This and That, Here and There
In my recent travels I remembered something that is at the core of the EdibleSpirit ethos:
Living a “Spiritual” life needn’t be more than a 50/50 proposition.
Said another way: You DO NOT have to give 100% of yourself to Spiritual practice.
First, because Spiritual practice is totally optional. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.
Second, most of us are already investing all of our time and energy in our Earth practice, and many of us pride ourselves on giving 150% all the time. But dude, 100% is all you actually have available to give. If you're already terrestrially challenged, trying to give what time and energy you have left to your Spiritual practice presents a pressure to sustain a pace that can make people turn away from any practice at all.
Sometimes it seems like Spiritual practice can disconnect you from your Earth practice, because whatever’s going on “over there” is so much better and more desirable than the stuff that’s happening right here. Plenty of philosophies have this hierarchy woven into their doctrine. It leads to spaciness and new-age weirdo-ness, or in extreme cases a kind of peace and love fundamentalism that is really just criticism obscured by conscious-sounding vocabulary.
Problem is, dabbling is just as unsustainable. It can foster a lack of respect and knowledge of the forces you’re working with and can get people involved in situations that are too intense too soon. This can lead to energetic experiences that are unhealthy or even dangerous.
Dabbling also encourages turning to your Spiritual practice only in times of crisis, without building up the fortitude and endurance that comes through repetitive practice. This makes it hard to access your truth when you need it most.
But again, I’m not calling for 100%. 50 will do just fine. 50 is actually a lot! But it’s worth it.
50% is what I suggest as the minimum investment that will yield sustainable returns. I see people all the time who put zero energy into their practice and still expect it to yield results. It doesn't have to be more, but it probably shouldn't be too much less.
Sometimes I give people homework during a private session (it’s actually not me, it’s the extra dimensional forces within and around us - guides, guardians, or your higher self) for a practice that will cause, support, or sustain a desired change. Rarely do I suggest more than 20 minutes of anything at a time. Usually it’s 5-10 minutes of something every day. When people come back going “Why didn’t this thing change?” It’s usually simple: did you do the stuff that was suggested? “No.” Well? Did you do just half of what was suggested? “No.” So…
Why would expect anything to change? Without focus, and intention, and attention, (some basic components of Spiritual practice) you will be hard pressed to summon and sustain the fire of will which causes Spiritual transformation to occur.
I get it though - It's hard to find ways to prioritize your practice, it's easy to let it go. What I'm pointing out is that this is due to an implicit all-or-nothing approach to this spiritual stuff. I don't think people should be cheated out of the benefits of Spiritual practice just because they don't want to become a monk; but it's also important to remember that you will reap what you sow. And that’s why I created EdibleSpirit - to affirm that it is possible, ESPECIALLY in this day and age, to find a sustainable balance between the divine and mundane, the celestial and the terrestrial, the EDIBLE and the SPIRIT.
And heyo, nobody’s keeping score, so don’t overthink “What does 50% mean?” All I'm suggesting is that it’s more than 0 and less than 100 - somewhere right in the middle.
At the core of what I'm saying is a reminder:
We are not on the other side. We are not in our light bodies (not yet). We are HERE. In human form. Having lives, relationships, working, loving, and doing our best to express our truth, understand as much as possible, and hopefully find some sense of peace, purpose and maybe just maybe a connection to infinite hope, possibility and illumination.
But all that happens here, on Earth. and we don’t have that long to experience it happening. It's worth it to put work in on the other side, and on the inner and invisible planes... just remember that the rewards of that work are to benefit you here and now. No postponement of enjoyment. Work hard (50%) then do nothing (50%). Study, meditate, practice (50%) live, love, laugh (50%). DO your Spiritual Practice (50%), then just BE (50%).
There may be times you want to give more, there may be times that more seems to be required of you, but I am offering these words to affirm that your practice need not take you away from yourself and the world. I’m not trying to go over there to get away from here. I’m trying to go there, get that good-good, then bring it back and use it to improve the experience of all beings everywhere without exception until a complete divinisation of the physical plane has occurred.
One of my favorite Masters, Sri Aurobindo, says it way better.
“Matter itself cannot be the original and ultimate reality. At the same time the view that divorces Matter and Spirit and puts them as opposites is unacceptable; Matter is a form of Spirit, a habitation of Spirit, and here in Matter itself there can be a realisation of Spirit.”