The beginning of wisdom lies in self knowledge. As the ancient Greek aphorism says “Know thyself”. And, from Shakespeare we hear: “This above all: to thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man”
The first stage of this journey of life is, therefore, the development of self awareness, which is to say having a small part of our consciousness which is solely devoted to observing ourselves in any given situation. As soon as you are able to develop this independent self awareness, you will start to observe things about yourself and your behaviour you may have had little reason to remark upon before. Tendencies and patterns will start to emerge; triggers for certain reactions and so forth. Instead of simply shrugging and saying: “It’s just the way I am”, start noting these and subjecting them to critical scrutiny. In this way you will start being able to develop better insights into yourself and start to learn and to grow. You will gradually become less the slave of the world and its influences and better able to navigate it more calmly and with more detachment. This is the pathway to greater freedom, although to be fully free, in the sense of Moksha, of the influence of the world completely, involves at the end a complete renunciation of the world, that is, in the way that we have experienced it through the course of our earlier life.
My aim in writing this is to address much of the overall woolliness and confusion which surrounds spiritual seeking and help readers to better see and understand their motives and make more informed decisions accordingly. We do not need to be the slaves of anything nor anyone, perhaps especially those who set themselves up to be our guides.
The sections which follow should help address some of the principal points, although I can offer no blueprints. Each one of us is as different as our own biometrics and what works for one person might not for another, although clearly there are a few basic principles that will serve to guide, the most important for me being the fact that it is your life that will teach you and using your life experiences as a mirror to you. Part of the yoga process is to learn to see ourselves and the panoply of different conditionings that have formed the construct of the personality we experience ourselves as being, which itself acts as such a powerful obstacle on this road to enlightenment.
Why Do It?
If you’re reading this, it presupposes that you have some interest in spiritual matters, even if only the need to debunk it. People might ask “ok, but why ever would anyone want to pursue such a pathway in their lives that is clearly going to be so difficult? And who cares anyway about experiencing oneself as anything but, well, oneself!?”
In the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:
“Hear now the wisdom of Yoga, path of the Eternal and freedom from bondage. No step is lost on the path, and no dangers are found. And even a little progress is freedom from fear (1).”
What does he mean by ‘freedom from fear’? Many of us know what this means in the reality of lives lived within the context of the world, where there always seems to be something to worry about. So any step that moves one in the direction of a fearless place is surely something worth pursuing. We all have to start somewhere, in whatever we choose to do. Certainly this pathway is a lifelong undertaking, requiring commitment and work. And rarely can something worthwhile be achieved all at once. But, as we are reassured, even a little progress is freedom from fear.
The earlier we start this work, the more of a habit of good practice it becomes. Certainly I think it inadvisable for any but the most dedicated of people whilst still in the early part of their lives, to attempt to pursue this pathway to its ultimate goal anyway, as it does require at the end, a complete renunciation of the world. This simply wouldn’t be appropriate for someone with family commitments for example. And I also think there is a point and purpose to living our lives within the context of the world as the individual people we experience ourselves as being.
It might therefore be looked upon as the commitment to climb a mountain to its very summit, accepting that the journey will be long and difficult and require all manner of strengths and resources, but that it is an undertaking that can be approached in stages throughout one’s life, during which one gains fitness and strengths as one goes along. At each resting point, a certain altitude has been gained and the view of the world left behind below becomes more expansive. Years might pass at such a place before the urge or the calling, the circumstances or opportunities demand that camp is struck and the journey upwards continues. This was the way it was for me certainly.
(1) The Bhagavad Gita. Ch. 2. 39-40. Translation by Juan Mascaró. Penguin Classics. 1962
Other translations gloss this rather differently. See Note on Translation