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For spiritual people – so they know what to look out for. And for non-spiritual people, in case they might get into spirituality – just so they know what not to do:

1. You have done a meditation course. You are now a meditator.
You did a course of a day or two, and even had some colourful experiences during your meditation. You are now a real meditator. You do know everything about meditation, and yes, you meditate every day. You deserve a title of a meditator. Above all, you now know everything about meditating and meditation. You are ready to teach others!

A cool meditator/Otkačeni meditant

2. I have been doing practices for years but I am not progressing at all.
When you lack self-worth. I have been doing spiritual practices for many, many years, but somehow I am not advancing. I still get angry, I still fight others and I still hate other people. Something is just wrong with me. Everyone else is better, I am just not made for it, God does not support me, no matter how much I try.

3. I just know what is best for you. Go ahead and ask me!
After 10 years of spiritual life, I know all the answers to all the questions that mere mortals ask. I see how they live and I have some real advice for them. I can recommend them what would be the best spiritual practices to do and explain to them in detail how to live in order to gain the most out of the practices I recommended them.

4. The material world is an illusion, I will not participate in that illusion any longer.
To seemingly not participate in the material world starts by not spending any more time with people who are “not spiritual”. From a certain moment on, all my friends are actually spiritual and I go out only for kirtans and pujas. They definitely do not live in the illusion of the material world (they don’t eat, nor pee nor poop, they live on prana and think about God all day long).

Escher’s illusion/Escherova iluzija

5. My Guru, my practice, my ashram – are the absolute best.
My teacher is the most enlightened teacher of all teachers. You must meet him/her and feel it to know how enlightened they are. My practice is amazing. You know how good I feel after doing my practice? You must start doing it to see how great it is. In my ashram, all the people are available, open-hearted, dedicated – just beautiful people. You must meet them all.

6. I have transcended the practice and the knowledge, I do not need those anymore.
I did a lot of practices, and not only did I do them, but I practiced for hours and hours, practically day-and-night. I have experienced all states of consciousness. I am so ‘high’ on prana that I don’t need practices any longer. I have watched and read so much knowledge and spent so much time with the enlightened that I have arrived to my own conclusions, therefor I do not need to meditate any longer, nor ever read any knowledge.

7. Thinking you know what the traps on the spiritual path are.
You write a blog about your (spiritual) life, you have been meditating for some years and you think it’s on you to wake up your spiritual friends and their spiritual friends by explaining them how wrong they are. To your mortal friends you need to explain what to look out for if they stumble upon a yoga or meditation class one day, just so they know.

The source of all my knowledge/Izvor svog mog znanja

Just so you know, I have been stuck in all the 7 traps. This is what I advise myself when I find I got caught:

1. You have experienced meditation. It’s great!
Now you have the experience of meditation. It must have been a meaningful, deep and beautiful first time… As like with anything else in life, some time is needed for things to fall into place, practice is needed, for it to become a real experience, and a part of daily life. Only then do we really feel the full benefits of what we are doing and can safely state that our experience is truly what it is and then maybe start transferring it to others.

2. Change comes moderately, exactly as it should.
Once we start with spiritual practices, especially at the beginning, life somehow takes a sharp turn. Suddenly everything seems to be different. We perceive ourselves, others and the world quite differently. However, after that time, most commonly that leap never repeats itself in the same way. That does not mean we are not progressing, or not changing, not learning from our mistakes – it just means all this is happening in a different pace, that is natural to us and our lives. Look at how you were 2 years ago and how and who you are now – is there any difference?

3. You know what is best for you, let others live…
It is certain that after long years on working on raising the quality of your life, you have experienced a lot and you must know what worked and what did not work – for you. Which practice, what kind of diet, physical and emotional cleansing, healing etc. has given you the most benefit, and which might have not brought you any benefit. This does not mean you are an expert in knowing what is best and in alliance with other people and their way of life, not to even mention their  individual karma.

4. Material world being one aspect, spiritual world being another aspect of the same.
Every person that has touched spirituality has decided at some point that the material world basically sucks. Too bad! Because the material world is the one we live in. How come? We have arms and legs, we eat and drink, we speak and meditate. All this seems to be happening inside of the material world. This material world has a twin, the spiritual (emotional, mental, intuitive) world. Both are complementary. To reject living in the dirty material world, is the same as saying: I wish not to live at all.

5. My Guru, my practice, my ashram – is a choice.
Gurus, spiritual practices and spiritual groups – are many! Some Gurus are no longer physically with us, yet their spirits is quite alive in people, some are with us, and they are wonderful, but not recognised. Spiritual practices are in abundance: ancient authentic ones, ancient but modernised, new authentic ones, or new but less authentic ones. Spiritual groups also differ from each other by having different beliefs. Some spiritual groups are exclusively vegetarian, some are not at all and similar attitudes. No one is better or worse, what is important is what you choose and what chooses you  – and that is the best for you.

