If You’ve Already Started the Journey…
Written on March 9, 2008 by Tom Stine
credit: I heard a story a few years ago that perfectly illustrates most people’s experience with the spiritual journey and personal growth.
It seems a well known Tibetan Buddhist was speaking to a rather large gathering. He asked the audience at the beginning of his talk,
“Who among you feel strongly that you are on a spiritual path?
About half the crowd raised their hands. Rinpoche then said,
“Those of you who didn’t raise your hands should probably leave and not listen to my talk. If you are not on a spiritual path, don’t start now. It is way too hard and demanding, and you will often hate it.”
The audience was stunned. They came to hear a spiritual talk, something nice and warm and fuzzy to make them feel good. And here they were being told that many of them needed to leave. Then Rinpoche said,
“And those of you who raised your hands, you need to get a move on. If you have already started walking the path, you might as well finish.”
I love this story. Have not most, if not all, of us on the so-called spiritual path had our moments when we really hated this journey we started? If you remember the movie The Matrix, we at times have our moments like Cypher, when we wish we had told our personal Morpheus to “stick that red pill up his ass.” We have our moments when we wish that we were still stuck in the human muck of unconsciousness.
But once we start, well, “You might as well finish.” At times, it almost seems as if the universe is calling us to move forward, relentless urging us not to stop until we realize the truth of our being. Is not this the real essence of the spiritual journey? Is not this what it is all about? Fortunately, as we progress, we find that we simply cannot stop, nor do we want to stop. We find that our moments of anger at the path fades, until finally they are gone. Something shifts, and while we may at times be completely unconscious of who and what we are, the call that is ever present brings us back. We must continue and know the truth.
While we feel this drive to continue the journey, we eventually learn that, ultimately, the ego, the mind, the persona called “me,” whatever we wish to call this sense of separate identity, can do nothing to finally realize the truth. Realization comes from “the other side” as it were, it is revealed to us in its own way and its own time. However, it definitely seems to be the case that for the most part, a little bit of effort is often required. While sudden awakenings can and do occur, we usually must spend some time in preparation, in other words sitting, meditating, doing our practice, each and every day, for realization of the truth to occur.
So, my friends, let’s get moving. Let’s do what we know in our hearts we are called to do: spend a little time each day with the divine.
on March 10th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Hi Tom,
Best of success with your new website.
I did not get your newsletter the begining of
March 2008.
Was the newsletter sent then? If so, would you
correct your email list so I recieve them.
Thank You
thanks
on March 10th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
@Jamie: Regrettably, the newsletter was not sent out on March 1. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t quite ready to do a newsletter this month. I will have everything ready to go on April 1. Thanks for checking with me, and thanks for wishing me luck!
on March 10th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
You bring up a point I often wonder about. Many teachers talk of “Who am I?” as the ultimate question. I don’t mean to quarrel with the import of this question but rather its wording. It seems to me that another way to address this issue in terms that seem less likely to lea right back into the ego circus of “I” is to ask “What is this?” taking “this” to refer to this experience of herenow. There is still, it seems, a necessary “I” that is having this experience, but in this version at least it retreats into a background. The spotlight finally oves off me onto something bigger and even more amorphous.
I’ll be glad to know of any comments this notion attracts.
on March 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Tom, What a great post. Sometimes I wonder why the heck bother – wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just get up and go to work and come home and love my family and get up the next day and start again? All this consciousness, energy, following your heart, discernment etc.. can be hard!,…
Still, I must think it is worth it. I keep coming back for more!
on March 11th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
@Michelle: YES! You get it. I often wonder about those who see the spiritual journey as nothing but sweetness and light. It gets messy and painful at times if you are really looking hard at the ego’s junk.
on March 11th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
@Ted: You bring up a good point. Nisargadatta Maharaj cautioned to avoid “who” because it implies there is a someone that you will find when you go looking. But if you look, there is no someone. I would go further than you and suggest there isn’t even an “I”, at least not as most people would see it. Really, it is more of a big, universal “we” but even that isn’t quite it. Really what you find when you look is ———–. Nothingness. The Void. The nothing that is everything. Or, as you put it, something that is bigger and more amorphous.
Nice comments. I welcome more.
on March 12th, 2008 at 12:44 am
I like your reference to “Awakenings”. Mine wasn’t sudden. It didn’t come in a burst of understanding. It was more like a “Bonk, I could have had a V-8 moment.
I was driving down the Highway.(Over the Road Truck Driver)listening to satellite radio when a gradual awareness came over me. It was more like a I get it now. As I think about it, “it” is out there,all we have to do is be still and quite what we do with it is our choice. If we continue to reach, and listen, be still, we can connect to “it”. I’m Justa saying.
on March 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hi Tom, how refreshing, I really enjoyed reading about Rinpoche – no sugar coating there!
Keep up the great work with your blog.
on March 14th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Tom,
Your article came to me at a moment when I needed it. I am stumbling on my path about now and wondering if I’m even on the path anymore. I guess that’s when you have to have faith.
