Choosing The Right Spiritual Style For Your Personality

Hey this is Ish and today I want to talk to you about why there isn't a one-sized-fits-all meditation or spiritual practice.

And although the goal of Eastern spiritual disciplines is to reduce attachments that you have and experience your true self,

I don't think that's really that realistic to expect that everyone will resonate with the same types of practices just because everyone has different personalities,

Upbringings,

Temperaments,

And lifestyles.

So I'm going to be discussing a couple of different examples.

So in regards to personality,

There's a full variety of different personalities people have.

So I found that people who are more expressive and really talkative would enjoy more of the yoga practice because if you've ever been to a yoga class or being in the yoga community,

People are just generally more talkative in classes and yoga came from India,

Which is a tradition that's a little bit more expressive if you've ever been there,

Just more colorful.

And specifically in yoga,

You can take Bhakti yoga,

Which is more in devotion,

Which is obviously more expressive.

And then any kind of Hatha yoga class or flow yoga class like Vinyasa would be a couple of different examples.

Now if you're more kind of go with the flow,

Very chill,

You would benefit from a practice like Taoism because that's very relaxed and it's not very strict on morals and goals and all that.

And I think if you are a bit more quiet and a little bit more serious,

You would benefit from or would like a Zen practice.

So if you've ever been to a Zendo,

It's very austere.

There's not too much colors or bright lights.

The meditation hall is very dim and there isn't much talking in the meditation retreats or sashins as they call it.

And the meditation teachers themselves are usually tend to be a little bit more straightforward and serious.

So that's very different from the yoga that we just talked about where the class is a little bit more energetic and there's flow and there's music and there's lights.

So it's a different atmosphere and I think you would benefit from that if you're a bit more quiet.

And totally not forgetting our Taipei personalities because I know a lot of you are out there.

You'd benefit from instead of like trying to fight your urges of actually accomplishing things and having attachments,

Well not attachments but rather fighting,

Wanting things,

You can actually practice karma yoga which is non-attachment to outcomes.

So you can still take action on different goals that you have and set deadlines and do that.

But it's coming from a place of non-attachment.

And going further into Zen in particular,

You can even find that within the Zen lineage,

There are different sects that would have different personality types.

So in Omori Sogen's book,

Introduction of Zen Training,

He is a Rinzai Zen priest.

That's the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism and he describes the Rinzai as having a lot of warrior-like energy,

Very fierce,

Determined,

Energetic.

And then he describes the other sect of Zen Buddhism which is Soto.

He describes the people there as very chill,

Kind of almost sleepy and very peaceful.

So it's funny how within the same practice of Zen,

There are different personality types for different sects and lineages.

So there's no limit to finding your niche within a spiritual discipline.

And kind of going further into the different personality types of Eastern spiritual disciplines,

There's kind of an old joke where the Buddha,

Confucius and Lao Tzu goes to a bar and the bartender gives each one of them a drink.

The Buddha takes the drink,

He smiles and he declines it so he doesn't drink it because he thinks drinking is suffering and all that.

Confucius takes a polite little sip and then he casts it aside and says no.

And that's because Confucianism focuses on a lot of morals in society and being polite and following social norms.

So although he takes it,

He discards it out to the side.

And then Lao Tzu,

He smiles,

He takes a drink and actually drinks a lot of it and drinks some more and orders more drinks.

And he ends up dancing on the table.

So it's funny how within those three major,

Major spiritual disciplines or Eastern philosophies,

There are completely different approaches to things.

So just knowing your personality,

You can see which one resonates with you and it's kind of like a practice.

And now let's talk about upbringing.

So as you know,

The Buddha was a prince and he had a very materially abundant lifestyle.

He had a lot of riches and every care and comfort in the world.

But he felt that his inner journey was lacking.

So he found that although he had all these great things around him,

He needed to take this inner journey to find happiness.

And that's when he kind of went on his own quest and started yoga and then started meditating and kind of went through to found Buddhism.

And I kind of was introduced to Buddhism in the same way.

I grew up in a pretty nice suburb area where I did have material things.

And I felt kind of an empty feeling inside and I wanted to go find inner happiness.

So that's how I kind of got introduced to the spiritual community or disciplines.

But I think if you are coming from a place where you don't have that many material objects,

I think if someone just told you like a Buddhism standpoint,

If someone just told you,

Okay,

Cast that aside,

You shouldn't want things,

I don't think that's really practical or even appropriate.

So I think in this case,

Someone would benefit from a Zen Buddhism practice which is more focused on emptiness and having less and more minimalism.

Or maybe Taoism which embraces simplicity,

For example,

Rather than Buddhism which is kind of focused on getting rid of the attachments.

And then also if you tend to like,

If you kind of grew up in an environment where you'd like to have a lot of structure in your day,

Day-to-day activities,

Then maybe Confucianism could be like a path for that because they value order and treating others with respect and like social norms so it's more focused externally.

And you wouldn't really think that there's a spiritual practice behind that but they actually do have a meditation sitting.

But unlike the Buddhism way or more of the contemplative paths,

Rather than making your whole body like empty and getting rid of the attachments,

It's more so becoming,

In their views,

You sit to achieve a perfect state of being.

And that's a state of being where you can interact with your environment and your society around you in a better manner.

So this is called quiet sitting or jing zuo and it's just basically sitting to perfect yourself.

And I think another thing that I kind of want to leave this off at is if you want to,

Like I say,

If you want to know what a spiritual practice will be like or how you will be transformed,

The best bet is to look at the masters or teachers at a very high level that are teaching this discipline and observe how they move and conduct themselves.

Because chances are if you are following this path for a long term basis,

You'll tend to adopt these qualities.

So you'll notice that Zen Buddhists will move in a certain way or would act or not act in a certain way compared to a person that's studying Confucianism or Jainism or Hinduism and so forth.

So they kind of conduct themselves in a different manner.

And by studying these great masters or great teachers in your area,

Local area even,

You can get a feel of what a spiritual discipline would be like and see whether that aligns with your personality and how you are.

So I hope this helps.

Thank you.