6. Spiritual ego.
The teacher explains how at the end of the path one needs to let go of the meditation practice as well. After having meditated for a looooooooooong while, we should become free from it, in the sense of letting go of the bondage or addiction for anything in this world. Yes, maybe for some advanced souls. To the mere mortals it is really never bad to continue doing spiritual practices even longer than long. After some time, we become stronger from the inside, we become more stable and then we become arrogant, we start believing we have all the knowledge and we tend to lose the innocence of the student, and the openness to receive new insights.

JP Sears, Spiritual As Hell/JP Sears, duhovan ko sam vrag

7. I know everything.
I do not think I know, I KNOW what the traps on the spiritual path are, and I have successfully proven this now, right? To convince oneself that you are ultimately right from your subjective point of view, never becomes boring. So, I hope that my arrogance will keep you here, still reading, while knowing I cheated you into it.

Me, being spiritual in the material world/Ja, duhovna u materijalnom svijetu

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HRVATSKA VERZIJA

Vrijeme čitanja: 5 minuta, 31 sekunda

Za duhovne ljude – da znaju na što treba pripaziti. I za ne-duhovne ljude, u slučaju da se susretnu s duhovnošću, da znaju što im je ne-činiti:

1. Prošao si tečaj meditacije. Ti si sada meditant.
Prođeš jedan-dva tečaja na kojima imaš lijepa ili čak i živopisna iskustva s meditacijom. Ti si sada pravi meditant. Sve znaš o meditaciji i da, ti meditiraš svaki dan. Zaslužuješ titulu meditanta. Ti si sada meditant i ništa osim toga! Ideš okolo i govoriš ljudima kako ti meditiraš. Osim toga, ti znaš sada sve o meditiranju i meditaciji. Spreman si za podučavanje!

2. Radim prakse godinama, ali jednostavno ne napredujem. Napretka niđe.
Osjećaj manje vrijednosti. Radim duhovne prakse već dugi niz godina, ali nekako ne napredujem. I dalje se ljutim, i dalje se svađam i dalje mrzim ljude. Nešto sa mnom nije u redu. Svi drugi su bolji od mene, ja jednostavno nisam za to, ne ide mi, mene Bog ne podržava koliko god se ja trudio.

3. Ja jednostavno najbolje znam što je dobro za tebe. Pitaj me!
Nakon 10 godina duhovnog života, ja znam odgovore na sva pitanja koja obični smrtnici postavljaju. Vidim kako žive i imam prave savjete za svakog od njih. Mogu im preporučiti što bi im bilo najbolje raditi od duhovnih praksi i detaljno objasniti način kako živjeti da bi dobili najviše iz tih praksi koje sam im preporučio.

4. Materijalni svijet je iluzija, ja u toj iluziji više neću sudjelovati.
Prividno ne-sudjelovanje u materijalnom svijetu počne tako da se više ne družimo s ljudima koji „nisu duhovni“. Od nekog trenutka na dalje, svi moji prijatelji su duhovnjaci i ja izlazim samo na kirtane i puje. Oni definitivno ne žive u iluziji materijalnog svijeta (ne jedu, ne piške ni ne kake, žive na prani  i cijeli dan razmišljaju samo o Bogu).

5. Moj Guru, moja praksa, moj ashram – su apsolutno najbolji.
Moj učitelj je najprosvjetljeniji učitelj od svih učitelja. Moraš ga/ju upoznati i osjetiti to da bi znao koliko je prosvjetljen. Moja praksa ti je fenomenalna. Znaš kako se dobro osjećam nakon svoje prakse, moraš je i ti početi raditi da vidiš kako je dobra. U mom ashramu su samo radišni, otvoreni, požrtvovni, pre-kras-ni ljudi. Moraš ih upoznati.

6. Ja sam praksu i znanje trancendirao, više mi nisu potrebni.
Radio sam puno praksi, i ne samo to već sam i te prakse radio satima i satima, maltene danonoćno. Sva stanja svijesti sam već iskusio. Toliko sam ‘high’ na prani da ti meni te prakse uopće više ne trebaju. Toliko sam znanja pročitao i pogledao, družio se s prosvjetljenima, da sam na kraju došao do svojih vlastitih zaključaka. Nije mi potrebno više meditirati niti išta pročitati.

