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Stay Where You Are: Finding True Spirituality
Andrew Paterson—01/2003 |
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It has become fashionable in the West to regard
Eastern spirituality as the true path. But by rejecting
our own spiritual heritage, we work against our
natural psychological and perhaps spiritual makeup. |
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 N
MY LITTLE ALTAR at
home sits a bronze Buddha brought back for me from
Nepal by a close friend. The statue has been blessed
by a Lama and sits on the top of a miniature Greek
pillar (the sort that might hold a garden bird-bath).
Underneath is a Tonka of a complex concentrically layered
pattern depicting the world, designed by the Dali Lama
with a lotus at the centre. Either side is a picture
of Jesus from my grandmother and a postcard of a Native
American which I bought in California, and behind a
copy of an old Hawaiian menu cover, depicting the enthronement
of a young Hawaiian King. There are also two tiles:
one of Shiva and the other Ganesh. Each item on this
shrine represents an aspect of my spiritual path. |
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| I light a candle and sit, pray, think and meditate
in front of this shrine everyday. It is my place of
power. I do not meditate very deeply or for very long
because I am not very proficient at long periods of
sitting still: I'm a tall Westerner with long legs
that don't fold up for long so easily. I love my little
prayer sessions though, and I love the head space that
I'm in when I finish and the way such practice gradually
increases my awareness. |
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| Although the Buddhist symbols take central place
on my altar (I also have a singing bowl and some Tibetan
chimes), I could never be a Buddhist. I am a Westerner,
and Buddhism is tailored for the Eastern psyche. It
is and always will be slightly foreign to my soul — at
least in this lifetime. (This is not to say that I
don't love Buddhism and appreciate some of its profundities.)
On this altar, the most meaningful items are actually
the picture of Jesus (even though I strongly dislike
conventional Christianity and accept none of its dogmas),
the postcard of the Native American and the Hawaiian
illustration. I can relate to these, whereas the Buddhist
props give me a cold and empty profundity. |
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| Many of us brought up in Western culture look with
envious eyes at our Eastern counterparts and the manner
in which spirituality is so ubiquitously present in
those cultures. Just the other day a friend of mine
told me how much she missed India because, for her,
it was spiritual home. We often marvel and try to emulate
the peaceful temperament and lucid wisdom of the masters
from the East, and every increasing numbers of us practice
Eastern meditation and yoga. (This emulation even extends
to the slight Indian rocking of the head at my local
yoga centre and even, yes this is true, fake Indian
accents!!) |
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| But what is wrong with our own culture that so many
of us feel the need to indulge in another in order
to regain a sense of completeness? Is the East really
the world's hotbed of spiritual wisdom? And why does
our culture seem so feeble at fulfilling our spiritual
needs? |
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| The problem with many of the more "Western" religions
is that, over the centuries, their living essence has
evaporated to leave a dry skeleton of dogma and empty
ritual. As a result, congregations have dwindled to
an all-time low, and very few of us respect priests,
rabbis and clergymen because they do not embody the
wisdom that they so eagerly teach — unlike their
Eastern counterparts. (In fact, the media is currently
full of stories of shameful abuses by Western priests
on children.) In this climate of spiritual atrophy,
is it any wonder that we jump to the opportunity to
adopt a new spirituality, one in which everything seems
so much more wholesome, honest, novel and fresh? |
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| So when the revolution in consciousness came in the
60s, of course the weary dogmatized Western religions
could offer us no spiritual succour. These dated religions
were symbols of the very restriction and establishment
that the new movement wanted to overthrow. The hierarchies
of control that had come to dominate them, so diabolically
represented by the Vatican, had depersonalised and
externalized our relationship with God, effectively
cutting off divine access and personal gnosis. So it
had to be the East to which the young turned. In fact
today, if you ask a young person for a symbol of spirituality,
they are as likely to say a lotus flower and meditation,
than a cross or a church. |
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| The irony of this is that Eastern religions, from
the perspective of the East, have themselves reached
a point of stagnation due, once again, to the growth
of a hierarchy of control. When Tibet was invaded by
the Chinese, it was a feudal country with a wealthy
priest class who lived off the hard work of the poor
population. Most Buddhist practice revolved around
mindless ritual and guru devotion. The same applies
to Hinduism in India, which has been instrumental in
maintaining the strict class system and preventing
social reform. You could safely say that the average
individual in these countries was and is no more conscious,
no more enlightened, than the average Westerner, although
they may spend more time in their lives pursuing the
outer forms of spiritual practice. |
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| When Eastern religions travelled to the West, however,
there was an opportunity for religious reform — otherwise
they just would not have had the appeal beyond that
of cults. Contemporary exported Buddhism and Hinduism
is very different from that originally practiced in
their native cultures. Export religions (like export
beer here in the UK) tend to be stronger, purer and
higher quality. They have had to adapt themselves to
appeal to the discerning and critical Western mind,
and in so adapting they have made themselves much more
appealing. Much of the dogma and empty ritual has been
stripped in favour of emphasis on the core beliefs
and practice. (Remember that in the West, Eastern religious
practice is usually a conscious addendum to life — very
few here are born in Eastern religions — and
so export Eastern philosophy must pass the scrutiny
of the critical and discerning Western mind.) |
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| This is not to say that the Westerners do not accept
some ridiculous dogmas and empty rituals; you just
have to look at the popularity of some of the weird
and wonderful cults that spring up, blossom for a while
and then fade away when the leader dies and/or everybody
comes to their senses. However, these sorts of religious
cults have a relatively minor following and attention
tends to be focused on the leader rather than the teaching.
