In an era in which a wide variety of ancient spiritual teachings is more accessible than ever, many people will naturally and unavoidably combine bits and pieces from different teachings.
The idea that one has to choose and stick to a single path to find success is therefore an outdated one, simply for the fact that many people won't do so.
The spiritual path of a modern seeker should be about combining the gems from different traditions in a potent and intelligent way, seeking out similarities and compatibility, and leaving out what doesn't work - rather than limiting oneself by debating and comparing which one is best.
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This one has been sitting and brewing inside me for a while.
There was a time where I hesitated and wasn’t sure if what I was doing was right, combining Hatha Yoga, Vipassana meditation, Nonduality and satsangs, and later classical and modern forms of Tantra and even shamanism.
I hesitated because every now and again the phrase would pop up:
‘If you dig different wells, you will never find water’.
Yet naturally it happened that I was digging different wells and combining different teachings like I did.
It intuitively felt right and it led to consistent progress and breakthrough and insights.
But also, humble enough to listen to this advice from experienced masters, I was doubting my path.
It was only when I began diving more deeply into classical Tantric teachings that I began realizing that what I was doing was already more or less combined in certain lineages of classical Tantra and Kashmiri Shaivism.
And so I got confirmed by ancient teachings that what I was combining wás to a large part compatible, in fact, bringing teachings from different paths together in an intelligent way had the potential to make each of them more potent.
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If you also ever doubted your path and practice, because you also heard this idea that one needs to stick to one path yet you find yourself also combining different teachings,
I invite you to look for the compatibility of the teachings that you are following.
Many eastern philosophies, even when they debate whether this universe is dualistic or nondualistic, whether there is a self or not,
If we look beyond the surface we will often find that they are much more compatible than at first sight, are useful in different unique moments and parts of the path - and can even contribute to one another and complete each other.
They can even be quite incomplete without one another.
For example:
Who likes to be a concentrated Vipassana meditator with a broken painful back, when one can also at the same time be an activated, healthy, strong Hatha Yogi?
Who likes to be embodied in their erotic self through modern Tantra yet remain mentally scattered because there is no concentration?
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Rather than thinking in this or that, we can think in this ánd that.
Rather than thinking we can only dig one well and find water, we can try to dig many different wells and find water many different times.
Rather than thinking in dogma’s and tradition, be rebellious, be intelligent, make use of the potential of this era.
Make potent use of the possibility we have, to extract the gems and combine them as one.
Embody the ultimate teaching of Ramana:
‘Be as you are.’
Which for us on the spiritual path in the 21st century, means to be true modern seekers.
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