March 31, 2025 • 14 mins
Spiritual practice can become routine and boring when we repeatedly hear the same teachings without changing our approach to receiving them, but by shifting how we listen and actively engaging with each concept on a personal level, we can transform even simple teachings into profound insights.
• Finding spiritual teachings boring often reflects our own dullness of mind rather than issues with the teaching
• Quality matters more than quantity in spiritual practice—it's what you do with your time that counts
• True spiritual growth comes from deeply exploring one teaching rather than consuming many superficially
• Comparing teachings with your direct experience of formless awareness helps discern what's valuable
• Self-examination reveals gaps between intellectual understanding and lived experience
• The challenge isn't realizing our true nature but embodying the qualities that flow from that realization
• A sattvic (pure, clear) mind naturally finds depth in seemingly simple concepts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded
Mystic podcast, and I am yourhost, rahul N Singh.
Thank you for taking out thetime today to either watch or
listen to this podcast episode.
Today I'm going to be talkingabout something that is
(00:20):
important for me to kind of letout.
I think the reason for this isgrowing up, I never had to
really pick a spiritual path.
I was given a spiritual pathand I was able to follow it.
(00:41):
Once I became a teenager, Ipicked that path for myself
personally.
And you know, when you go to aspiritual place again and again
and again, you can getcomplacency and you can start
(01:01):
because you don't developfurther.
Everything you hear tends to bethe same thing, repeated again
and again, and because you'renot doing any of the work anyway
, you're just going there doingthe basic thing of attending.
You kind of get stuck in thiskind of cycle of just going,
listening, finding it boring,going home, and that continues.
(01:25):
Now I may listen to the samething again and again, week in,
week out.
It may not be deep.
It may be deep, and does itaffect me today Somewhat?
(01:45):
There's been times when I feelthat I didn't learn anything and
that kind of disturbs me.
But last week I decided thatI'm going to do something
different, and that's what I'msharing with you today.
And that's what I'm sharingwith you today.
That difference is that, evenif I hear the same thing again
(02:06):
and again, or if I feel like Ihaven't learned anything today,
or I felt that the two hours Ispent going to satsang wasn't
fruitful, how about if I changedthe way I listened?
And actually I put this intopractice yesterday.
(02:29):
So maybe in a couple of weeksI'll speak again about it.
But what I did this time was,you know, obviously in those two
hours I will always be in theawareness of formless awareness.
That's kind of the practicethat I do anyway.
That's always be in theawareness of formless awareness.
That's kind of the practicethat I do anyway.
That's always there in thebackground.
(02:50):
And then you have the thoughtsthat the speaker talks about, or
a song that you hear, a bhajan,or you know, you just listen to
that.
And what I did this time was,whatever I listened to, I
elevated the thought.
So, in my own mind, not sayingthat their thought didn't need
(03:13):
elevated, that their thoughtneeded elevation, no, how would
I make it interesting for me?
And so this is interesting,right?
So in the background, awarenessremains.
That does not.
That does not change.
Now we're going into thethinking faculty, the
intellectual faculty, so this isdifferent.
So I'm not talking about the,I'm not talking about remaining
(03:38):
in awareness.
I'm talking about something abit different now.
So when we're listening to thethoughts, I would just listen
and I'll be like okay, how, howdoes this relate to me today in
my spiritual practice?
Not, oh, is it a deep spiritualthought, or is it not?
(03:58):
How about, if I looked at, well, how would I develop this?
So somebody talked about lovingeveryone.
I know it's a very basic thingand somewhat people think it's a
cliche thing to say inspirituality.
But okay, what does lovingeveryone mean?
Okay, so first thing I did wasI looked at do I do I love
(04:22):
everyone?
I don't know.
Do I hate anyone?
I don't hate anyone.
Do I dislike some people?
Yes, does that stop me fromloving them?
No, but if I dislike someone,does it hinder me expressing my
(04:47):
love for them?
Yes, it could.
Ok, so let's look into that.
Then why is it that I'm notloving everyone?
