Life in Balance: Amit Chaudhary’s Blog
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Qualities for spiritual pilgrim

In order to be successful, the spiritual pilgrim needs three distinct qualities in approximately equal measure: Common Sense, Skepticism and Openness. By Jacob Needleman in Spiritual Choices: The Problems of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation by Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker, and Ken Wilber, found through chapter 2. To the mountain in Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope.

Intention manifestation or Nature of reality

If one thinks of oneself as free, one is free, and if one things of oneself as bound, one is bound. Hear this saying, “Thinking makes it so” is true. From Ashtavakra Gita 1.11 from wisdom deck by Vedic Cosmos.

Abundance model

O misers! The beggars who request you saying “please give” really teach you that this is the result of not giving. Do not become like them. From Garuda Purana, Achara Khanda 1.109.25 from wisdom deck by Vedic Cosmos.

Thanks to Flickr and clickykbd for the image.

I wrote an article earlier: Ideas to think consciously about your spiritual goals and evaluating spiritual paths.

Using the above article, I followed that up with my own example of getting Spiritual path ideas from my spiritual goals.

A reverse method is to find one’s spiritual goals from their spiritual paths, specially if it is a public figure. For this, I choose Steve Pavlina, who writes a personal development blog which has given me many great ideas for my own growth.

Another reason to do this is, I was considering following some of Steve’s recommendations. Before that, I consciously asked myself what are Steve’s goals and how much do they match with mine. This required applying my blog article Ideas to think consciously about your spiritual goals and evaluating spiritual paths in reverse.

Steve pavlina’s spiritual areas: References for these areas

True nature of reality\law of attraction\intention manifestation: Intention manifestation reference Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill or Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther Hicks, True nature of reality and Law of attraction reference StevePavlina.com Podcast #016 - The True Nature of Reality and The Secret Movie, Abundance model versus Scarcity model (Deepak Chopra, etc)

Meditation and Visualization meditation: Steve Pavlina articles on this: My Favorite Meditation, Visualization-Meditation Exercise: Go To Your Room, Go for a Presence Walk, the books The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle and Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life by Shakti Gawain

Dreaming: Steve Pavlina articles on this: StevePavlina.com Podcast #010 - Lucid Dreaming and Lucid Dreaming - Studying a Maple Tree and the books: Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge.

Guides and Psychic development: Steve Pavlina articles on this: Psychic Development, Ask Steve - Astral Projection and the books: Trust Your Vibes and Ask Your Guides by Sonia Choquette and Talking to Heaven, Reaching to Heaven, and Heaven and Earth by James van Praagh.

Angels and Goddess: Steve Pavlina articles on this: I Can Do It! Seminar, Questioning Your Beliefs.

My deduction of Steve Pavlina’s spiritual goals from the above: Getting to desires faster(Intention manifestation), Getting knowledge and understanding of the universe (Dreaming and Guides), Seeking peace and insight(Meditation) and Helping others (His free blog)

Steve Pavlina’s own stated goal (purpose): To grow and help others grow.

Disclaimer: This is a snapshot in time and will change as I expect Steve to continue exploring. It is colored by my own thinking and my partial reading of Steve Pavlina’s blog articles so far.

I wrote an article earlier: Ideas to think consciously about your spiritual goals and evaluating spiritual paths

Thinking on the same lines, I created a set of spiritual goals for myself and deduced a list of spiritual paths from these goals. These are below as example of getting spiritual path ideas from one’s spiritual goals, incase it helps some of the readers decide their spiritual paths consciously.

Spiritual Goal

Potential spiritual path or option

1. To keep my body at optimum health and pain free.

Yoga Asanas.

2. To cultivate better self-understanding and cultivate peace.

Yamas and Niyamas, Pratyahara(Sensory Withdrawl like reduced Television viewing) and maybe Pranayama.

3. Move towards wisdom.

Might result from dealing with different kind of people and some methods such as “Riding the wave” in Yoga for Emotional Flow.

4. Productivity and self-improvement.

Motivational and time management books such as Eat that Frog and Intention manifestation (Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill or Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther Hicks), A different view of reality (StevePavlina.com Podcast #016 - The True Nature of Reality) and Abundance model versus Scarcity model (Deepak Chopra, etc)

5. Someday, to increase connection to universe, expand knowledge about it.

Dreaming (Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life by Robert Moss), Erich Schiffman’s Moving into stillness teachings and Increasing Psychic capabilities (Erin Pavlina’s recommendations)

Successful people

Successful people are those who are willing to delay gratification and make sacrifices in the short term so that they can enjoy far greater rewards in the long term. From Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

Customers

If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said they wanted faster horses. Henry T. Ford, inventor and entrepreneur.

Self-discipline

Without self-discipline, you will not set goals, manage your time effectively, treat people well, persist through tough times, care for your health or think positive thoughts. From Ch. Tough Love, Who Will Cry When You Die? Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Image thanks to wiccked.

