we need cOMmunity in our spiritual journey

                 

                   

Friends and family on the spiritual path

Sometimes one can feel quite alone in their spiritual journey, and this is one of the reasons why community is so important. It's reassuring to have people who are traversing the same path as oneself.

I personally have friends from many yoga systems, in particular the spiritual yoga systems. It's interesting and inspiring for me to hear of others stories of their spiritual journey, and I know that when we meet up, we are all instantly friends and family.

I also learn deep Maori spirituality and healing, and find that the same applies here. We come together, as spiritual whanau (whanau means family). We belong. And it's lovely, it really is.

People need people

So why do we need each other? We need guides, always. Someone who has travelled the path before us, who will give of their time and energy to help us on our path. Who inspires, who cares. And, as time goes on, we too need to share our knowledge, to "pass it on". I don't mean in the aspect of wanting to be a well-known teacher, no, not that. It definitely is that one has become a storehouse of knowledge and one is compelled to share it. There is an understanding that knowledge does not belong to oneself, nor to a group, nor to a path.

When we start our journey, and we go, for example, to a yoga class, the combined energy of that class mysteriously enables us to do the physical aspect of yoga with more ease. Then, when we lie down for relaxation, or do meditation, that same combined energy creates a vibration. This vibration becomes like a benchmark: we get to know that when we are in the class, that we can slip easily into the vibration of that energy: it takes us on a journey, it aids in transforming the neural pathways of body and especially the brain. These pathways have to do with beneficial neurotransmitters, or messengers, that create profound, feel good, vibrations, within us. The group energy is superlative for this.

Loneliness on the spiritual path

I noticed, through my own experience and through being a yoga teacher, then also a healer, that in any spiritual field, there is a long stage where one feels so alone. One is on a journey, and there is a human need to find others who understand that loneliness, and that yearning for spirituality. Finding others who also are seekers, helps deal with the feelings of isolation. 

I can tell you that it is just a stage, it does pass. And a special bonus, is that when we practice on our own, the memory of the class vibration will kick in, and help us maintain the feel good factor that we achieved in class.

It doesn't matter what the path is. We do need each other. We need footsteps to follow in, and in time to create our own footsteps for other's benefits. The footsteps that we follow help us on the path, they inspire. The footprints that we leave are in gratitude for being able to walk the path that so many others have trod.