September
2001
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LIVING
IN THE SPIRIT
Is Spiritual Practice
Worth the Effort?
ALAN L. PRITZ
A FRIEND AND her family just moved to Oregon. She’d regularly attended my meditation,
chanting, and hatha yoga sessions and found them beneficial, particularly during
times of personal turmoil. When she left town I, being a “good teacher,” loaded her
with spiritual books to help sustain her during the tumult of relocation adjustment.
I would’ve packed a lunch too, but thought that might be pushing things a wee bit.
After she’d been gone a week, I had the pleasure of running into her husband who
was back in town a few days on business. I was amused to hear that my friend (his
wife) began experiencing difficulty ingesting the supplemental materials I provided.
Evidently she was spinning around the issue of–“How do I know that this is the lifetime
to make a spiritual effort? After all, if we keep reincarnating, why not just eat,
drink, and be merry until I’m more in the mood?”–a classic dilemma, and one that’s
afflicted many an earnest seeker. In fact, it reminds me of the prayerful request
of St. Augustine who beseeched the Lord to make him holy, but not just yet!
Struggles between body and soul mark a fundamental push-pull dynamic related to being
part flesh, part Spirit and requires some wisdom to resolve. First, one must consider
the subtle implications of this quandary. When people initially investigate spiritual
matters they usually do so seeking an enigmatic something of value. They want It,
or think they do, but don’t quite know why. Furthermore, they don’t know what It
is, nor what to do once they get It. For all intents and purposes, this phase of
spiritual pursuit is like neophyte activity in the stock market. You hope something
good will happen but might not fully grasp the process nor how to manage a successful
portfolio.
Next envision an ordinary life. Most peoples’ energies are directed towards job,
family, relationship, education, and recreation. Why? Because again, they want something
of value. In this case the something sought is more tangible than spiritual enigmas,
but both pursuits reflect a shared desire for fulfillment. This search represents
an esoteric drive to eliminate pain and maximize joy. Such a drive, whether mundane
or otherwise, is the nexus where spiritual and worldly activity meets. Here’s why.
Soul awareness vs. ego consciousness
Nature has designed our bodies to engage the world through the afferent and efferent
nervous system. Spirit then enlivens each body with a soul. The body is impermanent,
an aggregate of chemical compounds subject to the laws of relativity and creation.
It is a wonderful but temporary casing for the soul to use during incarnate periods.
The soul, on the other hand, is divine and knows that time on Earth is only for entertainment
and education; that nothing finite can provide eternal fulfillment. After successful
completion of its lessons, the soul returns home to ever-blissful Spirit. A problem
arises however after prolonged instances of physical embodiment. The soul begins
to falsely identify itself with the bodily casing–a condition called ego consciousness.
This activates a conflict between pure aspirations of the soul and deluded body-identified
desires of the ego. The former is based on Truth, the latter on ignorance.
Since ego is body-identified and wired for external interaction, the soul's innate
quest for union with Spirit gets filtered through a murky subconscious, misinterpreted
by ego, and mistakenly routed outward to the physical plane for sense-based gratification.
This ego-rooted “oops” is the source of classic flesh versus soul struggles. Until
wisdom or repeated disappointment catalyzes spiritual awakening, most people spend
incarnations chasing a mirage of happiness via external caprice. Eventually the ego
realizes that sense pleasures, while alluring, are evanescent replications of an
underlying, eternal, and all-satisfying joy of Spirit. It then seeks to sunder false
pursuits by destroying attachments to body and matter. This re-routing of consciousness
is the sole basis for spiritual practice. Once ego realizes it isn’t the body but
soul, a superconscious awareness is re-awakened. Complete, lasting union with the
Infinite then bestows final liberation from all delusion.
Faith, timing, & receptivity
Yet the question remains, is it worth it? It would seem the answer would be a
self-evident “Yes!” However, the power of delusion is such that many people find
anything that hints at altering body pleasures as torturous. The reality is we defer
perfect joy for defective pleasure. Does this even make good consumer sense? No!
So again, is it worth it? Ultimately this question is answered by faith, timing,
and receptivity to discipline–faith in those who’ve experienced spiritual union and
taught from such wisdom, timing or readiness to move beyond the illusion of lasting
matter-based happiness, and receptivity to discipline, which requires incremental
weaning oneself from body demands to regain the finer joys of Spirit.
No one need subject himself or herself to painful radical transformation. As anything
too drastic evokes negative reactions, so spiritual practice must be done in a balanced
fashion guided by wisdom. The key is to find a pace right for you and stick with
it. And while disciplined commitment is necessary for success, baby steps can be
gigantic strides. Degree of involvement is unique for each individual. By making
manageable efforts over time you’ll gradually cultivate a life enhanced by increased
joy, peace, love, vitality, and compassion. Do these sound disagreeable? So you decide…is
it worth it?
Alan L. Pritz, founder of Inner Resource Enhancement, began consulting in 1988
to offer innovative lifestyle management, inner-resource development, and performance
enhancement seminars. Alan has taught “Spirituality in the Workplace” at the University
of St. Thomas Management Center, wrote Pocket Guide To Meditation (Crossing Press:
1997), co-authored A Trainer’s Guide To Training for Tough Topics, (AMACOM, 9/2000),
and is currently writing a third book, As I Awaken: Crafting A Spiritual Life. Pritz
can be contacted at 612-721-4100.
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2001 Twin Cities WELLNESS newspaper.
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