Spiritual Shortcutting

Even in the Spiritual Community, people trade upon their experiences – by comparing stories and anecdotes it is determined who seems to have the most expertise. In the monasteries that could make all the difference between slaving away in the Kitchen all one’s life or finally being promoted up to tending the dusty scrolls in the library. In the private field of Spirituality, our experiences serve not only to fulfill our sense of self-esteem, but serve as reference points and milestones. If others are talking of various experiences which we are not having, then we suspect that a greater level of activity is being expected of us.

But whenever Experience is at such a premium – when the rewards can be so important – self-esteem and perceived status within one’s Community – it is unavoidable that IF there are any shortcuts, that people will be inclined to take them.

Are there Spiritual Shortcuts?

Well, yes. The most easy one is simply to hold your breath. For instance, if you can hold your breath for only about 3 and a half minutes, you will almost certainly attain to a Near Death Experience – The Bright White Light, Jesus, a sense that one is enveloped by an All Knowingness and a Complete Serenity. All of which may be very very true. However, it comes from nearly killing one’s self. Maybe brains cells give off a great deal of energy as they go from being living to dead. All of Yoga’s Deep Breathing exercises play upon this same effect – to make the Practitioner faint away into a moment of Bliss. The Drug Addicts call this a “rush”. Now, if the Drug Addicts are trading in the same product, then how important could it possibly be?

One can also Fast. What fasting does is it depletes minerals, particularly potassium, so that the feeling of lightheadedness becomes almost constant. Indeed, I have noticed that when I am fasting for more than several days, any brisk exercise or even the moderate use of ‘Breathing Exercises’ will pass me out onto the floor with very little warning. One needs to be careful with both Breathing Exercises and Fasting, as it is not really that difficult to break out one’s teeth as to have a Satori Experience.

One should learn to do without these ‘shortcuts’. The experiences they bring are simply ‘flash’ and have no intrinsic value. One can brag about them, but those in the know see that there really isn’t any substantial content behind them.

Now, deep and conscious breathing is good for one’s health. And a cleansing Fast can even be good for one’s health (at times I find myself overweight, and while systematic dieting would perhaps be better, I find that a good fast simply knocks off the excess poundage). But in regards to one’s Spiritual Development, one should concentrate upon one’s Moral Bearing, one’s Spiritual Orientation toward the Universe, and go about with one’s normal Meditations. Oh, and then there are Dreams. No, I am not a Dreaming fanatic, but if one pays attention to one’s Dreams, then one must certainly realize that messages are being passed along. In many cases we are being shown our Flaws and where we are going astray. If we take enough note of our Dreams to fix these problems, then the Dreams move forward. This makes Dreaming a wonderful Tool for our Spiritual Development. But it is no ‘shortcut’. Dreams follow Life’s ordinary pace. Dreams address problems that take time to solve, and they ordinarily wait for one problem to be solved before they will address another. But the advantage to Dreams is that they are nearly universal. I can’t prove it, but I think Dreaming is everybody’s connection to the same Collective Consciousness and Higher Guiding Being.
Meditation is equally good or better, but depends upon about the same mechanism as Dreaming. The REM cycle in Dreaming starts at about 90 minutes and shortens throughout the night. Well, has any experienced Meditater ever put a stopwatch on his Meditations to see when they get interesting and revelatory? Its about 90 minutes, isn’t it, but the ‘episodes’ within the Meditation then come closer together as the Mediation progresses. The conclusion here is that Meditation is much like Dreaming with the exception that one learns to hold the ‘thread of consciousness’ up over the threshold of actually falling asleep, while still being physically quiet enough so that the mechanism of REM Dreaming is not interfered with.