Are you feeling confused about spirituality? If that’s the case, then it’s just because you’re letting the part of you that doesn’t need spirituality dictate your spirituality.
First of all, if you’re letting something outside of you dictate your spirituality, you’re never going to find it. If you’re trying to analyze it and create a definitive explanation, you’re not going to find it.
So, to me, the most useful thing to do is just to realize it’s all lies. Words cannot express this deep inner truth, and words don’t need to express it. We do not need to express this ‘humanity’ that we are in words.
Do you ever see a dog trying to explain what being a dog is? Do the birds fly through the sky worrying about, “What is my inner bird?” No, they don’t. They’re just part of being, and this is one of the reasons that indigenous teachings, native teachings, the teachings of the ancient humans, were all about how we are simply part of this whole thing. We’re not separate from those birds; we’re not above the birds. The birds are our sisters; the birds are our brothers. The coyotes, the trees—these are the things that are just naturally living in this harmony, and these are the things that teach us about this harmony.
And so, the best way for the human being to constantly enhance the harmony that’s inside of us is just to stop and offer a prayer. Because what do we have to offer to the full of existence that has literally given us everything? If we try to offer something that is of existence itself, then what are we doing? Offering existence to itself? The only thing we really have to offer is a prayer. What that does is stop and bring us down to a moment where the explanations are not necessary.
This is why kirtan and Dances of Universal Peace are good to do. Even the straight-out prayers that come to us, many spiritual traditions are helpful. Maybe they don’t make a whole lot of sense, like the Maha mantra: “Hari Krishna, Hari Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hari Hari, Hari Rama, Hari Rama, Rama Rama, Hari Hari.”
I doesn’t have to make sense. Give it as an offering.