People seem to think that all spiritual practices are the same.
Or that they all take you to the same place.
“It doesn’t matter what I choose,” they think. “These are spiritual people, I’ll be safe with them.”
False and oh-my-gosh false.
As a former monk, I have been behind the scenes of spiritual theater. I have participated in it fully.
I knew the prop department, I knew the costume department, I knew the script writers. And I definitely knew the directors of this ancient stage show.
I’m not saying that it’s all bankrupt. No no no. I grew more spiritually in those 5 intense years than I had in the previous 20 with my previous lack of commitment.
What I am saying is that I was guilty of perpetrating many spiritual myths. Guilty as charged. I will accept my restitution to right the wrongs of my ways.
But why? Why would I, a proud smart dude, engage in such a silly thing?
I justified doing so by my spiritual consciousness and because, well, “this is just what it’s supposed to look like to the world, okay?”
I mean, if everyone around me is doing it, then why shouldn’t I? And moreover, I didn’t want to rock the boat. I just wanted spiritual growth. No, needed. I got a taste and needed more. That’s how I knew I was on to something real.
Back to this boat. Now I know the boat needs rocking. Maybe even tipping over. Or scuttling and building a new, better one.
So I can honestly say with hard-won experience that not all is as it appears to be in the spiritual industry.
“Industry?” you scoff. “C’mon, we’re talking about sacred spirituality here.” Yes, it is an industry. It makes hundreds of billions of dollars a year. It’s extremely influential. Maybe even the most influential human arena. Think about it! People die to defend their spirituality. They are doing nothing less than “saving humanity” by promoting theirs. Does that sound like a modest endeavor?
Okay, okay, so what am I saying?
There are some genuinely useful meditation techniques out there that will take you to your soul. Yes, it’s true. Not many. They exist. Yet they are almost always wrapped in some other unnecessary thing (at best) or unhealthy thing (at worst).
The Ancient, Time-Honored Tradition of Spiritual Marketing
Coming into the spiritual world fresh and innocent, how would you know what works? What is real? What is healthy? Or... dun dun dun! ... what is spiritual marketing?
It’s simply impossible to evaluate spiritual claims at face value. It doesn't matter how smart you are. Or how worldly. Spirituality by its very nature is quite frankly another world. Sorry to say, none of your life experiences apply to this upside-down domain of the soul.
You can’t “smart” yourself to the soul. You can’t “perspire” yourself to the soul. Even giving up everything isn’t a sure ticket. Honest!
If you are leaning towards meditation, chances are that you’re looking for something to help you right now for some practical need. Or something to fulfill an aspiration. So you’re a bit vulnerable to the first thing that sounds good. And maybe even exotic!
Make no mistake, spiritual marketing is a thing. It’s why churches and temples are so ornate. It's why people on a spiritual path wear fancy costumes. It’s why you'll hear “this is the best practice”, or “this is the only way.”
That’s marketing! No one will say, “best for renunciates”. Or “the only way for householders.”
There’s a lot of lying by omission in spiritual marketing. Oops, correction—it’s mostly lying. It’s uncommon to find someone who is being fully transparent.
Any mystique-wrapped spiritual authority who promotes their practice and doesn’t add, “You know, it’s all really simple—you don’t truly need any of this <while pointing to the glamour> to experience your soul”... is selling you the marketing and not the reality.
My theory is that they don’t have a stable experience of the stillness of their soul. They have belief, tradition, ritual, dogma, philosophy, identity, specialness, the flash. That goes a long way.
I can hear you now. “But so what?”, you say. “Maybe it’s, you know, kind of nice to have some mystique in spirituality. It makes life more interesting, more romantic.”
To that, I say: you could spend the better part of your life pursuing a practice only to realize at the last minute that you had believed the hype, yet the goods weren’t there. Or not realized it at all. You would’ve died having wasted your precious time.
That would be a tragedy. It always saddens me when I see this, because there was a genuine desire to have a deeper experience—yet there were other larger, preexisting, hidden motivations at play.
As it turns out, you would have to be extraordinarily fortunate to find a meditation practice that is deep, healthy, clean, and sustainable. I think you’d be fortunate to get 3 out of 4 of those qualities! My aim is to offer you all four.
The point of all this is to say: look for a practice that is simple, simple, simple. No hooks to join an organization. Treat it like you are looking for a dance class to join. It should feel normal, not special. It should feel empowering too. Nothing crazy with fees. This is meditation, after all.
And above all, it must reconnect with the stillness of your soul. Or it's not a spiritual practice by definition. Spirit is simply another word for soul.