Spiritual Growth | SuccessConsciousness.com Blog on Self Improvement and Spiritual Growth

Emptiness, Inner Silence, Nonduality and Meditation

By Remez Sasson

Regular practice of meditation can lead to experiencing brief flashes of inner silence, or as some spiritual traditions call it, emptiness. As one progresses with meditation, and meditation gets steadier and deeper, these brief moments, which may last for split seconds in the beginning, get longer and deeper. In time, the inner silence or sense of inner emptiness can be experienced not only while meditating, but also in everyday life too.

The state of inner silence – emptiness requires some clarification. It is not a morbid state of indifference, numbness and lack of energy. It is not a state of lack of life force, zest and confidence and of feeling worthless. It is not the emptiness and silence of nothingness or darkness, but the majestic emptiness and vastness of endless and limitless space, full of life and light.

It is an uplifting and blissful experience, brought about when the mind and the thinking process slow down or stop their restless and erratic activity, without losing consciousness or awareness. In this state you are completely conscious and alive, blissful and peaceful, without thoughts, boundaries or limitations.

At these moments you experience a sense of expanded consciousness-awareness and nonduality. There are no thoughts such as “I am not thinking now”, “My mind is silent” or “I am experiencing emptiness”. You just feel peaceful and blissful, forgetting about your personality-ego and just BE.

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More on nonduality:
Articles on nonduality
Quotes on nonduality

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: emptiness, inner silence, nonduality

Pleasure, Attachment and Spiritual Growth

By Remez Sasson

Making progress on the spiritual path does not mean that you have to reject any kind of pleasure and fun and live an austere and harsh life. This idea sometimes holds people from taking the first step toward spiritual growth. Walking on a spiritual path does not require that you avoid everything coming through the five senses, and treating yourself harshly and rigorously.

Pleasure and enjoyment do not hold you from making spiritual progress, but the attachment to them does. It is the attachment that has to go. Attachment is a kind of fear, addiction and lack of freedom. It is the fear of loss.

It might seem to you as a paradox, but you can enjoy life, but at the same time stay unattached anything you experience.

It is the inner attitude that is important. Someone, who has progressed on the inner path, can live and enjoy life, like anyone else, but at the same time not be attached to anything. Such a person may not seek pleasure deliberately, but when there is pleasure, he/she can enjoy it while it lasts, without being attached to it. When the source of pleasure is gone, there is no clinging to it or wishing it stayed, neither there is regret and or a feeling of loss.

Here is what Ramesh Balsekar says on this subject in his book “Who Cares?!”:

“The difference between the sage and the ordinary person, in regard to the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, is that while the ordinary person is continually in search of such pleasures, the sage does not hanker after such pleasures, but enjoys them with zest when they happen in the ordinary course of life. The sage does not seek pleasure, nor does he reject it when it happens.”

Ramesh Balsekar also quotes the words the sage Ashtavakra: “Absence of attachment to sense objects is liberation; passion for sense objects is bondage.”

Overcoming attachment and developing detachment lead to peace of mind and happiness.

Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: attachment, pleasure, Spiritual Growth

What is detachment?

By Remez Sasson

There is some misunderstanding about the meaning of detachment. What is detachment? Does it mean being indifferent, lazy or lacking warmth and compassion? No, this is not true detachment!

True detachment is a state of not getting disturbed or agitated by external events and by yours and other people’s emotions and thoughts. It is a state of staying calm and in control of yourself and your moods in every situation, without feeling being harassed or hurried by people or circumstances.

Detachment shows itself in lack of attachment to the results of your actions, and in accepting the consequences of what you do. Instead of getting nervous, angry, agitated or unhappy, if things go wrong, you stay calm and try again. In this sense, detachment shows itself as inner peace, inner strength and courage.

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Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: attachment, detachment, Inner Peace

The Direct Path

Written by Mouni Sadhu
Excerpted from www.hinduism.co.za

The great Rishi, Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi – unlike most yogis and many saints of the present day, does not recommend yogic practices as a condition for the highest and perennial spiritual achievement, called by him ‘Self-realisation’. He dismisses from that aim, all the cumbersome postures, breathing exercises, control of the pranic-currents (currents of the Prana in the human body and so of Nature itself), and so on. In fact, he seldom even mentioned them in his talks.

So the Direct Path to spiritual attainment, as shown by the Maharshi, does not require any unnatural body postures, often so difficult to perform for the majority of people; none of the efforts of Hatha Yoga, which can be dangerous unless practised under the direct supervision of a competent teacher, and no artificial mental practices of concentration. All such things lead nowhere unless accompanied by the elements of spiritual enlightenment, a fact which is firmly underlined by Sri Shankaracharya in his ‘Viveka Chudamani’.

Now I see clearly that these things belong to a closed and bewitched circle. For years, I and some of my closest occult friends practised many kinds of ‘outer-yogas’ but without any results worthy of our efforts. Of course, some of these exercises were good for our physical health, especially for stilling the nerves, cultivating a beautiful voice, and so forth. But these advantages only remained with us as long as we continued regularly to perform the exercises. A pause for even a few weeks deprived us of all the hard earned benefits we had gained at the cost of such effort and waste of time. No true and permanent peace of mind could be obtained, although for that purpose I made intense use of Japa (repetition) with the best mantras.

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Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: mouni sadhu, self realization, Sri Ramana Maharshi

The Spiritual Path and Material Life

By Remez Sasson

People who are on the path of spiritual growth are sometimes perplexed and don’t know what to do. They want to advance on the spiritual path, but they cannot devote all their time to this quest and abandon the material world. Most of them have responsibilities and duties they feel they cannot ignore, and have material needs they have to take care of.

Some people say that in order to walk on the spiritual path, one needs to give up all material possessions and money and live in seclusion. To prove their assertion, they point to the swamis, monks, yogis and fakirs living in the East. True spirituality is an inner state, and is not gauged by external lifestyle. Living like them is not fit everyone, and it does not always leads to real inner growth.

Did you ever stop to think that there might be people living ordinary lives, with job and family, even people whom you might know personally, who are well advanced on the spiritual path, but yet neither you nor anyone else know about this? They just prefer to hide this fact and there is nothing in their external life to denote their inner state.

Most people won’t be able to live without material possessions of some kind, and it is also not necessary. One needs a place to stay and sleep, clothes, food, health care, and all this costs money. Without them, it will be more difficult to concentrate or meditate, because the mind and the survival instinct will continuously distract and disturb your concentration.

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Filed Under: Spiritual Growth Tagged With: material life, Spiritual Growth, spiritual path