components of the path

There are various aspects or components to a spiritual path. A well rounded spiritual journey will tend to include some activities from each of these component aspects.

Firstly, there is study, that is reading or listening to teachings from spiritual masters, religions, anywhere that you can find wisdom from those that have trodden the path before you. This study is not sufficient on its own, it is a mental activity. It may bring you new understandings. It may help you to see the difficulties arising from your old understandings. But in itself it is not sufficient for liberation to come, for the liberation is a liberation from the thinking mind altogether. So, in using the thinking mind in this way – studying and learning from those that have reached enlightenment already – using the mind in this way will help but at the same time there is a danger that it will just replace one set of ideas with another. So we need to combine such study with some of the other components which I am about to describe.

We can use the mind in another way as part of our spiritual path and that is for self-awareness and reflection. By this I mean becoming aware of one’s own mental processes, using the mind itself to watch the mind itself. It is like using a thorn to remove a thorn. We are going to use the mind to explore and discover its own limitations and its own mischievous antics. For example, looking into one’s motives when acting (when doing something) can yield some interesting insights that you might not have expected. So we can use contemplation and self-awareness to delve deeply into our own mind, into our own deeper beliefs, into our habitual patterns of behaviour. All of this is rather arduous and yet well worthwhile as part of our spiritual journey.

So far though I have talked only about aspects of the path which use the thinking mind. There is more, and it is great to combine the thinking aspect with some of the following non-thinking aspects.

One such aspect is using the body physically. Many of us live rather sedentary lives these days and this allows our energy to rather congregate in our head, in the thinking mind. By being more active, physically, our energy is once again spread throughout the body. We can actually move our awareness with this energy. Our awareness can move to any part of the body, especially if we are using that part of the body physically – it may be in physical labour of some sort, it may be in dance, or some sporting activity or in some martial art. Any of these and any other physical activities you can think of will help to spread our energy throughout our body once again. So using the body physically can be part of a spiritual path, especially if we become very aware of sensations in the body whilst we are using it.

Energy work can complement this. By energy, I am talking about the body energies, mysterious energies perhaps. qi gong, tai chi and the other martial arts are concerned with the energy of our body. Reiki, a subtle harmonising healing energy is another beautiful discipline which can be used as part of a spiritual path. There are many other energy disciplines.

Meditation, of course, is the classic approach to spirituality. By meditation I mean any discipline which aims to reduce the number of thoughts in the head, to create gaps between the thoughts, to allow our awareness to sit in a silent space, without thinking. There are different types of meditation, different methods, and it is desirable to include some form of meditation in the spiritual path.

Another aspect of spirituality is nature. In our developed societies we tend to have lost touch rather with nature. And yet we are born of nature, we are part of nature and returning to a deeper connection with nature will greatly aid the spiritual journey. So spending time in nature should also be part of the path.

Time spent alone is the final aspect which I want to talk about today. We are a social species by and large and part of our spiritual journey can be done in the company of others, we can benefit from that. But ultimately we need to be able to stand alone. We need to be totally comfortable with who we are, everything in us as an individual. So spending time alone is also a desirable part of the spiritual journey.

Here I have mentioned a few of the categories of activities from which we can compose our own spiritual path. It can be a unique combination, yet it is beneficial to include components from these various aspects of which I have spoken.