Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Year of Doing Nothing (Post 5.01)

I've just reread the last post I published and had a good laugh.  It's been three months since I posted and I can see from my last post that I needed to take a break from recording my insights!

I'd like to say that I took these last three months to "begin again", to just practice, and that I was able to immerse myself daily and to find clarity of purpose.  It's never this easy, at least not in my experience. Again, I go back to the challenges of being on the householder path.  How do we remain committed to our spiritual practices in the midst of what seems sometimes to be the never ceasing demands of those in our household and the extended family we belong to?

Sometimes we find ourselves playing a particular role in a loved one's life and it is necessarily all-consuming.  Swami Kripalu's own intensive sadhana included social silence for many years.   I had the priviledge of listening to a recording of a talk he gave at the Kripalu ashram years after emerging from this intensive sadhana in which he eloquently spoke about love as the highest spiritual practice, and the greatest practice of love being that of love of the family. I take refuge in remembering his sweet words on this subject often.

We should not despair in being on this householder path.  Even when circumstances drain our energy or leave us feeling uninspired, a little lost and confused.  Though it may seem like it, we have not abandoned our spiritual path; when we are in loving relationship with others, we are practicing the highest spiritual practice of all.