Living spiritually in a difficult world

Most of my colleagues, friends, and myself, who are trying to move on the spiritual path, keep sharing the difficulties on the path. Let me first discuss my understanding of the spiritual path, so as to be on the same plane. I mean to say by spiritual path, the path of dropping the fixations. On this path, our endeavor is that fewer of our actions are guided by these fixations. It does not really matter on this path whether these fixations are moral or immoral, legal or illegal, socially acceptable or unacceptable. All fixations are fixations. At a neurological level, there is no difference between the fixation on the kids and the fixation on drugs. When we drop these fixations, we reduce our oscillation between the past and the present, and slowly, we slowly learn to remain in the present moment. We start focussing our energy on the task at hand. In this process, the richness of each experience in life increases by leaps and bounds. 

Why do we face difficulties on this path? The reason is very simple. All of us are fixated on one or the other thing. Some of us are fixated on "Tamas". They want the perpetuity of their fixations. If they are fixated on their wealth, they want to save each penny of their money. If they are fixated on their family, they want to protect and promote their family at any cost. If they are fixated on a city, they just do not want to move around. If they are fixated on a position, they just do not wish to leave that.

Some of us are fixated on "Rajas". They just want to acquire what they want. The ones fixated on money want to earn more money. The ones on fame, want more of the fame. The ones with knowledge, want more and more knowledge. Some of us are fixated on "Satva". They want harmony. The ones fixated on wealth, want that wealth should be invested in a harmonious manner. The ones fixated on relationships want the relationships to be harmonious. The ones fixated on organizations want the organizations to function harmoniously. 

So we can see that all of us are fixated on one thing or the other. Some wish to preserve and protect their fixations (Tamas), some want to promote and expand them (Rajas) and some want them to be harmonious (Satva). 

The problem with a spiritual seeker is that he starts making efforts to drop these fixations. While the entire society is growing more obsessive about these fixations. So, these are two different movements in opposite direction like the following:

Till the time all the fixations of the seeker are dropped, the struggle continues. Since the seeker stays in the same society, his brain keeps mirroring the thought processes of his colleagues and keeps getting fixated on one or the other thing in the process. Their friends, colleagues, and "wellwishers" try to argue with him that he is on the wrong path. Apparently, their logic and rationale seem to be quite strong due to the "majority bias". Since the majority feels and thinks that way, it's quite difficult to be sure of the spiritual path. Further, since the seeker has just begun on the path, it is very difficult for him to know and understand the reality. Very few seekers survive this phase and fall into the trap of self-doubt and leave the path and get settled in the world of fixations and obsessions.

Even if a seeker crosses this phase of self-doubt, there come different challenging situations where some of the possessions and fixations of the seeker (howsoever few and small) are at stake. At this stage, some of the seekers lose faith and again surrender to the world of fixations and possessions and restart the cycle of accumulations.  

Generally most of the seekers who have been able to drop the worldly fixations, get fixated on their concepts of "spirituality". They start wasting their time in debates and proving the superiority of their views and concepts. Even after crossing this stage, it is quite difficult to leave fixation with the "seeking" itself. Some seekers get so fixated on the "seeking" that they consider it to be a mission of their life to be "spiritual" which is again a mental fixation. All these are different reasons for struggle along the path and all of us moving on the path are facing these challenges more or less. 

True spirituality is not about "seeking" but about "living life" free of fixations. It's just a decision. If we have a glass full of water in our hand and we want to get rid of the same, we just need to drop it. No planning of knowledge is required for that. It's just a choice. It's completely free and available to us all the time. The moment we drop the glass, our hands become free. Similarly, as we drop fixations, our mind becomes free to explore. To be in the present moment and to experience the richness of life.