What do spiritual practices threaten you with? Spiritual practices that will help change your life for the better

What is spiritual practice? Before answering this question, the concept of “spirituality” should be clarified. The most capacious, precise, formally verified definition of this word was given by Alexander Zinoviev. He wrote:

Spirituality is not measured by the level of education, everyday habits and general culture, “correct” - from the point of view of the prevailing fashion - beliefs, even personal sincerity and kindness. All this is significant, but all these are just accompanying signs, consequences and epiphenomena. A spiritual person may be uneducated, have bad manners, very strange beliefs and a bad character. Because spirituality is not defined by this. But only one thing: a voluntary and conscious refusal of the main social pleasure - participation in the eternal and universal humiliation of man by man. Thus, he goes against his own human nature- and to the extent that he succeeds, he ceases to be a person and becomes something else.

But do not be mistaken: such rebirth, even if it is possible, is the privilege of a few strong-willed people.”

That is, in order to be called spiritual, a practice must

  • have in your arsenal ways and methods that allow a person to see the malicious intent of which he is the bearer
  • possess ways and methods that allow the process of defragmentation of the human personality to the extent necessary for a person to be able to accept responsibility for malicious intent and its consequences

Few of the currently existing practices meet these requirements. And a special place among them is occupied by “game processing” by A.V. Usachev, as it allows one to directly clarify and reduce malicious intent.

Currently, spiritual practices are often confused with various psychotherapeutic methods, healing systems, healing, religion, magic and other methods that allow influencing a person. All of the above areas undoubtedly have their right to life and have their place in social structure society, and in certain cases can be very effective and efficient. For the most part, they are focused on healing a person’s physical and mental ailments, stimulating leadership qualities and suppressing “unsuccessful” traits of human character. However, “pseudo-spiritual” practices do not affect the deep foundations of the human “I”, and, trying to “improve” the existing personality that a person currently wears, they act within the framework of this personality. Spiritual practice is primarily aimed at transforming the human personality.

Despite the fact that interest in spiritual practices is enormous, few people who begin to engage in spiritual practice have a clear idea of ​​what spiritual rebirth is and what they will have to face. After all, the process of a person’s spiritual rebirth is qualitatively different from the psychophysical correction of his personality.

Of course, spiritual development is an amazing, exciting process, rich in amazing discoveries. This is a fantastic, fairy-tale action in which the main character is the one who follows the spiritual path. But this path is replete with obstacles and dangers, overcoming which requires a person to give maximum effort and the utmost concentration of all his forces.

Spiritual practice, causing changes at the level of spirit, initiates a restructuring of the entire “human” system as a whole. Therefore, everyone who was engaged in any spiritual practice (including processing) had to deal with a variety of physiological disorders of varying degrees of intensity - exacerbations of chronic diseases, with lightning-fast developing acute processes; fall into depression; experience bouts of euphoria; change externally and internally. This is due to the fact that spiritual awakening, despite the positive nature of the changes occurring at the spiritual level, causes a violation of the “internal environment” in the “human” system. (The state of the system is stabilized only after complete processing of the material raised during spiritual awakening). The levels of the system are forced to change in order for the system to maintain integrity and stability. The process of “restructuring” in the system can occur unnoticed and calmly, or it can manifest itself in the form of some dysfunctions and malfunctions in the work of one or another level (or levels). If “perestroika” is impossible for some reason, and the levels of individuality, mind and body cannot be transformed in such a way as to correspond to the changed spiritual level, then the system loses stability, integrity and collapses. For this reason, unsystematized, independent practice of spiritual practices without prior thorough preparation can cause significant impairment of physical and mental health.

In order to carry out a “restructuring” and gain stability in a new quality, the “human” system must have sufficient resource and energy potential. If the system does not have sufficient potential for “restructuring”, then it needs an influx of external resources in order to move to a new energy level. In this case, self-study, without the support of a professional, can lead to extremely undesirable consequences.

In order to engage in spiritual practice, you do not need “seven spans of intelligence.” Almost any person has all the necessary abilities to begin his spiritual ascent. But only a few continue to consistently move along this path. One of the reasons that hinders the process of spiritual awakening is the lack of information about how the transformation of the spiritual level affects the levels of individuality, mind and body.

A person turns out to be unprepared for the fact that during the period of “perestroika” the system can be “broken,” “fevered,” “torn into pieces,” etc. Faced with such manifestations of spiritual awakening, a person, as a rule, begins to pay more attention to the complications that have arisen than to engaging in spiritual practice. As a result, spiritual growth slows down or stops altogether, and the states of the “perestroika” period become protracted and chronic. The situation is aggravated by the fact that health deviations resulting from destabilization of the spiritual level are difficult to correct. medicines and are completely resolved only after the situation has been completely resolved on a spiritual level.

The literature devoted to spiritual practices (Roberto Assagioli “Psychosynthesis”) describes some of the states that arise in the process of spiritual growth. The clinical manifestations of these conditions are the same as those of diseases that develop in a person during a person’s life in a “natural” way. The difference, probably, can be considered that diseases caused by the “restructuring” of the spirit-individuality-mind-body system appear as if suddenly, without any reason, out of the blue. Moreover, the symptoms that appear at first do not have an organic substrate, which misleads doctors. Ultrasound, ECG, encephalograms, X-rays, tomograms, all kinds of tests do not show deviations from the physiological norm, and the person feels unwell, although, according to the examinations, he should be healthy. And only after some time do doctors manage to identify the cause of the disease. IN in this case the cause of the disease is a consequence of the activated and unexamined material. And the time to search for organic changes is the time that the body needs to “reform itself” and create a disease in itself, according to the initiation that occurred. As the activated material is examined, diseases often disappear on their own or are relatively easily resolved with proper treatment.

A central theme in the philosophy of all religions: we tragically underestimate ourselves. Words different traditions differ, but convey the same essence: we are more than we think. Our ego is a drop on the surface of the vast ocean of the unconscious, the Self, a limitless resource that can only be described by the idea of ​​God.

There are many philosophical and religious approaches to knowing oneself, but in order to walk the spiritual path, it is necessary to be guided by certain principles. You can define 8 basic rules of spiritual practices on the path of change.

1 rule. Practice moderation.

You always need to start with what you can, count on your strength: you are setting off on a long and dangerous journey, which will include trials and obstacles. Spiritual practice is like climbing a ladder, where gradual acquisition of experience is important. Trying to immediately take the elevator or jump over the steps, we risk missing important changes in the soul and quickly losing interest.

For example, without experience in meditation or prayer, you should not rush headlong into these practices and try to concentrate your mind for hours. Start with a few minutes and gradually increase the time.

You should also not immediately give up something once and for all. Determine for yourself a trial period during which you can assess how ready you are for such changes.

Rule 2. Analyze changes.

Every spiritual practice has the power to change us. This voluntary experiment will make sense if we explore our experiences. Analyze everything you experience and feel. Monitor your resistance and the reaction of your environment. Changes are happening and it is important to understand what exactly is changing.

Rule 3. Keep a diary.

This rule supports the previous principle. It is advisable to record the results of the analysis. It is good to write down goals, insights, mistakes and successes in a diary. The diary becomes our friend who supports and reminds us in difficult times of where we are going. Like a ship's log, a diary provides a connection with reality, helps to see the picture of the journey already passed. By writing down our goals, we are much more likely to succeed.

Remember the rule of moderation: you don’t need to turn keeping a diary into overwhelming work. Even a few minutes of writing a day can be very valuable.

Rule 4. Resume your practice.

Every practitioner has their own stories of failure, everyone has stumbled along the way. Failure can make you think that practice isn't making things better and you're going backwards. This is a natural and valuable healing process. The practices not only cultivate positive qualities, but also reveal old painful memories and emotions. During such a period, there is a high temptation to plunge into matters, into urgent matters. family problems or simply give up practice, succumbing to a fit of laziness.

Consult a teacher or therapist who is knowledgeable in spiritual practice. Perhaps now you need to practice less intensely for a while or change the type of practice.

Rule 5. Treat yourself with care.

The spiritual path is the beginning of the growth of a new essence in us. This process is similar to growing a plant or raising a child. Show kindness and leniency towards emerging processes. Learn to support yourself and take care of your new needs. We are human, and human beings are imperfect. If we could do spiritual practices perfectly, we would not need to practice.

If you feel the need for support, find a teacher, spiritual friends or psychologist who will support your growth.

Rule 6 Enjoy.

It may seem that spiritual practice always requires self-sacrifice, and all saints were martyrs. This is far from true. One of the main goals of spiritual practice is joy and bliss. Sign the right path– the ability to experience pleasure while engaging in spiritual practice. If you have met spiritually mature people and sages, you may have noticed that they happy people. Happiness makes a person less concerned about his own interests and opens up the world of other people to him.