Because if you can hinder thatlove, that means I don't love
everyone, right?
So then you can find out thelittle dents that you have in
your understanding or in yourexperience.
(05:10):
See, it's not important aboutgetting to realization.
I think getting to realizationanybody can do.
I don't think I think it torealization anybody can do.
I don't think.
I think it's rare that someonegets there.
That's my personal opinion andthat's also shared in the
Bhagavad Gita.
Sri Krishna says the same thing.
But when it comes to practicallyliving, like humility, you know
(05:33):
, do I really, am I reallyhumble?
Yeah, am I really?
You know, do I really considermyself to be a humble person?
Has there been times when myego has creeped in, that I feel
like I'm better than somebody?
And that has happened.
(05:54):
And so I have to check why didthat occur?
Was it something that wasfactual or was it something that
I felt some level of pride forsome level of personal agenda in
?
So, you know, when we do thistype of introspective kind of
work, we're able to see how theteachings are really affecting
(06:19):
us.
We can get to know our truenature as Brahman.
That's fine.
I don't think that's thedifficult part.
The difficult part is theresult of that.
There are certain expectations.
You know, I remember readingSwami Dayanandaji's.
(06:43):
He had a book called the Valueof Values and it's the values.
I can't remember the actualnumber of values, but basically
an enlightened person will havethat many.
It in chapter 13 I think, fromverse 8 onwards, there's a list
of the qualities an enlightenedbeing should have.
(07:05):
Because urjan asks but how canI recognize that person?
You know, what kind ofqualities do they have?
So this is when sri krishanexpresses, and in my opinion
that's a good parameter forpeople to check if they know an
enlightened person.
Now, for someone like me, who'son the path, who's a seeker,
(07:26):
that's a good way to see wheream I on the path?
Now, quite a number of peoplemay turn around and say you know
, I find spirituality boring.
It's just the same thing, saidand again and again, and it
comes back to this it's onlyboring because you do not know
what to do with the teaching.
Yeah, frankly, that's whathappens, even if you've listened
(07:50):
to everything and you thinkit's basic and you think it's
mid or you think it's um, youknow, not that deep.
Maybe the shallowness is not inthe teaching but in the
receiver of the teaching.
If I'm a, if I claim to be adeep thinker, then even the most
(08:11):
shallow of thoughts I can makeinto something deep, I can
transform it.
And that's true, see, when yousee things from the perspective
of Brahman, from formlessawareness, from the nirguna
Brahman.
So I'm talking about the vastaspect of Brahman.
So let's go into saguna Brahmanhere and let's go into the
(08:36):
attribute of vastness.
Now, a simple teaching can havevast outcomes, and that's where
the rubber meets the road.
You then see how can you makethat simple teaching into
something vast?
You make that simple teachinginto something vast.
(09:01):
And what I find these days inspirituality is we jump from one
video to another, one text toanother, but we don't actually
spend time understanding oneverse or one line or one poem as
a whole.
We just jump on to the nextthing, we jump on to the next
upanishad, we jump on to thenext aphorism sutra in the
(09:22):
brahma sutras.
We don't actually spend time tounderstand that one sutra.
Same thing with thebhagavad-gita.
Do we actually understand thatverse?
And this is where I find today,although we may claim to be
(09:42):
intellectual, although we mayclaim to be more, um, we tend to
be utilizing our intellect moreand we want rationality and
logic, but at the same timewe're not spending the correct
amount of time actuallyexploring the teaching within.
And one thing I've always doneis compare what I know of as
(10:06):
formless awareness and matchingeach line to what I read or
listen to.
Against that, now, anythingthat doesn't match that formless
awareness, I don't entertain it, I just put it to the side.
But whatever does, which ismajority of the case I spend
time and I explore, and this ismore important than reading many
(10:32):
books, listening to many talks,watching many talks and
thinking.
One knows Vedanta than you know.
Reading many books, listeningto many talks, watching many
talks and thinking one knowsVedanta.
The whole point of Vedanta is toknow yourself, to know how to
expand yourself.
