Lisa Tilson

The question came up in class last week in respect to spirituality. Is the consciousness evolution path easier if you are single or married? The answer Don gave was single.

He is right. It is easier to be on a spiritual path when one is single. The example he gave is that when you want to change something in your life, you can change it without taking any one else into consideration. When you are married, you are changing the marriage contract when you change yourself.

I have also heard Don, Yogi Bhajan and other teachers say that the fastest way to consciously evolve is in a conscious relationship. If you are both on the path, you are constantly mirrors for each other, which forces you to evolve twice as fast (if 1+1=2) or (as YB would say) eleven times as fast (if 1+1=11).

So, it is a question of destiny and commitment to the destiny you choose. This is where I think men get a bad wrap. Of course you have heard that all men have a fear of commitment and must be trapped into it?
I believe that both men and women have a difficult time deciding whether to marry, it just happens at different times in the process. Read the complete Post.

Last night I manifested the answer to my question. What is the motivation for commitment to self discipline or to stay on a spiritual path. I realized after some contemplation, that many factors came together in this realization (of course!). Here is my understanding.

First of all, my name - well, both my names: Lisa, which means “God’s oath” and Siri Om Kaur which means “Princess of the great sound of Infinity”. It was receiving the second one - my spiritual name that caused me to think about the meaning of both of my names and what relevance the held in my life. As a kid, I never thought about what I was saying before it had left my mouth, which caused a lot of problems. I just thought that I had a lot to say, and that I better get it out there before I forgot. Hard as it may be to believe, this was not actually the case. Around the time I received my spiritual name I also began to receive lessons in communication. Through these lessons I often ended up with me hurting someone with my words and sometimes I would really serve someone with my words - I call this communication Karma.

I loved the feeling of being able to give insight or inspiration with my words - it was such a shift from how I felt as a child and teenager. The further along my path I have come, the more I have felt the need to work on my communication abilities. As of the past year, I have decided that writing is my favorite way and have since manifested a job in Communications and Marketing for Yoga West. This job provides me with the opportunity to inspire and give insight, as well as providing me with greater and greater lessons (God’s way of keeping me humble?)

Then, not long ago, I was studying with the Monk, and he said that purpose in life comes from giving. I had always felt that to be true, but really only related the idea to healing. I realized yesterday, however, giving is not only an excellent purpose in life, but an excellent motivation for my writing and inadvertently for getting up in the morning, so to speak. (Duh, seva….) To be truely effective in my communication, I need to be good. Which means I need a spiritual practice so my words are clear and coming from the right place. I need a physical discipline so that I have strength to give, and most importantly, I need to give so that I am motivated to keep giving. It’s a cycle that feeds itself.

Snatam Kaur is an excellent example of this (I’m writing an article for the common ground about her to promote the concert) In reading her blog to collect ideas, I realized that she doesn’t sing for her, she sings for everyone else - to give. I didn’t really understand how she could do that and not wear herself out, but I see now.

A gift is for giving. Committing to giving the gift is a commitment to receiving it.

To answer a question in the comments, yes, I will continue to update my blog as well as YW’s blog in regards to Hilary, and this evening I will post what sevas would help the Sullivans the most.

Why is committing so difficult? Whether committing to a marriage, a spiritual path, or myself there always seems to be an unbelievable amount of resistance to sticking with it. I find that the motivation I had in the beginning to do it, fades and I am just left hanging by a string at some point, battling with my ego on some stupid technicality. (I’m going to exclude the marriage question in this one, just because it involves someone else, which seems to be easier for my mind to wrap itself around.)

This morning I woke up to my alarm, after having committed to waking up at 5:30am. I laid there for a little while, my cat came in to say hello, I toyed with the idea of resetting the alarm, my cat left and I fell back asleep, music blasting. The next thing I knew, my cat was leaping around the room after a bird that had presumably been carried in by her mouth. HOLY CRAP. I was definitely awake. I jumped out of bed, hissing at my cat to stop, opening all the doors and window, when finally the bird landed on my dresser, safely above my cats reach. Shortly after, the bird catches its breath, and following a few near escapes, finally makes it out the window.

What does this have to do with commitment?

I immediately connected it to the karma lecture that the monk gave last week.

We were talking about karma and how it works. He explained the different kinds, which gratefully cleared up my bad / good karma assumption. To make it short, for those who may be thinking, “oh do share!” There are four types: Experience - tit for tat type thing, do something nice and something nice returns (but not quite so simple as that); Environment which the reality around you, be mean to everyone and one day you rely on those you were mean to; maturation which is emotional, act in a negative way, and eventually your world actually becomes negative - your karma is living it; action which is behavioral Karma. Basically when it comes down to it, all karma is a positive experience, because it creates the classroom you are meant to be in.

The connection with commitment lies within committing consciously to personal growth. When one wavers, or goes back on the commitment, the karma is much more intense than it would have been if they hadn’t committed consciously. I understand this not to be related to fear and sin, but to be an understanding between the universal energies and me. I want to be a conscious person on a spiritual path, and so when I commit, I am asking to be taken seriously. This means bigger karma - larger consequences but also larger rewards (if we are still in the “good karma / bad karma” understanding of everything).

Last night I committed to getting up at 5:30am because that has proven to be the best time for my body to wake up (obviously my ego doesn’t agree!) And by deciding to let my ego win by going back to sleep, I was awakened in a more painful gross manner. Neat. Its nice to know that karma even works at 5:30am. Lesson learned.

Now to remember this motivation when I am diddling around on the Internet at 10:30pm, or lying in bed, passively allowing the strength of my ego to beat me down. Perhaps the question is: Is the karma enough of a motivation to stay committed?