Rule 7 Create a habit.

The practice should become embedded in your life rhythm. Until a new habit becomes established, it is best not to make any exceptions. Create a rule for yourself that you can follow and follow it exactly. Start small today and make practice part of every day.

Rule 8. Give practice the highest priority.

Make practice the most important thing of the day. The way to start is one minute of regular practice per day. But this should be the most important minute of your day. Give it top priority.

Specific practices may change, and there may be special rules. Spiritual life has its own rhythm and it is important for each of us to listen to ourselves and understand which practice is most suitable.

We have enormous potential, and with higher stages of spiritual growth is inextricably linked a higher level of maturity. Spiritual practices are the tools that make such growth possible. The main thing is to overcome the fear of your own potential.

IN modern society There are a huge number of spiritual practices, and there is a great passion for them. But the outcome of these practices remains highly controversial. People who practice yoga, qigong, Osho meditation, etc., surprisingly do not achieve what these practices are intended to achieve. Years pass, the passion for practices can either fade away or remain the same, but the person who practices remains the same.

Let's look at several reasons that lead to such disappointing results.

  1. The first reason that Osho spoke about loudly and very clearly is the absence of a living Master. The master died and so did his method. Those. only a living Master can convey to the student those practices that will be meaningful and allow him to move along the spiritual Path. At the same time, many people appear, as in the Osho commune, who continue practices that do not contain the strength that the Master put into them. It would seem that wearing someone else's clothes is funny and absurd; it is better to wear your own, but people continue to do this, thereby stopping their search, their path and the opportunity to be Masters. And then the spiritual direction that a person led, created him, becomes a spiritual practice and nothing more. Such practice will never become the Path and will not lead a person inside the treasury of his spiritual wisdom. All the Masters talk about this, unfortunately, few people listen.
  2. The second reason that makes spiritual practices useless is the use of spiritual practices as a tribute to some fashion, as an attempt to fill your life with at least something meaningful, and, as the modern term says, to engage in self-development. Any spiritual work is aimed at a person knowing himself, at moving deeper, to the center. This is serious, thorough work, which cannot be a hobby, entertainment, or leisure. In this case, spiritual practice becomes a semblance of fitness yoga, loses its spiritual basis and becomes ordinary physical education, having only an externally attractive picture and the taste of new fashion trends. This situation exists in mantras, and in qigong, and in any other direction known to the modern world.
  3. The third reason is the lack of a moral aspect. Any spiritual direction is called that way because we are talking about spirituality. Spirituality is always based on morality, and spiritual practices intended primarily to strengthen the Spirit. Spiritual practices are designed to ensure that the Spirit triumphs over our emotions, passions and to calm our fussy mind. The moral aspect of practices is the most important quality, the definition that makes a practice spiritual. And if we are talking about spiritual self-improvement, then this is, first of all, morality; it is by this that the degree of a person’s spirituality is measured, and not at all by the ability to see an aura, levitate, walk on coals, swallow nails, or rest his neck on a spear.

Spiritual practices are designed to strengthen internal spiritual discipline, the ability to control your feelings and emotions, not allowing everything dirty and base into your thoughts, heart, and actions. It would be possible to highlight several more reasons that devalue spiritual practices, making them useless, but let’s move on to the essence, understanding, specifically the spiritual Path, and what accompanies it.

The term spiritual practices itself is paradoxical. Those. it turns out that we practice spirituality without actually starting to do it ourselves. For those who are looking for true meaning, for those who are looking for spirituality, for those who want to know themselves, the following message is intended - stop practicing! Go! Go into spirituality, awaken love and morality. Look for your Path, and no practice is needed here. All you need is thirst, desire, and a willingness to change yourself, your inner world, a willingness to transform your body and find the Path. You don't need spiritual practices, you need a spiritual Path. Please don't confuse one with the other. Look for someone who knows what the path is, who can point to it or point to the one you call Teacher or Master, Guru, Sensei or Shifu. Look for the Master! And ask him what you should do. He has an answer for you. Let it destroy you, because everything you know is just a reason to search. This is the past you have lived, which cannot be a measure, an assessment, of what will happen after what the Master offers you. Remember, you don't know anything about what it should be. And what he should do. Now you have no categories with which you can evaluate this, which is precisely why there is a need for a Master. The Spiritual Path is always something that you do not know, otherwise it cannot be a spiritual Path, otherwise there can be no transformation. If you know what you are doing, then you are continuing yesterday, nothing new has happened, you have remained the same. If you want to continue this, engage in spiritual practices and forget about the spiritual Path. If you want true transformation, surrender to the Master. Do not evaluate him, do not bring him your beliefs, assessments and claims. All this is yesterday. They're dead. The master is alive. And only he will teach you to be alive, authentic, blooming. It will teach you to live without these assessments, with the help of which you kill your life.

The path to the Master can only lie through thirst, spiritual thirst, the authenticity of which is determined by love. Only if you are able to love, are you able to be alive, are you able to throw away everything that interferes with the dance of your love, your flowering. If love is strong in a person, then it is embodied in the person’s actions, and the symbol of these actions is morality. Only this will make your spiritual Path, your meeting with the Master possible. And at the same time, it doesn’t matter to you whether your master is engaged in fashion, what he looks like, how many diplomas or awards he has, how much he charges for classes and all that kind of nonsense. As a great Miracle occurs, the rarest opportunity in the world opens up - to become a disciple. Learn the path, achieve spiritual perfection and, quite possibly, become a Master.

Tradition says that the answer to the question “where to start spiritual practices” lies in the development three sides of our being: awareness of behavior, stability of heart and mind, clarity of vision, or wisdom.

Five commandments for starting spiritual practice

The first aspect, behavior imbued with awareness and chastity, means the harmony of actions and actions in relation to the life around us, respect for all its manifestations and care for it. For development, it is absolutely necessary that we develop a basis for moral behavior in our lives.

If we are involved in activities that cause pain to ourselves and others and cause conflicts, then the state of calm, composure and concentration so necessary for meditation becomes impossible for the mind, and the heart does not open. But a mind that stands on the basis of complete unselfishness and truth has no hindrances and easily develops concentration and wisdom.

The Buddha identified five main areas of morality that lead to a spiritual life. Their formulations, which act as the object of the exercises, are communicated to all students who wish to start classes. These precepts, however, are not absolute requirements; rather, they are practical guidelines to help you live more harmoniously and develop peace of mind and strength of mind. As we work with them, we discover that these are universal commandments, common to all cultures and times. They form part of the basic practice of meditation and can be an object of cultivation at the beginning of the spiritual life.

The first rule calls for refraining from causing death. Its meaning is a deep reverence for all life and the renunciation of actions prompted by hatred or antipathy and leading to harm to any living being. We develop a reverence for life in all its forms and a constant tendency to care for it.

In the Buddha's teaching on the eightfold path that leads to nirvana, this rule is called one of the facets of right action.

However, first we become more deeply aware and begin to feel connected to the universal phenomenon of life. And then it becomes clear to us that it is unnatural to harm other beings, if only because it becomes painful for us to kill others.

Well, those being killed don’t like it (to put it mildly) either: even the tiniest creatures don’t want to die! So, by practicing this commandment, we inevitably come to a complete renunciation of causing pain to others, and therefore this is not a paradox.

Refraining from causing harm

The second commandment calls us to refrain from stealing and never to take anything that does not belong to us. The principle of “not taking what belongs to others” is the basis of the general idea of ​​​​non-harm. We must give up greed and never take too much for ourselves. In a positive sense, it also means using all things with sensitivity, meaning and cultivating a sense of community with everyone in the phenomenon of this life and a sense of equality of all in the possession of our planet. To live, we need planets, we need animals, including even insects. This entire world of living beings is forced to use common resources. This is a ship of a certain size with a certain number passengers floating on it. We are vitally connected with bees, and with other insects, and with earthworms. If there were no worms aerating the soil, if there were no insects pollinating plants, we would die of starvation. We are all intertwined in this symphony of life. If we learn to love our land, then we can be happy regardless of what exactly we are doing in our common creativity, happy with the happiness that grows from contentment and harmony. This is the source of true ecology. This is the source of good peace in the world.

We see that we are inseparable from the earth, that we all came from it and are connected to each other by it. From this sense of unity, we can boldly share everything we have with everyone around us and live a life filled with spiritual generosity towards the whole world and a willingness to come to its aid.

So, cultivating effective spirituality and generosity in oneself is another fundamental component of development.