And when I'm talking aboutyourself, I'm talking about the
(10:54):
Atma, I'm not talking about youthe personality.
And the more you live as theAtma, the more you live a deeper
life.
So if you find something boring, it's a representation of your
dullness in the mind.
So the tamas gun rather thanthe sattvic gun.
(11:15):
If you are full of a sattvicmind, then boundlessness, purity
, is your way, and that's what Ifind is that when we change our
approach, we gain so much.
So, really, that's.
It's a short video today.
I know it's not as long as Inormally do, but I just wanted
(11:38):
to want to share that and let meknow what do you think?
Do you feel like spiritualteachings?
Do you do the same thing asspiritual teachings?
Like, what's your method like?
If you read something, what doyou do?
Do you write notes about it?
Um, how do you approach yourspiritual practice?
I just want to share what I'vegone through recently.
(11:59):
Um, and you know, uh, and it'ssomething, and I think what
triggered the practice actuallywas yesterday I listened to my
guru and she said that you know,it's not about the quantity,
the amount of times you go tosatsang or the amount of minutes
you spend in satsang.
It's actually about the quality, like, what are you doing in
(12:22):
those minutes, minutes?
And I was thinking, you know,if I find that the intellectual
capability of most of thespeeches is below me, but being
aware of formalist awareness,there's nothing higher than that
.
So why isn't my time spentdoing that, instead of
criticizing the apparentthoughts that are lower than
(12:45):
what I think is high spiritualteachings?
So, changing my approach, Ichanged my energy, so where I
could have got up from satsangfeeling frustrated, instead I
had a good time because I'mresting in formless awareness.
Even if the teachings arerather simple, I'm able, with my
(13:07):
intellect, to expand upon it,because that's the gift that has
been given to me through themind, and why not use it for a
positive purpose?
And so, yeah, just let me knowyour thoughts, let me know how
you feel with your spiritualpractice.
What are you doing?
And if this video has helpedyou, let me know, because
(13:30):
sometimes you know it's harduntil you get feedback about how
people feel, about listening toyour stuff.
Little to know what's doing.
Well, so, um, do you like this?
Do comment, do subscribe, dojoin my discord server, say hi
to me there, ask questions.
I love talking aboutspirituality, I love writing
(13:51):
about spirituality.
So whenever I get a moment todo that, trust me, I would
always find time for it.
So, but, yes, yeah, okay, takecare everyone, namaste.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bearded
Mystic podcast, and I am yourhost, rahul N Singh.
Thank you for taking out thetime today to either watch or
listen to this podcast episode.
Today I'm going to be talkingabout something that is
(00:20):
important for me to kind of letout.
I think the reason for this isgrowing up, I never had to
really pick a spiritual path.
I was given a spiritual pathand I was able to follow it.
(00:41):
Once I became a teenager, Ipicked that path for myself
personally.
And you know, when you go to aspiritual place again and again
and again, you can getcomplacency and you can start
(01:01):
because you don't developfurther.
Everything you hear tends to bethe same thing, repeated again
and again, and because you'renot doing any of the work anyway
, you're just going there doingthe basic thing of attending.
You kind of get stuck in thiskind of cycle of just going,
listening, finding it boring,going home, and that continues.
(01:25):
Now I may listen to the samething again and again, week in,
week out.
It may not be deep.
It may be deep, and does itaffect me today Somewhat?
(01:45):
There's been times when I feelthat I didn't learn anything and
that kind of disturbs me.
But last week I decided thatI'm going to do something
different, and that's what I'msharing with you today.
And that's what I'm sharingwith you today.
That difference is that, evenif I hear the same thing again
(02:06):
and again, or if I feel like Ihaven't learned anything today,
or I felt that the two hours Ispent going to satsang wasn't
fruitful, how about if I changedthe way I listened?
And actually I put this intopractice yesterday.
(02:29):
So maybe in a couple of weeksI'll speak again about it.
But what I did this time was,you know, obviously in those two
hours I will always be in theawareness of formless awareness.
