Is Spirituality something we can Learn?

How a Structured Path of Study and Practice Transformed My Life - By Karen Patterson

Reading time: 4 minutes

A personal experience of a path of spiritual development

If we want to learn a language or a musical instrument, become a doctor or an electrician, then we know that we have to study over a period of time to develop certain knowledge, and also work hard at practicing new skills. When it comes to spirituality, however, the goal is less tangible. What knowledge can we acquire? What new skills can we learn? What qualities can we develop within ourselves? What sort of training programme could we follow in order to do this?

The term ‘spirituality’ is one of those slightly ambiguous words that can mean something different to everyone. We might picture a yogi, dressed in orange robes, sitting in lotus pose on a rock in the river Ganges, eyes closed, removed from the world in solitary bliss.

On the other hand we might picture Mother Theresa, selflessly giving her life to the poor and needy in ceaseless service. There are many diverse pictures of spiritual people. So what does spirituality mean? Are some people simply born more ‘spiritual’ than others, or is it possible to develop new spiritual qualities we have not had before? What are the aims of spiritual development and how can we set about achieving them?

My story

In 1992, at the age of 28, I quite suddenly developed an immensely strong desire to follow a spiritual path of development. I was travelling in India at the time, and at an Ashram (a Spiritual Community) I met some yoga teachers who had trained with the German spiritual teacher Heinz Grill. I remember one of these teachers intently studying a yoga book written by Grill. It struck me at the time how unusual this studious person was. I, like most of the other Western travellers I had met, had been enjoying the life at different Ashrams, soaking up the calm and peace away from the chaos of Indian cities, joining in with the chanting, the meditation, the yoga, the delicious vegetarian curries served on banana leaves. But this person was really studying. The importance of this I was yet to find out.

I discovered that Heinz Grill offered a path of spiritual development with a systematic programme of study and practice. The following year I became a student at his school and began my training, not only to teach yoga, but a life-long path of spiritual development.

What can a spiritual training consist of?

Over the years Heinz Grill’s school expanded into a Spiritual Academy which now occupies a whole mountain village in Northern Italy. Most of the yoga teaching takes place in a white stone building, flooded with light, the so-called “Sun Oasis”, in a secluded mountain meadow above the village, overlooking snow capped peaks.

The programme there involves a thorough training of the mind, body and soul. We learn, for example, how to observe (I mean how to really observe, attentively, objectively and in a detailed way) perhaps a yoga pose, or a plant, or another person.

We learn how to visualise, how to make really clear mental pictures - perhaps of something we have observed, or also of something we would like to come into being. Through various practical activities including yoga, but also, for example, art, singing, cooking, or even building houses, we learn how to creatively give shape to the qualities we have visualised.

We also learn how to study books in a new way. The aim is not to accumulate information, but rather to learn to feel the deep, subtle, spiritual qualities that the author is wanting to convey. Reading is more a form of meditation. We take one sentence, or at most a paragraph, or perhaps a picture from a book, and we give it our attention – think it, speak it, visualise it, until it begins to live within us. In that way, those qualities that live in the book become our own. I began to understand why the yoga teacher I met in India all those years ago was studying so intently!

What new qualities have I developed?

Unlike a college course, which may last two or three years, a spiritual training continues for life. After a mere 30 years(!) I feel that in many respects I am now a different person. The attentive and careful observation of the yoga poses (done by teachers at the academy, by Heinz Grill himself, and the pictures in his books) has given me a vivid feeling for the graceful, artistic energy that flows in the positions. At the age of 60 my asanas now express more gracefulness and serenity than they did when I was 30.

Of Heinz Grill’s many books, one that has had a profound effect on both my own yoga practice and my teaching has been “The Soul Dimension of Yoga”. The unique thing that this book contains is the meaning of each pose for our soul development. The depth of the content, and the slow, meditative way in which I have studied it, has opened up a feeling of having a centre within myself. I notice that my relationships with others are now deeper and more authentic, and this brings great joy.

Finally, the practice of the yoga itself, the way Heinz Grill teaches it, has helped me to feel in charge of my own life. In our yoga practice at the Sun Oasis, we learn to adopt the attitude of ‘witness’ towards our own bodies, our own thoughts, our own feelings. We learn to use our will-power in an unemotional way, and guide our movements to create graceful and artistic forms. The yoga practice is a learning ground for life.

If there is an aim in spiritual development, then for me is is to express beauty, authenticity and wisdom in my actions and my relationships, and with this to inspire others to do the same.