Like training rules, like internal factors meditation, spiritual generosity and generosity can also be a subject of practice. Spirituality in the process of its effective development shapes our actions, and the heart becomes stronger and more open. As it develops, it leads to new, more high levels giving and, accordingly, to a higher experience of happiness. The Buddha emphasized the great importance of spiritual generosity in practice. He said: “Oh, if you only had an idea of ​​​​what is familiar to me about this miracle, about the power of the spirit that descends on a person thanks to the simple act of giving, you would never even taste food without sharing it with at least someone.” "somehow."

Types of generosity in practice

The tradition of spiritual practice describes three types of giving and encourages us to begin developing generosity at whatever level we find in our hearts today.

At the first level we find giving associated with internal struggle. This is the case when a person picks up some of his things and thinks:

“Hm! I probably won't need it anymore. Should I give it to someone? However, no, I’ll hold it for another year... No, I’ll still give it away!”

Pathetic doubts. But even this level is already positive. He conveys some kind of joy to the giver and provides some kind of help to the taker. Here a person already shares something with another, unity and growth of the spirit are already manifested.

Determine which yoga is right for you?

Choose your goal

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What is your physical shape?

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What pace of classes do you like?

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Do you have musculoskeletal diseases?

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Where do you like to work out?

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Do you like to meditate?

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Do you have experience doing yoga?

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Do you have any health problems?

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Classic yoga styles will suit you

Hatha yoga

Will help you:

Suitable for you:

Ashtanga yoga

Yoga Iyengar

Try also:

Kundalini yoga
Will help you:
Suitable for you:

Yoga Nidra
Will help you:

Bikram yoga

Aeroyoga

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Determine which yoga is right for you?

Techniques for experienced practitioners will suit you

Kundalini yoga- direction of yoga with an emphasis on execution breathing exercises and meditation. Lessons involve both static and dynamic work with the body, medium intensity physical activity and a lot of meditative practices. Get ready for painstaking work and regular practice: most kriyas and meditations must be performed for 40 days daily. Such classes will be of interest to those who have already taken their first steps in yoga and love to meditate.

Will help you: strengthen body muscles, relax, cheer up, relieve stress, lose weight.

Suitable for you: kundalini yoga video lessons with Alexey Merkulov, kundalini yoga classes with Alexey Vladovsky.

Yoga Nidra- practice of deep relaxation, yogic sleep. It is a long meditation in the corpse pose under the guidance of an instructor. It has no medical contraindications and is suitable even for beginners.
Will help you: relax, relieve stress, discover yoga.

Bikram yoga is a set of 28 exercises that are performed by students in a room heated to 38 degrees. Thanks to the constant maintenance high temperature, sweating increases, toxins are removed from the body faster, and the muscles become more flexible. This style of yoga focuses only on the fitness component and leaves aside spiritual practices.

Try also:

Aeroyoga- Aerial yoga, or, as it is also called, “yoga on hammocks,” is one of the most modern types of yoga, which allows you to perform asanas in the air. Aerial yoga is performed in a specially equipped room in which small hammocks are suspended from the ceiling. It is in them that asanas are performed. This type of yoga makes it possible to quickly master some complex asanas, and also promises good physical activity, develops flexibility and strength.

Hatha yoga- one of the most common types of practice; many original styles of yoga are based on it. Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners. Hatha yoga lessons help you master basic asanas and simple meditations. Typically, classes are conducted at a leisurely pace and involve predominantly static load.

Will help you: get acquainted with yoga, lose weight, strengthen muscles, relieve stress, cheer up.

Suitable for you: hatha yoga video lessons, couples yoga classes.

Ashtanga yoga- Ashtanga, which literally means “the eight-step path to the final goal,” is one of the complex styles of yoga. This direction combines different practices and represents an endless flow in which one exercise smoothly transitions into another. Each asana should be held for several breathing cycles. Ashtanga yoga will require strength and endurance from its adherents.

Yoga Iyengar- This direction of yoga is named after its founder, who created an entire health complex designed for students of any age and level of training. It was Iyengar yoga that first allowed the use of auxiliary devices (rollers, belts) in classes, which made it easier for beginners to perform many asanas. The purpose of this style of yoga is to promote health. Much attention is paid to correct execution asanas, which are considered the basis for mental and physical recovery.

Aeroyoga- Aerial yoga, or, as it is also called, “yoga on hammocks,” is one of the most modern types of yoga, which allows you to perform asanas in the air. Aerial yoga is performed in a specially equipped room in which small hammocks are suspended from the ceiling. It is in them that asanas are performed. This type of yoga makes it possible to quickly master some complex asanas, and also promises good physical activity, develops flexibility and strength.

Yoga Nidra- practice of deep relaxation, yogic sleep. It is a long meditation in the corpse pose under the guidance of an instructor. It has no medical contraindications and is suitable even for beginners.

Will help you: relax, relieve stress, discover yoga.

Try also:

Kundalini yoga- a direction of yoga with an emphasis on breathing exercises and meditation. The lessons involve both static and dynamic work with the body, medium intensity physical activity and a lot of meditative practices. Prepare for hard work and regular practice: most kriyas and meditations need to be performed for 40 days daily. Such classes will be of interest to those who have already taken their first steps in yoga and love to meditate.

Will help you: strengthen body muscles, relax, cheer up, relieve stress, lose weight.

Suitable for you: kundalini yoga video lessons with Alexey Merkulov, kundalini yoga classes with Alexey Vladovsky.

Hatha yoga- one of the most common types of practice; many original styles of yoga are based on it. Suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners. Hatha yoga lessons help you master basic asanas and simple meditations. Typically, classes are conducted at a leisurely pace and involve predominantly static load.

Will help you: get acquainted with yoga, lose weight, strengthen muscles, relieve stress, cheer up.

Suitable for you: hatha yoga video lessons, couples yoga classes.

Ashtanga yoga- Ashtanga, which literally means “the eight-step path to the final goal,” is one of the complex styles of yoga. This direction combines different practices and represents an endless flow in which one exercise smoothly transitions into another. Each asana should be held for several breathing cycles. Ashtanga yoga will require strength and endurance from its adherents.

Yoga Iyengar- This direction of yoga is named after its founder, who created an entire health complex designed for students of any age and level of training. It was Iyengar yoga that first allowed the use of auxiliary devices (rollers, belts) in classes, which made it easier for beginners to perform many asanas. The purpose of this style of yoga is to promote health. Much attention is paid to the correct performance of asanas, which are considered the basis for mental and physical recovery.

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PLAY AGAIN!

The next level of generosity is friendly giving. It's like treating a brother or sister. “Please take some of what I have. Use it and enjoy it like I do.” Generous dedication of your time, your energy, your belongings gives us even greater joy. It is beautiful. And it's so simple! The fact is that we don't need a lot of possessions to be happy. Our happiness or our sorrow is determined by nothing other than our attitude towards this changing life. The source of happiness is spirituality in our heart.

The third level of generosity is the royal gift. This is the case when we choose the most precious thing from what we have, be it our time or our energy, the best thing and happily give it to someone, saying: “Please take it! May this bring you joy too.”

By giving something valuable to another person, we bring pleasure to ourselves through spiritual growth and practice. By sharing more, we gain no less! This level of generosity is wonderful and worth mastering for spiritual growth.

Already at the beginning of learning the lessons of generosity, by giving others more of our time, our energy, items of our property, money, we can learn to do this, not guided by the goal of being at the height of our image or the desire to please the observer whose opinion we value, but simply because it becomes a source of true happiness in our lives. Of course, we are not talking about the need to give everything. This would be unnecessary, since we should also be compassionate towards ourselves and take reasonable care of our practice. And yet, to understand and feel the power of this type of spiritual growth and the practice of royal generosity is a special, most valuable achievement. It is a great privilege to illuminate your life with the sun of such practice.

Truth as the beginning of spiritual development

The third requirement for conscious behavior is abstaining from false speech. Ashtanga encourages the use only of speech that he calls correct or proper. “Don’t lie, say only what is true and what is useful, speak wisely, responsibly and appropriately.” The requirement for proper speech is thought-provoking. It calls us to be aware of how we use the energy of our words. But we spend such an impressive part of our lives on the process of speaking, on discussions in low-value details, on arguments, gossip, and presentation of plans.

Moreover, the lion's share of this chatter occurs at an almost unconscious level. Meanwhile, speech can be made one of the stimuli of the state of spiritual practice. During our words, we can be fully aware of our current actions, the motives for these actions and these words, as well as how we feel. We can be in this same state of complete vigilance while listening to others. The principles of spiritual practice to which we can and should subordinate our speech are: truthfulness, kindness, usefulness. But only by practicing a state of complete vigilance of thought can we come to understand and discover within ourselves the power of the word.

