Question to Deepak: Relatively new to meditation, I’m still finding my feet. I do so want to discover myself as I really am, the spirit I am. Yet, I do have so many material desires that I want fulfilled real fast. I’m looking for miracles which I trust are going to happen.
My concern is, I don’t want to lose the real purpose of my spiritual quest while playing the tempting game of material acquisition, using the power of my thoughts. I know desires are never ending and I’m only human.
I don’t want to find myself lying on my death bed and wondering why did i wasted my ‘powers’ chasing ‘things’ that I had to leave behind.
Will I have the courage to look beyond ‘creating abundance’ after a certain level?
Answer from Deepak: Congratulations on starting you meditation practice. This will naturally cultivate your mind and desires to become more aligned to your highest spiritual purpose.
You don’t have to try to only have non-material, universal desires in order to be spiritual. Too often we fall back on archaic, misguided notions of spirituality that tell us spirituality must come through a rejection of the world and the body. In that view, wealth and sex are considered unspiritual, and the spiritual ideals assume a vow of poverty and celibacy.
But spirituality must include the wholeness of life, the inner and outer, the sacred and the profane. So instead of fighting against the mind’s tendency to generate desires, which is impossible anyway, it makes more sense to use that irrepressible force of life within us to carry us forward to our highest spiritual aspirations.
The desires that arise within us are part of that evolutionary force of universe that impels all creation forward toward its ultimate fulfillment.
Maybe your desires don’t feel very cosmic and altruistic right now, but instead of trying to squash your natural impulses and try to manufacture spiritual desires in their place, just let yourself easily move toward the attainment of your desires as they are right now.
As you continue with your meditation practice, you will find that the next desires that pop up in your mind will be more inclusive of the needs of others. You will also find that you can want something, but not feel desperate for it and not mind when circumstances change to bring you a different outcome from your original wish, because you can now trust that the new result serves your highest purpose more perfectly.
This is how you can relax in the knowledge that the natural flow of your desires in conjunction with your meditation practice will inexorably lead you to the highest state of spirituality.
Love,
Deepak
Perfect response. I like to remind myself that there is nothing more spiritual that I can be doing, than mixing it up here in the physical world. I went through a period in my life like this, where I thought I should deny the material. Got over that pretty quickly.
AbSOULutely, best to deny nothing! We have all, we are all, we do all!
Charles
Yes! Joseph Campbell said, "The Spirit is the Bouquet of Nature" so all natural impulses are good, authentic. To get to the Heart Chakra, its natural to experience and move through the Sex and Power Chakras. He also said, "The 'Grail' comes to mean a life lived in terms of its own volition" so following natural intincts doesn't lead to 'evil' or 'good' (as defined by the outside world) but takes you right through the pair of opposites, to transcendence.
If I were giving advice on meditation I would say first just relax. Second don't try to stop your thinking. So many people have told me "I can't do it. I can't stop my thinking!" they become frustrated trying to fight it, seeing it as a sign that they aren't doing it right. Let your thinking flow as much as it wants, and instead of fighting it, step back and become the silent witness of it. That silent witness is your true Self, from which your real Natural Impulses will come. Non thinking or the "Gap" comes from the practice over time of relaxing, not fighting your thoughts. Through that Gap comes infinite energy and relaxation, "the still point" and the "bouquet" of your spirit.
to the expansion of your self, this is conscious life.
This is a wow response for me! It's nice to hear a spiritual teacher clarify that being human with human desires, is natural and not at all anti spiritual. However how do we know what desires are healthy or unrealistic? How do we gauge for balance?
Personally, I think (wait, I should stop "thinking"! hehehehheheh) its sort of a Zen kind of thing. You know by stop trying to know, stop trying to gauge. I feel this is one part of the meaning of "being" It's like the infinite knowledge is there, waiting to come through, if we just get the thinking process out of the way.
I don't know about that. I've gotten into plenty of trouble in the past by not thinking. Just go with your gut that little voice says. Go ahead live!
For me I have made decisions based on what I felt was right, but then it turned out it was not. Or what I thought was right then changed and became a painful negative choice in the end. It's one of those things that you try and take all that you learned from experience and make the best choice. On the other hand even you choose not to make the choice. You still made a choice, and that can be the wrong thing to as well. Paralysis of analysis.
JET
After doing meditation, your material goals will change. Your body mind and soul would become so powerful that you will feel that one is all and all is one. You will feel your body, mind and soul is the only material in this cosmos and this cosmos is your body mind and soul.
ahhh, such a lovely post ! : )
I also loved this post! Something that I've been wondering about lately… so thank you so much!
Still one question… does intense desire bring us closer to what we want, or push it away and keep us from obtaining it? Don't we need to let go and detach ourselves from what we want, in order for it to appear in our lives?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated…
I love that you speak of our highest purpose in this post!
It is our natural desire to expand and desire for better for ourselves. We are quantum beings. We are here to create, manifest and experience joy! Meditation quiets the mind and allows us to find the burning desire to find God .
We are all ONE!
Be the example of what we want on earth …harmonious, peaceful and without judgment or expectation.
We find these attributes in silence when we become the observer.
Through intention you always come up with desires…and as long as you have the highest good for yourself, others and the planet in mind…it will manifest!
namaste~
This is a very helpful post. I have been wondering about this myself quite often. I want to follow my desires but at the same time be spiritual, and i have felt at times they are mutually exclusive. When i follow material things sometimes i feel like spirituality goes out the window. This answer puts things right back in perspective for me. No one says it better then you Deepak. Thanks!
I've practiced standing post meditation for 15 years. It helped me beat four bouts of bone cancer in the early nineties. I used to work in the corporate world, had a huge house on a lake–I had everything. Now I drive a Nissan Sentra–not a Jag–and live in a studio apartment. I dont' know if it's the meditation having an impact on me but I really don't desire the material things I once had. My two sons have grown into men and respect me for the way I fought my battles with cancer. Two of the finest martial artists in the world in Boston also respect me, as do my close friends. Material things are transitory: Get a Porche today and two weeks from now you forget what you're driving (not to mention the repair bills). The thrill passes.
Respect is water to a man in the desert. It's one of the few things that really matter. I had to live for 50 years to realize this.
A lot of the New Age movement is directed toward manifesting abundance. This really is a perversion of the ancient ideas it takes, grossly oversimplifies, and markets. Every great spiritual leader–from Jesus Christ, to Buddha, to Lao Tzu–were men of very modest means, if not outright poor. And they all meditated. Think about it.