Measure Your Spiritual Progress
Measure your spiritual progress the way you would measure training or a business, because if two years of practice has changed nothing about how you live, it is reasonable to look at what you are doing.
Dandapani observes that the successful people he meets live with discipline, guidelines and frameworks, while many spiritual people resist all of it. He argues that reason should not end where spirituality begins, that abandoning reason is what lets teachers become dodgy, and that commitment to one path is what produces progress.
What this talk covers
- Many people drawn to spirituality resist structure, paths, rules and guidelines, and are, as he puts it, committed to not being committed.
- The successful people he has met live disciplined lives full of guidelines, practices, rules and frameworks.
- People are reasonable everywhere else and would stop a diet or a training programme that produced nothing after two years, but with spirituality reason goes out the window, and where reason ends there is more control over people, which is how cults form.
- A good litmus test for a teacher or a path is whether they are reasonable, and if what they say is not reasonable it is best to move on.
- Eating off the spiritual buffet table, a bit of this tradition and a bit of that, is not how anyone approaches a business, and the more structure and framework you have, the faster you unfold spiritually.
They like to eat off the spiritual buffet table.Dandapani
Questions
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Dandapani says you should. He applies the same test used for a diet or a training programme: if the practice is not producing any change in how you live after a couple of years, look honestly at what you are doing.
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He compares it to eating off a buffet table, taking a bit of Buddhism, a bit of Christianity, a cold plunge and a ceremony, and expecting progress. Nobody runs a business that way, and he says commitment to one path is what produces results.
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Check whether they are reasonable. If a teacher cannot say something reasonable, Dandapani's advice is to move on, because abandoning reason is what gives leaders control over people.
Transcript
971 words · 5:14
I think that's one of the most profound things from you too is that idea of measurement. That probably triggers a lot of other spiritual people. Triggers all the spiritual people because the new age spiritual people don't like structure. They don't want a path.
They don't want rules. They don't want guidelines. All the successful people I've met with are so extremely disciplined. Their life is filled with guidelines and practices and rules and frameworks.
The spiritual people, none of that. And they are committed to not being committed. And they're extremely devoted. They have so much devotion to not being committed.
So when you talk to them about measuring your meditation, your spiritual unfolding, I'm like, what is this? Why should you measure it? What do you think it's business?
I'm like, yeah. If you're meditating for two years and you're still a jig, well, obviously it's not helping. Let me try something else. It's a great point.
Seriously, right? I mean, why meditate after two years and you're still a jig? Right. And this idea of like, are you still a jerk?
And is your life changing in a way that is positive because of your actions? I mean, could you imagine doing a diet and working out and you're fatter and more unhealthy and you have more sickness and you go, I'm going to keep doing this. You would.
You know, God, it's really interesting. In real life, in the world, since they're not real life, in the world, people are very reasonable. Like you said, if you go to the gym and you're doing all these diets and
everything, and after two years, nothing changes, you probably wouldn't do it. But when it comes to spirituality, all reason goes out the window, and people become so extremely unreasonable. And reason shouldn't end where spirituality begins.
It's one of the monks in the monastery had this quote, reason shouldn't end where spirituality begins. But if you end reason, you have more control over people. Because that's when spiritual leaders can be dodgy, can be shady, and create cults.
Let's all wear Nike shoes, go in a barn, and set ourselves on fire. That sounds like a brilliant idea. No reason. No, yeah, there's nothing quantitative.
No. Now you become a cult, and you do whatever you want to do. And that's where you have to be so careful in the spiritual path. And one good litmus test to see if that path or a spiritual teacher is valid and not dodgy
is to see if he or she is reasonable or not. And if they're not saying something reasonable, best to move on and find somebody else. It's a great, great point.
And I love the interweaving of it into business and everything else and life, because it all does seem like part of the practice. And I always like that about your teaching too, because I think one of my personal beliefs is that business is one of the great practices, because you have to keep
getting better, you have a daily, weekly, monthly score board on if you're better or not, you will always have massive terrible challenges, no matter how big you get. In fact, maybe higher levels, higher doubles in some ways. And so it's this game of like, when things are always going wrong,
you have to figure out how could you be some sort of eye in the storm. And the things that really used to trigger me a year ago, not so triggering right now, 10 years ago, irrelevant.
But I'm still triggered all the time because I have new stimulus. You know? And so I love that idea.
Where I wanna end on is when you look at Western culture today, what do you think we're getting most dangerously wrong about our spirituality or fulfillment?
People don't wanna be committed to any path. They like to eat off the spiritual buffet table. I'll take a little bit of this, I'll take a little bit of that, I'll do a cold plunge, I'll do some ayahuasca, maybe some yoga and some kundalini.
Put it all together in a bowl and it should work for me. You don't approach business that way, do you? No, you define what you want in business. What product are we selling?
What service are we offering? Who's our niche market? Who are the target audience? Then you find the people, the consultants, the team that can help you focus on this.
If you build mobile applications, you don't hire someone who's an expert in lawnmowers because it's not a light. But people don't take that reasonable structured approach to spiritual life. You know, in the West, it's embraced everything, a little bit of Buddhism, a little bit of
Judaism, pepper some Christianity and some Hinduism in there. And then, you know, let's go to see the shaman in South America and he's got some leaves I can smoke or chew or whatever, you know? And just throw it all together and think I'm making progress.
Why are you so afraid to commit? All the most successful people in the world commit. The best tennis players commit to playing tennis. They don't try to be professional golfers.
The best musicians do music. The entrepreneurs, the best entrepreneurs focus on their niche market. When it comes to spirituality, you just feel like, you know, I can be this free soul. They mistake spirituality with this freedom of, I can do whatever I want and not be bound
by anything. You know, the greatest progress you can make in spirituality is having structure and framework. And the more structure and more framework you have, the faster you unfold spiritually. Like in anything, going to the gym, business, whatever.