The word has great power. It can destroy and enlighten, be idle gossip or divisive sympathy. We are expected to show a keen sense of the situation, being in the tone of an all-seeing mind, and that our speech will come from the heart. If we say only what is true and useful, people will be drawn to us. A state of awareness and a clear conscience makes our mind calm and open, and fills our heart with happiness and peace.

Moderate sexual behavior

The fourth commandment to refrain from bad sexual behavior reminds us not to act on our sexual desires in a way that causes harm to another. It requires us to be responsible and honest in sexual relationships. Sexual energy is very high and fraught with drama. In these times of rapidly changing relationships and sexual values, we are called upon to be highly conscious in releasing this energy. If in our lives we connect this energy with greed, exploitation of other lives and coercion, then all our actions will acquire the nature of harmfulness in relation to others and to ourselves. Take, for example, adultery. Great is the suffering to which this leads, but also great is the joy of the simplicity of life and spiritual comfort that is bestowed upon us by mutual fidelity.

The spirit of this commandment encourages us to consider the motives behind our actions. By directing our attention in this direction, we (being secular people) see how sexuality is revealed to us through its deep unity with our hearts, and how it can be an expression of love in a broader sense, caring for another person and true intimacy. Almost all of us were terribly stupid in our time. intimate life, but subconsciously we also saw in sex an opportunity to partake of the beautiful, to touch beauty, to deeply touch another person. After all, it is sexuality imbued with consciousness that can be called an essential part of life, going under the sign of spirituality.

Maintaining a Clear Mind in Spiritual Practice

Abstinence from thoughtless drug use is the fifth commandment. She urges us to avoid taking such substances to the extent that they cause even partial loss of mental clarity, and encourages us to devote our lives to the opposite: the development of purity and constant concentration of thought. After all, we are given only one mind, and therefore it is our duty to take care of it.

There are millions of alcoholics and drug addicts in our country. Their mindless existence in the midst of terrible drug abuse causes torment for themselves, their families and everyone they are associated with. Yes, living consciously, with clear thought and a clear conscience is not easy, it means that we must face the fears and pains that challenge our heart.

Seeking refuge in drugs is undoubtedly a false path. Entering the realm of truly human values ​​and creating the ground for spiritual life is associated with the requirement to bring awareness into all our actions and relationships, including the use of drugs, our speech, deeds, and gestures. Establishing chaste and harmonious relationships with the outside world gives a feeling of lightness and freedom and gives the mind lasting clarity.

Establishing the stronghold of chastity within ourselves brings us great happiness and liberation and is an indispensable condition for wise meditation. Having this stronghold, we gain the ability to rise to a truly conscious life and not to waste the exceptional chance of being born as a human being, which presupposes improvement in the great gift of understanding and sympathy for all things.

“Prosperity, love, happiness on Earth for some reason does not come, although a person has chosen the bright path. It seems to many that he is doing something wrong, since there is no result that he dreamed of. No happiness, no prosperity, no health. The choice you made does not lead to the goals for which you started this path of life. It's not a mistake, it's just the wrong route. It’s like you were getting ready to go to the airport, and then you got on a minibus going to the train station. In order to get to the airport, you need to take a minibus going directly to the airport” (says psychologist Svetlana Dobrovolskaya).

Many people, harboring illusions, have accepted for themselves the path spiritual development and having accepted for themselves the postulate “improving energy, communicating with invisible plans, influencing one’s karma,” they believe that all this will bring them closer to their goal - prosperity, love, health, youth, beauty, fulfillment. And definitely - happy life. All these wonderful techniques (real ones) really cleanse karma and influence the state of our planet during collective meditations, but all these wonderful practices are like “fuel”. If you fill the tank of your car with first-class fuel, but continue to drive towards the railway, you will not end up at the airport. Confusion arises: “Where am I going?” The result clearly does not meet expectations.

No matter how much you trust your problems to be cleansed by the Higher Powers (as so many people do), no matter how many different techniques you apply, until you, a specific person, take responsibility for your human life, for your human grievances, not for your past incarnations, not for their endless tails of past realizations in the most different worlds, civilizations, Atlantis, planets, but for a specific current life, for the grievances you have caused. Until you take up this human life of yours with your own human hands and not with the help Higher powers, which will cleanse you and release you sterile into heaven on Earth - you will not end up where you want.

People ask “What should I do?” instead of asking “Who am I?” It doesn’t matter at all what to do. What matters is who I am! Not a single higher being from the subtle plane can give us advice on how to act in our current situation. These angelic forces never had specific problems in life. There is no greater master than yourself. There is no adviser, there is no wizard who, touching you with a magic wand, will change your life forever.

No matter how much you turn to the Guardians of Karma, to the great Teachers and Masters who cleanse your fields, raise your vibrations - this helps you a lot, purifying your fuel, but you must align the direction of your life yourself. And this is impossible as long as you close your eyes to your little human part. It is very comfortable to feel like a transformer of the Earth, it is very inspiring to experience extraterrestrial states, to feel like a diamond through which a ray is refracted to transform the Worlds.

But in order to get where you want here on Earth, you need to look at that part of your life that was never connected with this Divine support, and which, in its heroic everyday life, both could and lived in the limited human consciousness . It is this human part of you that is the most magical part of your life. And you, a specific person, need to look into your fears, and not the immortal entity that descended into this human body see “How karma developed there.” You need to look at it from the perspective of a specific person who earns his living and doesn’t get enough. You need to look from the point of view of relationships, interactions with everyone around you, at your grievances, anger, humiliation, limitations and many conditions that from the point of view of immortality are insignificant, but from the point of view of you, unique creation– this is a unique reservoir of energy, because each such realized painful situation is, out of ignorance, the power of the Creator used in the wrong direction. No one consciously wants to suffer, no one consciously wants to be deprived of strength, to be humiliated, but it is no coincidence that we attract such situations to ourselves in life precisely in order to reconsider previously made mistakes, without being ashamed of ourselves and without blaming others, accepting this experience as game development. And when you accept this, then the entire charge of energy that was previously used not in the direction in which you wanted goes for a good cause. All our suffering is fueled by a specific force that can also feed our happiness. And when you review your specific life events, let go of everyone who brought you lessons, let go of your “ inner child“, you understand that you could not behave differently in those situations - the entire charge of energy previously used for destructive purposes is released. And then you not only receive fuel for movement, the fuel that numerous practices provide today, but you also get a clear road, you really begin to move where you really want to go.

Svetlana Dobrovolskaya interestingly reflects on the fate of healers, many of whom are now at a loss, since a lot of effort was given - but where is the return? They have the danger of replacing life in other Worlds of life in a specific physical body. Now the moment has come when everyone can take their lives into their own hands and the help of specialists is nothing more than the help of a guide, and not a healer who influences the fate of another person. The moment has come when everyone is responsible for themselves, and it is not surprising that many practices do not lead to the results that they once did.

Now is the time (according to Svetlana Dobrovolskaya) that practices should not lift you into Heaven, but lower you to the real Earth. No practice to balance your inner space will be realized until you put on your sneakers and run until you feel every cell of your physical body in the rapture of the activity you have chosen. And the “star partner”, the person who longs to connect with you with his heart, simply does not recognize you, because your shell does not correspond to your content. There must be a transformation. It is very important to act with specific, ordinary earthly methods. Just because you engage in practices and read mantras, the main thing will not happen - your ideal etheric body cannot close with your physical body until you specifically live in this physical body. In the same way, you cannot attract a soul mate until you yourself are overjoyed when looking at yourself in the mirror. While you are deceiving yourself that your blurry figure does not matter with your shining heart - no! We live in an era when harmony should be here on Earth. It doesn't say that everyone has to be skinny, but you should like your physical body and be friends with it so that it reflects your inner beauty. It’s the same with profession, education and finances.

Svetlana Dobrovolskaya talks about the flow of letters in which people list many practices aimed at prosperity and ask “What am I doing wrong, why am I still not thriving?” Prosperity is built step by step, and if you did all the practices correctly, if you really learned how to spend money joyfully, how to feel independent from the assessment of others, how to feel in the flow when you help someone, how to clearly understand that your favorite business should not bring you income, but should warm your soul - then the income will be formulated as needed.

