The Spiritual System Often in spiritual literature, youll find the image of a boat used to symbolize the spiritual path. The reasoning runs like this: Just as a boat is used to cross a river and is then left behind once the far shore is reached, so too is a spiritual system used to cross the river of self-ignorance and then abandoned when self-realization is achieved. Spiritual practice is a means to an end. Some yogis feel that today we must learn spirituality by prescription because we are not sensitive to whatever is natural in us. Then, once you recognize your authentic Self, the whole yoga practice will come to you. At that moment, we no longer need the system and can throw it away. We can sail on, in other words, without our boat. Its like a map to an unfamiliar city, they say—without it, wed wander around lost and confused. An established process shows us where we are and where we want to go. It points us in the right direction and indicates some of the detours and dead ends we may encounter along the way. Just as a map tracks bus routes, a spiritual system gives us the means—by way of a time-tested set of practices—to arrive at our hoped-for destination.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 02:36:30 +0000
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