That's kind of the practicethat I do anyway.
That's always be in theawareness of formless awareness.
That's kind of the practicethat I do anyway.
That's always there in thebackground.
(02:50):
And then you have the thoughtsthat the speaker talks about, or
a song that you hear, a bhajan,or you know, you just listen to
that.
And what I did this time was,whatever I listened to, I
elevated the thought.
So, in my own mind, not sayingthat their thought didn't need
(03:13):
elevated, that their thoughtneeded elevation, no, how would
I make it interesting for me?
And so this is interesting,right?
So in the background, awarenessremains.
That does not.
That does not change.
Now we're going into thethinking faculty, the
intellectual faculty, so this isdifferent.
So I'm not talking about the,I'm not talking about remaining
(03:38):
in awareness.
I'm talking about something abit different now.
So when we're listening to thethoughts, I would just listen
and I'll be like okay, how, howdoes this relate to me today in
my spiritual practice?
Not, oh, is it a deep spiritualthought, or is it not?
(03:58):
How about, if I looked at, well, how would I develop this?
So somebody talked about lovingeveryone.
I know it's a very basic thingand somewhat people think it's a
cliche thing to say inspirituality.
But okay, what does lovingeveryone mean?
Okay, so first thing I did wasI looked at do I do I love
(04:22):
everyone?
I don't know.
Do I hate anyone?
I don't hate anyone.
Do I dislike some people?
Yes, does that stop me fromloving them?
No, but if I dislike someone,does it hinder me expressing my
(04:47):
love for them?
Yes, it could.
Ok, so let's look into that.
Then why is it that I'm notloving everyone?
Because if you can hinder thatlove, that means I don't love
everyone, right?
So then you can find out thelittle dents that you have in
your understanding or in yourexperience.
(05:10):
See, it's not important aboutgetting to realization.
I think getting to realizationanybody can do.
I don't think I think it torealization anybody can do.
I don't think.
I think it's rare that someonegets there.
That's my personal opinion andthat's also shared in the
Bhagavad Gita.
Sri Krishna says the same thing.
But when it comes to practicallyliving, like humility, you know
(05:33):
, do I really, am I reallyhumble?
Yeah, am I really?
You know, do I really considermyself to be a humble person?
Has there been times when myego has creeped in, that I feel
like I'm better than somebody?
And that has happened.
(05:54):
And so I have to check why didthat occur?
Was it something that wasfactual or was it something that
I felt some level of pride forsome level of personal agenda in
?
So, you know, when we do thistype of introspective kind of
work, we're able to see how theteachings are really affecting
(06:19):
us.
We can get to know our truenature as Brahman.
That's fine.
I don't think that's thedifficult part.
The difficult part is theresult of that.
There are certain expectations.
You know, I remember readingSwami Dayanandaji's.
(06:43):
He had a book called the Valueof Values and it's the values.
I can't remember the actualnumber of values, but basically
an enlightened person will havethat many.
It in chapter 13 I think, fromverse 8 onwards, there's a list
of the qualities an enlightenedbeing should have.
(07:05):
Because urjan asks but how canI recognize that person?
You know, what kind ofqualities do they have?
So this is when sri krishanexpresses, and in my opinion
that's a good parameter forpeople to check if they know an
enlightened person.
Now, for someone like me, who'son the path, who's a seeker,
(07:26):
that's a good way to see wheream I on the path?
Now, quite a number of peoplemay turn around and say you know
, I find spirituality boring.
It's just the same thing, saidand again and again, and it
comes back to this it's onlyboring because you do not know
what to do with the teaching.
Yeah, frankly, that's whathappens, even if you've listened
(07:50):
to everything and you thinkit's basic and you think it's
mid or you think it's um, youknow, not that deep.
Maybe the shallowness is not inthe teaching but in the
receiver of the teaching.
If I'm a, if I claim to be adeep thinker, then even the most
(08:11):
shallow of thoughts I can makeinto something deep, I can
transform it.
And that's true, see, when yousee things from the perspective
of Brahman, from formlessawareness, from the nirguna
Brahman.
