4 Quiet Practices to Boost Your Spiritual Awakening
Enhance your spiritual progress on the bullet’s speed.
Many people have asked me, “What helped you to awaken?”
They want to know because they are:
- Just curious
- Genuinely want to progress
Curiosity is like walking on an unending rainbow. You love walking on it, but it leads nowhere.
A genuine need to understand life is a bullet shot that pierces one's way to experiencing one's highest self.
Spiritual awakening is a gift that often happens when curiosity converts into need.
Nobody can bribe or buy in their way. Nobody can predict when it will happen. Nobody can exactly say what led people to it.
But I’ve noticed that the more empty you become, the easier it is to awaken. The more you loosen up, the more you flow with life.
All genuine spiritual practices
- Open your mind and make you empty.
- Dissolve the rigidities and make you flexible.
They make you available to the grace that is always flowing. Grace is always there, but we are too preoccupied with the outside world to taste it.
Choose your battles carefully
Once in a Satsang, the enlightened master said,
“There are two facets of life. Your focus in on:
Outside, i.e., Bahirmukhi. You focus on things and situations that are outside of you. A worldly person lives like that.
Inside i.e. Antarmukhi. Your focus is on your emotions, thoughts, attention, and awareness. A spiritual person lives from here.”
Living in the world means facing both outside situations and managing your inside environment. Sometimes, this can become too much. The stress on either side exhausts your limited energy.
The good thing is that you don’t have to perfect out all creases.
You can choose your priority and work on it.
Once, while working in a dental clinic, my fellow dentist said something that irked me deeply. At the time, I was practicing conscious living.
When he said the words, I could see the rage building inside me.
As soon as I became aware, the boiling anger crashed. And a little smile erupted within my mask. Peace followed immediately.
The magic happened because I knew my priority. I was practicing it for months.
If you drain your energy on outside struggles, you have little energy left for inside pursuits. Taking a middle ground helps.
The popular shaloka from Bhagwad Geeta says it all —
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi
It literally translates to —
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.
I’ve found this to be so true.
Do what is required. Give your 100%. Then, return to the rest of your inner being.
This is how the awakened live. They don’t fuss about results and don’t expect things to fall into their laps. They act, give their best, and return to their inner silence, where they always are.
Choosing your battles helps you conserve energy and focus on what is really important to you.
Stop being a control freak.
Whenever I tell people to let go of control.
The first reaction is, ‘What will I do then? How things will happen rightly?’
It is hilarious that many people think things are happening because of them. They think their lives are under their control.
However, it never happens. A slight slip-up gives them terrifying nightmares.
Life is unpredictable.
Nobody can be perfectly sure what will happen next second. Entire lives change within moments.
Controlling is never the answer. In fact, your controlling nature gives rise to more anger, frustration, anxiety, and fear.
I never thought I’d become a spiritual mentor. I was a practicing periodontist.
I never thought I’d live in the lower Himalayan region. For my whole life, I lived in metropolitan cities.
And here I am, living the best life I could have ever asked for, though I could have never planned it myself. It just happened organically.
Life is always happening by itself.
We might get something else than what we want. But sometimes, it is the best stroke of life that we recognize years or even decades later.
However, the immediate reaction is mostly far from gratitude or peace.
The secret is to be aware when things don’t go as you plan.
Be aware of whatever life is serving you. Be aware of what you are feeling from inside. Be aware of the outside and inside environment.
It is a powerful key that is a destination as well as a journey.
Relax. Just relax.
I interact with many people who want to start or push their spiritual journey.
One of the main differences I notice between a total beginner, somewhat practitioner, and awakened is inner momentum.
The irony is that you are seeking ultimate relaxation in your ultimate chaos.
Have you seen how a high-speed train stops?
Even after applying the brakes, it takes some time to stop completely. You can’t stop a high-speed train instantly. It takes time to lose all momentum and screech to a halt.
Similarly, your train of thought can’t stop at command.
You need to know how to relax. You need to know how to let go of the chaos and enter your bliss state.
It can not happen when you have never tasted that utter peace. It is nearly impossible when chaos is stuck.
Instead, lose your momentum daily. Practice it.
Practice being in zero momentum mentally by sitting in silence.
Sitting in a relaxed way doesn’t mean you are still from within. Your body may be relaxed, but often mind constantly chatters.
Meditate.
Develop a knack for slipping into that peace.
The more you practice, the easier it is to slip into it. No matter what the outside situation is.
Your need vs your want
Years before my awakening, I used to cry in pain of not knowing.
I needed to know the ultimate truth of life. I was so desperate that I didn’t care about anything. I was even ready to trade with death to be one with it.
Back then, I didn’t know why I’d do it. It was a genuine cry from the deepest of hearts.
But now I know this peak of spiritual desperation is a blessing.
Not everyone cries out for it. Not everyone shed tears for it. Not everyone is desperate to trade the ultimate truth for themself.
While working closely with many people, I saw three stages in a loop.
- The desire for peace is maximum in your most messy state.
- It slowly diminishes when you can take the pressure and mold.
- It stops when your happy emotions and outer situations stimulate you.
If you are not seeking truth in a peaceful state, it will not happen magically in a miserable state.
Most are happy with superficial satisfaction and conditional happiness.
It is sad to say that most people are not really ready to discover eternal peace.
Why?
Because often, they are:
- Fearful of unknown
- Satisfied with whatever is happening.
- Overwhelmed by the idea of self-work.
You can not attain ultimate bliss if you are full of worldly aspiration and motivation.
It is not wrong.
It is just that your desire is not ultimate freedom. And it is perfectly fine.
But you do wrong when you lie to yourself that you need spirituality when, in reality, you need worldly things.
Be authentic to yourself.
Give yourself clarity on what you really need. Be sincere to yourself and work towards the goals—whatever they may be.
Final Thoughts
A billion people on this planet are living in their billion realities.
Your situation, the way you perceive life, live, act, and react, is unique. You have your personality and individual mindset.
Sometimes, everything seems perfect. Sometimes, it might seem to go against you.
But whatever it is, life is constantly pushing you towards the greatest truth, which is one for all.
It is beyond all life's situations, beliefs, or emotions. It is beyond all mental stories and expectations. It is beyond any stimulation or chaos.
The truth is not someplace that you can’t reach. It lies in your own stillness, in the depths of your heart.
Be free from the layers that hide it. Dive into it with a light-hearted attitude. After all, it is you, always you.