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Breaking With Tradition
It amazes me how much importance we put in tradition. We think that the fact generations before us always did something a certain way, somehow makes that behavior more valuable, more sacred, more righteous. Yet we only have to look at our personal lives to see that repetitive behaviors are not necessarily beneficial. Would we fight for the benefits of smoking a cigarette just because we have done it for so many years? It’s traditional! This blind following of tradition is particularly fascinating to me when it comes to spirituality.
Many of us chose our beliefs based on what generations before us have done. And even those of us who begin to search for a truth that maybe was not the one we were presented with from birth, often feel safer following a path that has been tread by many before. Yet spirituality is about growth; it is about evolution. It is about letting go of that which has come before, and embracing a new perception of reality. Moreover, it is about discovering the truth within ourselves; not adhering to the status quo. Maybe this is why so few have reached realization; because even in our search for meaning we prefer to follow the herd; even when the heart begins to question that which we are accustomed to, we easily succumb to the road most traveled. I think that tradition makes us feel safe; it lends validity and weight to our convictions. But convictions are a poor substitute for experience, and when you have a spiritual experience of your own, you will feel little need to convince others of your perspective or demonstrate the validity of your inner discovery.
When exploring spirituality, don’t look for that which makes you feel comfortable or safe. Look outside the box: head towards uncertainty. It is by going beyond that which is already known that we make the true discovery.
Isha Judd is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher and author; her latest book and movie, Why Walk When You Can Fly? explain her system for self-love and the expansion of consciousness. Learn more at www.whywalkwhenyoucanfly.com.
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4 comments
add your comment »By the way, smoking is not a tradition, is a vice. Is pure chemistry. Cut off the bio-chemical dependance, and the ,,smoking tradition,, will vanish away. It is true that people have developed certain habits a little social rituals related to the smoking and that may make the smoking look traditional, but in fact those thing hapened because humans are social beings and need to create bounds betwen them, and they use everithing, including smoking, to get close to each other and to comunicate. That is why there are much more social smokers than solitary smokers. I hope this comment will not sound too off topic.
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This advice is good, but only with one condition - not to exagerate to much in trying to get our minds outside the box. Sometimes, this trying can end up by getting us outside the road. Not only the traditinal road, but our own personal one. It is not good when you do something just for the one and only reason that others did that thing before you. But it is not good also if you do the oposite just because you feel the great temptation to do the contrary. In that case your mind is not the mind of a mature wise person walking on your path, but the mind of a rebelled stupid teenager walking on other peoples nerves.
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Thanks Isha, as always beautifully written and insightful. Great advice for parents too!
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This could be applied to anything we do - question everything!
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