Misinterpreting spiritual teachings, Eastern spiritual teachings, has made us crazy and greedy. This is a real problem for Seekers and for society too because some of the very best people are Seekers who are honestly seeking to find something different. Many of us have rejected the ideas of Christianity and taken up the ideas of Eastern mysticism, enlightenment, mystical experiences.
We’ve just gotten it really really wrong. We’ve misinterpreted so much of it.
The Eastern Traditions, Enlightenment Traditions, came to us from very different societies where the people who were actually seeking spirituality would go to monasteries and live there. They would actually give up their whole lives and go there.
Today we have all sorts of discussions about “Can the lay person become enlightened?” Discussions that don’t really help us. Yes, obviously, a lay person can become enlightened. But a layperson needs a totally different sort of instructions for enlightenment than a monk needs.
The monk makes a dramatic change from the very beginning. They start with the simple act of giving up all possessions and going and living in the monastery. That reduces greed right there.
Giving up that much is really quite incredible. When you own no possessions the difference in your psychology is dramatic. Also, the people who were going to study spirituality, joining the monastery, they were walking into a Sangha full of Awakened people. They were guided.
So when we ask, “Can a lay person become enlightened?” What we’re asking is: can a regular old western person, with all of our conditionings, figure it out by themselves while they’re in full motion: making a living, raising a family, living life?
Consequently we have made it very very shallow. If you step back and look at it, so many of the teachings that are happening today? They’re just about happiness. There’s even the “create your own reality” stuff that’s literally about getting whatever you want.
The monk didn’t go to the monastery just to be happy. They certainly didn’t go to create what ever possessions they want.
Spirituality, the way we practice it today, creates a huge dissatisfaction. What you have isn’t enough. Who you aren’t isn’t good enough. It creates this insane expectation of what it is we’re gonna get when we’re enlightened.
It would be so much more useful for the Western mind to have spiritual teachings that teach us what we’re gonna lose. Not what you’re gonna gain, because we see everything as transactional.
So anyway, be careful. Watch carefully what’s happening and notice what inside of yourself is getting triggered activated when you read various different books and things like that. Things that spark your greed for more, your hankering for perfection.
Question, question, question, question everything.