Challenges In Spiritual Life

Neelam Nimare

# Challenges in Spiritual life

When I contemplate on the challenges faced by a spiritual seeker, my mind immediately jumps and begins listing all things like people, family, society. It lists everything external. We all think that biggest challenges in spiritual life are people, family and external environment. These can surely be obstacles. But the biggest challenge is the mind or ego. The seeker himself is the challenge. The problem is these challenges slow down the spiritual progress. The challenges can be different at different stages of the spiritual journey.

## Doubts
In the initial phase when the seeker is introduced to the path of knowledge, he begins listening to the teachings of the Guru. While listening, the mind creates doubts..what if this teaching is not true? Or Is realisation even possible for me? This may not be an abnormal thing because it is the minds job to think, otherwise we would be just blindly following what anyone told us. This is a useful critical thinking ability of the mind, but by creating doubts, it creates a block also. Doubt creates fear. Fear is the survival based emotion which will stagnate the spiritual growth. The solution here is to strengthen your faith on the path and share your doubts with your Guru.

## Bodily challenges 
These are usually not a big challenge but in the initial stages they may be distressing . Bodily problems appear mostly when you sit for contemplation. They may be in form of restlessness in the body, urge to open eyes and look around, sudden itchiness or pain in a body part, feeling to get up and move around or stretch out the limbs or excess sleepiness. These bodily challenges are usually harmless and transient. These happen during contemplation or meditation because the body has never experienced such quiet awake state where the eyes and other senses are not at much work. It seems something unusual and alarming for the body and it tries to estimate what is happening. With continuous practice, the body gets accustomed and such sensations will subside. They do not have any specific cure. So just give yourself time and ignore them for the while. Understand that it is a part of the process. Sometimes seekers may experience too much sleepiness during contemplation. This is because most people are sleep deficient and as the eyes are closed, brain enters a relaxed alpha brain wave state and leads to sleep. Here there is no option but to attend to that physiological need and reschedule the contemplation practice later. If seekers have persistent or significant bodily symptoms, In such case it is important to ask the Guru about it. The Guru may have some specific advice for you.

## Hyperactivity of the Mind
This is experienced when the seeker tries to meditate or contemplate on any topic. The mind becomes overactive. A tsunami of thoughts appear from nowhere. All sorts of random thoughts, imaginations, recall of past events, worries, fears, thoughts of future tasks pop up. The seeker expects calmness but finds a noisy mind instead. This is quite disturbing and the seeker is clueless how to tackle it. This is the most challenging thing that majority seekers face. Why this happens? It is because the untamed mind which we call as the normal persons mind generally is stuffed with unnecessary thoughts. Studies say that the mind has around fifty to sixty thousand thoughts per day and we are not even aware of most of them. Now when one sits to meditate, the increased awareness makes all those unaware thoughts evident. This is why there are so many unnecessary and uninvited thoughts. The solution here is not to resist or suppress the thoughts. If the thoughts are compelling for action, you can get up and quickly complete if necessary. For other non useful thoughts, allow them come to surface and just observe them with awareness. It is just like as if you are watching the traffic sitting in your balcony. Consider it like some purging of thoughts is happening. With continuous practice, slowly there will be lesser and lesser thoughts. So be consistent with your contemplation practice. The first day if you get 1000 thoughts in an hour, next day there will be 999, which is progress !

## Intellectual overload
Intelligence is a required quality in a seeker but intellectual overload can itself become a challenge in progress. This happens when the seeker mistakes intellectual understanding of knowledge and replaces direct experience. The knowledge ends up becoming a mere concept. Also trying to explore many different philosophies or comparing them leads to confusions and burn out. The mind loves spiritual knowledge not for transformation, but for validation. With too much bookish knowledge, the seeker will become not enlightened but an encyclopaedia. The result is- overthinking and unnecessary debates. The solution is to follow the practices and methods that the Guru has advised. Surrender to the Path. Do not scatter your attention. Stay focused on the recommended process.

