Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

remember one swami bragging about nearly completing a
puruscharana
, or the repetition of his mantra hundreds of thousands of times. He asked me and others how long we had repeated our mantras; he claimed great wisdom, but he seemed stale and automated. He exemplified spiritual materialism, seeming to see his spirituality as an accounting system in which he had a very good balance sheet. Neither life, wisdom, nor love work like a bank account. Great attainments and lifetimes of merit can evaporate in a moment, and awakening or compassion can come in a flash.
    A funny story demonstrates this idea. Once there was a billionaire businessman who had cheated and lied throughout his lifetime to make his fortune. On his death bed, however, he realized his fate and donated his entire estate to charity. When he died, the lords of karma were in a quandary about what to do with his soul. He had done so much evil and had millions of dollars in bad deeds, but because of his gift he ended up ten dollars in the black! The karmic accountants were in a dilemma and appealed directly to God for a decision in this difficult case. God looked over the man’s deeds and the balance sheets and replied, “Give him back his ten dollars and tell him to go to Hell!” It is silly to reduce life and spirituality to a measurable system of accounting.
    Spirituality can be discovered and touched, and it can touch us, leading to deepening love, insight, and wisdom. It is larger than we are; we exist within it. Our most eloquent words are at best only approximations. Spirituality is like an exquisite flower that blooms when it will. It is not possible to cheapen it so that it can be fully explained or captured in formulated living. It is more like the round, fiery, rising sun peaking through fingers of cloud. Can you convey in words what the sunset is? Even a photograph is a poor approximation. The sunrise can only convey itself.
    We may do our sitting practices, our rituals, and mantra repetitions, and become better human beings—or not. History is replete with examples of spiritual practitioners who became or remained tyrants. Themessage and teaching here is that spirituality cannot be mechanized or automated into systems of practices. Practices have their place, but we must always be vigilant and aware. Spirit is the mysterious, ineffable, flow that reveals itself occasionally in synchronicity, magical moments, and the beauty of perception—as being touched by a sunset or a smile. Synchronicities can be cosmic signposts of the unseen hand of the mysterious and the miraculous. Love is the essence, heart, and the expression of spirituality. Spirituality is the art of living—living with the highest possible excellence, compassion, passion, creativity, artistry, and awe.
    We must be careful about organizing and codifying our spirituality. A couple of memorable stories speak to this. In the first, a wise man and his student are walking along the beach. The wise man is instructing his student, who is finally beginning to have flashes of illumination and insight, glimpsing the meaning and depth of life. Following the two men are a devil and his student. The devil’s student observes the wise man’s student beginning to awaken and is quite nervous and upset. “Do something quickly, master. His student is about to get it!” he says. “Relax, no problem,” replies the devil. “Nothing to worry about. After he gets it, all we have to do is help the boy organize it!” Awakening and insight are lost when we apply too much structure and organization. Religion is institutional, spirituality is deeply personal. Direct personal perception that there is no mechanical path to spirituality creates an inner revolution that is the ending of struggle and the awakening of a new energy that is creative and free.
    We create similar problems of rigidity by depending on rituals and practices for our spirituality without keeping our eyes and hearts open, as the next story points out. A spiritual seeker spent his life pursuing God, enlightenment, and cosmic consciousness. He lived in monasteries, made pilgrimages, and read all the holy books. In the twilight of his life, he gave up his search and decided to end his days peacefully in the beauty of the mountains and forests. He went deep into the woods andbuilt a camp, where he spent his time in solitude with only the trees, animals, and stars, and eating wild fruits and nuts. Before his death he found peace for the