What Drives You to the Spiritual Path?

If you're reading this, you very likely have had or do have some need that drove you to spirituality. That need wants an answer; it wants resolution.

Unfortunately, these needs are invariably not about spiritual freedom. Instead, they tend to be some version of seeking happiness, safety, and/or health/healing. Additionally, all of those are transitory--they'll come and go. So there comes a point on this path where you have to go beyond the need to be on the spiritual path to truly BE on the path.

Spiritual Seeking and Needs

There are all kinds of "needs" that drive people to the spiritual path. Sometimes, the person feels the need is a need for purpose. Or maybe it's a need to find a way to make the mental chatter in their mind stop. Generally speaking, a whole lot of people have pain and trauma and want the spiritual path to heal them. The need can also be a vague sense of discomfort with oneself and hoping to find a way to get rid of the discomfort.

By and large, need is what drives someone here, and it's a very unconscious choice.

The Problem of Need
The problem of need is that when the overt problem a person has is resolved, then the person thinks they're done. They got what they needed. Since the need is typically some kind of ego upset, it often re-appears later on when the momentary comfort no longer works.

It's like finding peace in your meditation, but you never resolve the ego attachments that get triggered in your daily life. For awhile, you can find safe-harbor in your meditation, and then you think you don't need to do any more of this spiritual stuff.

But oftentimes, that tool "no longer works." I hear this statement A LOT. Why does it no longer work? The deeper issues were never addressed.

Need Fulfillment and Self-medication
Many people's spiritual practices are nothing more than self-medication. People use spiritual tools to self-medicate against their ego upsets, and then they hope those upsets will eventually vanish. It doesn't work because all the deeper ego fears, desires, and attachments are still there. Addressing this issue means it's time to be more honest and sincere about what inside of you is the REAL problem.

Avoiding Parts of Yourself
However, people are really good at avoiding themselves, and they often are willing to work hard in the areas that they are already more or less comfortable working on. For example, a person may be willing to trek to Everest, but they don't want to confront their beliefs about their mother and how that has impacted how they interact with all women. So they go to Everest, and then they come back thinking they are different. But all they did was run away.

In general, people hold many attachments and beliefs as if they are sacred and are off limits to inquiry.

Here's one: "I am perceiving the present moment correctly."

How do you know? Do you really understand how you are subconsciously interpreting this moment right now? Do you know all the beliefs that are filtering what you hear, see, feel, etc. and what you don't?

Here's another: "I am not worthy of love."

How do you know? What does worthiness even mean? What are your beliefs of worthiness? Where did they come from, and why do you continue to believe in them?

The point here is that even when people try to deal with the internal problems that they create, they often never address them correctly. So they don't often even address the need they have and want addressed!

Going Beyond Need
I'm jumping ahead, but you'll come to points where there is no need or external world pressure to do spiritual inner work. It's unlikely that anyone else in your life is doing this work, so why do it?

Because this is where it can get really, really interesting. :)

It is really interesting if you dedicate yourself to something you don't need to do. You lose some of the expectations and goals that get in the way of the organic and spontaneous nature of the present moment. And if you do, you may find a whole new world filled with revelations right in front of you.

Here are some more posts to help you.

How to Find Spiritual Freedom

What Is Spiritual Inner Work?

Avoiding Parts of Your Spiritual Work