How to Become Enlightened | 3 Very Common Spiritual Myths Busted
“The truth is not always beautiful, nor are beautiful words the truth.” Lao Tzu
How to become enlightened? And would you want to know some of the common spiritual myths surrounding Enlightenment?
If you have deep desire to learn more and understand more of the Spiritual world then at times it can be tricky because there is much information, and it is all labeled as truth. Truth in itself can be tricky, and how can one define something that can be so unique to each and every person?
The one truth I do know is that we are all seekers looking to find a comfort in our experience here on earth. We look to spiritual paths and truths for this comfort. Sometimes we are misled, fall off our path, or leave the path all together. These are all lessons and part of the journey.
Hello and welcome to the Ancient wisdom modern mind podcast and today I am going to confront 3 very common spiritual myths, and I hope to shed some light on these spiritual myths that you will have come across on your journey.
So, it becomes important to get know is it really myth or there is some truth behind it. That’s what we are going to do today. We going to look 3 common spiritual myths and try to figure out truth behind it.
The 3 Common Spiritual myths I will talk about are:
The myth that Enlightenment is something to be discovered,
The myth that overcoming unhappiness will builds spiritual character,
The myth that you can relax because in the next life you will make and effort.
Myth 1. Enlightenment is something to be discovered
“Enlightenment is not a change into something better or more, but a simple recognition of who we truly already are” - James Blanchard Cisneros
The idea that the awakened state is something to be found or discovered, almost like there’s a psychological formula that needs to be ticked off or there is a final key that needs to fall into place and suddenly we will become enlightened, is a common myth and maybe we fall for this myth because we approach the idea of enlightenment from a scientific or educated perspective.
But this is akin to looking at spiritual ideas from the angle of a pop psychologist —where our deep-seated thoughts, emotions, and behaviors have meaning, this idea hooks us deeper into the ”egos world” and we spend considerable effort and time trying to discover our deeper self, but what we are really doing is giving the ego a lot of attention.
Unfortunately, this only wastes time and is a flawed idea, often pushed by gurus and psychologists alike because it keeps you always coming back for more answers. The perfect hook or bait for the more intellectually minded.
And consumers of pop psychology find this idea captivating, even revelatory, because it tells them about how the ego is put together, and the ego can happily and carefully scrutinize itself.
Why do we fall for this psychobabble? Because the intellect is in the midst of an “identity crisis,” meaning that the egos depth has no limits and no matter how deep or how clever the egos findings are, the exact same explorations at a different time will produce an entirely different explanation.
Myth 2. Overcoming unhappiness builds spiritual character
“When the ego can't find anything wrong with itself, it creates it.”
The belief that the only reason you are not becoming enlightenment is because you have not suffered enough. This idea develops because of a general sense of comfort which leaves us feeling emotionally unsatisfied and unmotivated. So we look for unhappiness and strangely we enter into a contradictory state where we seek misery or hardship in the belief that by overcoming this struggle we will find the path to enlightenment.
Both the Positivity Movement and Faith Based Religions often push the idea that suffering will be rewarded, they do this because their spiritual understanding is a simplistic positive vs negative view of reality, and although this positive vs negative perspective has a real world two dimensional effect, it is not relative to the higher spiritual states of awareness.
And just as you can’t drag the physical idea of a dualistic reality into spiritual realities, you also can not pull spiritual concepts into the dualistic world of the ego, each is a non-reality to the other or think of them as different dimensions they simply don’t mingle.
And maybe to the ego this seems contrary to what it sees, but the fact is that in the life of the ego there is only positive and negative and if we have a leaning towards negativity, then this idea of suffering also play into this aspect of the ego. In fact it can be a bandage of honor, which feeds the egos sense of superiority.
And if we really wanted to indulge ourselves with a little pop psychology, this would expose the hidden negativity attached to the positivity movement, and it would suggest that the reason people have a negative personality is really because it’s an act of being superior, at least from the egos perspective.
So really the idea that suffering is in some way a source of spiritual growth or that it can somehow crack open the ego shell, or that suffering is somehow necessary for your spiritual growth is really one of those half-truths that floats around spiritual forums.
The fact is that to achieve spiritual growth, the ego must willingly work towards surrendering its dominance and if you have a negative friend you are only too aware that their behavior only encourages more attention.
And as I have already mention in a past podcast “Suffering and Spirituality is a False Idea” but I think is worth repeating again Buddha’s famous statement. “Attachment is the cause of all suffering", Buddha did not say that suffering was the cause of enlightenment, in fact Buddha’s statement implies that the absence of suffering leads to enlightenment.
And ego is equally ingenious with reversing this idea of suffering by saying that somehow our past miseries and hardships have lifted us up to a higher consciousness, that because we have suffered we are somehow superior to the happy person or that somehow a happy person is somehow more ignorant.
The world is full of suffering, and yet these people do not rise up to become spiritual giants, but instead fall down into depravity and despair, and the more the ego is indulged the more its depravity and suffering increases.
It would be more correct to say that suffering can build character, and that wisdom can sometimes grow out of hardship, and such character development can also help in one’s spiritual development.
But to achieve spiritual growth, the ego must willingly work towards surrendering its dominance, by surrendering its attachment to itself.
Myth 3. No worries in the next life I will make the effort
“Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor” - H. Jackson Brown
The belief in reincarnation and the accumulation of merit is probably one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the student. Now this is not a debate about whether reincarnation is real or not, but I am coming from the point of view that even if reincarnation was possible, it is still the death of everything you know, it is the death of self and so nothing is transferred, no merit, no understanding, no development or progress. It is all lost and you will have to restart from scratch.
Now imagine, if you had to start again, what are the odds that you will have this opportunity again, or that every achievement and all the important millstones that you have already achieved will line up again.
In fact right now, you could be a “single step away” from achieving your goal of awakening and not even be aware that tomorrow you will suddenly realize that you are already awake. And in the next life, would you even be this lucky? For example you could be born into a culture without an educational opportunity or even any hope of even having the opportunity or time to indigene your spiritual interests.
I have a saying “he who waits the longest, waits the most” and this is what people are doing when they trust in the lottery of reincarnation. Or let’s look at it from the prospective of a sale, if there is a sale and you see an item you desire. Would you say to yourself “I'll wait until the next sale because I can’t be bothered today” or would you rush to the store in the hope of picking up a bargain.
And this is what we are doing if we rely on our belief in reincarnation, we are postponing what could be our only opportunity, simply because we are not in the mood.
And here’s a fact that no one talks about, churches are full of old people playing catchup, so are you in the mood to dance or will you past up this golden opportunity?
So that’s 3 very common myths we have all used, and if you'd like to become enlightened then go ahead make that commitment, and the essence of enlightenment is in overcoming the ego in all its manifest forms, while becoming more mindful of your motives and to this end I encourage daily meditation as a first step towards spiritual growth.
Here’s to you and your fulfilment and growth into every tomorrow to come.
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Here’s to you and your fulfilment and growth into every tomorrow to come.
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How To Practice Mindfulness Everyday | How To Do Mindfulness Meditation: Different Approaches | Where Do Our Thoughts Come From | 5 Meditation Myths & 5 Meditation Facts | What is Rational Thinking: Rational Side of Awareness | Mindfulness Meditation Technique: 8 Tips For Staying Awake while Meditating | Seven Popular Meditations | Morning Gratitude Meditation: 10 minute guided morning meditation | Primordial Sound Meditation: Ah Meditation
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