Introduction To Spirituality

Many years I have wasted chasing fulfilment in the material domain. For those who are ready to take the transition into spirituality, I will give you a comprehensive overview of what spirituality is about, and how you can instill this magic into your lives.

When Does Spirituality Happen?

Sprituality happens when a person realizes for the first time that he lives in Māyā. Māyā means illusion, the illusion that you can find fulfilment in materialistic seeking. The person needs to totally burn himself out in chasing in order to find out the bitter truth that no amount of success will bring him happiness.

So phase 1 is when the seeker have at least an awareness that he lives in Māyā. Phase 2 of seeking is gathering enough theoretical knowledge of Māyā in order to understand the reality surrounding him. Phase 3 is to cease your identification from Māyā (ego death) through surrender into infinity (enlightenment).

Māyā is neither good or bad, the point of the illusion is so that we can have fun (Līlā) and experience the things we want (karma). However, most humans are so attached and involved with Māyā that they have completely forgotten to fulfill their purpose (dharma) and have fun.

The main tool a person employs to cease his identification with Māyā is consciousness. Consciousness is a name for awareness, the awareness of your identification with Māyā. By identifying all the aspects and the ways you live and interact with Māyā you (en)(light) yourself from the darkness (unconsciousness) into awareness.

Where does this awareness comes about? We refer this as God. God is a dirty word nowadays but it just means the source of creation. The intelligence that allows for you to exist and be aware of your surroundings is God's consciousness flowing through you and everything else.

Because God is in everything, living or dead, we say that God is infinity (Ananta). It is exactly because God is Ananta that you can directly experience God for yourself. However, this experience can only happen when you enter a state of non-duality (awakening).

The nature of your existence is dual in nature due to your five senses. There is only light because there is dark, there is only sound when there is silence and so on. Non-duality can be experienced when you use mystical forms of perception, rather than bodily perception.

Mystical forms of perception can only be perceived when you turn off your mind. If you can silence your mind and enter into a state of stillness, the mystical forms of perception will suddenly become available. A tree will no longer be a tree, a river no longer a river and so on.

When you can stabilize your perception in a state of non-duality, we say that you are enlightened. Because you (ego) is no longer there, and you (ego) are replaced by infinity (God). There are many names for the enlightened, such as Yogi, Mystic, Sufi and Sage are common names.

Spirituality vs Religion

Let's discuss a little bit about God because it is such a misunderstood concept. When you look around you, aren't you curious about how this reality has came about? Scientists explain this with the Big Bang, Religions explain this with a human type figure who created the world and so on. Everyone has their own theory.

But fundamentally, what is being talked about is the source of creation. If something has the ability to create something else, we say that is God. So when I am writing this article right now, there is a certain level of genius (God) that is flowing through me that allows me to express my experiences in a coherent manner.

This God can only come about because of impermanence. Impermanence says that reality is constantly changing. When reality is constantly changing, there is constant destruction and creation. The intelligence that orchestrates this process of creation and destruction is God.

So God is all around you because everything is always changing. In physics, chemistry, human behaviour, animals, living or nonliving. Religion offers comfort for suffering, spirituality begins when you wish to experience nonduality (God) directly within you.

Spirituality Vs Belief

Spirituality is something that is directly experienced, not to be believed. However, making people understand spirituality is rather difficult since gurus must convey Truth in a manner that goes under your radar (ego). For a person to even understand what is being talked about, they need to have some sort of access to nonduality to make sense of what is being said.

People who lack this experience with nonduality, they take the "under the radar communication" gurus share to be literal. For example, when religions talk about heaven and hell, this is not some external place that you will go after you die, they are explaining ego as hell (suffering), and awakening as heaven (blissfulness).

However, belief as a means is an important aspect to protect people who are not ready for spirituality. For an unwilling participant, stripping away the ego can mentally destabilize a person if they do not have sufficient levels of consciousness. So do not blame your guru for speaking in very vague language. This is to protect people who are not ready.

Grace

Most people think that suffering is bad. However, suffering is what allows us to notice that something is not quite right in our lives. When suffering pushes us to expand our sense of self (Love), we call this Grace. Grace is life itself trying to guide us toward enlightenment.

We access Grace when we listen to our intuition. When we turn inward and stop using our 5 senses plus the mind, we can faintly hear her joyful and loving voice. Know that she speaks constantly. Every hour, every minute. But never confuse Grace with ego; the ego speaks through fear and negative emotion, while Grace speaks through love and clarity.

