Should You Design Your Own Religion?

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Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Teacher and author, Naqshbandi Sufi order
Golden Sufi Center
Inverness, California

In the exoteric aspect of spirituality -- prayers, sacred texts, religious observances, and so on -- mixing and matching may be fine. But when it comes to the esoteric aspect -- the inner teachings of a spiritual tradition such as breathing techniques, mantras, and visualizations that can awaken powerful inner forces, and that used to be kept secret except to initiates -- these must be done in accordance with the spiritual tradition to which they belong, under the guidance of a teacher. Otherwise, they can be harmful. For example, kundalini energy or other psychic forces can be activated before the student is ready, causing imbalance or psychological damage.

I've been lecturing in America for 10 years and have come into contact with many people who have been awfully damaged by not having guidance. I meet people who have been to too many workshops, and done too many practices, without following them through. These people begin to get a little bit spaced out as time goes by, like hippies who never quite made it back down to earth because they took too many substances.

Sylvia Boorstein
Author and founding teacher, Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Woodacre, California

Erik Erikson once said that the hallmark of the American character is that of the pioneer and the cowboy -- Lewis and Clark going out on the range into unknown territory. So there's something in the American spirit that is nontraditional in the best sense. Wide experimentation in spiritual life is symptomatic of the growing recognition that the things we thought would make us happy aren't working, and there is a deep need to connect to what is sacred in our lives. When you aren't provided with tools by your family or culture -- or were provided with tools that didn't work -- you have to invent new ones.

The pitfall of inventing your own practice, however, is that you have no way of judging spiritual progress if you're completely alone. There's no substantial group of other people to keep tabs on you. When you work within a community, you support each other and people point out when you might be deluding yourself. A crucial aspect of religion is that it makes us relate to other people in a meaningful and sacred way. Our planet is in terrible shape, and unless our personal connection to the truth of things transforms us so that we can help alter this situation, our religion isn't working. Practices that make you feel better but don't make the planet feel better are incomplete.

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