There are many spiritual paths – some traditional, some modern, and some a combination of both. Whichever you choose and whenever you choose it, there comes a time when you must commit, if you are intent on getting somewhere. If your chosen spiritual path and method is not working for you, look around. Probably nearer than you think is your true path looking you straight in the eye.

You will be in good company. Shakyamuni was Hindu before he became the Buddha, Jesus was a Jew (or a Judean), and the Trappist monk Thomas Merton nearly converted to Zen before he died. If you are prevaricating on your present chosen path, perhaps you should give it a go with all of your heart before you abandon it. Whatever you do my advice is to let your heart choose, not your head, out of a genuine call and impulse toward awakening and the Divine.

Today people mix and match all too readily. From crass remarks like, “I’m into that eastern stuff,” to outright confusion about Hinduism and Buddhism, ACIM and Christianity, or psycho-spiritual psychotherapy and psychiatric medicine the tendency is to jam the tastes of several approaches together and present the finished form as fact rather than a demonstration of limited knowledge.

There is much to learn if you are inclined to find out and be informed, but it is not absolutely essential that a spiritual aspirant does this. What is essential is that the teacher, the teaching, and the practice are engaged with fully and loved passionately. You cannot – not merely should not – be spiritually promiscuous; not if you are serious. The spiritual relationship is by far the most important focus for your loyalty.

A genuine commitment entered into fully brings immediate results. First, relief – amazing relief –  because you are no longer seeking, only ready to work and deepen and get there, with no resistance anymore and no license to delay.

Second, overwhelming energetic engagement, a positive attitude since you have found your way and the energy is released in you which enables you to follow it with guidance and trust.

Third, the choice and the way, which in no way must match your individual preferences, at least not as you expected, present you with the most confronting ego-challenges and release you into profound freedom.

Finally, your character is exaggerated sometimes painfully; it is as if you have become transparent and seen, which brings with it such positive as well as negative exposure.

Relief, energetic engagement, ego-challenges, and character exaggeration are the signs that you have found your spiritual path. The path comprises the three treasures that lead to liberation: the teacher, the teaching, and the practice. Treasure them. They will lead you to the Eternal.

BLOG entry #50

You bring an issue, a difficulty, a problem to your inner work, and perhaps to your therapist or counselor. You discover the deep historical root of the problem, the course of the pattern of action and reaction in your early life. As a child you discovered a way to deal with early-life challenges and difficulties. This way was repeated until it became time-tried and tested, and dependable. Other strategies for coping, overcoming, and meeting life-problems were added until you possessed a reliable set of resources. These strategies and resources became automatic -- default settings you could depend on for your ongoing protection and to ensure your continued well-being.

The problem now is that the very strategies that protected you now limit you. The restrictions they place on your life mean that you do not thrive, expand, grow, or develop in ways that are natural and life-enhancing. You are stunted in your life, in your relationships, in the enjoyment and satisfaction of your very existence.

Your therapist and/or perhaps your own inner wisdom counsels you to pull up this pattern at the root. You have to entirely eradicate it. You can only do that by digging. You have to get to the very bottom, to the point where the root receives its nourishment, the life that sustains it.

How do you do it?

You can practice and the healing therapy practices include: therapy note-book in which you write out anecdotes, make associations, recall relevant times and periods from your early life, connect events, for example the first time anything like the present difficulty appeared in your life. You may dialog with the relevant protagonists -- people like parents, friends, teachers, relatives, family acquaintances, members of your extended family. If any of these people are part of the narrative unfolding around the issue at hand, take a pen and paper, close your eyes, and talk with them. Tell them your intention to explore, to discover, and to resolve overdue issues that arise and re-arise in your life to urge you to complete the unfinished business inherent in them.

Draw, write -- pictures, words, illustrations. Illustrate your anecdotes, make diagrams, and abstract pictures. Paint, use wax crayons for expression, be creative, compose poetry, dance the rhythm of life, in movement, singing, make models, create altars, discover rituals, and inventive expression of all kinds. Discover and practice creative ways to release your emotions, thoughts, feelings, tensions, holdings, and frozenness. To give form to inner experience is to release the hold that inner reaction and defensiveness have on you. You will begin to feel more free, more loose, and less burdened.

Keep expressing, keep putting it out onto paper, into the air, into your notebook, your drawing book, giving form to the invisible. Drawing, writing, body work, movement and dancing -- expressing in every way that feels right for you.

All these activities and more will help. But they will be all the more potent and effective if they are done within the context of therapy or counseling with a skilled practitioner. The therapist is able to reflect on the inner exploration with you, to be present sometimes when it is happening, to conduct you through the process, and crucially to facilitate the integration and stabilization of your insights and breakthroughs.

Ultimately the aspect of therapy that really counts is the relationship -- the healing relationship itself -- and the alchemical and catalytic aspects of healing therapy that are inherent in the therapeutic encounter.

All of this, and more, may be summarized in three words, which describe the process of change that takes place in us when we truly remove the very source of an inner pattern by severing it at the root. Those three words, or sequential stages, are Awareness, Acceptance, and Change.

