3 Brief But Forever Life-Altering Spiritual Lessons I’d Explain To My Younger Self

Lack of clarity has probably wasted years worth of your time

[1] It’s not about the method of awakening you try.

It’s about all the stuff in the way.

Too many people interested in awakening have got their feet on one boat, a hand in another, and their heads in a third. How can the ocean of existence be crossed like this?

It’s happening because they’re digging a well, getting frustrated at the rocks in the way, and running to try another spot. And they never make it to the water, even though they’re desperate.

Nothing should terrify you more than this. It’s the boldest example of a life wasted!

Obstacles are themselves the path.

Until this reminder becomes second nature when facing them, you haven’t really started digging for the truth.

[2] “Gurus” are simply people a bit further along than you are.

No need to fear, idolize, or worship them.

A wise fellow seeker told me one of the most clarifying things I’ve ever heard: only those teachers appear that are appropriate to the level of the listener.

You’re not going to get spiritual PhD level teachings, because if you heard them, you’d think they were gibberish or boring. You’re being exposed to exactly what level of practice you should be focusing on!

Westerners are impatient about awakening. They want the highest teachings, being unable to stand wasting their time with the ‘basics.’

But take a breath. Literally, learn to breathe properly — just this will transform your life more than anything else, according to Eckhart Tolle.

It’s mastery over the basics that makes you a master, nothing else.

You’re not missing out on anything.

And the so-called “masters” that people conceptually obsess over, chase, put their hopes in, or reject are nothing but external catalysts for the wisdom-giver within you.

At one point, the external Guru must be abandoned — (s)he’s only there to awaken the inner Guru.

And the right external one doesn’t even appear (or get found if you search the entire world) until you have built the requisite intensity of determination — and done absolutely all you can do yourself.

[3] (Proper) prayer works.

There are plenty of watered down teachings out there for people who have adamantly rejected Church dogmas, and want nothing to do with anything that reminds them of it.

But not all religions are the same. Not all paths take the same road up the mountain. Dharma isn’t even religion in the first place!

The habitual atheism that lurks around secularized Western Buddhist spaces in particular is something that ignores the worldview of Tibetans, Mongolians, Bhutanese, and ancient Indians.

Yes, you can evolve without belief in a supreme God-figure. But can you really make it all the way, purely on your own?

All the enlightened beings of the past attained what they did with the wish: may I reach perfection to be able to benefit others.

If you can’t make use of their services here, then it means their work was of no use!

And where are they?

In what Buddhists call the Dharmakaya, the supreme ultimate reality, which is omniscient & omnipresent, actively manifesting in inconceivable ways to help us all along our journeys.

But it’s not a God-figure exactly, because it’s not omnipotent – our karma is still under our control.

Connecting to it requires having the same motivation as it – namely, to alleviate all the suffering of all beings, and give them perfect happiness in enlightenment.

When your desire utterly matches that of the supreme reality, you pray, overwhelmingly, for what you know is a part of this mission.

Your petition may be rejected, but it will never be ignored.

And simply building this habit of reliance & surrender can be the net that catches you, when the journey becomes a freefall.