Spiritual Prophylaxis

Ever had a meeting with a relative, a call to a bureaucrat, or a conversation with a boss that you knew ahead of time would be triggering?

You're a spiritual person, so you tell yourself beforehand that this time you're going to remain calm, that you won't let them push your buttons, but the moment you see them, the moment they look at you that way, the moment they start to blame you, or condemn you, or simply look down on you or whatever, you feel your blood boil and you begin to lose your calm.

You try to fight the feeling.

You breathe into your hara or do your best to connect to a calm spot within you.

Or maybe you even send yourself Reiki through the pockets of your sweater.

But by the time you try that, you're too far gone, your anger or irritation has gotten the better of you, and you just can't keep it contained.

Unless you're a saint, you probably know the feeling, and it can be frustrating because for much of your day, you probably are calm.

In fact, in most situations you're likely able to stay settled and centred even when provoked, but there are just a few things, a small set of things, that really push your buttons, and where they are concerned, it's hard to keep your calm.

Where they are concerned, your spiritual resolutions seldom seem to hold.

So what can you do in such situations? How can you spiritually conquer those pointy mountain peaks?

The Art of Spiritual Prophylaxis

When I learned chess as a boy, I was quickly taught an important concept called prophylaxis.

Actually, it's a medical term that chess borrowed, and it's defined as a 'treatment given or action taken to prevent disease'.

In chess, it's a move you make to prevent an opponent's potential threat from becoming dangerous.

Maybe you see, for example, that at some point, they might be able to back rank checkmate you. So you move a pawn in front of your king to give it an escape square.

Or maybe you see that your opponent is about to mount a kingside attack. So you move a knight back in front of your king to help out with the defence, even before the attack starts.

Great players are masters of prophylaxis, and when you play them, it always feels as if they're one step ahead of you, as if they can read your mind, as if they've stopped all of your threats before you've even made a move.

So to get good at chess, you need to master the art of prophylaxis, and quite possibly, for everyday people to become more spiritual, we need to do likewise.

We need to learn to predict potential challenges in advance and take preventative steps to either avoid them or, where that is not possible, meet them with greater calm and emotional equilibrium.

It's true, of course, that sometimes we're simply blindsided.

Sometimes we have no chance to prepare for an event, and we just have to do our best in the moment.

If so, we've hopefully practised a more general kind of prophylaxis that helps us with unforeseen events.

For instance, if you practise Reiki, you might have meditated on the five Reiki precepts in the morning.

Or you might simply have meditated or given yourself Reiki for 30 minutes in the morning before you started your work day.

If you've done that, you will almost certainly find that you're less stressed and more balanced throughout the day. So when a prickly event does occur, you meet it with greater calm.

And here, I'm not necessarily saying you meet it with extreme calm, just that you do better than you otherwise would without the meditation, Reiki, or Reiki precepts.

These things don't automatically make us saints. They just make us more saintly than we otherwise would be.

And if we didn't find time for our morning practice? If we do get emotionally entangled in a situation? Then the best thing we can do is simply be kind to ourselves.

Yes, how we reacted in the moment mightn't have been the finest example of saintly behaviour, but what's done is done, so the best thing we can do is forgive ourselves and move on. No point lugging negative energy around with us for the rest of our day.

That said, we often can foresee a challenging event later in the day. We know we have to meet our boss. We know we have to chat with our mother-in-law. We know we're going to have to deal with an irritating bureaucrat.

So, in such cases, we can practise spiritual prophylaxis, and the best way to do so is to take steps to induce a state of greater calm in the moments preceding the encounter.

For it's a lot easier to maintain calm than to somehow miraculously find it in a moment of emotional crisis.

Think of your calm like a protective shield. If you have it going into an encounter, you'll be a lot safer from the blows of your tormentor.

But if you don't take your emotional shield with you, then there's nothing to protect you.

That said, this analogy isn't entirely precise because I don't actually want you to resist the situation or focus on how much you need to defend yourself from an irritating person or situation.

For if you do that, if you focus on how irritating things are, you'll tend to get irritated.

So your 'shield' is simply an inner state.

It's focusing on yourself.

It's focusing on connecting to that place you go to during a good meditation or healing session. That place where energy flows, and you feel balanced.

Once you connect to that place, you simply try to maintain it throughout your encounter.

Do that, and you'll find yourself less emotionally entangled and triggered.

Calmer.

But remember, you'll almost certainly need to find this calm before the encounter, because if you try reaching for it when emotions are flying, it's probably going to skitter away.

I'm not saying it's impossible to find calm in moments of stress, just that it's many times harder.

So, ultimately, I recommend two types of spiritual prophylaxis: a general one you do in the morning to help you face whatever unexpected challenges might pop up throughout the day, and a more targeted one you do before any encounter you know will be emotionally problematic.

If you can do these things, then just like in chess, you'll manage to successfully navigate the worst of the challenges life throws at you.

This may mean you simply sidestep the situation. Or, where the situation is inevitable, you meet it with greater poise and calm.

In either case, you'll be like the master chess player, where life is your chessboard.

You'll see a threat, and you'll either parry it in advance or take preventative steps so that when the challenge does arise, it doesn't penetrate your defences and throw you off balance.

And if you do lose yourself in the moment, if your defences crack, then simply remember the final point.

Remember the fifth Reiki precept: 'Be kind'.

Be compassionate to yourself. Forgive yourself for not having been more saintly, and simply resolve to try to do better next time.

With 'spiritual prophylaxis' as your friend, you'll give yourself every chance of doing so.

(Article by Jeremy O'Carroll)

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