Those. when you free yourself from the restrictions of this little man living in you and stop waiting for a miracle, and learn to create it in life - then there will be abundance in your environment, then it will turn out that you are able to find yourself on the transporter that attracts more opportunities to you. You do not find yourself from a communal apartment in a palace, you realize that you attracted this communal apartment to yourself with the maximum possible abilities of yours in the past. Therefore, if you want a change in conditions, you must think about what internal programs prompted you to end up in this communal apartment. We have a support group in the Invisible World. But this is just support, not guidance. All steps here are taken by us. If you find yourself in a situation where your spiritual aspirations have not moved you towards earthly prosperity, you should stop, look at those who simply live, enjoy every day their loved ones, nature, food, animals, and live an ordinary life with pleasure - you need “ to land” and appreciate the uniqueness of life on this beautiful planet, here, in the body of this life, to sip it to the fullest. To do this, you don’t need to move into a palace, be a billionaire, or win a beauty contest - all you need to do is feel that you have a guide - your physical body. Next, Svetlana Dobrovolskaya talks about the fear of taking real steps in life, since some are afraid to “fall” from their transcendental space, where they are the “saviors of the World” into the ordinary human environment, where they are inept, socially unadapted and vulnerable people. Every problem you have is a precious gift. There is absolutely no point in getting the answer to this problem from any person who can give it to you (psychotherapist, guru, mentor). Why do you need an answer that you take from outside? This answer will not bring you any closer to the answer. You will solve this particular situation, but there will be a more difficult situation and you will finally think - “Why are you creating these situations for yourself?”

Svetlana Dobrovolskaya encourages you to take care of yourself, emphasizing that all the accumulations of the spiritual plan do not disappear anywhere. You simply push them aside for a while, and deal with a not very strong, not very beautiful physical body, specific practical steps. Until you understand your physical body, you will not be able to translate the accumulated spiritual forces into specific life situations. We need to take and disassemble the pantry with our “troubles”. No matter how low it may seem from our “elevated” existence. You don't need to go anywhere to be “cleansed.” Everything is in your hands - to understand and accept yourself! No matter how many inspiring lectures you listen to, until you take specific steps, specific techniques (which you choose yourself), nothing will work.

Action is the main characteristic of success. Not contemplation, nor transformation of energy, but action on the physical plane. Only we have in our hands the threads from all situations in different incarnations, and only we can resolve a specific situation. We incarnated in order to resolve this plot ourselves, and not in order to free ourselves from the burden of the past. Believe in yourself, and remember - it’s never too late to come down to Earth, take your life into your own hands and take concrete steps, temporarily putting aside your “cosmic wisdom”, psychic abilities, because on the physical plane you must act as a human being, bearing in mind that you have an immortal Soul. And you will succeed! Here is a review of the lecture by psychologist Svetlana Dobrovolskaya. What she said does not enter into any contradictions, but only confirms the sequence: first, taking care of the body (), cleaning the energy, fields, breaking through energy blockages (this) and only then -

This same topic, like Svetlana Dobrovolskaya, was developed by John Welwood, an innovator in the study of the relationship between Western psychotherapy and Buddhist practice. Wellwood has written extensively on the topics of relationships, psychotherapy, consciousness and personal growth, including the best-selling book The Journey of the Heart. It was he who coined the term “spiritual avoidance” - key concept to understand the dangers of long-term spiritual practice. Welwood points to a widespread tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to circumvent or avoid dealing with unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unmet developmental milestones. With spirituality, we sometimes avoid things, try to rise above the raw and murky side of our humanity before we have fully addressed it and come to terms with it. Dharma (the Path) is too often used as an excuse to deny our human side.

As one Western Zen teacher interviewed in The New York Times", advised one of his mentors: "What you need to do is to reject all human feelings." When he began undergoing psychotherapy decades later, he realized that this was bad advice, and it took him decades to realize this. This is such a difficult task - to follow the Path, aware of your physical body and living on the earthly plane! –

« Success comes to those who practice tirelessly. Because how can you succeed without work? You will not achieve success by reading books and thinking about Yoga.

Neither by wearing ritual clothes, nor by talking about lofty matters, but only by practice can the truth be successfully comprehended. This is certain » .
("Hatha Yoga Pradipika", 1-67,1-68)

“You are very wrong if you immediately seek Self-realization, Enlightenment, seek God, strive to return to the Higher Consciousness. These are very high energies.

First of all, educate your body. Your body is like a cluttered, untidy, dirty room. First clean the room and then light will shine into it.

So first enlighten the body, and only then will you know how to grow higher and reach your True Self.”

(Pilot Baba “Himalayan Siddha Yoga”)

“Happiness can come in two ways. The first way is external. By acquiring a better home, better clothes, more pleasant friends, we can find happiness and satisfaction to one degree or another. The second path is the path of spiritual development, and it allows you to achieve inner happiness. However, these two approaches are not equivalent. External happiness without internal happiness cannot last long. If life is painted in black colors for you, if your heart lacks something, you will not be happy, no matter how much luxury you surround yourself with. But if you have reached inner peace, then you can find happiness even in the most difficult conditions.”

Dalai Lama XIV

Was last modified: March 12th, 2019 by consultant

39 comments on “Why don’t spiritual practices lead to prosperity?”

  1. Lina:
    -

    A good comment on the same post in my LiveJournal:

    “We (people) do not understand why we live on the planet. It seems to us that suffering is evil, so we strive for “well-being.”

    A person considers himself moral, performs some spiritual practices, rituals, but life does not improve. I have seen many such people from traditional religions. Some kind of life problem, they begin to pray, if God has not heard, faith in him is lost.

    In general, we look only for external manifestations, even when we consider ourselves spiritual people.

    And all these practices are in order to become richer, more famous, smarter, cooler in everything.

    There is no such thing as a prosperous and prosperous life; even the saints suffered. Without heroism there would be no holiness or heroism. No person has gone through life without problems and difficulties. No matter how you pray, no matter what rituals you observe, you will still have to answer for everything you have done.

    And in general, without overcoming there would be no development, no growth. There would be a sickening Paradise, where everyone feels the same way. And what's the point?

  2. Irina laz:
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    Hello Lina!
    I’ve been using your articles for about a year now, I really like the presentation of the material, I’ve learned a lot from it. I’m writing for the first time because I’m hooked.

    Fate brings me amazing surprises... This time in the form of this article. Everything about me.

    I am engaged in spiritual practices, trying to “improve” myself, my character. And inside there remains some kind of barrier that does not allow you to relax and breathe full breasts. Constant feeling of guilt before loved ones, fear of offending, causing inconvenience. And nothing changes in life, although there are a lot of desires! There are no conditions, no opportunities, my husband doesn’t approve... I began to think about what “not destiny” means, that you can simply be happy there, “within yourself.” After all, I'm not selfish.

    And then your article literally made me look at myself from the outside. It's hard to describe the feelings I experienced. This is pain, shame, and disappointment. And that’s why I decided to write about it. I don’t want to be a victim of my own cowardice, I don’t want to engage in self-deception and hide my head in the sand anymore. I want to live a full-blooded, interesting life, rich life. And share your happiness with everyone.

    Thank you very much.

  3. Lina:
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    Irina,
    You are not alone in your throwing! This was your stage of life. And now another stage may come. As in the parable:

    “When I knew nothing about Zen, mountains were mountains and rivers were rivers...
    When I began to study Zen, mountains ceased to be mountains and rivers ceased to be rivers...
    … Now that I have understood Zen, the mountains have become mountains again and the rivers have become rivers.”

    - So again, mountains can become mountains and rivers can become rivers. And this will be real life in a real physical body! You can start to get along better with both yourself and your husband. If we had been prescribed to spend our lives in other Worlds, then we would have been born there, in a different body corresponding to those Worlds.

    “A constant feeling of guilt before loved ones, fear of offending, causing inconvenience”
    - everyone is familiar with the programs of guilt hung since childhood, already for the fact that “we gave birth to you” (and we will hang like weights on your feet until we drive you away :)). And as the famous yogi A. Sidersky says, “When we gave birth, everyone is free!” Of course, it’s not so straightforward, you need to bring the children to the point of “flying out of the family nest”, and then - in fact - everyone is free.

    If everything is done correctly, then you can be good real friends with adult children, help them both morally and financially, but when this happens, then a feeling of guilt arises in front of loved ones and everything that you described.

    Irina,
    Good luck to you in your new stage of life, where you can invest what you acquired earlier, but on a different level, I rejoice in my body on this planet. And on other planets we will be in other lives (maybe) :)

  4. Ivan:
    -

    “You just have to live. Pamper yourself with delicious food, build a family or not, make a career or not, go to other countries, read beautiful books, walk barefoot on the spring grass, pick wildflowers, gurgle lemonade through a straw and at times turn your back on the stereotypes of society.” (E. Safarli)

  5. Lina:
    -

    Another comment to the same post from VK from Ekaterina:

    “From my beloved R. Skinner, an article on the advantages and disadvantages of the spiritual path and the path through psychology:

    – “... our natural tendency to float with the flow of vital energy towards an ever-increasing degree of mortification and ritualization of its manifestations - or, to put it differently, our predisposition to transform genuine experience into fantasy, to the subsequent repetition of this fantasy, so that life becomes not only a series of second-rate movies, but even the same second-rate film repeated over and over again - this tendency is so strong that we need a discipline of effort that would convince us - through the constantly experienced inability to swim against any current - that we are always swimming with flow. And for this we also need the discipline of a group of close people who know us well and love us enough to demand from us the usual effort that would remind us of the actual facts when we are carried too far away from our real self and begin to live in dreams and selfish fantasies that would require us to be no less than ordinary men and women going about their daily duties.”