So I'm talking about the vastaspect of Brahman.
So let's go into saguna Brahmanhere and let's go into the
(08:36):
attribute of vastness.
Now, a simple teaching can havevast outcomes, and that's where
the rubber meets the road.
You then see how can you makethat simple teaching into
something vast?
You make that simple teachinginto something vast.
(09:01):
And what I find these days inspirituality is we jump from one
video to another, one text toanother, but we don't actually
spend time understanding oneverse or one line or one poem as
a whole.
We just jump on to the nextthing, we jump on to the next
upanishad, we jump on to thenext aphorism sutra in the
(09:22):
brahma sutras.
We don't actually spend time tounderstand that one sutra.
Same thing with thebhagavad-gita.
Do we actually understand thatverse?
And this is where I find today,although we may claim to be
(09:42):
intellectual, although we mayclaim to be more, um, we tend to
be utilizing our intellect moreand we want rationality and
logic, but at the same timewe're not spending the correct
amount of time actuallyexploring the teaching within.
And one thing I've always doneis compare what I know of as
(10:06):
formless awareness and matchingeach line to what I read or
listen to.
Against that, now, anythingthat doesn't match that formless
awareness, I don't entertain it, I just put it to the side.
But whatever does, which ismajority of the case I spend
time and I explore, and this ismore important than reading many
(10:32):
books, listening to many talks,watching many talks and
thinking.
One knows Vedanta than you know.
Reading many books, listeningto many talks, watching many
talks and thinking one knowsVedanta.
The whole point of Vedanta is toknow yourself, to know how to
expand yourself.
And when I'm talking aboutyourself, I'm talking about the
(10:54):
Atma, I'm not talking about youthe personality.
And the more you live as theAtma, the more you live a deeper
life.
So if you find something boring, it's a representation of your
dullness in the mind.
So the tamas gun rather thanthe sattvic gun.
(11:15):
If you are full of a sattvicmind, then boundlessness, purity
, is your way, and that's what Ifind is that when we change our
approach, we gain so much.
So, really, that's.
It's a short video today.
I know it's not as long as Inormally do, but I just wanted
(11:38):
to want to share that and let meknow what do you think?
Do you feel like spiritualteachings?
Do you do the same thing asspiritual teachings?
Like, what's your method like?
If you read something, what doyou do?
Do you write notes about it?
Um, how do you approach yourspiritual practice?
I just want to share what I'vegone through recently.
(11:59):
Um, and you know, uh, and it'ssomething, and I think what
triggered the practice actuallywas yesterday I listened to my
guru and she said that you know,it's not about the quantity,
the amount of times you go tosatsang or the amount of minutes
you spend in satsang.
It's actually about the quality, like, what are you doing in
(12:22):
those minutes, minutes?
And I was thinking, you know,if I find that the intellectual
capability of most of thespeeches is below me, but being
aware of formalist awareness,there's nothing higher than that
.
So why isn't my time spentdoing that, instead of
criticizing the apparentthoughts that are lower than
(12:45):
what I think is high spiritualteachings?
So, changing my approach, Ichanged my energy, so where I
could have got up from satsangfeeling frustrated, instead I
had a good time because I'mresting in formless awareness.
Even if the teachings arerather simple, I'm able, with my
(13:07):
intellect, to expand upon it,because that's the gift that has
been given to me through themind, and why not use it for a
positive purpose?
And so, yeah, just let me knowyour thoughts, let me know how
you feel with your spiritualpractice.
What are you doing?
And if this video has helpedyou, let me know, because
(13:30):
sometimes you know it's harduntil you get feedback about how
people feel, about listening toyour stuff.
Little to know what's doing.
Well, so, um, do you like this?
Do comment, do subscribe, dojoin my discord server, say hi
to me there, ask questions.
I love talking aboutspirituality, I love writing
(13:51):
about spirituality.
So whenever I get a moment todo that, trust me, I would
always find time for it.
So, but, yes, yeah, okay, takecare everyone, namaste.
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