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You are your own perfect spiritual teacher. There are many amazing an excellent teachers on spirituality that have lived and spoken throughout the ages. These beings can be of great service in finding out things about your spirit. But no one truly knows and cares about your spirit than you. Now you may be thinking, “But I know very little about spirituality. How can I be the best teacher for myself?” First of all, understanding the fact that you know very little about spirituality means that you are very wise and is an excellent start for any spiritual undertaking. Once you accept the fact that there is much to learn about spirituality, and that you will probably die before figuring it all out, then you are in very good spiritual shape. Actually, the only tools you really need in order to teach yourself about spirituality are your mind, your spirit, patience, and honesty. When you decide no longer to deceive yourself, you are actually also deciding to allow yourself to become enlightened. This is because enlightenment is more like a choice or decision rather than it is a goal or a process. There is a great deal of responsibility attached to spiritual enlightenment. By deciding to be spiritually enlightened you are basically saying that you accept responsibility for all your past, present, and future actions. It takes self-honesty to do that. This is because by being honest with yourself you can accept the fact that you’re not perfect and in all likely-hood will never be. Some people may be reading this and be thinking, “Hey! I thought being perfect was the point of all this.” And now I am going to challenge you a little. If you were thinking that, or anything remotely near that, I think what you were really thinking was that you wanted to become powerful. The desire for power is a very real desire that most of us feel at one time or many times or even all the time during our lives. But what I’m saying is that there is no such thing as becoming, “Spiritually Powerful.” I think Spiritual Power is basically a scam term used for people to control other people. Power has very little to do with spirituality. Spirituality has to do with patience and honesty. Power has to do with invulnerability and control. A powerful person is able to control him or herself. A spiritual person is able to be him or herself. Wanting to become perfect, is basically wanting control.
You can teach yourself about spirituality by being honest with yourself about as much as possible. Sometimes we lie to ourselves or justify things falsely as a sort of defense mechanism to cope with everyday life. If you can slowly chip away at the calcified lies and untruths that you live with daily, you will find your internal dialogue changing. You will begin to challenge yourself on beliefs you may have lived by for years. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. That’s really the fun part of spirituality. Not being right is ok, especially if you understand that what you believe to be right today may be wrong tomorrow. Now, you may have some spiritual insight that you have accumulated and now you want to teach others. Before you do so, really question yourself and think, “Am I desiring to teach others because in doing so I will come closer to my spiritual enlightenment?” Or do you want to teach others because you want to have people listen to you? If people listen to you, you will probably feel powerful and complete. I argue that having people listen to you will not help you become more spiritual. It may make you more confident with your beliefs, and possibly more convincing when you share them. But that power and confidence is fleeting, what happens when people no longer agree with your teachings? What happens when no one else listens? But if you teach others because you understand that you can gain spiritual insight by interacting and stealing ideas from other people, then you are on the right path. There are no copyright laws when it comes to spirituality…if you have to teach people in order to have someone to debate with, then do so. Some people don’t like to argue about spirituality. So don’t argue with them. Find people who stimulate your mind and spirit and share insight and challenge each other, if you can do so respectfully then all the better. Just remember that you are your own perfect teacher. And if you start to believe in what other people say about spirituality without evaluating it and making it your own, you are missing out on one of the primary joys of spirituality. And that’s appreciating and experiencing every moment. If you allow yourself to be spoon fed spiritual rhetoric then you aren’t being patient enough with the capabilities of your own mind and spiritual teaching capability.
Be weary of people who want money or things in exchange for spiritual insight. Some people pay thousands of dollars per year in order to gain something toward their spirituality. If that’s you, you’re probably being scammed. Don’t take any offense to that, you aren’t alone. There are lots of people getting scammed out of money in exchange for spiritual insight. And some of these institutions offer things that you may be interested like social status, comradeship, friendship, community, security among other things. Just realize that the spiritual side of what you’re getting should only be a catalyst for further spiritual exploration into yourself. Learning and engaging your spirituality is something that you should treasure every step of the way and want to take at least partial credit for yourself. It’s kind of like making love to your sexual partner. That’s a beautiful thing. Hopefully it is something that you enjoy doing. Do you really want to give the job of making love to your partner to someone else? Then why are you giving the job of expanding your spiritual understanding to someone else?
A lot of people nowadays feel completely comfortable telling other people to, “Wake Up.” What are they really saying? I think what they are really saying is, “What up to what I’m telling you,” because there almost always is a message or request attached to their “Wake Up” slogan. I recommend caution when other people try telling you what to do. There almost is always an agenda. You don’t need people telling you what to do. You are smart enough to figure things out for yourself.
One suggestion that I have that may assist you in teaching yourself spirituality is: Get comfortable with yourself. You are made of the same stuff as almost everything else in the Universe, yet you are unique. If you can begin to appreciate yourself and enjoy the time you spend alone with yourself, with nothing really to do; as well as enjoy the time you spend with others, you are in good shape. Let’s face it, compared to other large animals, human beings aren’t very powerful creatures. We don’t have especially strong bodies or sharp claws. But we have great minds, and with those we can create and do amazing things. I’ve been to spiritual gatherings and the guru promised that we would gain abilities and powers by doing certain things. When it really comes down to it, who cares how powerful you are? If you really learned how to fly or how to hurl fireballs or come back from the dead, you would get snatched up by an unmarked black van and men in uniforms faster than you can say, “Spiritual Power” ten times. And if you became powerful enough to overpower those men in uniforms, what are you going to do? Fly away somewhere? Be alone and powerful for the rest of your life? That sounds boring. There is a certain pleasure and bliss to being weak. Embrace it and realize that if you are appreciating every moment, then you are never truly weak.
-Tyler