Choosing The Right Spiritual Practice For You

Spiritual growth requires spiritual practice. We choose a path that is right for us. Permission to choose is comforting and part of a practical spirituality that deviates from traditional dogma. This flexibility does not justify lack of action, but allows us to define our own way to the Sacred.

There are 12 Master Paths, or different types of spiritual practices, as described by Dr. Ellerby in Return to The Sacred: Ancient Pathways To Spiritual Awakening. Each path or spiritual practice has an ancient past, and most are known to us in some form.

Ellerby organizes these twelve possible practices into four groups. All practices are equally viable; the best one depends on the individual.

The four:
Body-Centered Practices: ceremony and ritual, sacred movement, and music and sound
Mind-Centered Practices: prayer, meditation, and sacred study
Heart-Centered Practices: devotion, sacred service, and a guru or teacher
Soul-Centered Practices: aesthetic practice, death practice, and a life path

The challenge is to define which of the four clusters best describes us, then choose the best practice within that cluster. This does not preclude choosing other practices since most of us experiment with many paths in our quest. We may finally choose a variety of practices, but I believe that most of us have a dominant group that is our initial spiritual connection.

For example, I am a very visual person and learn by reading. I always used sacred study as my practice. In later years, I added prayer and meditation. I fit into the mind-centered practice. Perhaps each of you can find your comfort. Which one seems most appropriate as you read through the four groups? Which of the practices seem most comfortable, or which one are you more willing to try? Question your way of reacting to the world.

Some of us need some activity when we learn, or we need to read when we learn. That defines the first two groups of Body-Centered and Mind-Centered Practices.

The Heart-centered group includes those who react with emotion as a first response. Devotion, sacred service, and a guru/teacher imply a relationship-based or heart-felt connection.

The last group may be the hardest to define: aesthetic practice, death practice, and a life path. These may need a little more explanation. Most of us don’t decide on extreme fasting or a hermit existence of the aesthetic practice, yet many mystics do.

The death practice is one that most of us will experience, especially as we see our elderly parents pass on. Dr. Ellerby’s advice is not to fear death, since death is what makes us human.

I like the Life Path, or third example of The Soul-Centered Approach, and find that my focus has shifted, over the years, to this practice.

We are all different. To be successful, we want to find our greatest strength as well as try other practices. Enjoy the process and remember that “We are spiritual beings having a human experience–not the other way around.”