Did
you ever get into your car, drive somewhere, and then
become amazed at how quickly you arrived at your
destination, congratulating yourself, not even
remembering the drive? Most likely many of us have had
that experience. Over the years, driving has become
common-place. We go through the motions without even
thinking about them, especially if it’s a route we often
take. That is ritual; ritual is doing
anything with
repetitive motion that is unconscious. The key word here
is unconscious—doing
the same things over and over again, not aware of what
we are doing. It happens all the time throughout the
day, when we are driving a car or fixing a meal, or when
we go to work and do the same things the same way
everyday, and then come home and sit in front of the TV
to watch the same programs, and many other routine
actions. When we begin to look at our lives and become
aware of those moments when we do things without real
awareness, we start to discover how much of our lives
are lived unconsciously, on automatic pilot.
The
first thing we need to remember, if we want to wake-up
spiritually, is that everything we do in life should be
done as a spiritual practice. A huge mistake most of us
tend to make is to think that our spiritual practice
consists only of a formal practice that we have set up
for ourselves—like meditation, reading sacred texts,
reciting prayers, chanting mantras, or maybe reading or
listening to a Teaching.
But
even formal spiritual practice is sometimes done quite
unconsciously. If we practice meditation, do we sit
there talking to ourselves, maybe thinking about a
problem or listing all the things we need to do
tomorrow? This pretty much negates the purpose of
meditation. When we recite a prayer or mantra, are we
truly aware of what we are saying
as we
are saying it, or are we off in our heads thinking of
other things? If we are reading or listening to a
Teaching, are we saying to ourselves that we already
know what we are reading or hearing? If we are
practicing in any of these ways, we have allowed our
formal spiritual practice to become ritual.
Ritual
can also be filled with superstition. We may think that
bowing in front of statues, or reciting a certain number
of mantras or prayers will bring us good luck or merit.
These practices put the power of awakening in the
steps of doing
something, rather than in the
awareness of
the meaning behind the action or words. One must have
great awareness to awaken spiritually
If we
are doing any formal spiritual practice in a certain
manner just because that is the way it has been done for
hundreds of years, we may be wasting the moment. If we
are doing spiritual practice because of a driving need
to say a certain number of mantras, we are fooling
ourselves to think there is an automatic benefit from
that particular number. Remember, only if one is doing
spiritual practice consciously, is there any real
benefit.
True
spiritual practice is about having our spirituality as
the #1 priority in our lives. This means that we must
maintain our spiritual awareness throughout every moment
of every day. Everything in our lives is then lived
through our spirituality.
What
usually happens when we lose awareness is that we go
into a state of oblivion, where we start living
habitually, over and over and over again. Until one day,
we begin to see a glimmer of awareness in what we are
doing, and the glimmer of awareness is so sweet that we
begin looking for more ways to become aware. Now, when
we start becoming aware, that is where the true learning
begins and also where a taste of true freedom starts to
enter our hearts.
We
begin to see how very important it is for us to become
aware of the places in our lives where we are doing
things mindlessly.
If we are not
mindfully aware of our every action, we lose great
freedom. We lose the ability to be aware and the
flexibility to follow our hearts.
From
the Buddhist perspective, the whole purpose of life, is
to wake-up spiritually. True Buddhism means the
Path to Awakening.
There seems to be no other real purpose for living but
to awaken. This means that everything we do should be
done, not just from ordinary awareness, but actually
from being aware that we are aware. This means we
are aware that we are aware of what we are doing. We
need to be very careful not to let ritual seep into our
spiritual practice, or any part of our lives.
On the
path of HÜMÜH, we have several formal spiritual
practices that help keep us focused and aware of living
spiritually. One is bowing. When we bow to another
person whom we encounter, we always bow to the divinity
in them and never to a personality. We also have mantras
and prayers that we recite, but the purpose is to always
be aware of what
and why we are
saying them. We consciously practice to be aware of
everything that we do and to root out any habitual
and/or ritualistic behaviors that we may have.
So, the
next time you get into your car to drive somewhere, take
the opportunity to practice being aware. Don’t allow
your mind to continuously talk or go off into a
daydream. Just observe. Be aware of everything—the
sights, sounds, and feelings that arise in every moment.
Don’t talk to yourself, just observe. Take any
opportunity that you possibly can to be aware. The more
one can become aware, the more freedom is gained.
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