Great article,
Sherri
on March 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
@Mark: Yeah, I can completely relate. I have these moments, like on my walk today, when something just gets seen in the trees, or I hear a truck head down the highway and I hear something, not really a something, but there is this “seeing” or “hearing” and I laugh. Just laugh. It is so silly, almost absurd that anything but “this” could possibly hold my attention or thoughts. I’m justa sayin’.
on March 14th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
@JoLynn: Thanks! Yeah, I like straight talking Buddhists. They have a way, don’t they?
@Sherri: I’m glad you liked the article. Better yet, I’m glad it came when you needed. No coincidences, are there? One of my favorite spiritual teachers, Adyashanti, likes to poke fun at the whole idea of a spiritual path or spiritual life. There’s just life, he would say. I’m beginning to agree.
on March 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Hi Tom,
Reading your article made me realize more clearly the nature of my path.
It started when I was very young. I got really sidetracked for many years, but very consciously (and a bit defiant, too). I went back to it with fervor, with couldn’t wait kind of energy.
I am currently wondering what was I thinking starting all this? And although I don’t always find it funny, I can at least smirk at the fact that now the can of worms is open and I might as well do something with them.
It is too bad I don’t like all the yucky parts of fishing…just the quiet, peaceful moments on the pier or in the boat. Hard to kill the worms, or the fish. And the throwing them back injured never made much sense to me. But at least they were fed. Can’t help but learn metaphorically in that.
on March 16th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
@Barbara: I’m glad the article stimulated some understanding for you. Something that I didn’t mention in the article, another important point about the journey, is the simple fact that we don’t really have a choice about being on the path. The path chooses US, not the other way around. I know for me I had no choice: do it now. And do it, and do it, and do it.
on March 17th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Tom I’m going to sound like a yes man here. I agree with your comment that “the path chooses us”.And like you said I had no choice.Since I’ve been able to let go and just stay on the path I’ve enjoyed it (the Journey) much more. It hasn’t gotten easier by any means, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m Justa saying!:)
on March 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am
@Mark: it never ceases to amaze me how the common denominator in so much of spirituality is the two words “let go”. When you let go, you enjoyed the journey more. As one spiritual teacher likes to say, all there really is to spirituality is letting go of our argument with what is. Letting go.
on November 7th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Good point there from the lecturer
I haven’t hated my path yet, but I have had periods when I’ve not been sitting in the mornings because I found it boring/was tired/whatever. But somehow I always feel the urge sooner or later to come back to it, and when I do “it’s like coming home” like I one time told my wife.
Another thing, you write about the Universe wanting us to continue. I’ve lately come to believe in some kind of universal guidance myself, a bit like what Paolo Coleho says, that the Universe hints at things for you to do or notice. I’ve had many such experiences the more I’ve opened myself to the idea.
Some people might disregard this as mumbojumbo, but that is their opinion and this is mine.
_/\_
on November 7th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Re: What the Universe wants.
It looks a whole lot to me as though the answer to this conundrum is that it wants us to go away. As lots of people are pointing out, we sure seem to be headed that way pretty fast, along with most of the rest of the inhabitants of the planet. Maybe it’s time to fold our tents and make room for whatever it is evolution has next.
I think there’s a pretty good case to be made for our purpose having been to take organization as far as it’ll go. Perhaps we’ve succeeded in this–globalization, don’cha know–leaving us up a blind alley (or “On the Beach”) at the moment.
on November 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
@Ted You know, when the Universe is done with humanity, good-bye humanity! Since that isn’t what we are, it won’t be the end of life in the Universe, either. But in the meantime, we do our part to help humanity make it. Strange paradox, huh? Thanks for the comments!!
on November 8th, 2008 at 10:49 am
With respect, I think your assessment that the universe hasn’t finished with us may be a tad premature. Does the universe have to operate on our time scale? Our quietus may come slower than we can recognize but be just as inexorable as a comet collision, say, or nuclear winter.Consider that rocks expand every summer and contract every fall: they breathe once a year. From their perspective we may not exist at all.
I’m sorry, but I can’t tell what you mean by “that isn’t what we are.” What isn’t what we are? We are, of course, not the only life form around, no matter how much our arrogance may suggest to the contrary. But I don’t see where I said or implied anything about the end of life. Quite the contrary, in fact.
We help humanity make what, exactly? More money? Is human survival an unquestionable good? Seems like a question we might consider. Bearing in mind that all of us are unquestionably going extinct one by one, how is it so unthinkable that we all might go together, more or less?
on November 8th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
@Ted Well, I thought I was more or less agreeing with you. In my view, when the Universe is ready to move on from homo sapiens, it will. And it may be doing so right now. You never know! But it will do so as it wishes.
As far as what we are, I’m saying that I am not homo sapiens. What I am is far more than that. I am the very Universe we speak of. As are you and everyone else. If it is all One, then it is all One.
And yes, we do our part to help humanity bumble along its merry way. I said make it, as in survive, or better, thrive. I don’t know if humanity surviving is an unquestionable good. But I seem to feel an urge to help. So, I do what little I may. Isn’t that enough? It is for me.