I am only now starting my formal spiritual quest, and just finished your book, Buddha - very enjoyable. However, I am troubled in perusing your site that so much seems geared toward fulfilling western drives for material “success,” and that it seems geared toward realizing the “self,” while my rudimentary understanding of Buddha’s teachings seem clear that self is an illusion and an impediment to enlightenment. Please help me understand?
I am looking to eastern philosophies to help chart a path for unified humanity beyond the contemporary focus on individual achievement, material acquisition and individual “salvation” for the individual “soul,” none of which I believe exist. Am I traveling the wrong path?
Answer:
Buddhism is certainly not a wrong path. In choosing a spiritual road, however, there is more to consider than finding a philosophy that you admire. I’m a firm believer that spiritual growth is so vital that it must be guided by the most practical of considerations. That means that even though the goal of enlightenment is for complete knowledge, love, joy and fulfillment, we must begin the journey where we are and for reasons that will make our present lives better. For most people that means better health, a more meaningful career, and more rewarding personal relationships.
It’s wonderful that for your spiritual needs you see individuality, achievement and material acquisition as an illusion (which it is in unity consciousness) and that you seek the collective enlightenment of Mahamaya Buddhism. But most people are not at that place in their journey, and everyone needs to be able to get on the train at the station that is nearest to them. That’s what I mean by a practical spiritual path. Everyone is going to arrive at the same destination of perfect freedom, love, creativity and intelligence, but they need to get started on the path in terms that are helpful to their lives right now. In my own case, one of the reasons I started meditation was to stop smoking cigarettes.
By some standards that may be a very crass and unspiritual message to attach to the pristine experience of meditation, yet it got me started. So you may start your spiritual practice to lower your blood pressure or increase your income, but from there the invincible force of evolution guides the process and leads your desires to goals that serve your greater spiritual needs rather than your individual or ego needs. In this way our individual transformation becomes the global transformation that we want to accomplish. If we want to create a green forest, we are going to need create some green trees. Collective awakening of the world doesn’t happen without individual awakening leading the way.
Love,
Deepak
