It may be said that nowadays the process of acquiring information is different than it was years ago.
Only several decades back, the process of learning something required an individual to travel to the precise location of that "something" and, through a combination of books and human interaction, extract the necessary details to learn what was sought.
For advanced information, this process was a much more lengthy process than most can fathom today.
Ancient arts are losing their luster as the access to all is now equally available through the internet.
What happened to the thousand step journey, the setting out from home, the death-and-rebirth process that was often inevitably a part of this chain of true learning?
Learning yoga was not a 21-day vacation to an exotic place, let alone was 21-days all that was need to become a teacher of it. Alas, here we are.
The advanced stages of development and intensive processes that an individual must have gone through in the early part of their learning is largely missing now from our culture, replaced by step-by-step processes, easy access to information, or expensive coaching that promises to shorten the timeline.
I am reminded now of a phrase I heard a friend of mine say once. I was working with him and a Lakota elder to help build a sweat lodge, the traditional way of prayer in this indigenous culture. He said to me "true spirituality takes time."
It struck a chord.
True spirituality takes time.
In a society of quick processes, where health is associated with 12-week weight-loss programs and ripped abs, where our sins can be absolved from a weekly visit to church, where divorces happen on average within 8 years with the sons and daughters of grandparents that were together for 40+.
Dopamine can be scored within seconds from our smartphones, and goal achievement is taking a different shape than it did years ago. Are we really achieving anything worthwhile?
We are changing as a society, as a culture, as a people... but this does NOT change the fundamental biology and physiology that has gotten us to the level that we are at in the first place. Think of the hardship our ancestors endured to get to tomorrow.
It's important to remember that although our technology IS changing and HAS changed drastically in such a short amount of time, our fundamental make-up as humans, as a species and as spiritual entities traversing the evolutionary spans of time is still the same.
I say this all the time: "we need TRANS-formation not IN-FORM-ation." True learning cannot and will not occur with more information.
We can use our "genius" to "understand" the changes of climate, the set path of destruction we are on if we don't stop the chop-down of the Amazon rainforest, and all the other atrocities that we bear witness too but cannot seem to stop....
But until we can learn to be in our bodies, feet on the Earth, walking at the pace of Nature and integrating the daily lessons that present themselves to us... our mind is going to search for shiny advancements, accolades, certifications, and other accoutrements that will basically only cover the fact that we are just as lost and confused as ever.
Our quest for money, achievement, power, name, fame... all of these things are connected to the fact that we subtly avoid the knowledge that this particular life we have been given is a very short one in the grand scheme of things.... yet our soul is deeply aware of its eternal nature and its responsibility to eternity.
This awareness of eternity scares us and makes us forget, so we do everything we can to NOT see the vastness of our infinite responsibility.
All of our actions -- and I mean ALL of them -- are connected and interconnected on so many planes and dimensions beyond our immediate knowing, which is why true learning is such a process. We learn at the rate everything learns. There is no isolation. We learn so that life can learn. So when we go out and invest our energy... like TRULY invest our energy into a process of learning something.... the integration of that new in-form-ation, the embodiment, the translation of that material into actual CHANGE on the Earth plane... is the conversion of the FORM of the Universe into a new form. This is trans-formation. The other alternative to this, is the information we "learn" leads to more of the same: i.e. the existing structure is reinforced. So, then, is anything different?
Basically, if we value change.... if we value creating a new outcome.... if we value the Earth and adjusting the course of history.... we integrate our past, we learn from our present, and we make new choices.
This is why learning used to be such an involved process. It still is, but we pretend it's not.
True spirituality takes time.
Honoring the patterns of Nature... the growth of a seed to fruit... the investment, energetic and chemical, that goes into the change of one state to another.... this is a basic phenomena that when studied and observed leads to a sincere desire to participate in this evolutionary process.
You, me, we are all part of the same evolutionary chain of existence.
Life is learning and we are a part of it. The Universe is expanding and complexifying -- finding new ways to express Itself and more beautiful outcomes to experience.
If the past is repeating itself, observe the result. Integrate. Create a new pathway.
If this is not happening -- if Creation is not taking place.... if the immense beauty of existence is not awing you every moment.... and if this beauty is something that you are looking for.... then invite in the awareness that has been passed to us by the ancient ones and the sages of so many great traditions.
True spirituality takes time because it often means un-doing the attitudes and beliefs that we've been carrying not just for the years of our lives, but have inherited across generations of lifetimes... from our parents, from their parents, and so on. "That's just the way it's always been!"
No, that's NOT the way it's always been, that's just the way that you've been doing it. And it ends here with me.
We are reviving the spirit of the ages, the ecstatic fires of the sages, and the sacred knowledge of ancient pages.
We are the wisdom carries of the traditions of old.
You have inherited the same spark of Creation that existed in the first moments of this Universe. And you can pave a new way forward.. should you choose.
True learning is possible, if you are sincere and you seek for it. It's not coming through books. It's coming from your own heart, which has been a seed-in-a-seed-in-a-seed inside a chain of wombs going way, way, way back....
The wisdom of life beats in your heart, not your head.
Feet on the ground, step-by-step, we learn as we go. Try not to draw any hasty conclusions. "You" are a process that is older than your life.
With love,
Grant
If you're interested in my YTT upcoming in Costa Rica where we will explore indigenous wisdom methods and methodologies designed to get you connected to the wisdom of the body and the Earth, the website is live here and applications are open.