Being a "spiritual aspirant"

A spiritual aspirant is someone who undertakes the spiritual journey. Our Teacher Training Course is loosely modeled after the process of gurukula, where students go to live with a master and learn from him. So we are considered spiritual aspirants, though most of us would not have said that spiritual growth was our goal in signing up for the course. We would have said to become a yoga teacher, become wicked flexible, get super relaxed...etc. Technically, this spiritual process is supposed to take 12 years. We are doing it in a month.

According to our teachers, the spiritual aspirant faces 4 typical challenges as he begins his journey. 

1) preconceived ideas about the spiritual path (sadhana) - expecting it to be something different, getting too caught up in ego. Also preconceived ideas about their progress along the way. The spiritual path should be undertaken with enthusiasm, joy, and an open mind.

Certainly many of us came to the TTC with preconceived ideas. I would say most of us didn't realize how heavy on the spiritual side it would be. And the discipline!! Even though all of the information on the course and the curriculum is available on the website, I think a lot of us chose to believe it was going to be a wonderful month of doing asana and lying on the beach. There was a ton of complaining and resistance at the beginning (as you can see from previous posts!), but now I think we have all adapted more or less.

2) miscellaneous thoughts and ideas of duty - Letting other responsibilities get in the way of sadhana, and making excuses for not doing it. 

This hasn't really been a problem, as we have no time for anything besides the rigorous demands of the course. I suppose some people are guilty of this on the 'rest and study day' and choose not to study, but not me!!

3) opposition from friends and loved ones - your family doesn't support your quest, so you are tempted to abandon it 

I am sure people are experiencing this, but my friends and family have been very supportive, if a little incredulous.

4) the mind is unwilling to follow discipline - being a spiritual aspirant means committing to regular spiritual practice. discipline is the core of spiritual practice.

GUILTY. Discipline is the #1 struggle here. Checking in and out from every class, having your entire day scheduled from 5:30 am until 10:30 pm, always wearing the uniform, sitting cross-legged for 8 hours every day... at first I seriously felt like revolting against this. But now I am used to it. The idea is that the mind gets clearer when you have more structure and less opportunity to do what your mind wants. I definitely feel my mind getting clearer. I don't know if it needs to be as extreme as it is, but maybe it does.

So although we are only here for a month, and I don't know whether many of us consider ourselves spiritual aspirants, I can say that we have definitely experienced these challenges!