Is our “drive” really helping us in our meditation and spiritual practice, or is it just another hindrance?
Happy Winter Solstice, friends! I hope everyone is enjoying the beginnings of a cozy winter hibernation, despite the tulmut of public life these days. I thought I’d check in about the seeker’s path and how ambition actually holds us back in meditation.
If you’re anything like me, sometimes if you pay close enough attention you can feel a chord of ambition running throughout your meditation practice or spiritual life in general. It’s an interesting element to notice, because meditation and spiritual practices are more often about obtaining increased peace, inner stillness and transcending the incessant activity of the mundane mind. Often, spirituality is about our being-ness rather than our doing-ness. So, what place if any does ambition have in our spiritual life?
In my experience, the desire to go further and discover more in meditation (not to mention building up our spiritual gifts or siddhis) can be framed as a sort of ambition. A degree of it is helpful to your evolution of course. You don’t get on the seeker’s path without it probably. But beyond that, in my experience, ambition actually hinders me more than it aids me in my mediation practice and intuition development. I’ve sensed this on an intellectual level, but I’ve also been explicitly shown this by my spirit guides in meditation. Yes, they fuss me sometimes!
As your friend and fellow mystic, here’s your friendly reminder to prioritize peace and surrender in your meditation practice over an energy of striving and accomplishment.
I need this kind of nudge like a daily vitamin, ya’ll , because I come from an Anglican + American + Western over-achieving, resumé-building family and a long tradition of dysfunctional perfectionism. At first, without ambition or what I sometimes call “my drive,” I had no idea who I was or what was possible for me.
For me, when I got to the bottom of my ambition in my own spiritual seeking, I had a core belief that my drive would help me succeed and go further in meditation. If you have this belief too, here’s where I burst the bubble. My guides tell me this:
“A flower doesn’t bloom when it is manually forced. And neither will you.”
Your intuition development and spiritual attainment will come naturally when it’s time. The real mastery in meditation is unifying your personal will (located in the solar plexus) with Divine Will or God’s will. When you surrender to the higher force of your evolution and wisdom unfoldment, ironically you develop much faster and easier.
That was a real surprise for me. As seekers, we don’t go into the inner realms and lasso Spirit by our own will; rather, we sit in peace and accept what is available to us psychically and spiritually one breath at a time.
And, wouldn’t you know it, Spirit comes so close when we have released our expectations, needs, and our desire to control our unfoldment.
Satsuma Diaries 
I find that many of those who had so much passion and drive had the concept of meditating as a separate act that would influence how they were in life. After some time meditating and maturing they found that meditation offers a portal into a totally different frame of reference on life, nothing changes, the view changes on self and the universe. Formal meditation is a portal, not an event. Great post. Thanks!
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