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In the west we have many, many things, including many spiritual teachers. All of the magazines, posters, ads in the glossies and so on are like a veritable mall where we get to choose the ones that we like the most. We quickly flip through looking for the ones with the best looks, or the ones that look like our egos imagination of the real teacher. We look at the size and color of the ad and the catchy slogan or slick paragraph designed to catch our attention, and then if that person passes our inner test we go and learn spirituality from her or him. This may be a good way to shop in the west and east. Unfortunately spirituality is not for sale and it is likely that you will find a teacher just as good as the glossy one right in your own community.

A friend and I were discussing the prices for spirituality that exist today and how many middle class people can just barely afford to partake of many of the classes and workshops. How much harder is it for the poor? I would dare say that most of the poor can’t. My question is: “How can spirituality be sold to the highest bidder?” The truth is that it really isn’t. What I would suggest, therefore, is that we don’t go to the glossy photos. We don’t look at the person that the fantasies of the ego and the socialization that we received throughout our lifetimes chose; we begin to learn spirituality from the one in whom we come in contact. If we hate what the person looks like and says, our journey toward enlightenment will even be faster; mainly because we will have to deal with all of our own baggage that is associated with that person and the image that we expect from or project onto him or her. “What crazy thing are you saying?” you may ask. I am saying that you will only strengthen your ego and make it into a religious ego if you only go to spiritual teachers who are saying what you like and being what you like, and that can cause more damage than doing nothing.

Trust in the universe. Trust that the right teacher has come along and truly engage in what that teacher has to teach. You will be the better for it if the person irritates you and ruffles your feathers and you have to work through all of those feelings that are coming up as a result of his or her challenges. The spiritual journey is never easy. It takes a great deal of struggling with one’s inner-self as one must work hard to break free of all of the maladaptive thoughts, ideas, fantasies and image jammed into our minds and solidified like concrete. When I mean struggle this may include much sorrow, hurt, and tears, but I don’t only mean that: I mean seeing so much ugliness in oneself and one’s society that it is frightening, and using the sword in order to cut down that ugliness and separate oneself from the inclination toward fostering it.

If you are going to a teacher and enjoying what you are doing all of the time you are there, I suggest you explore whether you are truly being helped or not. If you are shedding a few tears and feeling good afterward that is still not enough. The irritating path is usually the quick path to enlightenment because you eventually realize that all of the irritating behaviors from that teacher are not necessarily coming from him or her; they are coming from you. When you have learned to look into the mirror and see yourself as you are without flinching. When you have learned to accept the beauty within and work to cultivate it and the ugliness within and change it—get rid of it by flooding it with the power of truth and love, you will have arrived to the point of awakening. You will understand the truth beyond all understanding—that that irritating person is nothing more or less than a projection of yourself. And then you will be free.

Namaste,

Om Prakash

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