    Skinner is the author of the wonderful books “Family and How to Survive in It” and “Life and How to Survive in It.” They are much easier written than this article, and also talk (a rare case for psychology) about the psyche of mentally healthy people :)

  6. Rina:
    -

    So it turns out that the Path may have been chosen incorrectly? So much time is spent on this. What, just take it and leave everything? And do housework?

  7. Lina:
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    Rina,
    C. Castaneda said it well on this matter:

    “Everyone goes their own way...
    But all roads still go nowhere.
    This means that the whole point is in the road itself, how to go along it...
    If you walk with pleasure, then this is your path.
    If you feel bad, you can leave it at any time,
    no matter how far you go.
    And it will be right.”

  8. Sergey m:
    -

    Lina, it should be on topic. I’m currently reading “The Akashic Chronicles” for May 2014 on the akashy website....ru
    and just about grounding:

    “This is a very exciting month, but at the core it is down to earth. Now there is no need to spend a lot of time meditating and trying to connect with higher spheres. The sublime will not escape you, so for a while, focus your attention on the earth, make sure that all your intentions and plans revolve exclusively around you and what you can do with your own hands in this world.

    Feel your feet on the ground, make sure you feel a spiritual connection with the planet, now it is very important that you draw energy from below so that your life has a strong and reliable foundation that will feed you energy and help you withstand that rapid growth which humanity is experiencing today"

  9. Paul:
    -

    Prosperity doesn't come because we often block it ourselves.
    Watch a cool video on the website of the “money doctor” Evgeniy Deyneko (type his blog deyneko....com...ua/archives/11278 “Money self-sabotage”. There are 119 reasons why money receipts are blocked, and very interesting comments from the practice of working through these blockages .

  10. Lina:
    -

    Paul,
    This is a godsend for many! Thank you!
    The “money doctor” sorted everything out very well!

  11. Svetka:
    -

    Lina,
    how to be? It's literally tearing into pieces. It seems to me that my husband and I are not suitable for each other at all. I keep striving for spirituality, but he is purely material. It turns out that he was not destined for me by fate?

  12. Lina:
    -

    Svetka,
    There is a danger here of falling into your own superiority, when everyone around you is “terribly mundane.”

    Sometimes such spirituality is even more dangerous than materiality.

    A material person receives karmic lessons when he is deprived of the meaning of his life - material things. He begins to understand that all this is perishable. But it is more difficult for the spiritual, since with the growth of spirituality, pride and a sense of superiority often grow. And this is already dangerous.

    As for fate - maybe it was given to you in order to “ground” you.

  13. Sergey inv:
    -

    Good afternoon.

    What about karma? Yes, it’s great, we’re in a positive mood, we’re doing everything, we’re creating, we’re traveling, we’re trying. But what to do if nothing works out? , when at some point you personally did everything that depended on you, and then it depends on other people or circumstances, which, as far as I understand, in turn will develop from the purity of your karma. And how to open this chain?

  14. Lina:
    -

    Sergey,
    - “we are positive”
    – karma is not about that, it’s not about setting yourself up for positivity.

    – The most widespread interpretation of karma in everyday life is the moral law of cause and effect. Everything is the effect of past causes and is itself the cause of future effects. A person is completely immersed in this process and is forced to constantly face the consequences of his past actions. This is karma.

    The Mahabharata (an ancient epic of India) says that human life- this is retribution for the wrong previous one, and that, just as a calf will always find its mother cow in a pasture with hundreds of cows, so Karma will find a person (etc. about karma in the post “”)

    “And how to open this chain?”
    – getting out of Samsara (the wheel of rebirth) is incredibly difficult. As the Hindus write, after thousands and millions of rebirths, you may not be able to cope with this. We are pulled back by our attachments, desires, unfinished deeds - and it is practically impossible to escape from this.

    “Through spiritual practices, we seem to push the Wheel of Samsara to the side, and after a while, lo and behold, it no longer follows the laid path of karma. The trajectory has changed. But, unfortunately, this may not happen in this life, we just won’t have time.”

  15. Sergey inv:
    -

    Of course, I know that karma is not about that, but the problem is that everything is exactly connected and depends on each other.

    “It is incredibly difficult to get out of Samsara (the wheel of rebirth). ”
    – and perhaps this is precisely what is depressing, that it is quite difficult.

  16. Allah d:
    -

    Lina, please explain what spiritual practices are? And how in the famous song “everything is clear, but what exactly?”

  17. Lina:
    -

    “What exactly?”

    The practice of sadhana, as a rule, consists of purposeful exercises, regular, daily meditation, different types yoga, repetition of mantras (often using japa mala) - all this develops will, self-control and increases clarity of perception.

    One of the goals of spiritual practice is to eliminate the influence of the mind, which consists of thoughts and desires. Part of spiritual practice includes techniques for quieting thoughts. “Yoga is the calming of the agitation of the mind” (1st sloka of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjdali).

    Spiritual practice (sadhana) is a Sanskrit term in Hinduism and Buddhism, which can be translated as “a means to achieve something,” a certain algorithm of actions that must be constantly repeated in order to achieve some result.

    Sadhana is followed to achieve various spiritual and ritual goals, for the sake of spiritual purification and progress in spiritual life. The goals of sadhana may be to achieve spiritual enlightenment, pure love of God, liberation from the cycle of samsara, or to gain the blessing of some deity or form of God.

    In a broad sense, spiritual practice is nothing more than practical use teachings for every action of daily life. In Vivekanada’s book “The Four Yogas” you can read about different practices. It’s better to start with “Karma Yoga” (Yoga of service).

    Although the term “spiritual practices” is now confused with religion, with various psychotherapeutic methods, healing systems, healing, and they call it “pseudo-spiritual” practices that do not affect the deep foundations of the human “I”. But these practices are often very effective in healing a person’s physical and mental ailments. As a rule, the development of a person’s spirituality requires detachment from most worldly excesses, even to the point of becoming a hermit and living alone, far from society. And this heals.

    There are thousands of pages and forums on the Internet about various spiritual practices, for example:

    “Despite the fact that interest in spiritual practices is enormous, few people who begin to engage in spiritual practice clearly understand what spiritual rebirth is and what they will have to face. After all, the process of a person’s spiritual rebirth is qualitatively different from the psychophysical correction of his personality.

    Spiritual practice, causing changes at the level of spirit, initiates a restructuring of the entire “human” system as a whole. Therefore, everyone who was engaged in any spiritual practice had to deal with a variety of physiological disorders of varying degrees of intensity - exacerbations of chronic diseases, with lightning-fast developing acute processes; fall into depression; experience bouts of euphoria; change externally and internally. This is due to the fact that spiritual awakening, despite the positive nature of the changes occurring at the spiritual level, causes a violation of the “internal environment” in the “human” system. (The state of the system is stabilized only after complete processing of the material raised during spiritual awakening). …..unsystematic, independent practice of spiritual practices without prior thorough preparation can cause significant impairment of physical and mental health.
    (from the website “Living Knowledge”, naturalworld…ru)

    I don’t even know what to add to what is collected in the “Spiritual” section (there are already 17 articles). Yes, and in this article and the link
    , and on Welwood, who has written extensively on the topics of relationships, psychotherapy, consciousness and personal growth, including the best-selling Journey of the Heart (one of the next posts will be an interview with Welwood, “On Spiritual Avoidance”).

  18. Allah d:
    -

    Lina, thank you very much for such a detailed, thorough answer. At least the conversation about spirituality has somehow become more substantive. I will study using your links.

  19. Tatiana yu:
    -

    Lina,
    your blog post on thought materialization and problems in large scale planning is very interesting.

    On the one hand, when you strive for such a realization of plans in your life, which is what your post is about, yes.

    However, it also happens that you have to resort not to the daily practice of visualizing what you want, but to the constant practice of filtering your thoughts, I would even say every minute, for their consequences. Because absolutely everything that is formed in the head into a clear and coherent thought materializes at the same hour.

    It's kind of back side the topic of your post))) and with this, certain problems and annoying situations can also happen if you don’t learn to live with it.

    Of course, with due diligence and regular training, you can “ride” this power, but it is also difficult and requires every minute effort!)) Just imagine, living every day with such a filter in your head: what you can think and what you can’t. Because the slightest glitch in the access system immediately forms into a clear thought and you already see reality)))

    For example, on a regular walk in the yard with my son. My son is riding a bike, another boy on his bike wants to play crash with him: he constantly crashes into mine, thereby not only getting in the way, but also actually creating conditions for the bike to break down.