Deepening in awareness of the usually unconscious patterning and defensive strategies, we begin to see the whole figure, the entire structure of the character defenses at the center of our default protection. Gradually, through deepening awareness, we reach a place in ourselves where we are able to see clearly and transparently our reactive behavior in all its fine detail and complexity.

Accepting it as it is, we may be able to see too how wise and effective the strategy of defensive behavior has been for us in early life. We begin to understand the history of our protection: how it worked so well and protected and saved us, and conversely how it is now outmoded and restricting -- our angels have become our jailers.

When this knowledge is held clearly and transparently in our awareness, we wait. We are ready after all -- more than we have ever been before -- to change. Yet we may not hurry the process, which is natural and true and clear, to unfold in us. We enter into a profound period of waiting in which we deepen in our inner world. Then something quite unexpected happens. Grace falls upon us like a Divine gift. This gift is the intercession of the last missing ingredient and it is beyond our power to either hurry it or manifest it. It occurs in our full surrender to circumstances just as they are.

Grace ushers in the changing. Change most certainly occurs, but remember always that it is most certainly a more circumvoluted and intense experience than you can foresee.

So here are the basic ingredients for changing your life. Other ways are proposed of course. They include shamanism, meditation, pharmaceuticals, and acts of will or self-manipulation. However, the preeminent way to self-understanding, emotional release and personal transformation is through consistently applied awareness with a trusted and skilled guide and inviting the mysteries of grace through surrender. Within us are powerful forces for change and transformation. Rely on them, discover them, learn to trust their presence in your life.

BLOG entry #49

Once I asked my Master, "What is the difference between you and me?" And he replied, “Hafiz, only this. If a herd of wild buffalo broke into our house and knocked over our empty begging bowls not a drop would spill from yours. But there is Something Invisible that the Divine has placed in mine. If that spilled from my bowl, it could drown this whole world." ~  Hafiz de Shiraz

The words of the masters have reverberated down through time. Yet the prattling of inferior teachers and the static of anxiety and anger tempts us with its superficial display.

When I was a young man I instinctively withdrew from adult society at parties and events and went off to play with the children, attracted by their spontaneity and high, bright energy. An old friend of mine used to say how she loved to walk through the squalor and degradation of Soho in London in the Seventies, because it was so full of energy and vibrancy. In Bombay, again in my youth, I looked at the meagre amount of rupees I held in my hand. I had two weeks left before my plane departed. My choice was a trip to the Taj Mahal and others sights or sitting quietly in the ashram—I chose the ashram.

The world of inner depth and meaning calls to some of us. While the world of outward experience and brief excitement calls to others. No right or wrong.

People complain that they feel anxious and insecure in their emotional, relational existence and when they turn to the spiritual there is even less or no security at all. They follow the route of compromise, the false-middle way, which cleaves to the worldly life, while retaining a nod in the spiritual direction. I can have both, they cry!

You cannot have both. I have written about, spoken about, lectured, and taught the way of Sacred Attention. In Sacred Attention we do not bargain, we do not compromise, we do not haggle or barter. We listen and we discern what is the truth and we accept the way in its incomprehensible, mysterious wisdom and unfolding.

Follow not just any way and certainly not the way of your or anyone else's choosing. Follow the true way. Follow the true way and you will give yourself, your fears, your anxiety, your need for security, fulfilment, or love into the hands of the Divine and it will be fulfilled to your heart's deep satisfaction.  Your bowl will be filled with Something Invisible that could drown this whole world.

BLOG entry #48

PART III: Desert

Idealism and Food Fadism

Do not be idealistic about your diet. Balance and simplicity in diet should not be dictated by opinions without theoretical and experiential backing. Neither should we succumb to food fads or fashionable ideas about what we should and should not eat.

For those of us with medical conditions an appropriate diet may fall short of our ideals or even our preferences.

Food Metaphors

Food of course is also a metaphor. Notice how many food and eating-related phrases we use to indicate some emotional state. We feel consumed, absorbed, fed up; we feel sick of something or someone; we feel it 'in our guts' or we have had a stomaceful. Food is central, food is ubiquitous, and food is a constant source of reference and expression in our lives.

Spiritual Teachers and Inconsistency

Just a brief note to cooks: the most inspiring message about food preparation and cooking, which I have copied into the inside cover of my cook book, is from Dogen Zenji -- the Zen Cook looks after the food as he cares for his own eyesight. In the monastery the chief cook is considered the most important role. She or he is responsible for the psycho-physical well-being of the monks and their attention to this ceremony of divine alchemy is taken profoundly seriously.

However, as in other matters, do not expect consistency in the matter of diet from spiritual teachers. While many have favored a rigorous and disciplined dietary regime, others have seemed to ignore or even contradict their own advice. G I Gurdjieff taught sometimes through overindulgence in food and drink. Anandamayee Ma performed extraordinary feats of ingesting inhuman quantities of food. Nisargadatta was famously (infamously?) chain smoking, even through his satsangs.

