The 3 stages of the Spiritual Path
Dear readers of the Mindful Minute,
Long time no see.
I hope things have been abundant and joyous..
Your meditations deep and profound.
Before we get into the main topic of this post allow me to Apologize:
I’ve been incredibly busy with an international move from Japan to Malaysia.
As such, I put client work and maintaining Twitter posts as my priority and haven’t had the chance to write much on here.
Instead, I’ve posted a number of long-form Twitter content which some of you may or may not have seen.
This content proved to be very popular, and as such I’ll be reposting some of it here.
But..
I have one major problem..
Disaster has struck:
I’m not sure why this has happened outside of sending a STRIPE invoice to a client in the DMS (That’s my suspicion)
I’m fully confident things will be reinstated soon.
Now for the bulk of this E-mail:
The 3 stages of the spiritual path.
These are surprisingly universal..
And almost everyone goes through them when they encounter new information.
In my case..
I picked up Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” and almost instantly dismissed it as nonsense and Mindfulness as unnecessary
(Which is hilarious given how vital it is on the path)
I’ve done this a number of times on the path with information that later proved to be illuminating
Anyway..
Dear reader..
Enjoy:
On your spiritual journey there will be 3 stages:
- Doubt
"That sounds like bullsh*t"
"I'm not that kind of guy"
"That sounds far too outlandish.."
- Intellectual understanding
You've started to accept there's value in what you’ve read..
Perhaps you've even gotten a glimpse
But haven't experienced it in your own life to the degree you've read or heard about..
You realize there's perhaps more to all this than meets the eye..
But a degree of skepticism remains
(rightly so)
The intellectual understanding can result in a degree of relief but nothing mind shattering *yet*
- Direct experiencing (The end of doubt)
After diligent practice..
And working through the stages of doubt and dissatisfaction
Something finally *clicks*
And you taste a mystical altered state of consciousness directly
This is profoundly life-changing..
In the same way that after learning Santa isn't real is
You simply can't go back to your previous paradigm
It's resulted in permanent and profound change
The direct experience also comes with a powerful degree of relief
This might come in the form of:
> Crying
> Intense bliss
> Processing Trauma
> Profound new experiences of reality
Etc
And to be clear - The result is OFTEN one of SUBTRACTION
It's a letting go of something that was previously binding you..
And thus more of your natural goodness and purity shine through
But there's the thing..
The mind is a tricky beast..
And will try to convince you to rest on your laurels
When in reality there's a profound opportunity to go deeper if you double down on what was previously working
(I've made this mistake a huge number of times and it hindered my progress in the past)
This framework is from personal experience..
But I found a verse in the Tao Te Ching which lines up rather beautifully:
“A great scholar hears of the Tao
and begins diligent practice.
A middling scholar hears of the Tao
and retains some and loses some.
An inferior scholar hears of the Tao
and roars with ridicule.
Without that laugh, it would not be the Tao.”
If you're on the path..
Firstly let me say your desire for freedom is laudable..
And you have my love
Secondly..
Persist
There are depths of freedom and peace that make life heaven on earth..
And transform you into a powerful conduit of healing and light for those around you
As you work towards your highest self..
There will inevitably be resistance along the way...
But there's no greater adventure than the one into the depths of your mind and heart
The divine powers that be fully support your ascension