## Ego
Ego is central to most of the challenges in spiritual life. It is the root cause of hurdles in all phases of the spiritual journey from beginner to advanced. For the seeker, spiritual progress ultimately depends on recognising and dissolving the Ego. But Ego fears its dissolution. It knows that realisation of Truth means its own end. Therefore it resists letting go and surrendering to the path. It loves action therefore tries to avoid stillness. Ego is about accumulating. It fears Not Knowing so it will accumulate even spiritual knowledge. Ego can appear in any forms to maintain its identity. It will drop the old identity and acquire a new one likeI am spiritual I am an advanced seeker now . I had this mystical experience..etc. The Ego can hijack the spiritual journey and turn it into another identity of the seeker. Ego may also compare and judge fellow seekers. It breeds jealousy and division. It will keep the seeker trapped in duality and separation. This will be the end of progress. The way to check the ego is the practice of awareness. As the awareness increases, the egoic identities can be dropped one by one.

## Hubris or Superiority complex
This is another malady of the ego, subtle but destructive trap. The seeker develops superiority complex, self approval or arrogance based on their knowledge, experience or spiritual progress. There is a false sense of being more evolved than others. Spiritual ego is a great pitfall. It blocks the progress and drags the seeker into more ignorance. It appears in many forms. Like the ego attaches with the knowledge or some temporary experience and claims them as personal accomplishments, for example,..I have meditated for years, I am more enlightened. Ego will also judge people based on their beliefs or lifestyle, like...they eat meat, how can they be spiritual?. Ego attaches new labels to itself for its need of validation, like I am awakened, I am a healer or a Guru. So, How to overcome this complex ? By bringing the ego into awareness and ask who is claiming to be spirituality advanced, is it the organism or the Experiencer? Does the Experiencer have a need to evolve or a desire to be a Guru? This question will keep you grounded. Also practice humility. Selfless service gives opportunity to cultivate humility. And most of all, stay surrendered to the Teacher. He will be able to point to every little trace of the spiritual ego. A Tao teaching says- The sage is the one who wears ragged clothes but has jewels in his heart.

## Challenges through people in family and society
People outside or even close family members can pose challenges to spiritual progress in subtle and overt ways. People are not inherently bad or wrong, but because their ignorance in form of beliefs, values and expectations conflicts with the spiritual path. Family people have deep emotional ties and expectations. When the seeker has changed priorities or needs solitude, the family take it as neglect. They also fear losing the old You. Regarding the people around you, friends, coworkers or relatives, they may find you strange and may isolate or ridicule you. All this happens because people unknowingly project their own fears and insecurities onto you. So how to tackle this? It can be tricky. There is no one way. Do not think about abandoning the current responsibilities of dependent families members. Try to communicate calmly and set gentle boundaries. The challenge here is not to reject people but remain inwardly untouched while fully participating. Similar to the lotus flower which blooms in dirt but floats above it. Keep your spiritual life very private and dont discuss about it unnecessarily, if people around are not receptive. Best approach is to find new friends which often happens naturally. Form your spiritual tribe, a new community of like minded friends. This will strengthen your resolution to keep moving on your path as well as remind you that you are not alone.

## Mystical Experiences 
It is not very common but sometimes there can be mystical experiences on the spiritual path, like visions, feeling of oneness or bliss, or psychic phenomena. These can be milestones but sometimes they may become a hurdle in spiritual progress. If the seeker does not have proper guidance, these experiences can be mistaken as enlightenment or Truth. It may lead him to believe that he is spiritually advanced or the chosen one It strengthens the ego even more. Such experiences can also delude the seeker and he may begin chasing and craving for more experiences. This leads to drifting from the goal of self realisation. There are several stories of seekers being distracted from the goal by such experiences. Because of the fancy and dramatic nature of these experience, some seekers begin spiritual tourism hopping from retreats to workshop to collect extraordinary experiences. They become completely lost in thi world of illusions. Distraction from these things can be avoided by understanding that such mystical phenomena are just like spiritual entertainment. They are not to be taken seriously. They are not real and are temporary. So enjoy them and move on. One need not be stuck in them.

## Key takeaways
Challenges are bound to appear in spiritual life. Deeper the ignorance, greater will be the challenges. Initially it may require tremendous effort to navigate through them but gradually the seeker learns the trick of the trade and it become easier to overcome them. So it is important to persist on the path with trust and devotion. Challenges therefore are also like natural filters to filter out the non serious seekers. For a True seeker, the desire for the knowledge is so intense that challenges will hardly dither him. His progress is fuelled by his own intense desire. Challenges also bring about great learnings and purification. As the mystic poet Rumi says.. It is the wound where the light enters. Probably that is purpose of challenges, to examine you. To test you and promote you further.