Can you remember what was it that brought you to spirituality in the first place? What were you searching for then, burning to solve, trying to change? How sure were you that, from that moment on, your life will only be getting better?
What if when you came, for the very first time, to your spiritual teacher-to-be they told you that there is one thing you can be certain of if you genuinely start on the path.
It is that your life, as you know it, will fall apart. You will lose everything you believe in.
The projects you are passionate about will become empty of meaning. The life as you know it now, and as everyone you know knows it, will stop making any sense.
People you spend time with will cease to understand you. You will have to, most likely, find new friends.
What would you have done – stayed, or run away?
It seems sometimes – even usually – that this message gets lost somewhere. Perhaps not spoken, or simply not believed.
The details of the misery differ, of course, but don’t grasp at straws.
Does it have to be this way, is it unavoidable?
YES, IT DOES. It is.
If you came because you want to know the Reality, it does. That is why all traditions talk about unlearning.
The thing is, and I am sorry if this brings pain, that if you feel comfortable in your spirituality, it is a symptom of you either not moving on your path at all, or walking in circles on some safe plateau.
(A hint: if you see that the whole of your group is also happy and comfortable, that is highly likely a confirmation of exactly that.)
And that is totally ok – that is, if you are aware that that is what is happening.
Perhaps you don’t want your beliefs and identifications to be challenged right now. Or maybe you are adamant you wish to keep your chosen ideas about what is right and what is wrong – and you are absolutely free to do that! Or all you ever wanted is to become a “better person,” and isn’t that immensely important?!
But if you are comfortable, and yet are still looking for the Truth, then you have to find something else, other teachers, some other path, as whatever it is you are doing now is not working for you.
There is nothing worse than to stay engaged in a circle of cheerful hugging and supporting each other’s illusion, lost together in the fog on a beach, while believing one is on a ship at sea and perhaps is even just about to arrive… wherever it is you wish to arrive.
Either stop deceiving yourself that you are on a “path” and engage wholeheartedly in some honest do-gooding, with added joyful friendliness, or truly, for real, make the choice. If you do, Life with help you, promise!
Why do you think that for centuries it was either monasteries or woods and caves that people left everyone and everything for? Because it is almost impossible to keep our social contacts, all our engagements, to live “normal life” and break through into That.
And whatever the changes that came with the times, the Reality vs Illusion arrangement stays the same.
Don’t doubt, there will again be do-gooding and joyful friendliness at some point, but probably with different people. It is very rare even for a couple, let alone for a group of friends, to “evolve” at the same speed and in the same direction.
No tragedy there, everyone has the right to enjoy their own games.
As long as we are aware what ours is, we are good.