Spiritual hacks – shortcuts to nowhere

Many people these days look for shortcuts on the spiritual path. They engage in extreme practices of one kind or another to try to get to some kind of special experience. Everyone I have met who goes this way (with my nearly 40 years in spiritual circles, this is a lot of people) ends up simply lost. Let us be charitable and assume for a moment that these shortcuts can take us to the right place (even if in most cases this is highly debatable). Then we can suggest an analogy: Imagine if I told you to run into the forest as fast and as far as you could go, not looking where you are going and without any kind of guide. For sure you would get somewhere quickly but you would not enjoy the journey and you would not know where you were or how you got there. You may not even be able to find your way back.

In contrast if we follow the path step by step, the journey is as pleasant as the destination, and we remain clear. We know where we are and how to find our way forward or back. Moreover the deepest spiritual experiences arise not just out of a particular event but out of a deep, direct understanding of the world and of our mind. And actually, the understanding as such is the most important but also the most pleasant aspect, the source of the highest, most stable bliss.
 
So even the best shortcuts look pretty limited in value to me; and the worst examples can, of course, be highly dangerous.








I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno 
http://www.openthesky.co.uk


​