Questions about Ashrams and the realities of dedicating my life to a Spiritual quest

Finely said, Sama.

I guess another lesson to learn would be that if you're not ready to deal with yourself and the world, this would precisely not make you suitable for what might be commonly termed anything like a "spiritual" path. That of course won't preclude anyone from accommodating you and making you pay for it... Be wise along your ways, now.

That famous Sufi saying by Sheikh Saadi: "I fear that you will not reach Mecca, O Nomad! / For the road which you are following leads to Turkestan."

thanks, mach....

I suggest to the OP that he do a google search of Buddhist teacher Geshe Michael Roach and the American yoga teacher John Friend to see how quickly the mighty (as they were perceived by their sycophants, uh, followers...) can fall off a "spiritual path."

Let's get to the logistics of getting into an ashram/monastry and financial aspects of it later. Let us first examine your situation a little bit. You say you are in early 20s. This is not really the age to drop everything and go on a spiritual quest. There is lots of life left for you to experience and unless you do that, it might be tough for you to appreciate the spiritual path. You need to experience hell to appreciate heaven right?? But again, I don't know if you are currently experiencing hell. One should not take the spiritual road because of a lack of options but because one has already tried all other options either successfully or unsuccessfully.

You mentioned that you've applied to a college and you don't know if you want to pursue the program. Why not apply for a program that interests you? It need not be the mainstream business/technology programs but could be offbeat (by indian standards), religion, theology, eastern studies, arts, humanitarian studies etc.? A profession in theology/eastern studies might cater to both your materialistic and spiritual needs

Please note that one can go on a quest of spirituality by still living in a modern society. IMO, this is not optional but is mandatory. Living in a normal society (interacting with dull people), you get to understand yourself better than staying alone without any human interaction. By interacting with society with your complete awareness, you will come face to face with your weaknesses and prejudices.

My advice to you is this: By all means visit india, nepal, thailand and any other country. Travelling is good because you get to interact with people from different cultures and understand their perspective. One of the veterans on this forum has a beautiful quote as part of his signature: there is no happiness for one who does not travel - rigveda. If you are bored of your current life, plan a short trip to some foreign country. Once you experience this trip, spend some alone time and figure what you want to do in life. Remember that the days where people cared for wandering monks are long gone. The little piece of green paper now does all the talking. So you need to develop some employable skills that will help you build a decent bank balance to allow you to travel peacefully without worrying where your next meal will come from.


To cut to the chase, take a short term travel before you decide on your life's long term direction. A wise man once said, do not make a decision until you really have to make one. Keep your options open.

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for all your replies, it gives me alot of things to ponder about. Many and long answers requires a long reply back ;D This thread really has changed my conceptions and opened my eyes up a bit. Story of my life really, I always think i've reached a point of maturity and knowledge but then I find it i'm still very ignorant and naive in many ways, oh well you live you learn ;D

@rajatsurey: Why are you stopping yourself from giving me advice? ;D Do you fear the consequences of what your words will have? It reminds me of something I heard, how words are powerful, be careful of what you say for it might have great impact on another.

@Nick-H: Wow, when you say it like that it seems so true, I really don't have a clue of what its really like, its just what I believe it to be like. Maybe I don't even want this, I dont even know what "this" is, it's just my perception of what it is. No please, KK's advice was very valuable as was yours, I'm glad you left some of your wisdom too.

@Sama: Yes I am aware that we all have "it" inside us (although I don't believe it fully because of course I haven't discovered it yet), the untapped potential of all human beings that Osho, Eckhart Tolle and many more talk about, that is what you are talking about right? ;D "You feel it, yet you don't know it", someone once told me. Which is why I wanted to discover this and feel "it". I kind of know it (not fully), on a shallow level, but not on a deep enough level that I can actually feel it.

