WHERE THE REAL ACTION IS

Faberge eggs, photo by Christophe Ena, A/P

Back in my early 30s I made the acquaintance of a young man – I’ll call him Bob - who seemed driven to acquire as many exotic, “top shelf” meditation techniques as possible. This meant studying for periods of time in different traditions and getting initiated by different teachers or gurus into those traditions. He was almost like the person who collects rare baseball cards, or better yet, searches out faberge eggs. In a similar way, Bob seemed determined to gather only the most powerful keys to the proverbial spiritual kingdom as possible.

One afternoon, I happened to be talking with Bob along with a mutual friend of ours, who I’ll call Steve. During that conversation Bob made reference to a Sufi technique he heard about through the grapevine which supposedly was unique, and very powerful. “Boy,” Bob said. “I’d really like to get my hands on that…”

After Bob left the conversation to attend to other matters, I continued speaking with Steve, and he mentioned Bob’s pursuit of exotic techniques. While we both were terribly fond of Bob, we couldn’t help but think his craving for exotic techniques, and exotic states of consciousness, seemed like a textbook example of what Chogyam Trungpa called “spiritual materialism.”

Steve then said something which stuck with me.

“When you come right down to it, you’re generally only meditating for a relatively short amount of time each day—maybe 30 or 40 minutes, at most, for most people anyway. The rest of the day you just living your everyday life, dealing with other people, dealing with situations. Far as I’m concerned, that’s really what’s matters, that’s where the real action is, not those few minutes while sitting in meditation.”

That hit the nail on the head. No, Steve wasn’t saying meditation wasn’t important, or that it doesn’t have an impact on the rest of your life, because it does, or at least can. But however exotic or ornate your techniques are, however great your ability to access higher spiritual states, it still comes down to your everyday mind, and how you live your life those other 23-or-so hours.

I have no doubt Bob experienced some impressive meditative states himself using those techniques. But so what? The real question is, how was he in his everyday dealings with others? How happy was he taking out the garbage, or dealing with his relationships? Or attending to his family? How good was he at letting go of angry or self-defeating thoughts?

Because that’s where the real action is.

Ray Grasse is a writer, astrologer, and photographer based in the American Midwest. He is author of ten books, including The Waking Dream, Under a Sacred Sky, and An Infinity of Gods. His websites are www.raygrasse.com and www.raygrassephotography.com.