My spiritual path is this human life.

My practice is waking up with a heavy heart and still getting up.
Letting myself be washed over by intense emotions and losing all sense of orientation.
Setting goals and following through despite difficulties and lack of confidence.
Following my human desires.

Experiencing the joy of a fulfilled need.
Or the disappointing realization that I was actually looking for something totally different than I had imagined.

My spiritual path is getting lost over and over.
Not knowing what I’m doing or where I’m going.
Feeling disheartened in a world where what I value so deeply does not seem to matter.
Acknowledging my longing for rest. And exhausting myself again.

My spiritual path is staying close to all that wants to run away from the pain of being a sensitive human being.
The frustration of having understood my habitual patterns and still falling back into them.
Seeing my own restricted thinking, yet not being able to change it.

My practice is projecting my happiness into a teaching.
Getting all excited about finally having found the answer.
And the disappointment of realizing that nothing external can fill my void.

My spiritual path is making all the mistakes I can make in this messy human life.
Yet somehow, always getting up again.
Always learning something new.
Staying open for the unexpected.

And despite all the hardships I keep on going. That is my spiritual path.

~

Author: David Lion
Image: danielle tineke/Flickr 
Editor: Catherine Monkman
Copy Editor: Travis May
Social Editor: Waylon Lewis