You say Apply this and that to daily life and live in the holy now, which is of course easier said than done. Don't I have to fully deattach myself from the the ego and all its identifications and discover my true inner self before I can truly live in the now and apply these aspects on life? Or maybe I don't, I don't know I don't have a clue. Forgive my ignorance but my knowledge of the spiritual "awakening" and "it" etc comes only from Osho, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and an acquaintance of mine. I am very new to all this, a few months ago I would have dismissed them easily but now at least my mind has become more open. Are we even talking about the same thing when we are talking about "it" and "awakening"? Are there different concepts of them? From what I gathered on the books I read they say that we humans need to awake from our slumbering egoistic state and know our true inner self and feel the oneness of all that is. And then in that state of being comes the compassion, alertness and respect for yourself and others along with a bunch of other things. This is according to them a pointer to the ultimate truth for which we have to discover for ourselves. I haven't discovered it yet so I don't fully believe it, but I have personally met someone who is very alert and observant and feels his surroundings and therefore I am very open to it and it kind of feels right for me, or maybe I just want it to be right ;D I don't know ^_^

@machadinha: I guess it didn't some like a given or logical thing that they all charge money at first although it's more clear to me now. I guess I was too caught up in stories of olden times, of walking vagabonds, of people sitting on a mountain for twenty yours until they become "enlightened", of monks leaving to live in monasteries etc.

And I am very grateful to hear these realities, to think that I only a few days ago was completely set on this path with all my preconceptions and not actually knowing ANYTHING, my god I think, how ignorant I was and continue to be, well at least i'm a little less ignorant after having heard what all of you have to say.

I am in ways socially inept and still don't fully understand why I can't pursue a spiritual path because of an escpapist reason. I kind of see though, I never thought about how to relate human beings, my only goal was to relate to nature, both seem equally challenging though and yeah I guess they are part of nature too.

I don't know if "awakening" is some sort of point of no further development. But it seems like those people live on a completely different level. They truly live in the now. Byron Katie said to Oprah in her Soul Series that she hasn't been sad or upset since that day 22 years ago when she changed completely after being depressed and destructive for a long time. She takes nothing personal and says nothing can hurt her and that she is in a state of constant happiness and peace. Who doesn't want that?

@Sama (post #2): I actually never thought about it that way, epiphanies don't just happen out in nature, interesting. Yes I constantly change my assumptions, this thread is a fine example of that. I want to seclude myself from the outside world simply because i've tried to be a part of it, at different times and places, and it failed. That seems very true, all great teachers don't have to be in India! Yes I think i'm pretty much set on NOT going to India after reading all of this, at least not on a spiritual quest, i'm instead gonna learn meditation and maybe yoga too where I live. Why go 1000 miles to learn something I can do at my current place.

@Omkara: Yes I might visit India or other parts of Southeast Asia later on in my life when I know how to meditate and it feels right instead of just forced which it kind of did now. Oh yes such a shame that people don't care for the wandering monks ;D But it is what it is ^^ Yes for most people this is reality, I have to make a living somehow.

Korosh: I've read Tolle and the likes. What can I say, I don't follow their line. (I could put it in ways that would jeopardize my continued membership here )

Look, I'm a self-proclaimed old anarchist punk rocker and you certainly don't need to follow my line. I follow no one, and will have no one follow me. What we do here is share our insights, and that's about it.

Go to India, you know, check out some ashrams there. It's a very common thing to do. The average and good guidebooks will give you some places and their details to get you started. I mean there's nothing unique about it, I don't mean to talk down on you, but people have been doing this for decades. I mean certainly India is renowned for this, I'm guessing it's what put you onto it in the first place. (May I then add again as a word of caution that it's also developed quite an industry to meet just that demand.)

As for going out and burning all your bridges, yes, that is of course always a possibility. But the people we hear of who did it is always in hindsight. They themselves had no one to show them there. And there are no guidebooks, no websites or anything, for it. Nor of course any guarantee you will end up where you want to be.

A poem I never wrote would have been along the lines of "I've stood at the edge / Only to find nothing is there."

Did I say already be wise along your ways?

Meditation is all you need to do. YOGA is just physical exercises, nothing to do with Spirituality IMHO.

I don't think anyone was saying don't go to India!KK

@machadinha: Jeopardize your membership huh? Does that mean that people on this forum follow their line? I currently am on this line because I find what they say fascinating and after what I recently experienced on a traveling trip, it feels right for me, at this moment, but of course these things can change just as they always do, who knows what I will think or believe later on.
With my ignorance and lack of knowledge I actually thought the trip to an Ashram was something "unique" or "special" in the way that many others don't do it, how wrong I was. My sudden rush is now gone and I see more clearly now thanks to all of you hehe.
What do you mean about burning all my bridges? Oh right, leaving everything behind to pursue this path that I crafted for myself, yes indeed there is always the possibility of failure. I guess I will still somehow pursue my "awakening" only it will be alongside a "normal" life, at least that's the idea that I have for now.

