.png)
The biggest problem with spirituality right now is that there are thousands of teachings and practices to choose from, but almost no-one talks about how to choose.
I remember feeling like I was stood in the middle of a massive ‘spiritual buffet’. Looking left, I saw an infinitely extending table featuring rows and rows of spiritual books: Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, Thich Nhat Hanh… Looking right, I saw an infinitely extending table featuring smartphones loaded with spiritual apps: Headspace, Insight Timer, Waking Up… Looking forward, I saw robes of many colours, representing the various traditions I could join… And looking behind, I saw screens broadcasting the social media profiles of all the modern teachers to whom I could subscribe.
Standing behind these offerings were their creators, shouting over one another to tell me why I should come to them.
And when I looked down, I saw in my hand the tiniest plate, which represented my lifespan. I knew I only had space to engage with a handful of teachings if I wanted to investigate them fully. And I’d been at enough buffets to know that the higher I piled my plate, the more mess I'd make.
I spent 2014 stood in the middle of that arrangement, paralyzed by choice.
I spent 2015 browsing non-committally, trying to hear what a few representatives had to say but being distracted by those surrounding them.
I spent 2016, 17 and 18 in deep study with one particular monk, but still aware of all the other teachings that were available. It was as if he and I went and sat in a booth, but I could still hear the hustle and bustle of the buffet just a few metres away.
That monk gave me lineage to the Buddha and encouraged me to begin teaching others myself. But I’d seen too much: there were so many presentations of wisdom out there. It seemed to me that any single presentation must have been a narrow view.
Every teacher, it seemed, claimed with equal conviction that their teaching was the teaching.
One teacher said ‘sit like this or you won’t get enlightened’, another said ‘sit like that or you won’t get enlightened’. How was I to know which of them were right? And, most importantly, if I were to represent one of them, how could I be sure the prescription was correct for every student? My monk teachers’ recommendations had mostly worked for me, but my realization was not yet complete and, besides, there had always been many influences in my practice and understanding.
This is what I came to call ‘the unprecedented predicament of the 21st-century spiritual practitioner’. Never before have truth-seekers had access to so many truths! Thus, my monk teacher didn’t fully understand my dilemma. He’d sampled a few different teachings before he settled in his lineage. I had to contend with thousands.
It Wasn't Always This Complicated
The farther back we wind the clock, the simpler it gets: if you wanted wisdom 200 years ago you either settled for what was on offer in your culture or you went on a months-long sea voyage to try something else (and this would have been so drastic a move that you almost certainly wouldn’t have gone for it.)
In the modern landscape, the spiritual seeker stands at that buffet, desperately trying to discern among the noise which teaching is right—and terrified of dedicating their life to the wrong one. I spent so long in this predicament—confused, frustrated, lost—that, eventually, I had to reconsider my whole approach.
’Could it be,’ I asked, ’that there might be a common, irreducible truth to which every authentic teaching points?’ This was the most important question I‘d asked in all my 33 years up to that moment. ’What if I stop comparing their differences and, instead, look for their similarities?
I began re-examining all the teachings that had made most sense to me along the course of my journey: Alan Watts and Thich Nhat Hanh’s presentations of Zen; Ram Dass’s presentation of Hinduism; my monk teacher’s presentation of Theravada…
My own realization was deepening, and along with this came an increasing inclination toward another category of teaching: the nondual teaching. The more I realized the nondual view, the more I saw that every authentic teaching led to this view—because no other enlightenment is possible.
The Realization That Transcends Interpretation
Through rigorous study and practice, I came right back to where I started: stood at that spiritual buffet, but this time with no plate. I no longer had to choose. I saw that every teacher, teaching and tradition on offer was pointing to the same truth (with varying degrees of accuracy). But, furthermore, each was a natural expression of that truth. Everyone present, from the most exalted monk to the most deluded Instagram guru, was occurring nowhere else but within the basic space of undifferentiated awareness. All my attempts to judge them had also occurred within this space. All my suffering and liberation had also occurred within this space.
I finally understood that all teachings, traditions and practices are just ways of convincing ourselves and one another that it’s okay to simply relax into what is, accept everything as it is, and stop taking our mental fabrications, instead, to be reality. In other words, to let go of our interpretations, judgments, labels and descriptions; to let go of the imaginary boundaries we draw between things, and rest in uncontrived oneness.
Of course, me telling you this isn’t enough. You must run your own investigation. But having heard my story, perhaps you’re not so confused as you stand at the spiritual buffet yourself.
With love from my desk,
dg💙
P.S.If you’d like my assessment of where you’re at in your spiritual journey, take my 1-minute quiz.
.jpg)
.png)
.png)
%202.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