During my current visit in India, some of the discussions included questions about spirituality. These are typically of the form, “Should I do meditation?”, “I have so much access to Reiki and am not feeling the pull” and so on.

I started thinking about how can I help them make a conscious decision about it. Using this line of thinking made me come up with this article. It has helped me identify my own spiritual options better.

My response to the above question is typically another question which goes something like this, “It might seem you are looking at a spiritual path, did you consider what is it that you are looking for?, what would be an ideal goal?”. If there is no response, “If you have not thought, maybe it is worthwhile to consider what are the goals of various spiritual paths and see if any of those goals appeal to you and use that to make your decision ?”

This comes from my personal belief that it can be worthwhile to find out where a teacher or method is leading, before following them.

In a simplified, incomplete and somewhat rough way, I prepared a small list of some non controversial and some controversial methods, some references and their goals as seen by mostly an outsider (myself.)

Disclaimer: Many of these paths develop some common capabilities, for example Awareness to different degree can result from many paths, so the list below does not include all goals for a certain path.

Spiritual Goal: Path leading to that goal (some references)

Balance, Space and Quietness: Yoga Postures (as in Hatha Yoga, Yoga Asanas) like those done at your local Yoga center or Yoga practice at home in silence from written instructions (Think Iyengar\Kripalu Yoga sequences, not a Yoga DVD) and Tai chi.

Personal development and self-growth: Intention manifestation (Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill or Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther Hicks), A different view of reality (StevePavlina.com Podcast #016 - The True Nature of Reality) and Abundance model versus Scarcity model (Deepak Chopra, etc)

Increasing peace and emotion management: Quiet or Solitary time, see the book Clarity Quest: How to Take a Sabbatical Without Taking More Than a Week Off by Pamela Ammondson for reference and Self-nurturing, a good references for which is the “Clearning the field exercise” in the CD set Yoga for Emotional Flow: Free Your Emotions Through Yoga Breathing, Body Awareness, and Energetic Release by Stephen Cope.

Weight loss: Typical Vinyasa Yoga practice or Hot Bikram Yoga.

Increase connection to universe, expand knowledge: Dreaming (Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life by Robert Moss), Erich Schiffman’s Moving into stillness teachings and Increasing Psychic capabilities (Erin Pavlina’s recommendations)

Getting near to God: Most classical religions (Christanity, Hinduism, Jewism, Islam, Sikhism, etc), Using sound as energy (The Yoga of Sound by Paul, Russill and Classical Indian and Western music) and Devotion\Bhakti Yoga including ISKCON.

Indian Multi-aspect system: Eight steps of Yoga as mentioned in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and expanded by ancient teachings such as Tantra and recent teachers such as Krishnamacharya and Sivananda and their disciples.

Companionship\Sangha: Local church, temple, meetup.com, online groups, small retreats.

Healing others: Massage, Reiki, Increasing Psychic capabilities (Erin Pavlina’s recommendations)

Increasing self-energy: Reiki, Following a code of conduct such as Yamas and Niyamas or the precepts in Goenka Vipassana course.

Helping others: Volunteering at Local charities, Soup kitches, Red Cross or similar areas, People examples include Bono, Mother Teresa, Charity Focus people including Nipun.

Happiness through deattachment as everything is fleeting: Buddhist paths including hardcore retreats like Goenka Vipassana and Zen retreats as well as more balanced approaches as taught by Erich Schiffman, most American Buddhist Teachers, etc.

Ruthlessness and\or build discipline: Mexico Native American Indian methods such as those advocated by Carlos Castaneda, Chinmoy, Goenka Vipassana, etc

Mindfulness and thereby self-knowledge: Most meditation methods help in this areas, the quieter the better.

Some examples of using the above in your spiritual path:

-If helping others is not your main calling, Reiki might not be the best match for you.

-If peace is what you seek, consider getting some sleep, some quiet time, follow exercises in Yoga for Emotional Flow instead of volunteering where you will need to provide peace to others.

Some guiding words:

1. Embrace your choice, keep your eyes open and start, answers and other methods will come as you progress.

2. Find someone who has been there and liked it. Also try and find someone who has not liked it. Treat each view as an opinion. 43things.com is a good resource for this.

3. In order to be successful, the spiritual pilgrim needs three distinct qualities in approximately equal measures: Common Sense, Skepticism and Openness. by Jacob Needleman in the book, Spiritual Choices: The Problems of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation by Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker, and Ken Wilber.

4. Do not go knocking on doors you do not want opened or want to go through.

Finally as a counter-view to the above, from the wisdom deck card I read the day I was thinking of writing this entry:

All different types of meditation and mysticism are means for realizing God. From Srimad Bhagavatam, 2.5.16.

Thanks to Flickr and Skinnyde for the image.

Update: Changed link above to a more highly recommended edition with the original text intact of Think and Grow Rich.