In her incredible book, Chasm of Fire, Irina Tweedie speaks of her master Bhai Sahib. In frustrating moments of jealousy and possessiveness she is miffed that he spends more time with visitors with seemingly negligible spiritual intentions than he does with her.

Bhai Sahib explains to her that his work is threefold. Some people come to see him to talk over their domestic issues, relationship hurts, or difficulties with their children. Others come for spiritual reasons and mostly for the way of dhyana – mindfulness or meditation. Tweedie herself is in a third category: full devotional surrender to God.

Reading this book was the first time I had seen these levels of inner work described so clearly. It has helped me arrive at my thoughts on capacity and potential. As healers, counselors, or teachers we accept and meet each individual where they are. Without judgment we relate with the other, in the knowledge that there is very little difference between us in the material world and none at all in the spiritual realm!

We cannot always predict accurately what someone is coming to see us for. Sometimes it is obvious. At other times it is mysterious and hidden beneath several coverings. Sometimes it turns into a level we never suspected. Rarely can or do expectations conform to thought.

The way is bespoke – custom-made for your individual needs. You can moan and complain about this as much as you want, but it is the case. In this last week alone in my practice I have counseled one client that her way is the way of devotion. However, her background and conditioning is such that she will always choose the hardest of ways, so she will have to pass through a period of dhyana and struggle in order to realize the absolute ease of surrender to the life of devotion.

Another has the tricky task of discerning his ego-self as it ducks behind quite reasonable interpretations of mind which reflect self-importance (after a mere short examination), playing the victim, and despair. For him, the path of awareness (dhyana again).

If all this should sound like gobbledy-gook to you, the basic principle that underlies this discussion is this: true spiritual sadhana, devotion to spiritual discipline, and sacred-spiritual practices as a way of life does not accrue or progressively get you anything or anywhere.

Personal, domestic, emotional issues demand a practical approach: What should I do? How shall I deal with this problem? This is how you fix the car, so to speak. Deeper issues of character and personality also require a practical approach, although with much patience and tenacity too.

In dhyana a practical approach is adopted toward spirituality. You are encouraged to struggle or relax, meditate or breathe, or practice some other awareness technique. But these are merely ploys to return you to a semblance of naturalness and ordinary living. In contrast, spiritual sadhana is total, timeless. It is your immersement in the heart, not the heart of separative relationship or sex or sentiment or romance or relative, partial relationship, but the heart that is all-inclusive and embraces All.

BLOG entry #22