Spiritual Coaching -The Need and Importance

What is Spirituality

Spirituality is the buzz word in today's time. This word entices us, we wonder what it probably means and we come across thousand definitions also. Of all definitions, one standard notion is that spirituality is about resigning from the world. Well, not at all!

I invite you to take a fresh look at this word, together with me. Spirituality is not about what my life purpose is, what my passion is, how I connect with people etc. but is about finding, rather realising ‘who am I’. Well, the question then is- Don’t I know Who am I? Actually no, we don’t know. What we know about ourselves is an image of ourselves, just an image.  And that’s a surface level knowledge. We are talking of something of the core. Something deep within. Something that always has been, always will be. The unfortunate fact is - we never realise how important the question ‘who am I’ is. World teacher J. Krishnamurthy says ‘since we do not have direct perception of who we are, so we keep finding it through others.’ So, through how others define me, I find and get validation for Who am I. How simple and how profound!

Let’s reflect on our reality. We define ourself through various words. I am loving, caring, a mother, a father, a professional, vulnerable, honest, dancer, adventurer, tall...the list is endless.  Interestingly, a simple close look at them is enough to bust out their myth. They are mere images or roles we play and somewhere we all acquired them. One incident and we can lose them too. They are not permanent. Once reflected, one comes to finally understand that the one and only purpose of spirituality is to realise ‘who am I’.

What is the need of Spirituality?

But why must we know be who am I? Why can't we be happy with the various adjectives that we have for ourselves? To understand this one will have to go into the psychology. As East defines mind, it broadly talks of four functions of mind, one of the functions being protection of ‘I-amness’. Which means, that in all the ways that I define myself, the mind then needs to protect the definition or image of oneself. The moment one defines oneself as anything, he/she would also need to live up to that adjective and protect it and that is nothing but a boundary. For example, if I say I am loving, it takes away the right of being angry, being nasty, being jealous and so on from me who I am at certain moments. So, the definition or the image gives me a bondage.! Do we recognize that?

The way

Here comes the role of spiritual Coaching. If one wants to evolve, spiritual Coaching is a must. If one wants to mature, if one wants to grow up, if one wants to be healthy within, spiritual Coaching is the way. Most importantly because, the realization has to be of oneself, not a borrowed one. One has to go through the process, slowly and honestly and make the enquiry and catch various layers with the support of the Coach and get rid of them. Of course this does not mean that the role that we are playing in the world becomes redundant for us. In fact the experience is that we become better at playing those roles.

Our Current Status

We are burdened by various things in life. We experience burden of expectations - from job, from loved ones, from the society, and many other sources. The bigger challenge is we do not even realise our burdens. We accept them as the status quo. We say ‘but this is how it happens!.’ Deep within we sulk, we don’t feel good, we don’t feel happy, our expression is suffocated, and we live with all that with the conditioning that this is what life is.

All that we know as ’Who Am I’ is  not our true nature. Rather that is against our real nature. Our real nature is that of freedom, joy and eternity. Look closely and you would know, in all things we do, we actually chase these qualities only. We chase money, power because we think that will give us freedom. We chase power, influence because we think that is the way to be happy and we want to leave a legacy of some kind because we think that can help us become eternal. We make all efforts but we fail miserably every time. Isn’t it?! We actually chase the right things, but in the wrong direction.

Looking Forward

This path is open for all but is useful only for the ones who have deep recognition of their bondages. One needs to unburden. One needs to transform their everyday life. One needs to experience joy despite circumstances. Being spiritual is just this. It is not about renouncing the world, as the general notion is, rather it is about embracing the world completely. And guess what! As one comes closer to the realization of ‘Who am I’, the life purpose, passion etc unfolds by itself. One gets the power to experience life fully. And the by-products are amazing. One becomes more effective, productive and sorted. The impact of external reduces. One regains one’s internal power. Organized in one’s mind internally, the external blossoms.

Spirituality is a way of life. Not some luxury that can be easily ignored. It defines our quality of life. It defines our happiness quotient. And a happy and joyous life is what must be experienced by all.