Why You STILL Don’t Have a Spiritual Practice
Updated: Aug 30, 2023
Many external factors make developing a spiritual practice challenging. When immersed in a system that breeds hierarchy, division, derision, and emotional and financial strife, it's easy to get caught up in our own problems. Our thoughts and beliefs, which dictate our actions, get corrupted by societal conditioning from a young age. We adopt the beliefs of others without judgment. Even if the thoughts and beliefs do not align with our true essence of being.
Lessons From the Toltecs
In The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book, author Don Miguel Ruiz explains the concept of mitote, or fog of perception. This word is also related to the Hindu word maya, which means illusion. According to ancient Toltec wisdom, the reality which we perceive is a collective dream.
By nature of our existence, we agree to this dream and create our own personal dream within it. Our personal dream consists of the thoughts and beliefs we adopted from our experiences in the world. These thoughts and beliefs consist of negative self-perceptions and limiting beliefs.
In the book, the author highlights the importance of breaking free from this societal conditioning and the limitations of the mind. We can do this by following the four agreements.
The Four Agreements
"Be Impeccable with Your Word." Emphasizing the power of language and communication, the author encourages us to speak with integrity. We must avoid gossip, and use words to uplift and empower ourselves and others.
"Don't Take Anything Personal." We must recognize that others' actions and words are often a reflection of their own beliefs and emotions. By not internalizing negativity, we can free ourselves from unnecessary suffering.
"Don't Make Assumptions," encourages asking questions and seeking clarity instead of making assumptions. This helps prevent misunderstandings and conflicts while fostering open communication.
"Always Do Your Best." Its important to give your best effort in every situation without self-judgment. It acknowledges that your best will vary based on circumstances, but consistent effort is what matters.
Armed with the Four Agreements, we become spiritual warriors with the ability to create a new dream for ourselves. This new dream clears away the mitote so that we can see the truth of our reality. The truth is that we are all one with the creative force of nature, which is pure love.
The Toltecs, among other cultures of yore, understood that conditioned beliefs, societal influence, and the ego plague our lives. It is up to us, as individuals, to take action. We must take back our perceived reality. Clearing the fog perception is a necessary step on the path to personal freedom, spiritual awakening, and a life of authenticity.
The Four Agreements and Today
Spiritual awakening is about zooming out of ourselves. It's about separating from the inherent thoughts and emotions that dictate how we act in the material world. By following the Four Agreements, we reframe how we see ourselves in the world. We break free from the box society puts us in. We break free from the box that we put ourselves in. The Four Agreements provide a way for us to get outside of ourselves and connect with the creative force of nature. When we are too fixated on ourselves, it's hard to separate from the issues we perceive are causing us to suffer.
Yet not much has changed for humanity in the millennia since the Toltecs. Our current way of living doesn't help the cultivation of spiritual practice. Humanity evolved under the stars, free from light pollution and other obstructions from the view of the celestial bodies. We have lost our innate spiritualism as a result of this separation from the night sky.
Get Outside... Ourselves
Being here (in Belize) has spurred something inside me, causing me to look at our place here on Earth and in the cosmos in a different way. Almost on a nightly basis, I am left awestruck by the sky above me. I don't know of a better way to zoom out of oneself- apart from psychedelics of course- than looking up at a clear, moonless night sky. The endless expanse of stars in the Milky Way leaves me feeling that there is something greater outside of myself,
As I often emphasize and Ruiz reiterates in his book, spiritual practice isn't an easy thing to develop. It takes a significant amount of self-reflection. Looking within at what makes you tick and why you believe the things you do. It requires you to analyze how your past experiences have shaped how you think, act, and feel. This is an uncomfortable and challenging activity. The resistance one faces is fierce. Yet, it is necessary for cultivating a fruitful spiritual practice.
When we understand ourselves at a deeper level, we can develop a more effective way to remove blocks and fight resistance. When you are at ease with yourself, others will not cause you to veer off of your path. You will develop a firm resolve in your decisions and life choices. You will be steady on the rocky path to spiritual enlightenment.
At its core, a spiritual practice is one of self-improvement. We build up our awareness of being, and of how we exist in this world. It is the cultivation of the inner, higher self. The higher self is the part of you that can connect to the omnipresent, universal creative energy. This self is the only self that can access a higher plain of existence.
Spiritual Practice Isn't Easy
Adding to this challenge is the fact that a spiritual practice is a complex one. It is more than meditation, observing the moon phases, positive thinking, or manifesting. It's more than reading tarot (or having it read), numerology, or speaking with your spirit guides. All these things are well and good and can be an essential aspect of regular spiritual practice. Yet, they all require believing in a realm of existence that is outside our own; outside of our perceived reality. The reality that is present beyond the mitote.
This is a hard thought to wrap one’s head around because it runs counter to our lived experience. We experience with our senses, and they have their limitations. Even within our material world, there exists, all around us, aspects that are imperceptible. Infrared light, and pitches in sound below and above the spectrum our eardrums can hear. There is a whole world of undetectable and indecipherable sources of stimulation we are not attuned to.
The Ancient Toltecs were right, what we perceive is only an illusion. An agreed-upon fabrication within our own minds. This is not some woo-woo statement either, it's also a scientific fact. Modern discoveries in quantum physics are proving this to be true. I will write a separate post on this but for now, it's clear that the fabric of the universe that structures our daily lives is unlike anything we would recognize as our average day-to-day. And this limits our understanding of what truly is.
Something Greater
A belief in something greater than ourselves is imperative. Without it, the aforementioned beliefs and supplementary practices, become like a house of cards. Shaky at best and ready to collapse at any moment. I know this first hand. As a former atheist and once hardcore scientific-minded person, it's taken me a very long time to adopt a belief in a spiritual realm of existence. I have flipped-flopped from a state of convincing myself that it exists, to one of questioning the reality of the possibility. But you can’t just convince yourself, you need to believe if you want to connect with the spiritual realm of existence.
If you aren’t prone to believing such things, like I was, it will take time to understand the validity of the existence of this other plane. It took consistent practice and the odd profound experience to get me there. Psychedelics definitely helped in this regard, which I’ll touch on in another post.
So, you don’t have a spiritual practice because it is a hard thing to maintain. With the resistance and distraction of daily life, work, and kids if you have them, we are drawn away from consistency. But consistency is key.
Taking Back What Is Ours
A spiritual life may seem intangible, but it is attainable. Spiritualism can be as simple as doing what we really want to do in life. We do this by, as writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell once said, following your bliss. When fulfilled in life, we are content and full of love. You live on a higher frequency of existence. Content people don't want, feel lack, or feel hatred towards others. Content people spread love, act selfless, share knowledge, and understand others.
But is this actually what our modern society encourages? No. They need us to feel a lack (of accomplishment, material possessions, and wealth), and frustration with our lives. They need us in a low vibe state so we spend our lives consuming. It’s what allows the current system to perpetuate. As long as we all linger in this realm, a higher one will be unattainable.
A spiritual practice is essential for fighting this. And as spiritual warriors, like the Toltecs, we must fight to reclaim what is ours. We must fight to reclaim the spiritual realm. This is an innate part of us all and we need to get back in contact with it.
"We're facing dragons too. Fire-breathing griffins of the soul, whom we must outfight and outwit to reach the treasure of our self-in-potential and to release the maiden who is God's play and destiny for ourselves and the answer to why we were put on this earth." - Steven Pressfield, The War of Art