is caused by grasping. Release is realized by letting go. It's not about being about to lift more pain. It's the exact opposite. It's about letting it go. It's about making all things weightless.


I agree. We have to make an effort. But the real trick is making the effort to learn how to make no effort at all.

This is an appealing and more common perspective, but it is deception. The ego is very effective in the way it controls us, using our thoughts and emotions against us. Engagement will almost always be less popular in our minds than escapism. This is why we often need to experience suffering prior to any spiritual progress, to act as that negative motivator in order to engage.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Windwalker]

Expansions of awareness only happen once we turn inward and push through the resistance that is shielding us from our inner pain. The point is we have to act first; spiritual development doesn't just happen, even though it may seem that way because we haven't yet developed the clarity of how the process works. 'Showing we are worthy' is just a way of conceptualizing this.

Sure. I was hoping to hear that understanding. It's like saying we are purifying ourselves. It's all language to to try to describe the process. It's obvious to me that you are speaking of experiences encountered within meditation, the inner path. I agree in principle with how you are describing it, but from my own experience I think it goes deeper than pain. I think existential dread is more accurate, and that is a lot more, a lot deeper than facing pain. Facing pain is the first doorway, in my experience. I'm happy to elaborate more, but I'll say I do think you are on-track with what you are saying.

It's just an example. I don't use fasting, but it was a common religious teaching in the past and so I was attempting to clarify its purpose. There is only one path, which must involve confronting our pain.

Let me try to explain it this way. Typically our pain is located at the psychological and emotional levels. I do completely agree with you that that indeed must be exposed and made friends with in ourselves in order to begin to progress in our spiritual paths. That's the first doorway, as I see it. If you can't confront yourself as you are, in the whole package deal including pain, then you haven't begun to really move beyond self-identification with those things.

What I just said there is key to this. As you hold the pain, deep in you, buried, suppressed, denied, ignored, etc, then you are still in fact embedded within them. You are not free from them. Your self-identity is stuck in them subsequently. And the shift of the center of gravity of our self-identification is what in fact marks our spiritual growth. Without facing that first hurdle and making peace with it, you cannot move further without the risk of deeper and deeper repressions.

This is an appealing and more common perspective, but it is deception. The ego is very effective in the way it controls us, using our thoughts and emotions against us. Engagement will almost always be less popular in our minds than escapism.

If you are interpreting what I said as escapism, then you truly do not understand what I said. As I've been saying, what finally happens, rather begins to happen is that as we move face-on into these things we avoid, we find that the avoidance itself is what gave it all its power, it's hold, and the sheer weight of it itself. We made it heavy. When I say true progress is made, is when we take what is seen as our enemy and make it part of ourselves and have peace with it in ourselves. It is no longer heavy. We no longer let it burden us. It is not longer our enemy. That's not escapism. That's overcoming it, through confronting the devil in battle, so to speak. The war is won, not by kicking it out, but by disarming it and making friends with it, making friends with ourselves.

Again, this is the first step. It becomes foundational for all that follows in the infinite layers of the infinite onion that we peel back in the inner path, layer, after layer, after layer. What you are describing is a foundational step, but it's much more than this.

This is why we often need to experience suffering prior to any spiritual progress, to act as that negative motivator in order to engage.

Ah! I think I see here! What you are describing is a result of our normal avoidance, leading us to points of existential crisis! I understand that. But here's my point. If you rely on that, it's really becomes a matter of randomly bumping into the wall to create points of crisis for yourself in order to gain any realization at all. I find that approach haphazard, to say the least.

Let me share a quote I heard from some Zen teacher once. He said in effect, "Enlightenment happens by accident, but meditation makes you accident prone". I very much agree with that. Meditation practice puts you deliberately in the path of being struck by lightning. Meditation is like intense psychotherapy. But again, that's the first door. And to add, it's a door you will find yourself coming back around to again and again in your development.