7. Misliti da znaš koje su to zamke na duhovnom putu.
Pišeš blog o svom (duhovnom) životu, meditiraš neke godine i misliš da je na tebi da probudiš svoje prijatelje duhovnjake i njihove prijatelje duhovnjake tako što ćeš im objasniti gdje griješe, a svojim prijateljima smrtnicima objasniti na što da pripaze ako slučajno jednog dana nalete na neku yogu ili meditaciju, čisto da znaju.  

Samo da se zna da sam sama zapela u svih ovih 7 zamki. Ovako sama sebi savjetujem kada se nađem u raljama zamki:

1. Doživio si meditaciju. Super je!
Sada imaš iskustvo meditacije. Mora da je taj prvi put bio znakovit, dubok, lijep… No, kao s bilo čim drugim u životu, za sve je potrebno neko vrijeme da sjedne na svoje mjesto, da se vježba, da se iskusi i da postane dio svakodnevnog života. Tek tada osjećamo pune dobrobiti onoga što radimo, i možemo sa sigurnošću tvrditi da je naše iskustvo istinito i eventualno ga prenijeti drugima.

2. Promjene dolaze umjereno, baš onako kako treba.
Kada počnemo s duhovnim praksama, pogotovo u početku, nam se život nekako naglo promijeni. Odjednom sve izgleda drugačije. Drugačije doživljavamo sebe, druge i svijet oko sebe. Međutim, nakon toga se najčešće više nikada ne dogodi taj kvantni skok kao taj prvi put. To ne znači da ne napredujemo, da se ne mijenjamo, da ne učimo na greškama – samo se odvija u tempu koji je prirodan za nas i naš život. Pogledaj sebe prije 2 godine i sada – ima li kakve razlike?

3. Znaš što je najbolje za tebe, a druge pusti živjeti…
Svakako nakon dugo godina rada na poboljšanju kvalitete svog života da si iskusio mnogo toga i da puno bolje znaš – za sebe – što je funkcioniralo, a što nije. Koja praksa, kakva vrsta prehrane, fizička i emotivna čišćenja, iscjeljivanje itd. su ti donijele više dobrobiti, a koje možda ni nisu. Što ne znači da si vrhunski stručnjak u tome niti da znaš što je najbolje i u skladu s drugom osobom i njenim načinom života, a da kažem s njenom individualnom karmom.

4. Materijalni svijet je jedan aspekt, a duhovni drugi aspekt istog života.
Svaka osoba koja se dotaknula duhovnosti je u jednom ili više trenutaka ‘odlučila’ ili zaključila da materijalni svijet ne valja. Šteta! Jer materijalni svijet je onaj u kojem živimo. Kako to? Imamo ruke i noge, jedemo i pijemo, govorimo i meditiramo. Meni se to sve čini kao da se radi u materijalnom svijetu. Taj materijalni svijet ima svog blizanca, duhovni svijet (emotivni, mentalni, intuitivni). Oba su komplementarna. Odbijanjem življenja u prljavom matrijalnom svijetu, je isto kao da smo rekli: ne želim živjeti.

5. Moj Guru, moja praksa, moj ashram – su odabir.
Gurui, duhovne prakse i duhovne grupe – ima ih! Neki Gurui nisu više fizički s nama, ali njihov duh u ljudima je itekako živ, neki su s nama, i divni su, a nisu prepoznati. Duhovnih praksi, hvala Bogu, ima ko pijeska. Što drevnih neiskvarenih, što drevnih koje su modernizirane, što novih autentičnih, što novijih, a manje autentičnih. Duhovne skupine se odijeljuju po vjerovanjima kolektiva. Neki duhovnjaci su isključivo vegetarijanci, neki ne i slično tome. Nitko nije bolji ili lošiji, ono što je važno je što ti odabereš ili što tebe odabere – i to je najbolje za tebe.

6. Duhovni ego.
Učitelj objašnjava kako na kraju puta treba otpustiti i praksu meditacije. Nakon što smo duuuuuuuuuuugo meditirali, treba se i toga osloboditi, u smislu vezanosti ili ovisnosti za bilo što na ovom svijetu. Da, možda za neke napredne duše. Običnim smrtnicima nije loše raditi duhovne prakse dugo i još duže. Nakon nekog vremena ojačamo iznutra, postanemo stabilniji, i onda počinjemo biti bahati, vjerovati da smo pokupili svu pamet svijeta i izgubimo nevinost učenika, otvorenost za nove spoznaje.

7. Ja sve znam.
Ja ne mislim da znam, ja ZNAM koje su to zamke na duhovnom putu, i to sam sada uspješno dokazala, zar ne? Uvjeravati sebe da si ultimativno u pravu iz svog subjektivnog kuta gledanja nikada ne dosadi. Zato se nadam da će te moja bahatost zadržati tu da i dalje čitaš – znajući da sam te dohvatila na prevaru.