Another function of Grace is to bring us challenges and circumstances that invite us to grow. Every human being has an inherent desire to expand (Love). By following this movement of expansion through self-help, discipline, and awareness, you prepare for what can be called The Great Leap, the shift from ego to spirit.

By allowing Grace to guide us into a richer and freer life, we eventually allow her to carry us into enlightenment itself. Whether through pickup, entrepreneurship, or any other form of worldly expansion, every joyful step taken with awareness is a step closer to infinity.

What Is The Purpose Of My Life?

The purpose of life is to have fun (Līlā). Māyā is a beautifully constructed video game in which you can explore whatever you'd like. However, the reason why life might not feel very fun for you right now is because you have forgotten. You have forgotten that you are here to have fun (Līlā), and you entangled yourself with survival (ego).

If you are entangled, then the purpose of your life is to be untangled, so that you can start dating Līlā. Suppose that you have finished dancing with her, and no more fun or exploration is to be had, then you could choose to do something called Mahāsamādhi, which means that you can consciously leave the body to reunite with infinity. A little bit like uninstalling a game because you completed everything.

For clarification, Mahāsamādhi is not suicide. Suicide is when you want to escape your suffering and praying for a better life in your next attempt. An enlightened being who leaves via Mahāsamādhi is a person who annihilates his soul entirely, suffering is not in his vocabulary.

However, if Līlā still wants to have fun with you, then you will become a Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is a person who have became enlightened, but chooses to hold unto the body so that he can continue to help other beings awaken. The most legendary Bodhisattvas became the religions you know today.

A natural question people ask after learning this is the meaning to life. The simple answer is that there is no meaning. It is exactly because life is meaningless that you could do and experience whatever you'd like. Its a total sandbox game in which ironically, you have created to explore.

To clarify the misunderstanding that some may mistake this as nihilism, the only way nihilism can be a possibility is when you are asleep/unconscious of your very nature to have fun and play. If you remember (become enlightened) then nihilism becomes a great object of joy and liberation, not depression and hopelessness.

Life And Death

If you are heavily identified with the body, death will be a very stressful event for you because you will be constantly clinging unto the body until your life energy (prana), runs out. This will force your consciousness to leave your body abruptly as an unwilling participant. It's a little bit like having your internet connection severed during online matchmaking halfway.

This is where the idea of "past lives" comes in. When you die and reunite with infinity, your soul (jīva) immediately wants to re-enter the world to continue where you have left off (reconnect to the game). So your soul (jīva) are then born again into a different physical body to experience the unfulfilled desires that you have yet to burn off (karma).

In an ideal society of the future, we would become enlightened really quickly because everyone around us would force us to remember. Instead of the current society now, which aims to entangle us deeper into survival, an enlightened society of the future will effortlessly help beings who enter to awaken.

How Can I Get This Enlightenment For Myself?

You might naturally recoil and think, “Ew, I don’t want to be born again just to suffer.” But if you wish to embark on the Hero’s Journey, understand that it’s a little like pickup. You’ll need to study deeply and repeat the same inner practices again and again until realization comes.

Fortunately, others have done the study for us. Leo Gura from Actualized.org is a psychonaut who has used psychedelics to touch states of non-duality and bring insights back to ordinary consciousness. He translates the ineffable into egoic language, and that’s valuable because an ego can only understand when spoken to by another ego.

After you’ve listened to his talks and read a few spiritual books for yourself, it’s time to say thank you and upgrade your guru to find a being who actually lives in the enlightened state you seek. For me, that teacher was Sadhguru, whose Grace is helping me take The Big Leap.

This upgrade is necessary because you’re moving from intellectual understanding of non-duality to living directly in it. To make this transition, you must develop deep trust and devotion toward the said enlightened being guiding you through what feels like a terrifying black hole (the dissolution of everything you thought you were.)

Conclusion

Mind you I am not enlightened. However, I did touch the door but recoiled with ego, basically refusing to transition. I'm sure it will come again, so I wanted to jot down my experience and understanding in ego language before I disappear on the other end.

That's it for me. Best of luck. Please check out my other posts and practice everything holistically. Send me an email if you want a specific topic written. You can see "coaching" to see if I have room to onboard new students.

Cheers,
FriendlyWrenChilling.