How to Make Space for Your Spiritual Life
Would you like to make more time for meditation, prayer, or quiet contemplation, but find you’re constantly distracted by the demands and amusements of everyday life?
I mention “amusements” because it’s not just busyness that blocks one’s spiritual pursuits. Consider all the addictive television series’ and endless on-demand movies, forums for this and that on social media, and endless chit chat with friends by phone or text as just a few examples.
Let’s not label any of those as “bad.” We need fun, relaxation, and connection in our lives to be healthy humans. But let’s also consider, “Is it the main point? How does it connect with your true purpose in this life? How much time do you really want to spend in those kinds of activities?”
A rich spiritual life requires some degree of renunciation, doesn’t it? It means giving up at least some of the frivolous and unimportant, and especially, the actual deterrents to your spiritual endeavors.
You don’t need to go to extremes. You don’t have to cut off your family and friends. You don’t have to live all alone in a cave.
But something has to go if you want to make more space for your spiritual quest.
Renunciation, giving things up, however, rarely works when it comes in the form of forced discipline because the call of distractions can be so powerful and the force of one’s habits so strong.
Real renunciation then, the kind that doesn’t fizzle out the moment you see the latest Netflix ad, must be born from a deeply-seated inner conviction.
Let’s look at two beliefs that could fuel your willingness to make more time for your spiritual life.
Attachment and Aversion Bring Suffering
Ordinary people live their lives immersed in attachment and aversion, clinging to a strong belief in the self as a real, unchanging, solid entity. But living from this strong sense of a solid “I” with countless hopes and fears brings about constant suffering.
A spiritual person knows their freedom lies in letting go of all these projections of mind and heart, and identifying instead with the pure awareness behind and beyond it all. This pure awareness lives in the now; it doesn’t embroil itself in never-ending mind-stories that have no basis in reality.
It’s only through time spent in spiritual practice (mindfulness, meditation, contemplation and other practices) and study that you’ll be able to tame your wild mind, learn to let go of attachment and aversion, and begin to take your “self” less seriously.
Read More: How to Let Go of Self-Attachment (And Why It’s Important)
Once you understand that you’re the one that creates most of your own suffering through how you perceive, learning to calm your mind and open your heart will become the most important task of your lifetime. And since that calls for time and attention, it requires some degree of renunciation.
Everything Changes So Where Will You Invest?
As you go about your strikingly familiar daily routine, it’s easy to forget that change is inevitable. But sooner or later the universe will wake you up: Your company may downsize you out of a job, your spouse may ask for a divorce, a relative or close friend may die unexpectedly, or some else along those lines will occur.
The universe will show you, sometimes rather rudely, that something you’ve deeply invested your entire self in is actually transitory and can fall away in a blink of an eye.
Not to mention that you could die in the next minute, tomorrow, or the next day. It will be too late to start your spiritual practice then, once you’re a goner. You’ll be off to your next life, taking along all the karmic baggage you didn’t attend to in this one.
Maybe you think you’ll take care of your material life now and focus on the spiritual later, when you’re older. But who knows if there will be a later? Sand passes quickly through the hourglass; before you know it, your time may have run out.
Consider this axiom from Buddhism:
“Whatever is born will die,
Whatever is gathered will be dispersed,
Whatever is joined together will come apart,
Whatever goes up will fall down.”
We all have to make a living, but if you’re driven primarily by ambition, you’re bound to be disappointed. You might achieve your goals and rest on your laurels for a while, but as the verse says, “Whatever goes up will fall down.”
And when you die, you’ll be forced to leave whatever you created behind. So does it make sense to invest all your time in material success at the expense of your spiritual evolution?
You’ll have to say good-bye to family, friends, and possessions too. There’s only one thing that can help you at the moment of death: a clear mind, an open heart, and a spiritual perspective. And it takes time and practice to develop those spiritual qualities, and so you need renunciation.
Most of the frenetic activity of life is meaningless, and leads to nowhere. Once you see this and truly recognize the transitory nature of all things, your desire for renunciation will multiply exponentially.
Read More: 21 Meditation Tips You Need to Know As A Beginner
Two Aspects of Renunciation
In Buddhism, it’s said that renunciation has two aspects:
A disgust or revulsion for “samsara” - the endless cycle of attachment, aversion, and clinging to a non-existent self.
A desire, longing, or yearning to be free of samsara.
I know that sounds a bit intense, “disgust” and all, but reflect on it, and see what you think. Remember, it’s not disgust for being alive but for all the attachment, aversion, and clinging to self that makes us suffer, and causes us to act in ways that bring suffering to others.
Of course, our spiritual and daily lives are not necessarily separate. But most people need committed time in individual spiritual practice to develop the qualities that will make them truly spiritual people in daily life.
Try out these prompts for journaling and reflection to help you gain further clarity on the topic of renunciation:
What would you like to achieve spiritually in your lifetime?
How much time will you give to it each day, month, or year?
What would you be willing to give up to make more space for your spiritual life?
What will your practice look like and how will it evolve over the years?
What will you do, so you will feel prepared to meet the moment of death?
The main point is this. If you want to make more space for your spiritual life and achieve any level of spiritual realization in this lifetime, you need renunciation. And that renunciation needs to be based in a strong inner conviction to effectively help you draw a line when it comes to the trivial, unimportant, and unnecessary.
You can use the principles shared here to deepen your sense of renunciation and desire to practice. Or reflect for yourself on an inner motivation that will drive you to engage in your spiritual practice with more fervor.
Whatever you chose, reflect on those truths again and again until they become a part of your being. Lately, I’ve been reminding myself at odd times throughout the day that all this, all that is happening in the moment, is transitory. I can’t say I’ve fully incorporated renunciation into my being, but I’m beginning to like its taste.
Your Turn
I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas. How do you make space for your spiritual life? Is renunciation important? If so, what are the best ways for you to achieve it? Let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for your presence, I know your time is precious! Don’t forget to sign up for Wild Arisings, my twice monthly letters from the heart filled with insights, inspiration, and ideas to help you connect with and live from your truest self. Subscribers receive access to the Always Well Within Library of free self-development resources.
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