    As a result, after another such blow, the rear auxiliary wheel of our bike is slightly damaged. I twist it and make a remark to this comrade that it’s not very good to play like that. To his question “why?”, I simply answer that the same situation could happen to him, I say “your bicycle wheel will fall off”)))

    About 10 minutes pass, his dad approaches the boy, and they begin to leave the site, stop a few meters away and begin to actively do something with the rear wheel of the bicycle. At this time, my son runs up to me and shows me some part, having examined our bike, we understand that everything is in order, but the same part is on the rear wheel mount))) the son runs to the boy to give the found part, and I This is the time I hear that dad’s phrase: “I don’t understand anything, the wheel fell off!”

    This is me, for example, in everyday everyday life, which certainly becomes a constant reality when there is the ability to materialize on a large scale. When a close-up works, no one can cancel the current moments)))

    In my opinion, today quite often you can find all kinds of information on the topic of achieving what you want and cultivating various abilities in yourself that help, as most everyone seems to think, to make your life better. But a coin always has two sides)))

    Perhaps my personal case does not fall into the majority, but it is real and gives growth in a different direction: not in achieving what is not given, but one wants, but in qualitatively understanding what is and living with it so as not to disturb others )))

  20. Lina:
    -

    Tatiana,
    Well, I read it like a letter from my twin sister.

    And of course, “the case does not fall into the majority,” but such scenarios are quite common (or they just happen to gather around me) - I didn’t have time to think about it - and here it is. Since time does not exist, and any event has already happened (we just may not know it yet), then often this “thought-happened” is explained by the fact that “I considered the information of an approaching event - I saw this event.” As one of my friends says, who visualizes all this every minute, “It’s even boring!”

  21. Natalia at:
    -

    Lina, how do you feel about mantras? This is already directly spiritual practice. And, following from this article, do they come after asanas and pranayama in order? That is, they should be accepted if everything is more or less balanced with physics?

  22. Lina:
    -

    Natalia,
    Yes, the sequence is exactly like this, without asanas you cannot sit correctly to practice pranayama, and then you will not enter a meditative state.

    Reciting mantras is considered a type of meditation. And the task of meditation is to free the mind from unnecessary thoughts, to calm the mind, like the whole task of yoga. “Yoga is the calming of the agitation of the mind” (1st line of “Yoga Sutra” by Patanjali). And it is very difficult to calm the mind if the person’s body and soul are in a state of discomfort, and the person’s breathing is uneven.

    Those who invite neophytes to all kinds of mantra meditation say that mantras are capable of spiritualizing a person, making everything around him perfect, fulfilling bright and good desires, bestowing good luck and success, healing from diseases of the body and spirit, and also protecting against their occurrence.

    In fact, few people succeed in anything other than “spiritualization.” Luck and success often accompany other, more down-to-earth comrades who don’t care about anything at all. Big money (which many associate success with) is not made for goodness.

    Millions of Hindus have been chanting mantras for thousands of years in poverty and in bodies that have not completely overcome their illnesses and problems. And it would seem that everything should work! This means that the above promises of “the work of mantras” are deceit; something exists that does not allow such promises to come true.

    Mantras work like any tool in knowing hands. But it turns out that those who are masters of this instrument (know how to pronounce mantras correctly) have most likely reached such a stage that they are no longer interested in everything listed above: wish fulfillment, good luck, success, healing from illnesses. They no longer need anything, and they do not care about the body, realizing that it is perishable.

    The rest, who do not master this skill perfectly, may not achieve any success and may even harm themselves.

    Here is the correspondence on one of the “advanced” sites:

    “I am very glad that among us there are those who are seriously engaged in the study of Sanskrit, honor and praise to them, but there are also those who find languages ​​difficult and I ask others not to be driven by this question, the main thing is what meaning we put into pronouncing these mantras. Guruji said that Hindus themselves are not driven by this question, but we are driven by the fact that we are brought up in the Western understanding to put everything into categories and thereby fall into the trap of our mind.”
    (end of quote).

    That is why many Hindus also do not have any results, because “the Hindus themselves are not driven by this issue.”

    By the way, the seeming universal preoccupation of Hindus with their spiritual improvement is a myth. In Canada, where I live in a large environment of Indians (there is a huge immigration from India), there are enough Indians, we communicate often. So, we tell most of them about yoga and Ayurveda (and they don’t tell us).

    One friend, a Brahmin, told my husband and I that what we know, God willing, is known by 2% of Hindus. And he himself learned almost nothing from his Brahman family, and apart from the Brahman thread he has nothing to boast of.

    Returning to the mantras:

    Each sound carries a certain vibration, affects certain areas of consciousness (and events), must be pronounced very correctly, otherwise it may not lead to the desired result, and time will be wasted (meaning achieving your goals). Well, as a wonderful pastime, listening (not repeating) mantras is wonderful.

    Mantras taken out of the system, when people are invited to mantra meditation, often unprepared (physically), promising incredible results for something - do not quite work. People repeat mantras for hours and days (do they pronounce Sanskrit sounds correctly, the difference in pronunciation of which is sometimes difficult to discern?).

    When they begin to practice mantra meditation “seriously”, failures may lurk. With incorrect and careless pronunciation of sounds, various diseases of the spirit and even the body can develop.

    There are many subtleties - from the correctness of breathing (some sounds need to be pronounced, for example, as you exhale, directing your breath to the lower abdomen, others vice versa. Also in Sanskrit there are aspirated sounds, unknown to many, which are difficult to pronounce. Pronouncing them correctly is not a task from the lungs.

    They can’t pronounce “triphala” correctly :)
    cm.

    If you pronounce it incorrectly, you will not achieve positive results, or, even worse, you will cause irreparable harm to yourself.

    Just recently one girl told her story:

    And she herself read, and a yoga instructor from a well-known center told her that in her difficult current situation she needed to read the “durga mantra.” Well, she reads it year after year, goes to the ashram 2 times a year, the situation in life is only getting worse.
    And then her kundalini began to rise, and this is not a joke, you need to know what to do about it.

    In general, after several years of practicing mantra meditation, a heat went up her spine, she began to shake and feel stiff. It’s good that there was a family member in the next room, he heard her mooing, somehow she managed to explain and ask her to call her yoga center, the main Hindu yogi. He quickly came to her, somehow found out what she was doing, said that she was pronouncing one sound incorrectly and the mantra was working the other way around. But there is only one line in that mantra. In general, he gave her this correct sound, they sat together and chanted the mantra, and he did something else to her - the girl became wedged. But she recited the durga mantra for several years with great persistence, and maybe it worked.

    The majority do not have such perseverance, and mantras cannot cause serious damage. And like pleasant, wonderful music that puts someone into a trance, someone just in a good mood, like the unity of a group (as the cynics joke - “for further fooling”) - mantras are a wonderful thing. I love it and listen to it all the time. True, sometimes an overflow occurs, then Beethoven and Mozart are turned on (this is all only during operation, in the background).

    On numerous sites calling for mantra meditation, you can find that it doesn’t matter how to read the mantras, it is important that it comes from the heart, as in prayer. This is a delusion that is fraught with consequences (in a bad scenario) or with little result in the form of a good mood. Missing words in prayer does not play a role, but in mantras accurate reproduction of sounds is important.

    Another neophyte’s reasoning (from one of the many forums):

    “No matter how you read the mantra, They will understand it. Surely the Divine will not understand his child who, instead of “orange,” says “lipisin””

    To which they answer:
    “My child, who, growing up, continues to say “lipisin”, caring parents They usually take you to a speech therapist” :)

    Here's another from another site:

    “.. even if some sounds are not given to you, for example, if they are not in your native language, it is absolutely scary. For some reason, some people believe that mantras are like spells from science fiction films that must be pronounced absolutely accurately. In fact, the main thing when pronouncing mantras is intention, love and feelings. For example, if you say: “I am happy and my heart is filled with love,” you do not have to pronounce this phrase correctly, because you know what you mean and what feelings you are experiencing. And here it is impossible to make a mistake.”

    It's possible to make a mistake! One of the stories has already been described above.

    Well, I’ll end the too long comment (which I will later supplement and make into an article about mantras) with a parable

    CREATION
    – What is the highest act a person can perform?
    – Sit and meditate.
    But the Master himself was rarely seen sitting in meditation. He was constantly busy - working around the house and in the fields, greeting visitors and writing books. He even kept accounting records for the monastery.
    – Why then do you spend all your time working?
    – When you work, there is no need to sit and meditate.

  23. Anastasia Aum:
    -

    Lina, I read your 22nd comment on this article and thought about it.

