Is the path to enlightenment a spiritual trap?
Does meditation get us anywhere? How long does it take to awaken on a spiritual path? How many spiritual books do we need to read to become realized? How many retreats are needed to wake up?
How much have you invested in your spiritual journey/path in terms of time, money, and effort?
Some say, “It’s not a destination, it’s a journey.” That’s all fine and dandy, but everyone who steps on the spiritual path does so from the world of duality and vantage point of ego, AND ego is always oriented toward ‘getting.’
Meditating and practicing can lead to more subtle forms of ego activity. Often, a ‘spiritual’ superego surfaces to keep us oriented toward the goal – realization? enlightenment? heaven?
We can think, “One more book, one more retreat, ten more hours of meditation…”
Do you see the orientation? Activity toward accomplishment – getting. Just another hamster wheel, another wheel of samsara.
The Depth of the Inner Journey
Embarking on a spiritual path often leads individuals to explore the profound depths of their souls. The inner journey is a transformative process that unveils magnificent and exhilarating experiences, providing a sharp, clear focus on existence. However, it’s essential to approach this journey with awareness, as the allure of these profound experiences can become a spiritual trap. Many get entangled in the euphoria of spiritual experiences, forgetting the true essence of the journey – to genuinely be what we are. The simplicity of being oneself, recognizing our true nature, and feeling the intimacy of that realization surpasses any external spiritual experience.
Self cannot get out of self
You see? That’s the rub. No matter how much time and effort is invested toward enlightenment, the self cannot get out of self. Why is that?
The answer is so simple it’s hard to accept. YOU are what you are looking for. See what this says? YOU are what you are looking for. Big YOU, little you. Little you the self is looking for a big YOU. Big you is what you are, not who you are.
Finding YOU, realizing YOU is the orientation of getting. However, it is not possible to find you or realize you – not because…
What’s looking (awareness) is what YOU are. Little, you cannot find it, it’s not lost. It’s right here. It’s never not been here. It’s what gives life and capacity to little you.
You’ve never been out of the moment
A lot has been said about the NOW, the moment that’s always the moment. The little mind (duality) of little you (self) functions within the world of concepts. Everything is reified into objects—concepts. NOW is a concept. The MOMENT is a concept that ‘you’ want to experience – get to, be in.
But where’s that happening? In the NOW, in the MOMENT. The self wants to leave the present to find the present. It’s the same thing – you want to find YOU. But, YOU are a concept to you – an objectified idea.
The craziness is that YOU are what is aware of what is happening right now – how you use the past to bring orientation and action into the moment to get to a future moment that will magically become THE MOMENT.
The Dual Nature of Meaning on the Spiritual Path
One of the profound realizations on the spiritual path is the dichotomy between meaning and meaninglessness. While many embark on this journey seeking a deeper meaning to life, the inner journey reveals that all conceptual meanings eventually dissolve, leading to a stage where the soul recognizes its true nature as the ultimate meaning of existence. However, this realization can be a spiritual trap if misunderstood. It’s not about negating meaning but transcending the confines of conceptual understanding. True spiritual depth lies in experiencing reality as it is, beyond the constructs of the mind.
The Ultimate Destination: Homecoming
The spiritual path is often visualized as a journey toward a destination. But the true destination is not an external place or state; it’s a homecoming. The Diamond Approach emphasizes that the soul’s ultimate home is its depth, which is synonymous with the divine or the beloved. However, the spiritual trap here is mistaking external achievements or spiritual milestones as the final destination. True homecoming is realizing that the beloved, the ultimate depth of the soul, is also its true nature and identity. It’s a state of being where the seeker and the sought merge, where the journey and the destination become one.
It’s a riot!
What can you do? Yes, little you can do something – you can see that you are seeking, that, in this moment, you are trying to get to some future moment. So, just be aware of this. Be here with whatever is happening. Explore here, this moment, and explore you, who you take yourself to be – who it is that is engaged in the activity.
We only have to be here, exploring and inquiring. What we are looking for is right here – under the veil of all the concepts. We don’t have to go anywhere, we don’t have to accomplish anything – let the simplicity and power of awareness be.
John Harper is a Diamond Approach® teacher, Enneagram guide, and student of human development whose work bridges psychology, spirituality, and deep experiential inquiry. His newest book, Nurturing Essence: A Compass for Essential Parenting, invites parents to discover the role essence plays in child development. He is also the author of The Enneagram World of the Child: Nurturing Resilience and Self-Compassion in Early Life and Good Vibrations: Primordial Sounds of Existence, available on Amazon.