For a religion to take hold in a population it must
be substantial, and cannot suffer the same paranoid
secrecy and delusion that permeates cults. |
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| In this light, it is not surprising that export Eastern
religions have flourished here in the West. Being a
Buddhist or a Hindu is fashionable for Westerners,
especially the younger generations, and this only shows
up even more, by comparison, the excessive and dated
dogma suffered by traditional Western religions. The
result is the common misperception of religious choice
here in the West that it is confined to just two choices:
accept your traditional Judeo-Christian (and Moslem)
heritage or try an Eastern alternative — often
regarded as the "intellectual" or wise choice.
(Modern gospel-singing Christianity is only a new expression
of an old ideology… usually even more fundamentalist.) |
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| The problem with Eastern religions, though, is that
they can be quite alien to our Western psyche. Human
beings have a rich heritage of inner symbols and meanings,
called by Jung the Collective Unconscious, and it is
important that we work through the symbols of our culture
(whether we like that culture or not) to find true
spiritual enlightenment. We cannot just jettison our
entire psycho-spiritual heritage in favour of an imported
hybrid from the East. That choice is not ours to make
as the flavour of our inner life is generally culturally
dependent. Of course, once that flavour is fully tasted
and integrated, we are free to move through to other
belief systems and spiritual perspectives, but our
own heritage cannot first be ignored and overridden.
If it is, then we only have the illusion of wholeness,
and that illusion not only takes its toll on our own
development, but on that of the Western society in
which we are an integral part. |
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| The sixties was a time of reaction against an old
world and ageing belief systems, but "reaction" is
only the first faltering step in integration, transformation
and finally transmutation of our core beliefs and paradigms.
We have to work through our own heritage before we
can engage in another, just as a person has to make
peace with a bad relationship in order not to be reactively
sucked into repetition of his or her unconscious patterns.
It is important, therefore, for those who are Christians
to explore the Christian Gnostic teachings, those that
are Jews to involve themselves is Cabalistic teaching
and those that are Moslems to integrate Sufi teachings.
By doing this we have worked WITH our inner spiritual
heritage rather than running from it into the arms
of another. Once those are integrated, once we have
transformed rather than rejected our spiritual heritage,
then we are free to adopt any position that we feel
is right for us and one that more fully expresses our
inner divinity. (I am reminded the advice of an Eastern
guru to Western seekers as told in one of Jack Kornfield's
books: "Stay where you are.") |
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| That is not to say that some people, born into Western
religion or atheist families, actually have an Eastern
spiritual heritage that comes naturally to them. Maybe
they have spent many lifetimes in the East and just
this single lifetime in the West, in which case their
spiritual heritage is not Western at all. But for the
majority of us, it is much better for us to work through
the Gnostic aspect of our particular religion as it
is a much more natural stepping-stone to true spirituality. |
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| After all, the most important aspects of religious
activity are in fact completely independent to our
surface spiritual beliefs. The kindness and love that
we give to each other are the same whether we are a
Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Moslem or a Buddhist.
Even our inner experience of basic meditative awareness
is independent of our religious heritage. Like many
of us, I remember occasions as a small child lying
in bed, totally engrossed and focused on the rhythm
of my breath. Meditation is natural — it is practiced
by every baby and small child. We only need to remember
how to do it, and for that we don't need to become
a Buddhist or a Hindu (although for a few that might
be appropriate). And the few occasions when I was literally
touched by the divine as a child (hearing "the" voice
or seeing "spirits" with my physical eyes)
the experience was very much Western and not Eastern,
for that is my heritage in this lifetime. |
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| Perhaps what is most important for Westerners is
the need for a personal relationship with the divine.
We want to interact with something that is greater
than us, but not completely dissolved into it. We want
a relationship rather than a quality of being. This
is why "Westerners" pray and "Easterners" meditate.
This reflects a fundamental difference in psychology
and is the reason why many of us do not feel 100% comfortable
adopting Eastern religions, but prefer to create our
own spiritual medley, picking and choosing those aspects
that appeal to us. Gnostic beliefs very nicely bridge
that divide, as do Shamanistic practices. |
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| In the end, we have to make a choice or choices that
best allows us to express that inner divinity externally — the
world really needs that right now. But we must be sensitive
enough to our deepest feelings to make a good choice,
rather than a knee-jerk response, encouraged by fashion
and culture, either into Eastern religions or Western
fundamentalism. We have a responsibility to make the
best choice we can, to bring forth that which is within
us as accurately as we can and through a belief system
that will not interfere with that expression. Otherwise,
we become blocked by the external form and end up as
slaves in a world of shadows, vulnerable to control
and abuse (and God knows there are a lot of people
who want to control us). |
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"Stay where you are," that is the advice
of an Eastern Master. We must transform within our
culture, for only then we can use the full power stored
in the Western psyche to create a new society that
is in touch with itself. By doing this do we have the
best chance, as a society and as individuals, to heal
ourselves. |
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| If you bring
forth that which is within you, that which
is within you will save you. If you do not
bring forth that which is within you, that
which is within you will destroy you. |
| The Essene
Gospel of St. Thomas |
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| Andrew Paterson is an independent writer currently living in London. He has no affiliation to any religious or political organisation. To contact him, please email . |
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