    I’m not thinking about the unfolding kundalini yet :)

    Recently I began to notice that after practicing yoga, and sometimes outside of practice, in the area of ​​the heart (exactly where the heart is physiologically located - slightly to the left of the spinal column) I experience a noticeable heat for a couple of minutes. It's as if someone inside turns on a light bulb near the heart. A very pleasant warmth, unlike anything else.

    And when I just started doing yoga, my spine hurt in this place, but there was no hernia or osteochondrosis.

    Have you encountered this? Can this Anahata chakra open like this? I didn’t strive to open it, it just so happened) And it’s also very interesting, do the chakras open one after another or in parallel?

  24. Lina:
    -

    Anastasia,
    I don't even know where to start. Hundreds of volumes by different authors have been written on chakras; it’s impossible to re-read them. There are many different ideas on the Internet, “new techniques”, under the actions of which “something suddenly reveals itself.” Often this is a game of imagination, since people are very suggestible (this is confirmed by numerous experiments), such as everyone is given salt, but 29 (decoy) people say that it is sugar. The 30th, one “normal” person who does not know about the conspiracy, feels that it is salt, but after a short time he succumbs to general pressure and also says that it is sugar. It’s the same with chakras and kundalini; many people read a lot and begin to “open the chakras.”

    In previous comments, I wrote about where I’ve been and what sects I’ve gotten into (understanding what it is). So, dozens of times I saw women at “meditations” who were accidentally dragged in by someone who briefly talked about kundalini, and then by the end of the hour-long session the lady “enlightened” - her kundalini rose. And then he tells the others, “Yes, it turns out that some kind of snake lives there, and it’s already crawling along my spine.” Well, a complete disruption of everything :)

    The chakras themselves open as they grow older, no special training is needed for this, and they open gradually, from the lower, vital one. When the body is provided with vital force, then you can think about other things.

    The relationship is not always straightforward: the chakras work poorly (it is not clear why) and, as a result, the person has problems in the corresponding area.

    The connection here is two-way: the extent to which a person develops this area for which the chakra is responsible, the extent to which it, this chakra, functions. Rural residents have a strong Muladhara (root chakra), in itself, no one specifically develops it; connection with the earth, simple work, simple but sufficient nutrition with clean foods give this strength.

    Creative people have a developed Vishuddha (throat chakra), and the more a person is creative, the more intensely his Vishuddha works. And if such a person wants everything to be in order in his creative life, this is the one creative life and you need to study, and not sit in the Lotus position and influence Vishuddha, so that creativity moves for the better.

    Many sources persistently explain that premature opening of chakras is dangerous and they cannot be opened by force. But still there are a lot of kundalini classes around, trainings on opening the chakras. Thank God that this kundalini common man who gets into such trainings cannot rise, and the chakras (if closed) will not open just like that.

    It is not always possible to forcefully open chakras; a person must be prepared for this by previous actions.
    Well, when a person has prepared for this, the chakras open on their own!

    Improving a person in various areas is the opening of the chakras. They open on their own. You cannot deceive the laws of development and “jump” the stages of work on yourself.

    For those who decide to engage in chakra spinning, there is a warning - these are not toys, this is a rather complex process that requires many months of practice. Great care is needed when working on the chakras; if the slightest discomfort occurs, the activity should be stopped. Kundalini can follow a path not intended for it and cause trouble, even death or insanity.

  25. Anastasia Aum:
    -

    Lina, thank you very much, I haven’t really studied anything about chakras yet. So it’s not on purpose) I only do yoga and try to live in accordance with my conscience. It's difficult to understand what's happening when you don't know what's going on.

  26. Vasily Terkin:
    -

    if you don't have enough money, you can ask for it from your rich inner world :)

  27. Dmitry M:
    -

    In material terms, engaging in spiritual practices brought me harm. When I didn’t know anything, I was like a tank, achieving everything I wanted. I was very aggressive, I could “crush” anyone and turn the way I needed. Everyone felt my strength.

    And then I found myself, as I thought, in the “guna of Goodness”. It turned out that in the “Gun of Stupidity”. Because the edges need to be known in both cases.

    The change was felt immediately, and they simply “gobbled up” at one job, did not take on others, a small business parallel to work fell apart, problems began in the family. I have not yet been able to recover (in material terms), not even to recover, I’m just now at a broken trough and trying to put myself together from the remnants of the former me.

    Of course, I will never be the same again, I learned too much and changed my mind during this time, but somehow I have to feed my family, they don’t care about spiritual practices :)

  28. Lina:
    -

    Dmitriy,
    thanks for the revelations! This will help many people understand their lives, especially beginners, with theirs :)

    I have been asked many times, “Do you think my situation will improve if I do yoga, search for truths, and spiritual practices?”
    I always answer: “In material terms, no, at least in the first years. Maybe later, when everything falls into place, you will calmly find a business that you want to do and it can bring you good income. But not now, when you are nervously grabbing at everything in order to improve your financial condition. All these practices are not about that.

    – How can spirituality help a worldly person like me? – the businessman asked the Master.
    “She will help you become even richer,” answered the Master.
    - But how?
    - By teaching me to want less.

  29. Gregory:
    -

    Illusions in spiritual practice

    There is a belief that sadhana, dedication, mantras, purva punya (reserve of piety) solves all problems. But as experience shows, even after many years of pilgrimage and life in the ashrams of India, people can continue to carry within themselves the problems of “worldly” relationships, for example, a burden of resentment towards their parents.

    That's why it's so important to know the following:

    Spiritual practice answers many questions, but it does not solve all problems and does not let the genie out of the bottle to fulfill all desires.
    Sooner or later you will have to face yourself and your deepest experiences.
    .
    Be prepared for the fact that accepting yourself and the imperfect world around you may be more difficult for you than loving the Supreme. But without the first there is no second.

    If you started your spiritual practice expecting quick and easy changes, you may be disappointed. Get ready for spring cleaning your heart, you have to start with it.

    Remember, working on yourself is a lot of work and sometimes pain. But this process brings problems to the surface and makes it possible to deal with them. And when the space is cleared, Light enters it. This will be the result of spiritual practice.

    (found on the Internet, in “The Practice of Conscious Living”)

  30. Lina:
    -

    Many people are interested in meditation, but this interest is superficial, because only a few have been transformed through meditation. If the interest is truly deep, it itself becomes the fire of transformation. Many seem interested but remain the same.

    This means they are deceiving themselves. And this deception is subtle. Deep down, you don’t want transformation, you’re even afraid. The fear of transformation is similar to the fear of death. Transfiguration is death, for the old goes away and the new is born. You will no longer exist, something unknown to you will emerge from you. If you are not ready to die, then your interest in meditation is hypocrisy, because you can only be reborn by dying. The new comes only when the old dies. There is a gap, a gap between the old and the new; this gap creates fear in you. You want to grow; but you want to remain yourself. This is a lie.

    If nothing happens to you, then you think that your spiritual practice is wrong, your mentor is bad, that holy books, principles, methods. And you don’t think that if the aspiration is true, then transformation is achieved with the wrong methods. If your soul and heart merge in a burning aspiration, then no one except yourself will lead you astray. Nothing hinders your development except your own hypocrisy and self-deception.

    Real transformation happens when you are involved in it, when your being is involved. The main thing is involvement; principles, methods, teachers - this is secondary. But you don't do anything, you just talk and talk about doing. And words create illusion; you have read so much about transformation, you have heard so many lectures on meditation, that you begin to think that you are doing something. When you start doing something, difficulties will arise. There are no difficulties when you do nothing. Therefore, if difficulties arise, then know that you are on the right path. Spiritual growth is never smooth. After all, spiritual growth is the achievement of the unknown, the achievement of the undestined. But know that with every difficulty you overcome, you become more real, stronger, more courageous...

    The question arises in your mind: does enlightenment lead to prosperity? No, but the enlightened one is always happy - whether success accompanies him or not. Success is not a criterion because it depends on many factors. Happiness is the criterion because happiness depends only on you. You may not succeed because others may act cunningly, calculatingly, violently, immorally. Success is not a spiritual, but a social phenomenon...

    For the enlightened, success is not measured by something external, worldly, it is measured by your bliss. But for you, bliss is not success; success is something else for you. For the world, success is the satisfaction of the ego, it is the indulgence of the ambitions of the mind. By satisfying the ego, you strive for power, wealth, fame. You get it all. The whole world declares you successful. And you may have lost your soul, peace, inner joy, purity. Worldly success ends in failure. What good is it if a man conquers the whole world but loses his soul?

    (Osho, “Mirror of Enlightenment. Message of the Playing Spirit”)

  31. Mila mer:
    -

    Lina, please advise which book to start studying spiritual practices with?

  32. Lina:
    -

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