@kullukid. That is the reason for my hesitation towards yoga, that it is just physical excerises, but then again other people say it's more than that, I will probably try it out for myself one day. But I think one step at a time, if I can't meditate while sitting still how on earth am i supposed to meditate while moving.

korosh, you mentioned Oprah. there's your problem: stop watching Oprah!

wow. you've really drank the kool-aid on modern yoga. obviously that's the way modern yoga is portrayed in the West. if it's just physical exercise, then why call it "yoga"? you really believe meditation is not a part of real/authentic/classical/traditional -- pick an adjective -- yoga? I've heard Desikachar say that (real) yoga contains asana/pranayama/meditation -- anything else is acrobatics. I don't teach any class without pranayama and meditation.

If you are talking about yoga THERAPY as "just physical exercises" then asana has a different function. However, where I study in India, a prescriptive yoga therapy practice is never given without a specific pranayama and meditation practice. I am working with a trauma survivor right now where I have given her a prescriptive asana/pranayama/meditation/mantra series.

BKS Iyengar said that meditation is yoga, yoga is meditation. He taught that meditation -- dhyana -- is the penultimate state of yoga, that it is part and parcel of yoga not a separate entity.

If meditation is not a part of yoga then why did Patanjali in Yoga Sutra 2-29 write about pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi? why did Patanjali write about isvarapranidhanani in Yoga Sutra 2-1 and 2-32? obviously those yogic concepts are beyond the physical.

unless you're speaking about spirituality as some type of god worship.

I don't generally watch Oprah (although I do like her) ;D. I searched for videos of Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle and what do you know, they were both on her Soul Series. They're very interesting talks.

Oh it's you!

Glad you said modern yoga, which IMHO is totally different from the yoga Patanjali talks of in the Sutra's,the Asana's he mentions are for meditation purposes. Didn't Patanjali say Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah. Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. (Yoga is the mastery of the activities of the mind-field. Then the seer rests in its true nature.)Which is arrived at through meditation.

So yes yoga is meditation & meditation is yoga according to Patanjali's yoga sutra's not "modern yoga" as you put it.

On the subject of Pranayama, i'm helping someone try & get himself back together who's been going through a very traumatic experience almost to the point of insanity due to accidently raising his kundalini while not ready/pure, due to excessive Asana & pranayama practise,just so happens he's been following Desikachar's school of yoga for the last 5yrs & is just about qualified to be a teacher.
KK

Yoga Thoughts (Youtube)







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what does "Desikachar's school of yoga" have to do with his problem? are you saying that particular style caused it?

I highly doubt -- since I've been studying there for 7 years -- anyone told him to overdose on the pranayama and asana. In fact I would bet good money on that. Who did he study with? Was it at the school itself or from someone who trained there? last time I was there, Desikachar's senior teachers cautioned many times that pranayama should only be taught by a qualified teacher or else it can be dangerous, that you can go crazy. They are very open about that.

if the person you're helping went overboard, that was his choice. I see people do that all the time thinking if 12 rounds of kapalabhati are good then 100 must be better. people injure themselves every day in yoga. ain't the yoga, it's them.

even good medicine in the wrong amount can kill you. years ago I severely strained a hamstring in yoga and it took three years to heal. I didn't blame the teacher, the yoga style, or the studio. it was my own stupid fault.

and yeah, it's me, dude. deal with it.

hilarious! that's going on facebook!

Korosh: You are a listener. Good. I found myself actually happily surprised with that, often these threads will swiftly go nowhere, and notably with the questioner being the first to get very adamant about any advice they're given

Meanwhile, I always find it funny how people (and that is not addressing you, Korosh) looking for some unity end up with all these divisions. Meditation, exercise, sitting, walking, aren't they or shouldn't they ideally be all one & the same?

Crass again (that shouldn't surprise KulluKid ), I think these are Penny Rimbaud's poems really, it is once again from their Acts of Love album:

ps

No. Just that cussing on this forum isn't very on, for good reason