This article is inspired by my own experiences and reflections, as well as by my reading, including Andrew Holecek’s article in Tricycle Magazine.
Spirituality Is All the Rage
In the world of yoga, the word “spiritual” is all the rage. It either attracts people or scares them off. Moving the body and holding poses—people are generally open to that—but taking an interest in what yoga really is—a spiritual path—is both intriguing and intimidating, even suspicious, especially in a country steeped in secularism. But what do we actually mean by “spiritual”? And by “path”?
The spiritual and the material: two opposites?
Let’s start with the concept of “spiritual.” The term is generally used in contrast to—or even in opposition to—the material or the physical. And this leads to all sorts of misguided interpretations, including a form of transcendentalism that I find dangerous because it stands in direct contradiction to the core of Dharma teachings as I understand and practice them. Let me explain: by pitting the spiritual against the material, we implicitly suggest that we must distance ourselves from the material to attain the spiritual. Or, to put it more simply: the spiritual is good, the material is bad. Consequently, by embarking on a spiritual path with this mistaken view, we treat the spiritual as a goal to be attained in some afterlife—an undefined future that will arrive once we are finally rid of the material and have been completely transformed. We turn the spiritual into a paradise. And we fall into the very trap we were trying to avoid through spirituality.
The Buddhist psychologist John Welwood has called this trap “spiritual bypassing”: our tendency to avoid the material in the name of the spiritual. And honestly, I think we all fall into this trap—it’s actually part of the path—and it’s the awareness of this trap that ultimately enlightens us about the true nature of the spiritual.
Nirvana is not a place
Yes, of course, we hear the word “renunciation,” so prevalent in Dharma texts, and we think, “Oh yes, renouncing the material—that is, samsara—to attain enlightenment or nirvana.” But samsara is not a place; it is a state of mind. What we renounce is our biased relationship to matter, not material things themselves.
Similarly, when we say that the spiritual path is a path toward nirvana, we might think of nirvana as a place. But no, nirvana is also a state of mind—always available—and not some distant promise.
The spiritual path, therefore, consists of reexamining our understanding of renunciation and the journey. We renounce our habitual tendencies, our ways of viewing our everyday lives, our fixed ideas, and our conventions. And the journey is, in fact, a return to the self—toward a broader, more direct perspective on ourselves.
Changing our relationship with things or seeing them differently
The spiritual path is a shift in our relationship with the material world. Through meditation techniques, teachings, and the guidance of our teachers, we seek to renounce our samsaric state of mind. As Trungpa Rinpoche—to whom I owe my first steps on the Buddhist path years ago—so aptly put it: “There is no way out. The magic is that there is a way in.” If we investigate matter deeply, we will find the spiritual within it. If we fully experience our bodies—in their most subtle manifestations—with a vast, nonjudgmental, and direct awareness, then we immediately touch the spiritual. Samsara is nirvana; there lies true non-duality. There is no transcendence, but a thick layer of immanence.
Connecting with things as they are
We don’t embark on a spiritual path to feel good; we follow it to encounter reality, life, and things as they are. To be true. And that means embracing all of reality with open arms—our sticky emotions, our neurotic reactions, our limiting value judgments, our limited bodies. Embracing everything, not just what we label “spiritual.”
Going Nowhere and Being Free
The notion of a “path” adds to the confusion. As I said earlier, we’re not going anywhere. Look up from your screen and look around you. What’s right there, always available—the very possibility of seeing, feeling, understanding, and being aware—that is nirvana. It all comes down to the quality of your gaze. Is it a jaded gaze, devoid of curiosity, laden with expectations and disappointment, or a fresh, open gaze that appreciates the magic of the ordinary and recognizes its own potential?
Tulku Uyrgen would often say to his students: “It’s so close, yet you don’t see it; it’s so familiar, yet you don’t recognize it.”
The spiritual path does not lead to a catharsis, a definitive state where the world would appear to us full of glitter and our wishes would always be granted. No, the path is circular; it never ceases to show us that it is our experiences of the ordinary that set us free. There is nowhere to go. The path is a matter of perception, not a journey. It invites us to recognize what has always been there. The Tibetan Book of the Dead tells us: “Recognition and liberation are simultaneous.”
The Wisdom of Not Running Away
Yet most of us seek something on the spiritual path other than what is already here. A better, different experience than what we are actually experiencing right here, right now. This motivation is, in fact, a form of avoidance—a desire to flee. Pema Chödrön wrote the powerful book *The Wisdom of No Escape* to correct this mistaken view of the spiritual path.
All of this means that we never truly attain enlightenment, nirvana; we simply cease to be captive to our own illusions. How, then, can we attain something we already possess? By working on our perception—or rather, by purifying it—by identifying the kleshas that color it, and by training ourselves to engage with our experiences with immediacy and freshness. Meditation is this training. Learning to see without distraction, learning to be—simply being in intimate contact with reality.
We need a path—that mirage that gives structure to our practice—but at some point, we must wake up and see that the path is not a destination. As the Zen teacher Norman Fischer says: “There is nowhere to go and no path to get there. We’ve been there all along.”
Let’s stop putting off our awakening; let’s stop rescheduling our encounter with reality. It is there, always already present at the heart of all our experiences.
* The French title fails to capture the insight behind the English title; it is translated as *Becoming Friends with Yourself*.