We all want to be happy and live with purpose. We all want to live a meaningful life and experience that wholeness. How to find that?
The other day at the Ashram we were talking about why to live on bread and butter if we could have fine cuisine at home. Sometimes we skip our regular meals, snack all day long, and go to bed tired and hungry. Yes, we satisfy the hunger of the moment, but the real nourishment doesn’t come.
It is the same thing with a spiritual practice. If the goal of spiritual practice is just to feel a little bit peaceful or withstand the day’s challenges, in my opinion this is not enough. I call this “maintaining ourselves,” which is like barely surviving, or “eating bread and butter.” We miss out on the real gift that a steady spiritual practice can bring to us.
I see people work very hard. They work continuously from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep. True, they accomplish many things, but is it really nurturing their soul? At the end of the day, can they look into their eyes in the mirror and say, “Yes, I have lived today fully.”
The practice that we have doesn’t need to be complicated or elaborate. It can be very simple. What makes it real for us is our commitment to it.
How committed am I to my practice? Whatever my practice may be — even just five minutes of meditation or three deep breaths first thing in the morning — am I so committed to it that nothing comes between me and my practice? Have I become as habitual with my practice as I am with brushing my teeth every morning? Does my practice come to my side when I feel joyful as well as when I’m a little shaky?
People do many things in the name of being spiritual, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I call this “snacking.” While it may relieve the immediate hunger, it does not bring us a feeling of wholeness or real satisfaction. When we begin to satisfy our hunger with nutritious meals prepared with love, we receive nourishment, we receive energy, we experience the capacity to go out and manifest in the world.
So whatever form our spiritual practice is, let us strive to be consistent with it. Let us begin the day with it and end the day with it. And also in the middle of the day, let us invite it to be by our side. Maybe it’s a prayer that we recite or maybe it’s a personal mantra or simply a mindful breath. The more precious we hold our spiritual practice in our hearts, the more it brings to us.