Living in This Present Single Eternal Moment

"The whole universe of moving and unmoving creation" that Yashoda sees in Krishna's mouth reminds us: right at the start of our lives we instinctively reached outward to place the breast in our mouths for sustenance. For the entire rest of our lives we sought food and nourishment in all kinds of ways -- tactile, aural, energetic, psychological, social, spiritual, and through eating. At the end of our lives the mouth becomes slack, our lips part and the mouth falls open -- the appetite for food, drink, sex, and any outward stimulation long passed, as we enter the portal of bodily death.

We 'take in' from the world to feed our senses, to stimulate our energetic body, and to nourish the organism. Yet we too are food, just as other forms of creation are food. Our children eat from us as we give them our love, our toil, our caring, and our responsibility and duty to provide for them. Our partners feed from us emotionally, energetically, and spiritually. Our families include us in their cycle of replenishment and nourishment, as do our social circle too. In a very real sense everything is eating everything else!

So, in the final analysis, let us say that the role of eating and food in diet, in spirituality, is simply this: that along with everything else arising or not arising in the relative world, all our activities, all benefits we accrue in this world, and all our relationships, expressions of love, laughter, suffering, pain and joy is consecrated in our awareness and through the Divine consciousness to our ultimate illumination, to our dedicating our lives to the Divine Source, and living as One in the Divine person in this Present single moment of the Eternal.

(With thanks to Sabrina Vromen)

BLOG entry #47

PART II: Main Meal

Experimenting with Diet

Over time experiment and see what happens with fasting, eliminating meat from your diet, likewise eggs and cheese, wheat, and sugar. Consider what amount is sufficient for your needs, for your stomach and well-being (almost always far less food than you imagine). Try experiencing meals where you stop eating before you feel full. Tolerate hunger and see what insights it yields.

Notice your addiction to experience, to distraction, to eating as entertainment around food and the satisfaction and fulfillment you may experience from eating itself.

Now spiritually you may move gradually, slowly, and intentionally toward a more pure, more nutritious, more wholesome and balanced diet. Eating can be a sacrament and spiritually -- leading the sacred-spiritual life -- this is how it should be conducted. Eat mindfully, intelligently, with great awareness. Avoid over-stimulating foods.

Conscious Eating

Eating consciously is much more important than what you eat. For example, although Buddhists are popularly thought to be vegetarian, the instructions of the Buddha were for his monks to accept whatever they were given to eat and not reject the food that was offered to them.

This was the experience of a friend of mine in his days as a Theravadin Buddhist monk in Burma. One day he was among the monks as they ventured into the town with their begging bowls. Some American tourists happened to be there and they placed a portion of Kentucky Fred Chicken in each of the monks' bowls. My friend was unsure about how to proceed until he looked round to see the other monks eating the chicken and he followed their example.

So this is one of the principles of eating and diet in spirituality: do not be enslaved to ideals. Establish positive good intentions, but be prepared to adapt and modify your dietary practice when necessary.

A Moderate Diet

You should strive for a moderate diet, paying attention to quantity and quality. Spiritual practice is aimed toward self-realization, so do not let your food intake become burdensome to your body or enslave your mind.

The optimum diet therefore is vegetarian. Fruits, seeds and nuts, sprouts, greens and grasses, vegetables, legumes and grains, all in moderate amounts. You should minimize or eliminate social habits like alcohol intake, tobacco, and social-recreational drug-taking, as well as stimulants like tea and coffee. Junk food and fast food should be entirely removed from your diet.

How to Eat

When you sit down to eat, feel composed and peaceful, not rushed, but relaxed and receptive. In this equanimous mood you will avoid associating eating with consolation and comfort, since you will already be at rest in your being. Nothing about eating should be careless. Preparations for mealtimes should be a discipline of awareness. Always chew your present mouthful of food thoroughly and allow your conscious awareness of ingestion, chewing, and the other digestive processes.

Breathe steadily and fully as you eat. Don't rush, but neither overindulge -- the way is through the middle. Satisfy yourself, but do not overeat. Over time become used to the feeling of satisfaction without being overfull.

Negative Stimulation

Certain foods incite desire, internal restlessness, or negative states. Try to identify them in your individual case. Then free your energy and cultivate fresh, healthy habits by eating a sufficient amount of natural, fresh, wholesome foods that are purifying for your body.

We seek stimulation in many ways, including food and through imbalance and overindulgence in diet. We may sometimes eat to avoid discomfort, boredom, or uncomfortable mental-emotional states. Spiritual practice brings us to a deep confrontation with distractions of all kinds. This how, why, what, and when we eat are all subjects of examination, exploration, and transcendence for us in spiritual life in order to discover the source of negative tendencies rather than flee from their symptoms.

Changing Your Diet

Alterations in diet should be gradual and well thought out. There is no absolute right diet for everybody. Your individual needs and state of heath must be considered, through gentle and informed guidance.

Do not rush changes in diet. Extreme and swift changes are likely to induce a backlash of some kind and are therefore counterproductive. So don't force or coerce yourself. Instead be gentle and gradual. Blood, tissue, and cellular changes after purification lead to regeneration of the entire organism and these processes cannot be hurried.

Your spiritual practice should be an aid in your conversion to a good diet. Let the adaptation of your dietary regime be integrated into your overall sadhana as part of your commitment to a sacred-spiritual life.

BLOG entry #46