Shambhavi riffs on why there is no difference between the material and the spiritual. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi.
First words from the podcast
We don’t make any distinction between spiritual and material when we talk about being on a spiritual path, or a spiritual journey, or spiritual practice. But, really, even at the very beginning stage of this practice, it isn’t really that useful to hold any importance to that way of speaking. It’s simply the sloppy, convenient way that we speak. Because there is nothing material and there is nothing spiritual. Even at the beginning stage, we have to try to understand that. Everything is Shiva nature.
There’s no division between what is spiritual and what is material. Letting go of that division in your thinking is very, very practical. Because if you hold on to some idea that certain things are spiritual and certain things are mundane—when I say material, I don’t mean just stuff, I mean mundane, outside of spiritual – then whatever that is that you think is mundane is not going to be brought onto your spiritual path. You’re going to have excluded that, and then you’re going to have to learn, eventually, not to exclude anything.
Q: Can you give a really banal example of that?
A: Yeah, you think you have your spiritual practice and you’re doing your practice everyday, and then you go on a vacation with your family. And that’s not your practice, that’s your vacation. And so the fact that you wigged out and were reactive during the whole two week vacation doesn’t occur to you that that should’ve been your practice.
